Dear Ben,

I was at your show last night. I'm sorry we left early. I know it probably wasn't your fault, but honestly take my advice please, and don't ever play at the Congress Theater again, ok? As Time Out Chicago reports:

Simply put, the Congress is a terrible-sounding venue, and for a performer who favors fuzzed-out bass and piano within arrangements that often find the instruments working in heavy competition with each other, it’s the kiss of death. Folds’s voice, sung or spoken, got lost in the fierce echo of the building, or overpowered by the drums. Coaxing an audience through an hour and a half of mostly new, unfamiliar material is always tough; it’s damn near impossible when they can’t hear the lyrics or the music as you intend.

I would have loved to get to know your music, Ben. But it was just impossible. We tried the skybox, (after a flash-- a smile of course! and a wink -- Sarah Palin style! to a rather yummy looking security guard), we tried the balcony (gave that up rather quickly due to some chattering college student who would not shut the fuck up after the 4th withering look), we even braved the main floor (standing right in front of the sound booth, thinking that has to be the place where the sound is best). Alas, even your between song banter was lost to the echoes of the domed ceiling of the Congress, a stately, theater that is just not built for modern music. Ben, I beg you, never, ever come here again.

So, I hope I get another chance. I'm begining to like your recordings. You do kinda cheer me up on a bad day, and well... Puppet Show swears you're really, really good!

hoping to become a real fan someday,
xoxoxo
a Tart

Reader(s): Please do check out the review linked above, it's a good one and it gives the playlist and other technical details. It also notes the din of chatter that we noticed during the concert and I have to say it was shocking to hear so many people talking incessantly during a show for such a big star. What has happened in this country that we no longer listen to music? Or am I just getting old? Oh god, shoot me now if the latter is true.

Ben Folds plays tonight, we shall see him for the first time. Review soon after will appear in this space. In the meantime, this song has been rattling about in my head for about two days now and finally Puppet Show helped me figure out enough of the words (yeah all it took was Da, Da, Da) to remember the name of the band. And a post over on Song, by Toad got my ass in gear to post it, so go blame him! But stop and buy the album, Trio & Error first.

Now don't judge them until you know more. They're not as stupid as they appear at first glance. Remember time and place, folks. As Wiki tells us, history matters.

It was a product of the Neue Deutsche Welle (or NDW). However, Trio preferred the name Neue Deutsche Fröhlichkeit, which means "New German Cheerfulness", to describe their music. At that time, as now, popular songs were based on extremely simple structures that were ornately produced. Trio's main principle was to remove almost all the ornamentation and polish from their songs, and to use the simplest practical structures (most of their songs were three-chord songs). For this reason, many of their songs are restricted to drums, guitar, vocals, and just one or maybe two other instruments, if any at all.

I give you Trio.

Da Da Da (no, it's better than the bit they put in that VW commercial)


Broken Hearts For You And Me

Faith Collapsing mp3, Ministry, The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste

Ashes In The Fall mp3, Rage Against The Machine, The Battle For Los Angeles

fuck it, buy the damn music folks!


There's a time and place for being really pissed off about politics and economies and newscasters and pundits and television. And today I'm deciding that time is now and that place is here. So scoot off to another happy blog if you want some cheery trip down memory lane about a great pop song from the 90s cause it ain't gonna be here folks.

See, the thing that gets me about this mess is that it's nothing new. It's nothing that no one with their eye on the financial markets didn't see coming. It's nothing that your average real estate broker didn't know about two or five years ago. It's nothing that anyone in the business of predicting retail sales didn't know, in the business of advising college students on future careers didn't know, many of us knew that we were living in a bubble. And without blame, we forgot. Like the wife with the cheating husband who brought home a great bouquet of flowers every Friday night and remembered all the kids' birthdays and was there for every holiday, we "forgot" about the indiscretions. We see what we want to when times are good folks, admit it. We see what we want to when we live lives that are privileged enough to allow us to do so.

Now, those of us who don't have that privilege, (I can't truthfully count myself in that class any longer, I have been fortunate and have benefited from others' wealth) can't choose to see life the way we want. And it becomes impossible to turn the other way when that husband cheats or it becomes impossible a lot sooner for us than for those who live in privilege. So, who's noticing that $700 Billion right now? Students whose loans aren't going through, people who soon won't get food stamps, folks who need to move to take a job in another locale and can't get a mortgage or can't get a buyer who can get one, or find their house devalued so much that they take a serious hit. That cheating husband becomes a real bastard mighty quick.

And that cheating husband is us. It's all of us who have lived with clean drinking water and free elementary and secondary public education, and a relatively safe air traffic control system, and an expectation that the food we eat won't kill us... while at the same time AND AT THE EXPENSE OF other countries (whose labor we import to maintain our privilege) who live without these standards of living. Did I lose you there? Do you feel blamed? I'm sorry, but I mean it. It's my rant, remember? We live with these standards of living because we make them live without them. Yeah, I'm making it be that simple. Politically, economically, morally, it's a zero sum game on the big capitalistic scorecard because individual competition mandates that I win at your expense. Collaboration reduces profit.

Yes, our politicians have done it to us, for us. No, it's not just an American (no -- strike that, make that US because ya know what? There's a whole continent down there that's called Central and South AMERICA and we're just the United States up here), problem/issue. It's all of the industrialized world who live at the expense of the "emerging" countries. Well they've emerged to some extent now.

This "crisis" is in most ways a realignment of financial and economic and credit markets that simply reflects the fact that we can no longer enjoy our position as a buyer of credit and a buyer of imported labor and goods at a cheap rate. We are jockeying for position and have little to no capital spend. The masses are beginning to realize that we are now in the passenger seat, we're the sellers and what product will we offer?

McCain, and his flying monkey, Caribou Barbie, hopes to sell the public on our patriotic duty of "rooting out terrorism and killing the enemy" which is an age-0ld trope, using nationalism to unify and strengthen morale and thereby increase consumer confidence as well as confidence abroad in our markets. Too bad it's a 20th century strategy in a 21th century world. And every poll (from 2005 to today) shows that the majority of people in the US want out of the war business.

Obama and Biden hopes to sell the public on our technological ability to transform our world ecologically and industrially in order to become independent of oil, and to preserve our environment. Perhaps with our country's resources they will enable us to sell that technology to the world. I support the Democratic party in this, it's the lesser of two evils right now. And I've put my money and my time where my mouth is on this. I encourage you to do the same.

At the moment, President Bush is selling our nuclear capabilities to India. That sentence alone frightens me.

As you might have guessed, I'm no Democrat, I'm no supporter of the capitalist system, and what I see happening right now is a whole lot of economists running about trying to figure out how to run most wisely, head long, into a long dark tunnel and that's all they know -- it's a long dark tunnel. Look to Social Scientists for help here, see what historians, Political Scientists, Sociologists and other people who read and study how Japan and Sweden and Russian dealt with and are dealing with financial crises. Consider why England has nationalized 8 major banks yesterday and why Russia's RTS index is down 67% year-to-date. China is also cutting interest rates on one year loans and yet the average Joe thinks Russia and China will bail us out? I'm mystified. No one will put money in our market when there's no hope of getting something back, no matter how many times McCain bellows "The American workers are the best in the world!"

The theme of this rant: people get educated. Ask some fucking questions. Don't pull your money out of the market if you are lucky enough to have any. Sit tight, and ask why these supposed answers are answers in the first place?

Oh, and have a good day, xoxo
regular Tart posting resumes tomorrow, rant over. That Ministry track has been going through my head for about two weeks, I hope this exorcism helps, it's pure, industrial genius, let it seep into your psyche and then let Rage take over ;)

I hate dreams, .... I hate hearing other people's dreams, ... and I live with a woman who loves to tell me her dreams first thing in the morning, go figure! (She loves morning sex as well, which I'm also not a huge fan of, but hey I'm coming around to that). But back to the topic at hand, I hate dreaming.

Most people go to sleep hoping for good dreams. I go to sleep hoping to not dream. My dreams are rarely satisfying, even the good ones. Last night's was particularly emblematic of this point. I dreamt a great dream about friendship (thanks Pup, for fodder for that!) In my dream I was hanging out with my dear friend D, we were listening to great music, getting ready to go out dancing as we used to do, laughing and enjoying each other's company with innenduos and jabs that only real friends who care about one another deeply can make so freely. It felt so nice to be in his company, seeing the sparkle in his eye as he teased me and made me laugh.

And then I woke to my alarm, to the gentle sound of "bubbles" on my iphone (oh that's a whole other story, of how I was suckered into that purchase!). And it was awful, it was devastating, for D has died, gone from this world 5 years now, and I rememered how wonderful he was, and how much I missed him. I had that pang of recongition, "oh, it was a dream" and I rolled over and dozed off, back to sleep. An hour and a half later I woke with a start from a deep sleep, in the middle of a dream again. I can't remember one detail of it now. Something else about friendship and loss and love and well..... welcome Autumn, eh?

So, in this crazy, chaotic international crash of the markets don't forget that real loss is not in things. Somehow, I find that oddly comforting, call me crazy. This song popped up today, and it speaks to what's going on with me on a lot of different levels. I heard about this band over on a great Chicago blog, The Leather Canary. So, let me introduce you to Blitzen Trapper, (if you haven't heard) they're cool, xoxox

Edit: (Alright, so I didn't want you to get a wrong taste for what Blitzen Trapper is about, so I've included another song for ya, enjoy Sleeptime In The Western World too!)

Edit2: (Ok, so I'm changing the track below. I inadvertently gave you the same track as my friend over at The Leather Canary, ooops!)

Not Your Lover mp3 Blitzen Trapper Furr
Fire & Fast Bullets mp3 Blitzen Trapper Furr
buy their music on their MySpace page

photo credit: patrick dentler

The Thrill Kill Kult came to town last night and dredged up quite a motley crew of fans to pack the Metro (in itself a wonderful and historic venue, go see the wiki page, really). We were surrounded by middle aged, pudgy, balding mohawked punks, younger couples in love, single guys on the prowl (a few of whom hit on us, declaring their appreciation for lesbian love, like we care!), and the usual 20-something I'll-go-to-any-gig kinda guy. Sure the music was repetitive, droning, and after the show I seriously couldn't remember a single song they did, but we danced our asses off and that's what a group like TTKK is for. The lovely MeatPocket had rarely heard the music before and since she had taken a oxycotin before the gig for her aching back, she was soon making up funny lyrics for the mostly indistinguishable ones that Groovie Mann and Buzz McCoy were singing. It should be noted, however, that most of the rest of the crowd did know the words and were chanting/yelling them at the top of their lungs throughout the show, it was amusing at all times. But not as amusing as MeatPocket's "Kill the pony!," "Green Bean Power," "Jesus Buys Breakfast," (I thought it was "Jesus something something and it's the day of the nosehairs"). So a good time was had by all.

I must say, it's the first show I've been to in quite a while where there was a mosh pit, a rather tame one, it's Chicago and the Metro afterall, but we were a bit afraid that some of those spinning out from it would emerge onto us spewing something nasty (there was quite a bit of grabbing someone and swinging them about in a circle until they couldn't stand up anymore, very amusing until they staggered your way). And one person was seen crowd surfing, the lucky bastard. I always wanted to do that!

Musically, I was disappointed to not see any guitars or even a drum kit. Yes, there were two keyboardists and three, sometimes four vocalists. The women singers were wonderful and the energy was high at times. But we couldn't help feel that it was indeed a 20th Anniversary show, it showed it's age a bit on this gig. Enjoy the tracks below, play them loud and have a few friends over to dance with, the music is still great! And check out their MySpace page to hear their new single, "Invasion" they're still putting out fresh new stuff! xoxo

Sex On Wheels mp3 My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult Sexplosion
One Night Stand mp3 My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult Gay Black And Married
Leathersex mp3 My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult Sexplosion
A Daisy Chain For Satan mp3 My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult Confessions Of A Knife
Buy their albums
TTKK on MySpace