Noise from the Underground/Columbia University/March 29, 2005

Amy and I were supposed to a do a blazing IM recount of last night’s throwdown*, but the girl is M.I.A. (and not in a galang way, either). Perhaps she’s too shy to recount her brief time on a stage filled with music journalism luminaries. Or maybe she’s been immediately whisked away to a containment center deep in the Rockies lest she reveal any more highly confidential blogging secrets.

But they didn’t get me. Here’s a list of not so secret secrets revealed.

1) Sasha Frere-Jones is a master moderator. Ha-ha-inducing, squabble-ready, hat-wearing and always with his hand on the control panel, he is a good argument for the rock critic as performer model. If you’ve been in a band, you’re cool with sitting on a stage in a packed, overly heated room serving up the banter. If you’ve hidden yourself away with your laptop and vinyl since age 12, well, you might not be so good at this kind of thing.

2) That guy Knox from the Fader is a trip. This is probably a litigious statement, but he seemed as though he baked and staked that night. A big brouhaha erupted when he claimed that professionalism in journalism serves to marginalize under represented groups. I actually think that he was misunderstood. I may be wrong, but I think that what he was trying to say is that the inverted pyramid traditional music crit style (this is what I think he meant by the term “professionalism”) blocks out things because of what it has to include in order to keep the professional style intact. So, a piece on Band A will have to include who, what, where, when, why in favor of some other fringe info and feel. Knox, you out there? Help us out, man.

3) Anthony DeCurtis was a brave fellow for volunteering to be the stand-in for The Man. He got pummeled repeatedly for being part of the establishment. You know what? He didn’t apologize. I have to respect that in a way.

4) I kept making thought bubbles appear over Tunde’s head. I wish that he had spoken more. It was interesting when he talked about getting stacks of clips about his band and how reading them one after another makes it abundantly clear how much biting goes on in the world of journalism. Cut-n-paste journalism = scourge of a nation.

5) I wish that there had been some representation by the Mp3 bloggers.

6) Amy yet again shamelessly promoted her mother. Amy’s mom has got it going on, but c’mon already. Uh, hi Mrs. Phillips. Amy was talking about when she writes for the Philly Inquirer, she imagines that she’s writing for her mother. I only imagine that I’m writing for my mother when I create my special poetry that I keep in my special place that helps me release my special feelings as advised by my Freudian analyst. Uh, hi Dr. Hammerichen.

7) I can almost completely visualize what Michael Azerrad was like in the 80s/90s, surrounded by stacks of seven inches and zines. Which is to say that he is cool. I mean, his name includes the word “rad.” I liked how he brought up the social climbing elements of links on blogs (not that there’s anything wrong with them, cough, cough…) as I don’t think people really discuss this kind of delicate old boy’s network nicking.

8) Mad props to Brandon Wall for keeping a day job in the j-biz and curating a professional looking music site. Not easy to do.

*In the spirit of full-disclosure (ain't that professional) I must mention that I am affiliated with the National Arts Journalism Program, the generous organization that put on this event. I was a NAJP fellow last year.

The Go! Team/Southpaw/ March 22, 2005

caryn (1:19:52 AM): It's weird to see a band and not really know the music. One of the weirder show going events in my life was seeing Tenacious D before I had ever caught the tv program. Everyone there was singing along. I felt like an alien.
amy (1:20:33 AM): oh my god you saw tenacious d live. i am so jealous
caryn (1:21:26 AM): Oh yeah, at this smallish club in Portland. When they were real culty. So, without a lot of pre-knowledge and some minor absorption of the Go! Team phenom, I have to say, I was not impressed.
amy (1:21:09 AM): the go team live experience is quite different from the album actually. the album sounds like a cut-and-paste dj record, like the avalanches
caryn (1:22:39: There seemed to be a total lack of cohesion with the stage show. Seriously, they reminded me of the dorky brother's band in Welcome to the Dollhouse. But not as good. And without the occasional sprightly sound of klezmer clarinet.
amy (1:23:10 AM): there was banjo, harmonica, melodica and recorder! surely that made up for it. yes, i agree they were sloppy. but i thought that made them endearing.
caryn (1:24:02 AM): I hated how the lead lady, as peppy as she was, tried to hype everyone with the most clichéd moves ever. Ye olde "Repeat after Me." Ye olde Battle of the Sexes. Ye olde wave yer hands in the air. Boooor-ING.
amy (1:24:32 AM): this is also true. it was quite cliché. but, once again, she was so cute it was endearing
caryn (1:25:23 AM): C'mon Amy. That's just weak. You usually don't let people slide just because they're cute. Or...maybe you do.
amy (1:25:56 AM): not just cute. endearing. getting over on pure charm.
caryn (1:24:45 AM): The bass player? He looked like those pictures of John Kerry from when he was in that garage band in his youth.
amy (1:24:57 AM): yeah! and he was wearing a springsteen-esque headband
amy (1:25:27 AM): as for the battle of the sexes, have you ever heard someone make the guys say "aahh-ooh, aahh-ooh" like dogs in heat
caryn (1:26:59 AM): Whatev. Some Brit lady came up to me and was like..."so, what do you think of 'em?" I wasn't sure if she was their sister or something. I was like, "Honestly? Not too impressed." She giggled and said, "Me either. I mean, they're from England, and I'm glad they're doing well, but..."
amy (1:28:36 AM): oh also, the mix was shit
amy (1:28:41 AM): made even worse by my earplugs
caryn (1:27:53 AM): I know that that record is likely much better and more complex and more cohesive. I will check it out before I delete Go! Team from my Buddy List.
caryn (1:31:34 AM): Ok, the two drummer thing. Trick or treat?
amy (1:32:00 AM): trick AND treat!
caryn (1:32:18 AM): Why?
amy (1:32:49 AM): well they obviously didn't need two drummers. and both drummers were playing along to backing tracks
amy (1:33:02 AM): so they weren't really adding to the music
caryn (1:33:05 AM): That's the trick.
amy (1:33:08 AM): yes
caryn (1:33:11 AM): What's the treat?
amy (1:33:26 AM): it seemed like they were like "hey, people will think it's cool if we have two girl drummers! let's do it"
amy (1:33:33 AM): the treat: it was cool!
amy (1:33:51 AM): i love watching female drummers
caryn (1:34:10 AM): Hmmm. Not buying it. A whole family in Africa could have been fed for a year just with the cost of transporting that second drum kit around.
amy (1:34:32 AM): oh come on. you think madonna shouldn't have backup dancers? kiss shouldn't use pyrotechnics?
amy (1:34:41 AM): it's the same thing. spectacle!
caryn (1:35:29 AM): I love a spectacle. Hooray the spectacle. This hardly was a spectacle. Maybe it their drumsticks were on fire. If Sheila E. can do it….
amy (1:36:01 AM): well, two girls, one of which is adorably pudgy, playing the drums with big goofy grins on their faces, is enough spectacle for me
caryn (1:36:23 AM): You are so gay Amy Phillips! I can see the movie now...Drum Fine XXX.
amy (1:37:05 AM): the boys in the band just weren't as cute as the girls
amy (1:37:37 AM): also, the show was very desexualized
amy (1:37:43 AM): it was like a children's birthday party
caryn (1:38:08 AM): That one with the orange t-shirt had a goofy rolling on X grin. Like Bez from the Happy Mondays.
amy (1:38:34 AM): according to my friends, that is the guy who made all the music on the album
caryn (1:39:30 AM): I think you're right about the total lack of sexualization. Maybe that's why I didn't like it. And why it reminded me of Welcome to the Dollhouse. It was a musical Special People's Club.
amy (1:40:02 AM): even when the lead girl started shaking her ass all rap-video-like, it wasn't sexual
caryn (1:40:31 AM): The audience (except for me and Lady Brit) were really into it, though.
amy (1:41:05 AM): a lot of people in the back weren't into it. but i was quite surprised at the enthusiasm. because, as the lead lady said, nyc is not known for its dancing audiences.
caryn (1:42:22 AM): Most of the audience seemed to know all the songs.
amy (1:42:30 AM): ah, the power of the internet. oh i saw that they were selling 13 piece button sets at the merch table for 5 bucks
amy (1:43:04 AM): 13 buttons!
caryn (1:43:12 AM): All Go! Team?
amy (1:43:16 AM): yes!
amy (1:43:26 AM): you could decorate the entire front of your shirt with that
caryn (1:43:34 AM): Or your ass.

Sleater-Kinney/Mercury Lounge/March 2, 2005

I have to wonder if all this noise about the new Sleater-Kinney record being loud is really just another subconscious battle of the sexes?

I have The Woods, S-K’s latest, and no doubt it does sound different than their previous stuff. There’s lots of fuzzy bass sounds and rolling psychedelic riffing, but when people say that it’s loud, what do they really mean?

Call the Doctor was loud. Dig Me Out was loud. Hot Rock was loud. All Hands on the Bad One was loud. One Beat was loud. Shit, they are all loud. But loud in a different way. Those previous records featured Corin Tucker’s high vocal shrieking and Carrie Brownstein’s serrated guitar leads. Now, with The Woods, it’s a darker loud, a deeper loud, a meandering loud.

Could people be confusing “loud” with “masculine?” The previous records were loud in an unmistakably feminine, soprano-seeking way. This is a band without a bass player, remember. But this record reaches for the bass. Skuzzy, boy bathroom bass. Corin still keeps up a pitch that’s on top of a mountain, but the music is running down the hill away from it. This is a new dissonance. The new loud.

It was great to hear the just birthed songs unleashed in the relative small environs of the Mercury Lounge. They played most of the The Woods. I’ve seen the band about 15 times in my life, so I can say some certainty that the wacky, dramatic faces Carrie made while singing were entirely new. If she sang the word “crazy” she’d pull this complete lunatic pose. It was sort of punk rock kabuki. Corin is becoming more and more a lush earth mama. During some of the noodling songs, she had her eyes shut and bowed her head just so; for a split second, she almost looked like a hippie…not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Not all of the newer songs trail in the footsteps of Big Brother & The Holding Company. Some have an airy 1970s AM radio feel, like “Modern Girl” which has this bright chorus that goes “My whole life is like a picture of a sunny day.” At first listen, "Modern Girl" sounds like a happy song until you unpack the lyrics and you realize that, duh, if your life is like a picture of a sunny day, well, it’s not officially sunny. They played that song. They also played one of the better songs from The Woods called “Jumpers,” which for some reason reminds me of a Mirah jam---jabs of harmony, brisk singing, marching beat. It sounded really strong live, their voices turning grapes into jelly.

The night ended with an encore of the old favorite You’re No Rock-n-Roll Fun, which I mentally dedicated to my favorite unofficially straight-edged blog partner, one Amy Phillips.

Oh yeah, the band before them, Pela, was mostly unremarkable except for this one lyric of theirs that struck me as outrageously poetic: "You have a fragile face in a public place."

Breaking News

Caryn Brooks and The Amy Phillips have been at odds for a few weeks as they exchanged long distance jabs but on Monday night (February 28), the beef between the two former collaborators escalated. MTV.com reports that a 24 year-old woman from Portland, Oregon, was shot in the leg outside of New York's WQHT as Caryn Brooks was conducting an on-air interview.

According to a post by The Amy Phillips’ friend Daphne Carr on the blogger’s The Music Issue website, The Phillips and her entourage were attempting to enter the radio station to confront Brooks but they were denied admission and an altercation ensued. According to Carr, a member of their entourage was allegedly shot by someone affiliated with Brooks and they are now holding Brooks responsible.

Brooks, who was on air at the time, abruptly stopped her interview and was ushered out of the back exit of the radio station once news of the shooting reached the studio.

Before the interview was interrupted, Brooks explained that The Phillips was no longer a member of More in the Monitor because she was disloyal. The blogger was referring to comments made by The Phillips on Saturday (February 26), that she didn't want to be involved in Brooks’ beef with bloggers Fluxblog, Douglas Wolk, and Ultragrrrl.

Brooks also said that The Phillips should stop saying More In the Monitor and added, "She thinks she's doing me a favor when she says that."

Later Monday night, shots were also fired outside of Blogger. The company hosts Matos, Anthony is Right, One Louder, and Daphne Carr. No one was hurt in the incident.

No arrests have been made in either case.