Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
For The Record
THE AFTERDARKS
"The Afterdarks represent something that's gone from America -- an unwavering, unapologetic oath to self that a certain level of brutality thrives inside all of us and if it's forced to linger for too long, you're gonna get some kick ass rock'n'roll."
- Brian Krans, Rock Town Press/author, A Constant Suicide
PERSONNEL: Papa D - upright/electric bass, vocals
Dr. Nasty - guitar, vocals
Smokehaus - drums
BIO: Illinois/Iowa-based punkabilly outfit began in 2003. Has produced 4 EPs, 3 full-length
CDs.
LATEST RECORDING: "Blood Sweat & Gears" (self) 2009
WEBSITE: http://theafterdarks.com/
What's the coolest place to hang out, in the Quad Cities?
"We really like Rascal's Rock Memorabilia Club when we want to relax. Ken, the owner, runs a great sound, and is a former musician himself. RIBCO also stands high with Al Dimeo on sound."
Where's your favorite place to play? (Same as answer to Question #1?) Favorite recording studio?
"Same as #1. We record in our own studio to do the rough mix. Papa Darkness also has recorded other bands as well in the studio."
Favorite fast food? Favorite beer/drink?
"Nachos -- PBR -- hands down!"
Law you'd most like to see overturned?
"We are not really politically motivated, however child abuse tops our list. Strengthening and enforcing existing laws is great for us."
Law you'd like to see enacted?
"PBR must be the drink of choice at every dinner."
Other IL/IA bands you'd recommend?
"The One Night Standards, The Surf Zombies, Sarah Cram and the Derelicts, ZED, and a great bunch of kids in Marmaduke who do Led Zeppelin the way it should be done!"
Philosophy of life in 10 words or less?
"Performing is not a joke! It is an expression of self!"
"The Afterdarks represent something that's gone from America -- an unwavering, unapologetic oath to self that a certain level of brutality thrives inside all of us and if it's forced to linger for too long, you're gonna get some kick ass rock'n'roll."
- Brian Krans, Rock Town Press/author, A Constant Suicide
PERSONNEL: Papa D - upright/electric bass, vocals
Dr. Nasty - guitar, vocals
Smokehaus - drums
BIO: Illinois/Iowa-based punkabilly outfit began in 2003. Has produced 4 EPs, 3 full-length
CDs.
LATEST RECORDING: "Blood Sweat & Gears" (self) 2009
WEBSITE: http://theafterdarks.com/
What's the coolest place to hang out, in the Quad Cities?
"We really like Rascal's Rock Memorabilia Club when we want to relax. Ken, the owner, runs a great sound, and is a former musician himself. RIBCO also stands high with Al Dimeo on sound."
Where's your favorite place to play? (Same as answer to Question #1?) Favorite recording studio?
"Same as #1. We record in our own studio to do the rough mix. Papa Darkness also has recorded other bands as well in the studio."
Favorite fast food? Favorite beer/drink?
"Nachos -- PBR -- hands down!"
Law you'd most like to see overturned?
"We are not really politically motivated, however child abuse tops our list. Strengthening and enforcing existing laws is great for us."
Law you'd like to see enacted?
"PBR must be the drink of choice at every dinner."
Other IL/IA bands you'd recommend?
"The One Night Standards, The Surf Zombies, Sarah Cram and the Derelicts, ZED, and a great bunch of kids in Marmaduke who do Led Zeppelin the way it should be done!"
Philosophy of life in 10 words or less?
"Performing is not a joke! It is an expression of self!"
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Review: The Burning Hotels "Novel"
by
DC Larson
It's not even necessary to enjoy all 11 tracks here to understand that the Burning Hotels' great accomplishment -- indeed, the quality that most persuasively touts them -- is the creation of consistently engaging pop melodizing that grabs up listeners and throttles them into bliss: jangling guitars, harmonies that endear, infectious constructions, and indefatigably shiny movement. Blindingly vivid, giddily animated. One appreciates participating.
(PS. Thanks to Kaytea xo for the tip!)
DC Larson
It's not even necessary to enjoy all 11 tracks here to understand that the Burning Hotels' great accomplishment -- indeed, the quality that most persuasively touts them -- is the creation of consistently engaging pop melodizing that grabs up listeners and throttles them into bliss: jangling guitars, harmonies that endear, infectious constructions, and indefatigably shiny movement. Blindingly vivid, giddily animated. One appreciates participating.
(PS. Thanks to Kaytea xo for the tip!)
Monday, November 2, 2009
Viva (Cult Epics 2008)
a film by Anna Biller
WINKING CAUTIONARY TALE
byDC Larson
To experience delightful sexploitation comedy Viva is to be immersed in arch-stylized 1970s cuts and colors. Indeed, all involved are enthusiastically aboard the technicolored retro train: loud, gaudy ensembles, feathered, fluffed, and lovingly laquered tresses, calculatedly cardboardish (and always effective) acting, the moment's pop culture-choreographed, hipness-ho posturing.
Panache radiates in neon.
Important to Viva's sensory effect as syle is, though, the saucy narrative scores its substantial points through clever plot-craft. Anna Biller as forsaken and frustrated "Barbie" dips a bared toe into the Sexual Revolution, only to be swirled away into its swinging maelstrom of drugs, modeling, delicious licentiousness, and hidden personal costs.
With impressive flair, Anna sported multiple hats in the construction. Writer, director, set and costume designer, starring actor. (She also composes, choreographs, and edits.)
During a post-screening interview, Anna was asked why she had decided to make the fim."I wanted to do a realistic story about a woman who's a scapegoat of the sexual revolution," she responded. "[Someone] who endures everything in the name of being liberated. She's just going with the flow, and it's such a dangerous and demonic world of predators out there, and she's completely unprotected. I thought it was very funny and also a very real kind of story."
Anna claims a BA in art from UCLA and an MFA in art and film from CalArts. While the impressive Viva is her first feature, audiences already know her from several short films and stage musicals; both have been shown at international festivals and art spaces.
Awards Anna has received for Viva include Best Style in a film at the Moscow Film Festival (Vogue magazine), and Best Director, Atlanta Underground Film Festival.(Viva's more than 30 other festival selections include the B Movie, Trash, and Underground Film Festival, the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, the Transylvania International Fim Festival, and the San Antonio Underground Film Festival.)
Like the mini-skirted era Anna affectionately sculpts, Viva looks stunning while flirting with fleshly perils.
http://www.lifeofastar.com/viva.html
http://www.cultepics.com
a film by Anna Biller
WINKING CAUTIONARY TALE
byDC Larson
To experience delightful sexploitation comedy Viva is to be immersed in arch-stylized 1970s cuts and colors. Indeed, all involved are enthusiastically aboard the technicolored retro train: loud, gaudy ensembles, feathered, fluffed, and lovingly laquered tresses, calculatedly cardboardish (and always effective) acting, the moment's pop culture-choreographed, hipness-ho posturing.
Panache radiates in neon.
Important to Viva's sensory effect as syle is, though, the saucy narrative scores its substantial points through clever plot-craft. Anna Biller as forsaken and frustrated "Barbie" dips a bared toe into the Sexual Revolution, only to be swirled away into its swinging maelstrom of drugs, modeling, delicious licentiousness, and hidden personal costs.
With impressive flair, Anna sported multiple hats in the construction. Writer, director, set and costume designer, starring actor. (She also composes, choreographs, and edits.)
During a post-screening interview, Anna was asked why she had decided to make the fim."I wanted to do a realistic story about a woman who's a scapegoat of the sexual revolution," she responded. "[Someone] who endures everything in the name of being liberated. She's just going with the flow, and it's such a dangerous and demonic world of predators out there, and she's completely unprotected. I thought it was very funny and also a very real kind of story."
Anna claims a BA in art from UCLA and an MFA in art and film from CalArts. While the impressive Viva is her first feature, audiences already know her from several short films and stage musicals; both have been shown at international festivals and art spaces.
Awards Anna has received for Viva include Best Style in a film at the Moscow Film Festival (Vogue magazine), and Best Director, Atlanta Underground Film Festival.(Viva's more than 30 other festival selections include the B Movie, Trash, and Underground Film Festival, the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, the Transylvania International Fim Festival, and the San Antonio Underground Film Festival.)
Like the mini-skirted era Anna affectionately sculpts, Viva looks stunning while flirting with fleshly perils.
http://www.lifeofastar.com/viva.html
http://www.cultepics.com
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
VELVETEEN VISIONS: DD Sparks "Maximus Aquarius" review
DD Sparks
"Maximus Aquarius"
(Magic Cabinet Records)
reviewed by
DC Larson
(That DD Sparks, creator of the "Maximus Aquarius" character, is my brother in no way impacts the below judgements.)
Craft is the thoughtful choreographer of creative impulse. Lacking it, one has only unfocused spark, unproductive energy.
But braced by craft's intuitive calculatings, virginal musings assume perspective.
On each action strasse here located, one upturns treasures alurk: Shadow-draped glacial movements, fizzy percolations, spectral intonations -- each distinct shard locks into unseamed correspondence. (And while head may be above-clouds, feet are maintained to terra firma by trenchant six-string coloration and reassuringly familiar sax testimonies.)
About, one spots splinters of Roxy Music, T Rex, and ELO. But only splinters. Influences are subservient to Aquarius's own striking demeanor. At once darkly sagacious and wit-flecked, the observational time-trifler character -- a technicolor pastiche of Victorian elan and fantastic consciousness -- imprints the whole with uncanny lilt and commanding presence.
Craft revels in its peculiar reward.
RECOMMENDED "Cutting In the Blue," "Beloved Nemesis," "trick of the light," "dangerous angels"
http://www.ddsparks.com/
http://www.myspace.com/ddsparks
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dd-sparks/276113375360?v=info
"Maximus Aquarius"
(Magic Cabinet Records)
reviewed by
DC Larson
(That DD Sparks, creator of the "Maximus Aquarius" character, is my brother in no way impacts the below judgements.)
Craft is the thoughtful choreographer of creative impulse. Lacking it, one has only unfocused spark, unproductive energy.
But braced by craft's intuitive calculatings, virginal musings assume perspective.
On each action strasse here located, one upturns treasures alurk: Shadow-draped glacial movements, fizzy percolations, spectral intonations -- each distinct shard locks into unseamed correspondence. (And while head may be above-clouds, feet are maintained to terra firma by trenchant six-string coloration and reassuringly familiar sax testimonies.)
About, one spots splinters of Roxy Music, T Rex, and ELO. But only splinters. Influences are subservient to Aquarius's own striking demeanor. At once darkly sagacious and wit-flecked, the observational time-trifler character -- a technicolor pastiche of Victorian elan and fantastic consciousness -- imprints the whole with uncanny lilt and commanding presence.
Craft revels in its peculiar reward.
RECOMMENDED "Cutting In the Blue," "Beloved Nemesis," "trick of the light," "dangerous angels"
http://www.ddsparks.com/
http://www.myspace.com/ddsparks
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dd-sparks/276113375360?v=info
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Review: UNKNOWN INSTRUCTORS
Unknown Instructors
Funland (Smog Veil)
This neither respects industry-proffered strictures nor reflects appropriate sympathies.
Good.
Ambitiousness of this scope is not found on top marketing charts. Too "self-indulgent," says
Suit One. Too "experimental," agrees Suit Two.
Besides, holds the A&R chorus, tilted atonality that kicks aside standard maps and mass-accessibility formulas to dance on uncharted soils has never known numerically significant embrace.
Of course, self-indulgence is not necessarily a negative. Of what benefit to anyone is the stifled imagination?
Contributors Mike Watt, George Hurley, Joe Baiza, Dan McGuire, Raymond Pettibon, and David Thomas follow without inhibiting commercial heed the muse's seductive siren into leisurely and notion-laden episodes.
Only through bold experimentation can unlikely concepts be unwrapped and assembled. Experiments do not always succeed, but they sometimes do -- with occasionally startling appropriateness.
One at once respects the daring and is impressed by the realizations. High-minded intentions that might otherwise fall are well-raised by agile interpretation. Musicians assembled for this work are of a lofty caliber; their expressions animate creative ideation, giving it practical form.
It is true that no compositions present lend themselves to ringtone-excerpting. Just as it also is so -- and with Funland, again asserted -- that such is not art's purpose.
Recommended Maji Yabai, Later That Night, Frownland, C'mon, No Chirping.
- DC Larson
Funland (Smog Veil)
This neither respects industry-proffered strictures nor reflects appropriate sympathies.
Good.
Ambitiousness of this scope is not found on top marketing charts. Too "self-indulgent," says
Suit One. Too "experimental," agrees Suit Two.
Besides, holds the A&R chorus, tilted atonality that kicks aside standard maps and mass-accessibility formulas to dance on uncharted soils has never known numerically significant embrace.
Of course, self-indulgence is not necessarily a negative. Of what benefit to anyone is the stifled imagination?
Contributors Mike Watt, George Hurley, Joe Baiza, Dan McGuire, Raymond Pettibon, and David Thomas follow without inhibiting commercial heed the muse's seductive siren into leisurely and notion-laden episodes.
Only through bold experimentation can unlikely concepts be unwrapped and assembled. Experiments do not always succeed, but they sometimes do -- with occasionally startling appropriateness.
One at once respects the daring and is impressed by the realizations. High-minded intentions that might otherwise fall are well-raised by agile interpretation. Musicians assembled for this work are of a lofty caliber; their expressions animate creative ideation, giving it practical form.
It is true that no compositions present lend themselves to ringtone-excerpting. Just as it also is so -- and with Funland, again asserted -- that such is not art's purpose.
Recommended Maji Yabai, Later That Night, Frownland, C'mon, No Chirping.
- DC Larson
Thursday, March 5, 2009
They're writing those Depression songs, again
by
DC Larson
As credentialed experts strive to gauge national economic condition, they should cast beyond standard criteria like GNP and Wall Street permutations to appreciate popular music's public mood mirroring. They would do well to begin with Viper of Melody (Bloodshot), by Wayne 'The Train' Hancock.
Wayne is widely-regarded as perhaps today's pre-eminent purveyor of the bold and bouncy, steel-guitared, upright bassed-Western Swing popularized in the '40s and '50s by Bob Wills and Speedy West, the sort animated and charged by country-jazz guitar legend Jimmy Bryant.
With dependably solid accompanists Anthony Locke, Huckleberry Johnson, and six-string wizard Izak Zaidman, the leathery-voiced Hancock imbues the in turns jumping and swaying proceedings with a magnetic, Everyman tenor.
But of the disc's 13 winning tracks, it is the sorrowful "Working At Working" that most resonates and best articulates fast-emerging national hardships and despairs.
"Well, the rich folks call it 'recession,' but the poor folks call it 'Depression' / Everybody's hittin' the street, with the low-down blues" chronicles the song's protagonist. "I wonder if the President knows how I feel / I've stood in every soup line around."
That sentiment has been sung across America, before.
"They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead / Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?" asked lyricist Yip Harburg, in 1931's "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"
Harburg wrote "Brother" together with Russian-born American composer Jay Gorman. And while its mournful,
minor-key melody was reportedly based on a traditional Russian lullaby, the blue travail of which it told was very much of that ongoing catastrophic moment.
"When Bing [Crosby] recorded this song in October, 1932," chronicles a San Francisco State University text, "one out of every four Americans who wanted work could not find work. The banking system was near collapse."
In "Working At Working," Hancock portrays our own, unsettlingly similar contemporary calamity:
"Well, it's gettin' awful hard, to keep livin' this way, stayin' on the edge from day to day / And, if I don't find somethin' soon, I'll be highway bound."
It is fitting, both musically and spiritually, that Wayne ends "Working At Working" with a blue yodel, ala the Great Depression's 'Singing Brakeman' Jimmy Rodgers.
Yip Harburg, Jimmy Rodgers, Wayne Hancock -- the appropriateness of their fraternity is at once wonderful and terrible.
END
(DC Larson, of Iowa, is CD Review Editor for Rockabilly Magazine. Among his freelance credits are Goldmine, Blue Suede News, No Depression, and Rock & Rap Confidential.)
DC Larson
As credentialed experts strive to gauge national economic condition, they should cast beyond standard criteria like GNP and Wall Street permutations to appreciate popular music's public mood mirroring. They would do well to begin with Viper of Melody (Bloodshot), by Wayne 'The Train' Hancock.
Wayne is widely-regarded as perhaps today's pre-eminent purveyor of the bold and bouncy, steel-guitared, upright bassed-Western Swing popularized in the '40s and '50s by Bob Wills and Speedy West, the sort animated and charged by country-jazz guitar legend Jimmy Bryant.
With dependably solid accompanists Anthony Locke, Huckleberry Johnson, and six-string wizard Izak Zaidman, the leathery-voiced Hancock imbues the in turns jumping and swaying proceedings with a magnetic, Everyman tenor.
But of the disc's 13 winning tracks, it is the sorrowful "Working At Working" that most resonates and best articulates fast-emerging national hardships and despairs.
"Well, the rich folks call it 'recession,' but the poor folks call it 'Depression' / Everybody's hittin' the street, with the low-down blues" chronicles the song's protagonist. "I wonder if the President knows how I feel / I've stood in every soup line around."
That sentiment has been sung across America, before.
"They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead / Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?" asked lyricist Yip Harburg, in 1931's "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"
Harburg wrote "Brother" together with Russian-born American composer Jay Gorman. And while its mournful,
minor-key melody was reportedly based on a traditional Russian lullaby, the blue travail of which it told was very much of that ongoing catastrophic moment.
"When Bing [Crosby] recorded this song in October, 1932," chronicles a San Francisco State University text, "one out of every four Americans who wanted work could not find work. The banking system was near collapse."
In "Working At Working," Hancock portrays our own, unsettlingly similar contemporary calamity:
"Well, it's gettin' awful hard, to keep livin' this way, stayin' on the edge from day to day / And, if I don't find somethin' soon, I'll be highway bound."
It is fitting, both musically and spiritually, that Wayne ends "Working At Working" with a blue yodel, ala the Great Depression's 'Singing Brakeman' Jimmy Rodgers.
Yip Harburg, Jimmy Rodgers, Wayne Hancock -- the appropriateness of their fraternity is at once wonderful and terrible.
END
(DC Larson, of Iowa, is CD Review Editor for Rockabilly Magazine. Among his freelance credits are Goldmine, Blue Suede News, No Depression, and Rock & Rap Confidential.)
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