Posted by Gabe Loewenberg on Mar. 13, 2009, at 1:36 pm
Where to begin? Last Thursday seems like so long ago, the start of a very long weekend of incredible music. With the Harvest Of Hope festival bringing bands by the boatload to Florida, many of them played shows throughout the state before and after the weekend. I (with my girlfriend and a few other friends) went to four shows in six days across the state. I did my best to document all of this with pictures and video; and even managed to score a short video interview with Bryce Dessner of The National. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: acoustic set, Bad, bad brains, beer, being vegan, boatload, Brains, Bryce Dessner, David Dondero, Diplo, dub reggae, Florida, hardcore, hardcore songs, Harvest, Harvest of Hope, interview, KRS, Lucero, National, Orlando, propaghandi, punk, punk rock, rock, snarky, St. Augustine, St. Petersburg, State Theatre, sunbears!, Tampa, The national, The Social, video interview
Posted in Commentary, News, Photo review, Photos, Reviews, Video | No Comments »
Posted by Christopher Nadeau on Feb. 6, 2009, at 2:07 am
The Cramps crapped the punk of The Sonics/Ramones continuum and Hasil Adkins/Link Wray rockabilly together in the late ’70s, extolling the virtues of simple, high-velocity distorted music and inescapable, in-your-face attitude, and naming their new subgenre “psychobilly.” Best described as a psychotic crooner, Lux Interior sang and contorted for The Cramps for the last 30-something years. Poetry about death, alienation, revenge and caustic self-affirmation littered their first EP, Gravest Hits, and LP, Songs the Lord Taught Us, (my two favorites), and rang true for me and countless others across the world over the years. “The way I walk is just the way I walk” and other such declarations paired with science fiction/horror references defined their early records. Early live shows were characterized by Lux literally going crazy and falling apart onstage, including vomiting all over himself and other antics. Here’s some footage of The Cramps playing a mental hospital in 1978:
Delayed, choking/massively stuttering vocals filled spaces between two or three chords heavily drenched in reverb and distortion punk. Mesmerizing, inspiring simplicity speaks toward the minimalism of the amateur (doing something for the love of it).
Rest in peace, Lux, and thanks for the music/inspiration/thoughts and references to an underground culture of rollicking rock ‘n’ roll fun.
Tags: amateur, death, gravest hits, hasil adkins, link wray, lux interior, minimalism, psychobilly, punk, punk rock, rip, rock n roll, rockabilly, science fiction, simplicity, songs the lord taught us, the cramps, The Ramones, the sonics
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Posted by Gabe Loewenberg on Jan. 28, 2009, at 9:20 am
Bad Brains are playing The State Theatre on Thursday, March 5. Need I say more? For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, let me fill you in.
Bad Brains was originally a jazz-fusion band called Mind Power formed in 1975 in Washington D.C. They soon became enamored with punk rock and changed their name, taking it from a Ramones song. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Bad, bad brains, Brains, CBGB, D.C., H.R, punk band, punk rock, St. Petersburg, Washington, washington d c
Posted in News | 4 Comments »
