I'm not sure when I actually took these, but it was in SFO some time back (my gut
says 2001). Although they stink a bit of something an ad agency would come up
with, they still remain two of my favorite photos I've ever taken.
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Calendar
Movie Reviews
Links
***October Thirty First
Two Thousand and Four***
In celebration of just having
seen a fantastic live show by The Twilight
Singers, here
are a couple of long lost releases that Greg
Dulli put out with The Afghan
Whigs
a few years back.
Uptown Avondale (1992)
This import is made up of four great covers and one remix of a Whigs song.
Through
both the Whigs and the Twilight Singers, Dulli has shown an obvious love
for the cover
song. This EP contains my favorite cover the Whigs ever did - "Band
of Gold" by
Freda Payne, one of the greatest soul songs of all time.
Band
of Gold
True
Love Travels on a Gravel Road
Come
See About Me
Beware
Rebirth
of Cool
Honky's Ladder EP (1996)
This EP is by special request; it pairs two of the Whigs best songs from
the fantastic
album Black
Love with a couple of great-but-odd covers - "If I Only Had a Heart" from
The
Wizard of Oz and "Creep" by TLC.
Honky's
Ladder
Blame,
Etc.
If
I Only Had a Heart
Creep
I'll leave these tracks up for
a few days. And go check out the new Twilight Singer's record
She
Loves You - it's an all cover's affair. Especially fetching
are Dulli's renditions of songs
by Bjork, Marvin Gae, Hope Sandoval, and Mary J. Blige. The whole
album is pretty damn
great.
***October Twenty Eighth
Two Thousand and Four***
Some random photos for your
viewing pleasure...
I'm not sure when I actually took these, but it was in SFO some time
back (my gut
says 2001). Although they stink a bit of something an ad agency
would come up
with, they still remain two of my favorite photos I've ever taken.
These two got paired together simply by virtue of both being pics that
I really like, but
my camera had a light leak (as referenced by the underdeveloped bar that
stands out
on the right hand side of the pic). The nice thing about shooting
pics with old, undes-
ireable cameras though is that you are able to replace the body for cheap
and still be
able to use all of the lenses. The first pic is from 1999 I think
- taken on a trip out here
to Cali before I moved out. The second would be the spring of 2000,
on the move here -
if you're ever going through Amarillo, Texas, you must check out Cadillac
Ranch - an
American icon to be certain.
Both of these were taken with my pinhole camera with a polaroid back.
The first isn't
particularly impressive, with part of it being washed out and all, but
I like it anyways. The
second was taken at Ft. Miley, and was actually a fuck-up; I threw it
in my bag and forgot
about it, and then when I was cleaning out my bag a week later (yeah
I'm slow like that) I
re-found it...the way the photo and developing enclosure had stuck together
kinda made
a neat effect that I ended up liking.
***October Twenty Third
Two Thousand and Four***
They call it "punk rock"...
Back in June I saw The Functional Blackouts play
at Thee Parkside. They were
pretty awesome - very energetic and catchy. People in the know
say they sound
a lot like The Pagans,
and from the little bit I know about that band I would have
to agree that The Functional Blackouts do have a similar feel. I
took a few photos
of the events...
Additionally, here's five more
modern punk bands that I highly recommend. You
can check the bands websites for additional downloadable tracks...
The Briefs - Sally
I Can't Go to the Beach - Recomended if you like the Ramones,
the Undertones, the Damned, and maybe even fans of Supergrass could
get into
it. Immensely catchy, you'll be singing along in no time. Probably
my favorite of the
new crop.
The Spits - She
Don't Kare - While this song is fairly straight-forward, this band
can
get quite screwy. Costumes are often involved and their sound
runs a spectrum
between catchy pop-punk and Devo-inspired new wave. You never
really know what
you're going to get with The Spits, but it's almost always good.
The Four Eyes - Rock
& Roll Martian - The most fitting title for this music is "nerd
rock",
but the band wears that title proudly. With tracks about Dungeons
& Dragons, Sci-Fi
movies, and video games, you know you've got a winner - I was sold
upon first hearing
they had a song about the classic film Deathrace 2000. They
are as much sloppy rock
as it is punk; The Four Eyes combine equal parts catchy hooks and comedy
that keep
me listening to them again and again. Their website has a shit-ton
of MP3s on it...you'll
not be left wanting.
The FM Knives - 20/20
- Alas, the FM Knives are no more, but they were still a recent
enough band that I wanted to include them. Comparisons between
these guys and The
Buzzcocks seemed to be pretty widely agreed upon by many of my friends,
and I'd be
remiss to disagree. You should especially make a trip to their
website just so you can
download their cover of The English Beat's "Two Swords", it rules.
The Clorox Girls - Walks
the Streets - Catchy, catchy, catchy. And I keep telling myself
"But they're just kids!"...it seems to me that such an ear for a good
pop hook would take
years to develop, but I guess these cats were just born with it. I
know the age issue cer-
tainly plays into my comparison, but I really want ot say they are this
generation's Red
Cross.
So yeah, check out the band's
websites for more tracks. Additionally, you can check out
the webstore that Zach from The FM Knives runs calle No Ambition - not only does
he have
a ton of MP3s available for download (including my very favorite Functional
Blackouts track,
which is the reason I didn't list it here), but the prices are cheap
as shit as well. Other groups
I highlyrecommend that have tracks on the site are The Bananas, The Knockout Pills, MOTO,
and The Tyrades.
***October Nineteenth Two Thousand and Four***
Various Peoples
These are some random pictures
I've taken of friends, family, etc.
I would probably get in trouble at home if I didn't start out
with the love of my life, Chelsea.
I took this photo in Vegas,
the same time as the photos
at the bottom of the page.
This is still my favorite photo
of her.
I took this photo the evening of my 21st b'day. it was
a very fun
evening...we went dancing at a gay bar on goth night, for reasons
I'm still not sure of. We dressed up in funny outfits for
the occasion,
and two of my straight male friends spent the better
part of the night
dancing together in an effort to get closer to this
lesbian that looked
just like the girl from
Trainspotting. This
is Drew and Todd, good
friends still to this day, and even though we moved
from NC to the
other side of the country they live less than 2 blocks
away.
This fuckin' guy is Brian Weeks. You'll hear more about
him later
when I do a post about his band, Summer Set. I met this
guy
during my freshman year
of college, he had the room next to me.
for two straight years
I had awful roommates, but meeting this guy
made living in the dorms
totally worth it. If I had to narrow it down
and
say I had a "best friend", this would be it. It drives me crazy
he's on the other side of the country, but we'll work all of that out
eventually.
This is my girlfriend's brother, Skyler, and his girlfriend
Heather.
Despite only being 18 years
old, he's actually a cool kid and not
asshole like most folks his
age. He's going to school to become a
film maker - maybe he'll hire
me to be gaffer or best boy someday.
This photo was taken at the
Nevada County Fair in 2003 - I love this
photo, but I can't explain
why exactly; something with the way that
he's looking at the camera
and she's looking at him and they are both
sucking down their drinks at
the same time. It just works.
***October Twelfth Two
Thousand and Four***
Harold Ray: Live in Concert
The last couple of years, I've been much more into classic
soul/r'n'b stuff than I ever have been in the past.
Thankfully, Harold Ray: Live in Concert exists as a Bay Area icon
for those who have these same urges.
Through mostly classic & obscure covers, they eemingly channel
the spirit of the past so well you'd think
they were psychic mediums with a direct line to Sam Cooke, Otis
Redding, and the rest of the fallen idols.
You can check out some of the
songs from their debut LP (which was fittingly recorded live) over at
their
label Alternative
Tentacles. But more importantly, note that the name of the
band ain't lying: the only true
way to experience HR:LiC is to see them perform live - the energy
the band gives off is amazing, and
even manages to get a curmudgeon like myself dancing on occasion.
They play pretty often here in the
Bay Area, so you have no excuse not to see them if you live around
here.
***October Tenth Two
Thousand and Four***
Thee More Shallows
The sophomore effort by this group, "More Deep Cuts", will most
likely go down as my favorite record
of the year. An I'm not talking about just being favorite
record of a local band, but favorite record period.
It is beautiful blend of Codeine, Rex/New Year, a little Echo
& the Bunnymen, Odessa Chen's
haunting
back-up vocals, and some electronic bits, all blended together
in a most highly listenable fashion. So far
the record has only been officially released overseas by Monotreme Records; the fact
that the band
haven't found US distribution for the album yet just goes to
show how fucked up the record industry is
nowadays.
Check out some MP3s of the new
record at the Monotreme website linked above. Additionally, you
can
listen to a track from their debut record on the band's website. And finally,
check out many more (and
better) photos of the band, both live and portrait over at Playing in Fog. And if you're
feeling particularly
bored, I've written a few reviews of them that are up there as
well.
***October Seventh Two
Thousand and Four***
I take a lot of photos of buildings,
especially those falling apart. I dunno why, but decaying and
depressed
structures have always had a large appeal to me...I often find
myself daydreaming about the past of the
building, what it had been, what it had meant to people. Or
something equally pretentious and stupid.
Anyways, this is a handful of pictures taken back home in Western
North Carolina, mostly from my college
years I would guess. All of these are from the town of
Marion, with the exception of the first photo which is
from Bandana.
***October Fifth Two
Thousand and Four***
It's time for my first music
post...we'll call it a Superdrag Mix Tape type o' thang. (NOTE
- all but bonus
tracks now removed)
It is my contention that this
Knoxville, Tennessee band will go down in history as one of the most
underrated pop
bands of all time. I'm going to post a few songs here
to prove that I'm not just blowing smoke on that fact.
>>> Regretfully Yours
(March 1996, Elektra Records)
This was the first that most folks came to hear Superdrag;
the band had a cassette-only release called "Stereo
360 Sound" in 1994 (later re-released by the band on CD)
and an EP on Darla titled "The Fabulous 8-Track
Sound of Superdrag" in 1995 (my copy of this is crap or
i would have otherwise included some songs here). But
it was on this album that they achieved the status of "one
hit wonder" as far as the general public was concerned,
with their breakout hit "Sucked Out". Despite it's
heavy MTV airplay, which in those days was an instant turn-off
generally, I was immediately hooked by John Davis' piercing
vocals and the band's abilty to fuzz-out pop music in
such a, I dunno, Teenage Fanclub "A Catholic Education"
kind of way.
>>> Head Trip in
Every Key (March 1998, Elektra Records)
Sophmore slump? Probably...but it's still a damn good
record. it's biggest problem is that it is WAY overproduced,
resulting in a loss of all of those fuzzy/noisy bits that
helped make their earlier work so appealing. I've often lamented
how much I would love to hear them re-record this album the
way they *really* sound...it might end up going from their
worst (but still good) release ot their best.
>>> 360 Stereo Sound
(November 1998, Superdrag Sound)
After their first two full-lengths on a major label, trouble
was a brewing for the band...the follow-up didn't produce any hit
singles, and yadda yadda yadda, the band gets dropped, a
story we've all seen repeated time and time again. For one
reason or another, they chose to re-release one of their
first cassette-only EPs, "360 Stereo Sound". A couple of these
songs made it onto their first full length in a more polished
fashion, and the release also included some demos from various
other recording sessions. This was put out more for
completist fans like myself who didn't have the wherewithal to track
down a copy of those original demos, and I was grateful for
it.
>>> In the Valley
of Dying Stars (October 2000, Arena Rock Recording Co)
Where it seems most bands pack it in after the major label
tango, Superdrag soldiered on and signed with New York-based
Arena Rock Recording Company. Not surprisingly, it
also showed a return to their noiser (but still quite poppy) roots,
much to
both mine and my friend's delight. It seemed obvious
that the band had come to terms by now that they were not going to
make
it in the "big time", and set forth on am ission to return
to their rockin' roots.
>>> The Rock Soldier
CD (2000, Arena Rock Recording Co.)
Although titled a "CD", this is essentially a single for
the track "Lighting the Way" from "In the Valley of Dying Stars",
with some
additional unreleased tracks.
>>> Last Call for
Vitriol (July 2002, Arena Rock Recording Co.)
Their final record? It looks that way as of now, and
it was a fine leg to go out on. In this release, they explore
their softer side
again, but never leave the bombast completely. It turns
out ot be a very nice mix of the band's two differing personalities.
It
also marks the first time that non-John Davis material makes
one of their records as far as I know, in the form of two tracks
written and sung by the band's new bassist Sam Powers.
>>> Demos/B-Sides/Covers
Here are a few other favorite tracks by the band that never
made any of the albums. Superdrag recorded a wealth of material...
I have an entire cassette tape of demos from the "Head Trip..."
sessions that I need to get converted to CD at some point.
Additionally, the band were prolific in their song covering
- you were nearly guaranteed something new and exciting when you
saw them live. Shit, they evfen played "Freebird" live
once when someone yelled it out. Now that's a band that is dedicated
to
their fan's requests.
- Twisted
Fuck - Not only does this song have a great name, but it's one
of the catchiest songs they ever recorded.
- Better
Now Than Ever - I believe this is actually a 4-track demo of
John Davis as "Johnny Flame", his solo personality. At
some point the band recorded a version of this as well, but
I've always loved this version; it feels like you're sitting in his
kitchen
with him as he records it.
- Bullet
- A Misfits cover, of which I have a few by them. It's not
something I would have noticed before hand probably, but there
is definitely a Misfits-influence to many of Superdrags more
upbeat songs.
- First
of the Last Calls - A Husker Du cover, probably the most often
name-checked band when reading reviews of Superdrag.
- Bastards
of Young - A Replacements cover, and a damn good one. But
ot be honest, you could play me a version of this made
entirely of donkey farts and I'd still love it, that song
is so so so damn good.
>>> Epilogue
So where is the band now?
John Davis found religion...he's
working on a solo record to be released on a christian-music label
sometime soon. I'm both
scared and apprehensive about what will come of this - there's
plenty of religious music out there that is awesome, so there's no
real reason to be scared, but his choice of labels frightens
me a bit more than most. Sam Powers and Mic Harrison are doing
solo things and touring with various bands. And Don
Coffey, Jr, the only original member with Davis, runs and records bands
at
a studio back home in Tennessee. A friend of mine recently
shared a few beers with him in a bar, and said he's a really nice
guy.
That's always nice to hear.
Superdrag.com - go here for further
news, solo tracks from the various band members, and you know, the
typical shit you find on
a band's website.
AtomicPope.com
- go here to download a whole shitload of Beatle's covers by John
Davis, recorded all 4-track stylee.