Tales of rock professionalism

On Saturday night HOWLING FANTODS played a show out in Roxborough. Here's the short version: it was and we were awesome.

The longer version: another night of husband-core was to be had! First up was Matt Kelley's other band, LATE NIGHT TELEVISION. Matt grew a mustache for the show and he looked creepy. Or at least creepy up close. From a distance you couldn't really tell he had one. They played great---it was actually the first time I'd ever seen them, since they don't play too much these days.

I joined them for their last song, a cover of "Throwing Things". Immediately after that Fantods played. Kelley not only doing double duty but back to back double duty. I think he was pretty wiped out at the end of it all! But we really pulled it off...I did do the P&W but I didn't unplug anything. Not even one time! I know the fans like to see the Disconnection Notice, but at this show I was happy to disappoint them. (Seriously, how low are my expectations for myself that *not* disconnecting my guitar is cause for joy?!?!?)

We had no set list this time, but it was actually pretty cool not having one. There are like 3-4 people in the world who know our songs and I think they were all there. So they picked out songs and we'd play them. How neat! At the end we played LOVE Song and Happy Whaler and for some reason in Love Song I screwed up all the words. Nice job old man! There's video here. You know, I really thought I was singing well that night, but this video gives the lie to that!

After us were the mighty METROPLEX. They were fabulous---loud, shouty, catchy, energetic. And also old. And after that were our pals GHOSTS IN THE VALLEY. They too were loud, shouty, catchy and energetic! And old! LOVE IT! They did a cover of "Wicked Game" which was totally totally weird and rad.

One thing I should point out about the show was that all the bands were loud, but the only band that got complaints from the neighbors was the Fantods. I guess not everyone appreciates my low-quality "Sonic Youth if Sonic Youth weren't any good" squealy feedback guitar parts! WHY NOT!?!?!?!

And then on Monday my other band, ANIMALS AND INSECTS played at the Tritone. It was a sort of weird show in that we played after these two older gents played the blues. (Rock music is forever, but the blues are eternal!) And that was it. The blues dudes and us. And we were told to not play too loudly. Which is fine, but A+I is a rock band so it seemed a little weird to not be super loud. I play bass in this band, which is fun and way less pressure than singing/guitaring. There are also fewer things to unplug. We did a Weezer cover! Yay!

Disabusal via Grooveshark Mad-Lib

Sometimes you're sitting at your desk thinking, "I'd love to be listening to [1. band name], I haven't heard them in [2. amount of time] and so you go over to [3. website with music] and see if they have [4. album/song by above] by them. You are all psyched because you used to really dig them because [5. reason for love of band]." So that's exactly what you do. And then you find out that really they're pretty boring because [6. reason they are boring].

My answers for today:

1. HUM

2. Grooveshark

3. like ten years?

4. ``You'd prefer an Astronaut"

5. they were heavy and had a cool loud/QUIET/loud thing going on.

6. they have way too much chorus on their guitars and the songs are pretty much snoresville except for the "d/Q" parts of the song!!!

* "d/Q " parts are where it goes from QUIET to loud.

The greatest song of all time, RIGHT NOW...

is "Foolish" by Superchunk and I mean "Foolish" and not "Like a Fool".

In all honesty, this is quite possibly my favorite song ever and I mean like every second of every day since the day I heard it the first time I have wished that world was as promised in this song but am sort of glad that it isn't because if it were I'd probably be crying all the time with some combination of heartbreak and nerd passion. It is hypnotic: one drum beat the whole song, basically one riff and the guitars just wailing with feedback and that huge huge huge distorted Superchunk bass. There are probably like 20 guitar tracks on this song. And they bury the vocals. The singer is just lost is this total maelstrom. Like his id is in chaos, and there's this little tiny ego in there trying to get out! I mean, this isn't a crazy idea. The line at the outset is "it would be nice to leave sometimes," I think. The claustrophobic music makes you really feel trapped. And there's an even more buried background vocal line, I have no idea what its saying...I guess that its the superego! (Pop psychology! How lame am I!?!?!?!)

But here's the point: the the beat is so nerd sexy that maybe you don't want to leave. Here he is complaining about getting out of this situation, here he is talking about how stupid he is and, yeah, the music is loud and in your face, but the drum beat and repeating riff WILL NOT LET YOU GO. It locks you in, ties you down. It is (to quote the song directly) a "couch sucking me in." And you know, he doesn't sing the lines too passionately for most of the song. But in the last iteration of the lines, when he gets to the couch line, he nails it. And he belts a little about his foolishness at the end.

This song is perfect.

Tales of rock professionalism

HOWLING FANTODS had a show a week ago. At Tritone on South Street. We played last. The other bands were also comprised of middle aged dudes playing some variety of punk rock, a type of music my wife has taken to calling "husband-core". The first band was the Prisoners, also from Philadelphia. Surprisingly they seemed to be very patriotic, considering the band name. They had American flags on their pants, hats, shoes, shirts, amps, guitars, undies, friends, cars, pets and so on. Its always hard to tell what bands are singing about, but I presume the lyrics to their Supersuckers-esque style rock were about patriotic things like: God, country, Mr. Rushmore, Millard Fillmore, the Great Lakes, various amendments to the constitution, apple pie, 19th century men's facial hair and/or tracing one's family tree back to the Mayflower. Or more likely, their songs were about relationships or hating your job or something like that. Second band was the Accelerators from NJ. THEY WERE GREAT. They played some seriously cool Ramones type stuff, sounded really good, were nice dudes with awesome NYC area accents. They had a song called "I Wanna Be Like Dee Dee Ramone" or some such sentiment. Loved it. Evidently they know Bobby Steele.

We played and within the first 20 seconds of our first song (Plight Attendant) I had already unplugged my amp from the wall (see the Disconnection Notice post below!) and Matt Kelley had jumped in the air, landed badly and fallen to the ground in pain. IT WAS AWESOME. Classic Fantods! Honestly, despite the rough start, we settled in well and did good. Matt Kelly spent about 30% of the time in the air, jumping at key moments. Since I do the bulk of the singing, I don't get to jump as much. I was feeling a bit like a loser, tethered as I was to the mic stand whilst Kelley soared above me like some modern day Tom "Maverick" Cruise. So when I had a chance where I wasn't singing I'd do some jumping too. But my timing was always always off. So like I'd be jumping in the quiet part like 10 seconds before the rock happens. Or I'd jump while I was tuning in between songs.

JUMPING WHILE ROCKING is awesome. Its a great thing to see, and when you do it and its well timed, you feel pretty darn rock starry. Amongst my other favorite rock moves is THE POINT AND WAVE, which has been my main move (with the Disconnection Notice) in the Fantods. When you're stuck to the mic, you can't fly, you can't rock back and forth too much, and the P&W solves this. All you gotta do is NOT play the guitar and instead, while singing, point and wave! Preferably like some sort of crazy homeless person who wants you to believe the world is ending shortly. And if your band is on a tear, maybe you can get the audience to think for a second that the world really is ending!

The last thing I should mention is that Lance Crow played his set with a broken wrist and a (possibly) broken rib. He was in major pain when we were done. But he never stopped rocking, even when he was feeling like dying and that's the way of the Fantod.

The greatest song of all time, RIGHT NOW...

is probably "Lightning Bulb" by Dinosaur Jr and let me tell you why. The most notable things about this song are that (a) its a newish song and (b) its a Lou Barlow song. It basically answers the question that many wondered: what would Dinosaur Jr have sounded like if they actually let Lou write songs! And, you know what, this song sounds exactly like what you'd have thought. The bass is distorted and melodic, the guitar's fuzzy and echoey and LB's singing is deep and has that weird uptight feeling it always does.

But the thing that makes this song really work is the beginning. First of all, like a lot of Dinosaur songs, all the instruments and singing start in at the same time...its one of the things that give this band's songs that heavy suffocating feeling people love so much (see also "In a Jar", "Budge" or "They Always Come"). And the drums! So so so many toms, which is my favorite thing. I always love drumming that makes me think the cannibals are coming to get me. And there's the short instrumental break where the bass moves up and basically takes over the melody while simultaneously the drums go the cymbals. Basically, I could listen to song that go like this all day long. Toms on the verse, cymbals on the chorus!!!

The guitar solos are a bit uninspired, I think. Not up to Dinosaur standards really. But it serves very well one of the primary reasons songs have solos: to give your ears a break so that you can hear the verse/chorus again without getting bored. Its not my favorite reason for having a solo, but its got its place...and it lets me hear that cannibal beat one more time!