What's With this City?

So last night I was stoked to go see a few friends' bands play with 1.6 Band for their "reconciliation" tour.

To make a long whiny story short, I ended up having to bail half way through 1.6's set because of how late the show was running (had to catch the metro, which means leave by 11:30pm) and I didn't even get to see one of the bands I wanted to see.

My list of complaints about the Velvet Lounge has grown significantly over the last 6 months due to some shady practices they seem to be embracing, but in an effort to stick to the issue at hand, I will present a short list of why the Velvet Lounge, for last night at least, sucked:

• You have an 18 plus show on a weeknight in a city that is heavily public transportation influenced (last train out if you don't have to transfer lines is 12am) which is supposed to start at 9pm (and starts late) and has 4 bands on the bill. This is bad enough, any weeknight 4 band show should start by 8pm and be finished by 11pm.
  
• There was virtually no time management during sets or in between. This means who ever draws the short stick and plays last has no one left in the audience, as I'm guessing was the case last night. This is a common occurrence in DC.
• For those of us who drink, the Velvet Lounge advertised on their site, and I quote, "$2 natty bohs til midnight, $4 rail all night long!" When asked for said $2 Natty Bohs the Bartender (who I was not a fan of in the slightest) said, "We don't have natty bohs, we have Budweiser and miller highlife." (which to be honest was actually genuine draft...) When asked, "Are those $2 then" The response was "No $3." I know this seems like a small complaint, but if you advertise something to get people in the door, have it. Some of us have to budget our show going experiences because life is expensive. Do it or don't just don't fucking lie about it.
• The staff seems to be getting increasingly more apathetic and rude. I mean I fucking get it, it's a rock club and all, but come the fuck on. There are a couple of exceptions here, the sound dude is a good enough guy. Which brings me to...
• What the fuck is the deal with the Sound? I mean the VL used to tote that it had the most bad assed sound in the city... I mean they do have enough expensive equipment, but lately even when I go see bands who I'm into (by way of example, Tombs) play there, it sounds like crap. If you don't know how to make everything sound good, fuck it, just output the vocals on the PA and leave everything else live. Usually sounds better in small clubs anyway. And again, if you're a sound guy, and your not going to stick around for the set, and you insist on mic'ing everything, make sure it sounds good before you walk out.

I know this all might seem pretty petty, especially for a $10 show, but I gotta be honest, house/diy shows are getting better and better, with a high caliber of bands, are run WAY better, and even seem to sound better (as an audience member.)

If the Velvet doesn't shape up, I'm going to cross it off my list. For the mean time, I'm going to advise bands to be wary before booking shows there.

Big downs.

Watch These!

So. Enjoy

Mastodon - Oblivion live from David Letterman(?)



And the video itself! SPACE!

A little behind the times... maybe

We've got some reviews coming up in the next week or so. On the Agenda so far:

Big Business - Mind the Drift
Gallows - Grey Britain
Lamb of God - Wrath
Mastodon - Crack the Skye (More than just a review...)
NOFX - Coaster
Obits - I Blame You

Stay tuned!

Gojira Video

We missed this when it dropped on January the 11th. However, it is pretty rad, and worth watching:

Gojira made my top 10 for 2008.

Gojira - All the Tears.

We have been lazy

We have a new president, a bunch of albums to listen to, some shows to write about, and vacations to go on. That said there is a bunch of more content coming soon. Coming next week, some album reviews and show reviews.

So I read a rumor that Disney (the owners of the House of Blues) banned The Faceless from playing at least one of the clubs. Since the tour is playing HOB 4 times who knows what will happen. Fucking Disney. They protect child molesters, brutal hazing amongst park employees, cover up park related deaths, promote overly sexual images of their child stars, but won't let a band play for some reason or other:

THE FACELESS who will be on tour with MESHUGGAH and CYNIC in February have been banned from playing the Anaheim House of Blues date, which is the first show. The kick off date to take place February 1st will continue without The Faceless who will join the tour on February 2nd. The Disney owned venue, must approve of all bands playing and The Faceless were not approved for undisclosed reasons. Austrian death metallers, BELPHEGOR were also recently not approved by Disney to play the Anaheim House of Blues.

The band's sophomore full-length Planetary Duality, debuted at #119 on the Billboard Top 200 chart recently. The band’s guitarist Michael Keene, who also produced the new record, just wrapped up an appearance at the NAMM convention last week. Tour listed below:

Meshuggah, Cynic, The Faceless dates:

February
1 - House of Blues - Anaheim, CA (no The Faceless)
2 - House of Blues - San Diego, CA
3 - House of Blues - Hollywood, CA
4 - Slim’s - San Francisco, CA
6 - El Corazón - Seattle, WA
7 - Hawthorne Theatre - Portland, OR
8 - Commodore Ballroom - Vancouver, BC
9 - Knitting Factory - Spokane, WA
11 - Gothic Theatre - Englewood, CO
13 - Station 4 - St. Paul, MN
15 - House Of Blues - Chicago, IL
17 - Phoenix Concert Theatre - Toronto, ON
18 - Club Soda - Montreal, QC
19 - TBA - New York, NY
20 - Recher Theatre - Towson, MD

From: http://www.bravewords.com/news/105133

Though this is nothing new, it begs the question: Why? What is it exactly that will get a band banned from playing? The list of bands previously banned is pretty long, including Lamb of God due to their previous name (Burn the Priest.)

My understanding is that it is solely based upon the clubs that are actually on the Mouse King's property.

At any rate, I never really liked going to the house of blues, too sterile and artificial, in my opinion.

A Trend in Permanence.

Myspace is an interesting thing. It allows you to keep up on all kinds of useless information about your "Friends" in the digital age. Through Myspace I've noticed quite recently this new trend that is springing up on band pages [1] [2] [3] [4].

Now granted, getting a tattoo of your favorite band is nothing new (See Henry Rollins) but there seems to be a shift in paradigm. In the old days, it was an underground phenomenon reserved (typically) for bands of near legendary status. There was no way to massively announce that your fans were devoted enough to get tattoos, thus encouraging more needy fans to call their devotion into question, with the end result of more and more drones sporting your band's tattoo.

Enter Myspace: A tool for the new century that can drive your hordes of rabid fans (we like rabid fans here) to permanently etch your band's name or logo into their skin, thus immediately immortalizing (well honestly, mortality still comes into play, but it's your fan's and not your band's) your Band, and securing your legacy in the annuls of time.

Okay, so let's be frank - we have more tattoos as a generation than any before. If you live in an urban area chances are pretty good that the majority of people you see who are 18-35 will have at least one tattoo of some sort (sorry I'm counting tramp stamps.) So with increased frequency of tattoos, does that lower the importance and value of the content, thus leading to more band tattoos?

If that's the case, then it stands to reason that Myspace isn't contributing to the phenomenon, merely documenting it.

I just wonder, when a person loves BAND X, get's a tattoo, then BAND X breaks up a year later, will they regret the tattoo? Or will they feel priveleged to document the passion they felt for the band, years later, regardless of how insignificant the band ended up being?

I guess the bottom line is, we should all go out and get KISS tattoos.