Tag: #Import 2025-04-25 15:23

for the love of music

‘First of all, let’s discuss the cover of this album. It’s a cute pale blue with two animated people on it. Ina text balloon a little girl holding a dolly says, “Hook me up!” and a taller boy with a briefcase remarks, “I am Shacho!”

Sound nonsensical? You’re right. Grasping the true meaning of this requires digging much deeper than the surface.

This picture originated in Japan a few years ago. A friend of Mike Park’s quickly sketched out this drawing in what he claimed to be a matter of seconds. He was so impressed with the work that he hung it on the wall of his parents’ garage, home of Asian Man Records. The drawing remains in the same place today.

So, Park asked her to redraw the two people again so that he could use it as his album cover. Gladly, she agreed. This time, though, she added the text bubbles. The girl’s statement may be some sort of inside joke but, as far as Park cared to share, he had no insight on its meaning. Shacho, on the other hand, was a nickname given to him by some friends.

Friendship and love: the two most prominently and still somewhat subliminally displayed emotions on this site. They are also the two motivations in Park’s life and his music. He lives it in his everyday life and sings about it in his songs.

In a sense, they have merged to form something beautiful in these man-and-guitar tunes. As emo – gasp! – as it may sound, Park is simply a man with a good heart placed firmly on his sleeve.

Open your eyes. Open your heart. Open your mind. These are the three prerequisites to fully enjoying “For the Love of Music.”

Of course, there is much more than a message of positive reinforcement on this album. There are 11 solid sing-along quality tracks that have more of a stripped-down-punk-rock feel than a singer-songwriter air to them. Sometimes, though, it’s more about the message than the music but Park brings both to the table.

Prima volta

‘It could’ve been simple for Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. Their fan base was loyal and, like any seminal band of the past decade, it reached its peak only after the breakup of At the Drive-In.

Oh, things could certainly have been easy. Bixler and Rodriguez knew the formula for success and it worked to a tee with their previous band. These El Paso boys had no intention of keeping things easy, though. Their music, like the story of their lives was, was destined to remain in constant struggle and hardship to remain real.

When The Mars Volta formed, they didn’t just take a step or two away from the At the Drive-In sound. They were too ambitious or stubborn to do so. They dug deep into their roots and what they pulled out was leaps and bounds away from where they started.

This approach to a new band may sound tedious and self-defeating to some. Depending on how you look at it, it may even be a bit reminiscent of Dostoevsky’s “The Underground Man.” Nothing could be further from the truth for Bixler and Rodriguez though.

“Omar and I have always had an interest in writing music that sounded like this,” began vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala. “It’s an itch that we’ve needed to scratch for a long time. Actually, we’ve lied to the press about it for years, predicting this next big sound we would come out with but each passing (At the Drive-In) record just sounded like ‘In Casino/Out’ with better production.”

The Mars Volta makes it a point to call their new Latin-, salsa-, and funk-influenced music progressive but they hesitate to define it as prog rock. They believe all music should be progressive and move forward. That is the pivotal point upon which this band is built and it appears that the fans seem to be rather accepting of the influx of euphonious metamorphoses.

“It’s been about three or four years already (since At the Drive-In broke up) and people seem to understand that it’s a different band,” continued Bixler. “We live in the savvy world of the Internet and online chat rooms. So people are usually pretty up to date with changes.”

One change that most likely made fans enthusiastic was the addition of Flea to the lineup for the band’s freshman offering, “De-Loused in the Comatorium.” According to Bixler, he “is a fan of the band and we needed someone at the last minute that could play the kind of style we wanted for the album.”

Not every change in the band has been positive, though. On May 25, band member Jeremy Ward was found dead. He was the band’s sound manipulator, a member of Defacto, and a longtime friend of ATDI. While Bixler chose not to comment on how Ward died, he mentioned that it was hard for the band to deal with the loss.

“It was sad to lose Jeremy. As stereotypical as a ‘rock band thing’ it is to say, just playing shows is what helps the most. It’s a cathartic experience for us. There’s no other way to deal with it.”

One way that they have traditionally dealt with death is to write about it. The ATDI penned song, “Embroglio,” is a dedication to Julio Venegas, a close friend of the band that committed suicide. The Mars Volta felt that this wasn’t enough of a tribute to Venegas, though. Therefore, they decided to dedicate “De-Loused” to him.

Venegas took his life while ATDI was in the studio in 1996. His loss is something that they still deal with today.

“In short, the record was a gift from us to him. He took his life six or so years ago and in the past we’ve only had small slices of cake to give him and we felt we needed to give him something bigger. So we put together a fictionalized story that utilizes bits and pieces from his life and, in our minds, he can be the only true critic of this album.”

While no reasons were stated as to why Venegas chose to abruptly end his life, it appears that El Paso, often referred to as “Hell Paso,” is a difficult place to grow up if you do not fit into their cultural archetype.

“El Paso is a really violent place to live. I moved out of there out of fear of getting beat up by everyday people. I’m glad my dad moved me out of the Bay Area when I was younger because living in El Paso cultured me but it’s different now. When you grow up, you realize there are regular rednecks and Mexican rednecks.”

El Paso, home of the closed-minded and the discriminatory. A five-minute walk from Bixler’s childhood home will take you to a town where “you can literally get away with murder.” To know that such areas exist is a scary and eye-opening revelation. The threat of forced assimilation or discrimination is a difficult prospect, but to live by a town where you fear for your own life on a regular basis must be a concept that is nearly impossible to come to terms with. Worse yet is to know that you do not have the support of your own people.

“It’s hard to be Hispanic and not feel that you’re accepted by your own people because of the way you dress, what you say, the way you speak, your sexual orientation, or anything like that. I think, if anything, that has always had an effect on the way I write lyrically. I don’t promote violence but the lyrics will always have a violent feel to it because it’s what I saw growing up.”

Ironically, while the band fights because they are different in the real world, they fight because their fans act like them in concert.

“We used to get football face-painter fans at At the Drive-In shows who would think it was cute to come to the shows with Afro wigs on. We’d spend half an hour before the shows pulling wigs off people and telling them to listen to the music. That was the downfall of bands like the Sex Pistols. People weren’t listening to the music or the message. They were just dressing like the band.”

Apparently, it’s a hard-knock life for more than just Jay-Z and Shirley Temple. Amidst years of independent and somewhat commercial success, the music still seems to be slipping through the cracks. It is the way that Bixler and Rodriguez look that causes them such strife. To top it off, their “style” is not a function of being fashionable. Their Afros grow as grooming dissipates during the grueling weeks on a tour bus. One can only assume that the rail-thin look is also a result of being overworked and underfed. Offstage, they suffer discrimination over factors they cannot control.

“People think that it’s fun on tour but it’s not. I don’t leave my hotel room. Maybe it’s karma for the way I was as a teenager but you always seem to get some smart-ass wanting to fight you because you look different.”

Keep in mind, though, the torment Irie Jones suffered in Zadie Smith’s “White Teeth” when she cut off her Afro. Although she was tortured by it and assumed that it made her a target for ridicule, she discovered just how much people thought it made her beautiful and distinct. It’s a classic Catch-22. Sometimes, Cedric, you never can win.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com

‘Roadside America is kind of like a cross between a trashy, giant garage sale and a giant, trashy virtual scrapbook.

“Dat dere is Billy Joe in the Muffler Man head. Dat dere is Dave next to Amos the giant Amish statue at Zinn’s Diner. Damn, dose Amish are a hoot!”

Okay, maybe not like that. Or, not entirely like that. It’s just too difficult to not poke fun at something… especially Lancaster, PA. Home to many teenage Amish drug lords. Seriously, they exist. They get good stuff, too.

Roadside America is kind of like the working man’s travel agent. It’s a guide to some of the most offbeat and interesting sites in the States. It’s not the stuff that you’d see in expensive trip guides. It’s the stuff you’d pass by on a road trip and think, “Hmmm – that’s weird.” It’s the kind of site that, growing up, you’d rather have seen than the lame-ass places your parents picked out.

Screw culture, this is what America is about.

Use Roger. He’ll assist you. He’s the “only wooden search engine” on the Net. You can use him to search by attraction, description, town or state/province. He’ll help you find the oddest and quirkiest stuff in your hometown or the town you may be visiting on vacation.

Sadly, there are not many interesting or creepy sites in Boulder. The only link that turned up was info on “America’s Favorite Cannibal,” Alfred Packer. Yes, it mentions the Grill at CU.

Mmmm, tastes like chicken.

If you search Denver, a good many results will turn up. That’s the way it goes. Boulder’s normal and Denver’s weird (? – ed.).

So, use this site to find out about the King of the Toilet Seat arts or Knight’s Spider Web Farm and all sorts of other freaky shit on here.

file under black

‘Jason Shevchuk has picked up an axe to add to his duties as the songwriter of the relatively new punk band None More Black. As front man of his former band, Kid Dynamite, he needed worry about nothing more than a matter of lyric and melody writing, and not dropping the microphone in concert.

Perhaps this short list of responsibilities bored him. He soon left Kid with the intent of taking a break from the “business.” It didn’t take long for him to get sucked back in, though. He soon decided to write songs on guitar in his spare time. His roommate, conveniently a bassist, agreed to assist in the process. Or, add his “spices,” as Shevchuk refers to the bass parts.

Soon, they were in touring shape and his songwriting became uncontrollable. He can’t stop. Although this album only came out a few months ago, he has already written more than enough songs for the next None More Black album.

“File Under Black,” a good mixture of punk, pop, and media-related references – such as the band’s name, a homage to Spinal Tap. It is a worthy show of his influences in his search for the sublime, as well as an accurate mark of his relentless creativity.

The record also shows that he and Paint it Black’s Dr. Dan Yemin (both of Kid Dynamite) are heading in two different directions. The fact that they parted ways musically, but still remain friends, has resulted in the creation of two bands worth their weight instead of one. The math is as simple as my analogy is stupid.

They are the operators of their laptop calculators

‘The songwriting trio of the UK’s Broadcast is lost – somewhere between being misunderstood geniuses and living out the childhood desire to bang, kick and press buttons that make noise for the sake of making noise. During experimental art pop points on their albums, they are like an Old Navy commercial – trying so hard to be hip. When they hit the nail on the head, they make Kraftwerk look like pussies.

The band is a contradiction in terms, left to be decided from that often-forgiving subjective point of view. There’s always a sympathizer somewhere. The problem is that it’s difficult at times to tell which side of the love/hate relationship you are on.

Trish Kennan, James (Jam) Cargill, and Tim Felton make ’60s electro-swingers Brit-pop music with quirky twists and turns of the pots-and-pans variety. They’re pretty damn good at what they do, but the question of why they do it remains.

Without trying to sound self-important, they do what they do because they feel a general dissatisfaction with the music around them. They want to create something different, something fresh and new. They want to transform traditional music, melding disparate elements into a wholly distinct sound that they are excited to put under the Broadcast moniker.

“There are records that we wanted to find that we just couldn’t find,” said Broadcast guitarist Tim Felton. “So, we wanted to make those records. We wanted to be that missing link, so to speak.”

Felton credits the “sound of (the band member’s) personalities” and their “motivation to fuse thrashing and contrasting things and make them work together” as what helps the band distinguish themselves from other groups.

Broadcast is based out of Birmingham, England, a scene they claim has improved drastically over the course of the past decade since new clubs and new bands have populated the area. It’s an area they are glad to align themselves with since, in London, garage rock has become the popular fad again. They cant’ be compared to the Strokes and the White Stripes – and that’s a compliment.

As a band, they have no set roles and do not let their egos get in the way. The members of the band fill in parts and trade instruments when and where it’s necessary. To them, the songs are more important than the roles they play in the band. Everything they do seems to be non-traditional, including the music that motivates them and how they come across it.

“We’re inspired by a crossover of folk, film music and weird things we find in record shops and pass between us,” said Felton. “Sometimes, we’ll be watching a movie and tape the soundtrack directly off the TV.”

The process of recording a soundtrack off of a television has become increasingly simple for the band, since they finished building their own studio at the Custard Factory. Having a personal home studio at a moment’s disposal has become a necessity for experimental bands. To accomplish these same tasks in a commercial studio would be too costly.

This studio made the writing and recording of “Ha Ha Sound,” the band’s second full-length album which is set for release in November, a much easier process than their freshman release, “The Noises Made By People.” The first record saw what Felton described as “many months of false starts.” Their drummer quit. They couldn’t keep a producer. The band also suffered the loss of Robert Mitchell, a close friend and the person responsible for signing them to Warp Records, who died of cancer.

“It was a really devastating loss, you know?” said Felton. “It really hit us all hard. It took us a while but eventually we got back on track and were able to pull ourselves back together.”

“Ha Ha Sound,” destined to be the band’s best effort to date, is dedicated to the memory of Mitchell. It bears the burden of his loss but proves that, even in death, there can be new life.

let’s get serious

‘The Panthers have followed the path of bands toning down their sound. It’s awfully reminiscent of the course taken by the Refused members, who went on to form the International Noise Conspiracy.

Panthers is primarily made up of members of ex-super-hardcore band Orchid, and also the highly touted instrumental outfit Turing Machine. Where Orchid was once tough as nails, Panthers now adds an artsy element to their sound. Their songs are a well-thought-out brand of New York post-punk that borders a little on garage, a little bit on bluesiness.

The band moves away from chords in favor of riffs. A couple of solo, heavily-distorted notes, a Moog synthesizer and high-mixed drums fill the void formerly filled by a wall of power chords. Singer Jason Green’s voice has even taken a step back – in both its forcefulness, and in the mix. It’s proof that less can truly be more. Aww, it’s punk rock all grown up.

This record, “Let’s Get Serious,” shows the deep impact of a collision between Orchid and Turing Machine. It has the hardcore, take-no-bullshit spirit of Orchid and the leave-not-even-the-most-nebulous-detail-to-chance philosophies of Turing Machine. Every note is intently formulated but, on the whole, the songs come off as spontaneous, improvisational. It’s calculated messiness.

The EP shows the band has great potential, but it could easily fall prey to a lazy-man’s categorization of them as a Strokes rip-off. Nothing could be further from the truth, really. Rather, this should be filed among the set of bands that will soon dance their own rite of independent popularity. They should be grouped in with the likes of These Arms Are Snakes and Pretty Girls Make Graves.

Keep an eye out for Panthers. They are bound to be one of the next big indie bands.

http://www.celebritydeathbeeper.com

“I know, I know. It sounds morbid. Well, it is. Get over it.

Here’s the deal:

This past month or two have been riddled with noteworthy deaths. Some folks in the limelight have been hit with hard times recently. Oh well. They’ve all lived relatively long and successful lives.

Still, it’s sad to know that someone has died. Unless you’re a recently deceased century-old politician, most people are genuinely affected when death has come upon anyone, even a person of substantial recognition. Death is depressing, even if only out of respect.

That being said, death has, well, a morbid curiosity to it. People are always interested in hearing who has kicked the bucket. It’s a curious race of sorts since knowing a tidbit of knowledge prior to your companions or coworkers makes you seem more informed, like you read the newspaper. We all know that nobody reads the newspaper, though.

On the other hand, people rarely fail to check their email accounts and surf the Internet. That’s where Celebrity Death Beeper has decided to pitch in and lend their services. The Beeper can be that inside source that will help you keep on top of the most recent celebrity croakers. This can be done by either searching the site or adding your email address to their list of subscribers. That’s right, if Matthew Perry overdoses, they’ll let you know.

The shortcoming of this is that the site does not provide a good deal of biographical information on the death du jour. Youbettheirlife.com is right there to pick up the slack, though. So, there’s no need to fret. Once you’ve been informed of a celebrity’s passing, you can go to http://www.youbettheirlife.com/2003deathstodate.htm to find a more thorough entry on that person.

Yeah so this article was pretty grave. We at the office were all, like, totally bummed out when Strom uttered his last racist remark.”

More than a little bit special

‘”I don’t do a conventional comedy show,” admits singer/comedian Stephen Lynch. “There is comedy within the show but the gist of the show is just songs. That’s when I try to be funny.”

Lynch is focused, working hard to continue racking up numbers in his allegiance of fans. After attending Western Michigan University, near his hometown, he knew that his musical theater and acting experience would be a part of whatever he would do next.

“I’ve done music my whole life. In college, everyone I hung out with performed in one way or another. At parties, someone would break out a guitar and we’d try to make each other laugh. After college everyone else moved on and I just kept doing it.”

Continue to do it, he did. It did not take long for Stephen Lynch to become a stellar member of the small sect of musician/comedians.

“When I moved to New York I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I wanted to continue something in the acting field. At first, music was just a side thing I did on the weekends. Before I knew it, I was playing at Catch a Rising Star and then I started headlining my own tours.”

While he was growing accustomed to headlining tours, fame had even bigger plans for the self-proclaimed Dr. Stephen. Soon, he appeared on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend. After appearing on his second Comedy Central show, he was offered his own half-hour special. Alongside of this and being a favorite on syndicated radio shows like Opie and Anthony, the name Stephen Lynch became a household name to comedy lovers everywhere.

Enthusiasts know his name is synonymous with a hard-to-pull-off brand of comedy that borders on the edge of being over-the-top racy, but manages to escape crude or vulgar every time. For an apt comparison, he is close to the singer/songwriter version of Michael McKean and Christopher Guest. Think “Big Bottom” or “Bitch School” but prettier sounding and about the Special Olympics.

“Spinal Tap holds a place in my heart. They wrote songs that were musically interesting as well as funny. You don’t want to write a two-chord novelty song and then go out and have to sing that every night. If it was all that same goofiness day in and day out, it wouldn’t have much of an impact.”

This is a major difference that separates Lynch from the likes of Adam Sandler and Jimmy Fallon. Even if the humor wasn’t there, his enchanting voice and strong songwriting talents could easily carry the listener through his pleasurable melodies.

“I took a couple stabs at writing songs that weren’t funny but something in me prevented me from finishing those songs. It always gets to a point in the song where I think, ‘God, I can make this funny if I just went this way.’ I don’t want to waste a good opportunity to be funny by being grave. Serious songs just aren’t important to me right now.”

Lynch’s songs have a tendency to follow drastic changes. The songs of his that have the strongest impact start off soft and sweet, a style of singing that suits his melodious voice well, then hit a wall in which all that is serious takes a dire turn for the impossibly and gut-wrenchingly jocular. He is well versed in misleading audiences and never bluntly proclaiming the punch line, giving only the subtlest implication of it.

It’s a talent that, after two records, numerous radio spots, and countless live performances, Lynch has sharpened to a fine point. All of that hard work has opened up new doors for him and has allowed him to experiment with his concerts. He has been playing the shows of his current tour in mostly concert venues – anyplace that is not a comedy club.

“I was doing a couple of shows outside of Chicago at Zany’s a couple of years ago. I did well for a few of the Friday shows. Then, for the Thursday night (show), things were kind of light. So, they booked a party. When I got on stage, I realized it was a retirement party for someone from the office next door. There were about 50 70-year-old people sitting in the audience listening to me sing about having sex with corpses and molesting altar boys. That’s precisely why I don’t do comedy clubs anymore. I don’t need people throwing things at me and wheeling themselves out in their wheelchairs.”

antenna

‘All right – it is generally unacceptable to write in the first person, as far as the world of journalism is concerned. Such neophyte amateurism is to be left for Kinko’s copied ‘zines.

I realize that, but I have a confession to make.

Although it is a blasphemous statement, I never liked Cave In. Their early hardcore material was decent but unimpressive. Songs like “Burning Down the Billboards” were novel but generic. Even “Jupiter,” the quintessential space rock album of the past few years, did little for me. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but the songs were too damned long. My attention span was way too short to take the anthem epics in.

So, what made Cave In so likeable all of the sudden?

Of course, the perks of signing to a major label may have helped to round out and refine the band’s sound. It does not stop there, though. They took the formula that made “Jupiter” such a hit and divided by two. The answer to this equation ended up being shorter songs with just as much impact. It’s the compact version of “Jupiter.” There may not be enough room to stretch your feet during songs, but the ride is so short that you find yourself doubling back and wanting to start all over again.

With the exception of “Seafrost,” the album’s halfway point that weighs in at a hefty 8:59, the average length of the songs is about four minutes, a much more handy length with which to attract listeners.

In spirit, this album is reminiscent of Hum and they have been headed in that direction since the release of their EP “Creative Eclipses.” A good deal of influence for the change in the band’s sound is credited to the delicately interwoven melodies of My Bloody Valentine guitarists Kevin Shields and Bilinda Butcher. Upon first listen, their guitar progressions seem like the superficial drones of bland indie rock progressions, but at heart they are well worked out and perfectly balanced symmetrical riffs. The influence from MBV has helped to completely alter the path that Cave In was on.

Although the band caught backlash from fans for putting out their first non-metal album, if this is what “selling out” to a major label did, more power to them. Next to the boisterous David Grohl endorsements, this was the best thing that could have happened to Cave In.

http://maddox.xmission.com

‘We’re going out on a limb here. This one is bound to piss off Boulderites.

So, let’s start off with a disclaimer. The process of ass-covering is a good policy. Here it goes:

If you find yourself easily offended, do not view this page. If you do not find sarcasm to be humorous, you will not laugh at this. If you use the word misogyny at least once a week, this is not the site for you. Plain and simple, if you think the page is going to bother you, don’t look at it. No one is forcing you.

For the thick-skinned and easily amused cynics, this is an ideal website.

Picture Dennis Miller’s rants. Now, picture Dennis Miller using words that people without doctorate degrees can understand. Throw in topics like the size of a man’s berries, an objective analysis of Bush vs. a box of Tic-Tacs, and tons of anti-vegetarian sentiments and you’ve got The Best Page in the Universe.

What makes this page worth visiting? If for nothing else, the man behind the page is a CU graduate. If that isn’t convincing, and it doesn’t convince some of us, some of the most attractive features of the site are the Photoshop drawings and their captions, and the excessive amount of hate mail and the responses to them. The main draw to the site, though, is the rants.

There are no holds barred for The Best Page. The site takes on everyone and everything from Christopher Reeve to hippies. For the most side-splittingly funny example, take a look at the links titled “I am better than your kids” and “More crappy children’s artwork.” It is The Best Page, at its best.

Keep in mind, people, these opinions expressed on this page do not belong to us. We are not responsible for what other people say. On the other hand, if it’s funny, you’d damn well better believe we’re going to laugh.