my new blog (with help)

when I'm not being consistent with this blog I will be writing for my music venue's blog.

see posts here:

http://theboisevenue.com/blog/

I'm really really back...starting September 1st

After nearly 15 months, my new club has finally grown up enough that I don't have to keep my eyes on it every second of the day. It has been truly similar to having a new-born baby. Now it can stand on its own two feet and eat people food. And although there are still a lot of temper-tantrums from teenagers stuck in 2009 (how can teenagers be so nostalgic and conservative already?) I'm ready to get back to writing. For a while some of it will be repeats posted on my club's blog, but I will do a better job sharing bands that come thru I think are worth sharing.

So, to start I am going to share my new favorite band, which I magically convinced to come from Brooklyn on their way to Burning Man to play tomorrow night. I found them by accident and fell instantly in love with their techno-Yeah Yeah Yeahs style. Can't wait to meet them tomorrow night.

Here is my current favorite Barbarella inspired video by Dynasty Electric.

woohoo

After months of computer problems I am mostly back. As soon as I get youtube up and running again I will be set. I am also just about ready to fully launch my business site as a link.

Can't wait to get back in the saddle... I have seen some good bands come through recently that I want to share.

30 Day Music Challenge/ Day 9

Theme: A song about getting into trouble

SONG OF THE DAY: "Mommy's Little Monster" - Social Distortion

I think just about everything Mike Ness writes is about getting into trouble, but this one is about both a guy & a girl getting into trouble, so it seems more inclusive.

30 Day Music Challenge/ Day 8

Theme: A song from a band you wish would get back together

SONG OF THE DAY: "People of the Sun" - Rage Against the Machine

Even though they did play at Lollapalooza 3 summers ago, and are maybe kinda sort of rumored to be possibly working on a new album for this fall, I still say they aren't really back together.

30 Day Music Challenge/ Day 7

Theme: A song you think no one here would know

SONG OF THE DAY: "Quero Ver o Oco" - Raimundos

This is a Brazilian band, a lot like Rage Against the Machine. I also have a CD of them doing Reggae.

Dead Kennedys

Last night Mr. Imo? drove into the valley from the city to see a legendary band perform on a smallish stage at an outdoor city music fest. The Dead Kennedys have been a long time favorite, as classic as the Violent Femmes or Nirvana for us, so the fact that he got to see them so long after their initial popularity was amazing. One of those bands you never expect to see play, but it thrills you to the core when the chance arises, and he got there so early he was on the rail in the front row.

He had to get back into the city after it all so he couldn't stay to meet them after the show, but he did say they would have sounded way better in our club than on that stage. We may be chasing down the agent.

SONG: " California über alles" - Dead Kennedys

30 Day Music Challenge/ Day 6

Theme: A band an "ex-" introduced you to & your love of the band long outlasted "The Ex-"

SONG OF THE DAY: "This Charming Man" - The Smiths

Since said "Ex" is still a friend of mine, this seems like as good a Smiths song as any.

30 Day Music Challenge/ Day 5

Theme: A song off the first record/8 track/tape/ CD/ MP3 (depending on your age) that you ever bought.

SONG OF THE DAY: "New Sensation" - INXS

I bought the cassette single in the mall record store in 1987. I eventually upgraded to CD, and last year picked up a pristine copy on vinyl.

30 Day Music Challenge/ day 4

Theme: A Song about Space

SONG OF THE DAY: "Hallo Spaceboy" - David Bowie & Pet Shop Boys

David Bowie has done some masterful collaborations but next to "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby, I think this is my favorite.

30 Day music Challenge / day 3

Theme: A Song about the Weather:

SONG OF THE DAY:
"Stormy Weather" - Pixies

30 day Music Challenge / day 2

Theme: A song about an animal

SONG OF THE DAY:

"Barracuda" - by Heart, covered by Rasputina

30 day music challenge

For my new venue I am doing a 30 Day Music Challenge on facebook so that we can get to know our audience a bit better. I think it is a good way for me to get back in the blogging groove. I have found a few templates to run this from so it will be a bit random.

To start off is ...

Day 1: A song that makes you happy

"Let's Dance to Joy Division" - The Wombats

Catch Me Killer

We had a local show on Friday and I was really impressed by the band Catch Me Killer. It was only their 3rd show together, thought they have all been playing in various bands over the years. They gave me one of their new EPs and I have been listening to it in my car. I keep being drawn to their song "Skin Deep". It is about being completely shallow and uncommitted, and with an attitude that reminds me of early Green Day.


I have started using a new site called Reverbnation to track bands I want to book. Here is a link via Reverbnation to Catch Me Killer.

SONG OF THE DAY:
"Skin Deep" - Catch Me Killer

dredg

I am almost moved into my house, and in fact I am setting up my office today so I should be back in the groove soon.

Sunday night we had Dredg, Fair to Midland and The Trophy Fire playing. I had never heard of any of them before, but they were mostly all right. Still not exactly my type of music, but better than the hardcore stuff I tune out.

Dredg did give me signed copy of their LP. I am a bit tweaked by their embellishment of girl parts they added when signing ( I would have been pissed if I had actually paid for it). One of the attendees made some HD recordings of the show. One from Fair to Midland and one from Dredg.

I happened to quite like the opening band, The Trophy Fire best. They did a fabulous cover of "Heartbeats" by The Knife. Here is a link to it at a different club.

"Heartbeats" - The Trophy Fire (cover of The Knife)



Here are some live videos from my new club:

"Whiskey and Ritalin" - Fair to Midland



"Not That Simple" - Dredg with Ben Flanagan of The Trophy Fire

almost back

This week I go pick up Mr. IMo? from St. Louis to drive him and a Uhaul of stuff to his new place out in San Francisco where his new job will be. Sadly, we have to be a commuter family for a while but as you may have noticed he is out of town often enough it probably won't be all that much different. Once he gets moved in and all my stuff finally shows up and I get the furniture settled in I will be back to blogging more regularly.

In the meantime I thought I would introduce you to two bands. One is a band (kids really & brothers) out of Salt Lake City that just played a show at our club last night. They sound a lot better in person and on their CD than on the video. I recommend looking them up and get in on the ground floor. I have a feeling they are going places.

Second is a band coming to play in a few weeks from Chicago that I am loving. They sound pretty similar to Foxy Shazam (apparently the bands have played a few shows together, unsurprisingly).

StankBot Tyranny from SLC: "Did You Take Your Medication?"

Victorian Halls from Chicago: "The Persecution of Belissima Morte"

wish you were here

Just to brag a little about how cool my new gig is... here I am with Scary Larry (who happened to be in town this week from Cincinnati), AW and Kris Roe of The Ataris. just wish Mr/ Imo? could have been here.

And just the night before Mr. Imo? got to see one of my all time favorites, Toad the Wet Sprocket. We almost got them to come play at our place but the drive was too far despite the amount of time between shows.
Now I just need to get my booking agent to start booking more bands that I like so we can have more pictures like these, without the "push the button like this" finger.

summer playlist

Running this new business is forcing me to expand my musical tolerance, I mean horizons.

The place has been booking a bunch of hardcore bands, and I am just not really able to hear the difference between them yet. But as the owner versus a show-goer I get to see these guys in a different light. The hardcore guys put on such a tough face, they're meant to be intimidating, and there is a lot of angry screaming. As opposed to the truth of it being they are just nice guys making music and a few bucks on the road. A few days ago one of the boys said "Yeah, I make hardcore scenester music and wear skinny jeans. I am a total poser". Mostly they are the happiest, nicest kids I meet during the week (way better than the losers who locked me out of FedEx the other night 5 minutes before closing when all I needed was a few copies) and I have a hard time believing they have an angry bone in their bodies. My other favorite observation is that even though they are "hardcore" they still stick with the music industry tendency of making sure the best looking among them is either the lead screamer (see photo) or gets the most face time. And as far as the fans go, there seems to be an awful lot of polite golf clapping going on at the end of each song. I am going to have to observe a bit more before I figure out that scene.

With my new found need to understand hardcore and all those new bands in the Alternative Press (a magazine I left behind about 10 years ago) since those are the shows coming through my place, I have been doing some research and trying to incorporate them into what I listen to just so I can get a feel for what we are booking. I put together a summer playlist the other day for a party that didn't pan out, and tired to include a few of these bands. Haste the Day came through a few weeks ago so I added them to the list. Not anything I would normally listen to but tolerable.

That said, I am sharing with you a portion of my summer playlist that I put together based on the likes of others not myself (and a smidge of hardcore included...don't hate me if you hate it, it's educational).

SUMMER PLAYLIST:

* Boys of Summer – Ataris
* My own Summer- Deftones
* Summertime Clothes- Animal Collective
*Summer of All Dead Souls – And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
* My Own Summer- Deftones
* It's Summertime – Flaming Lips
* Summer Skin – Deathcab for Cutie
* Summertime – My Chemical Romance
* Summer of Love – B52s
* Summer Girl – The Rentals
* Summertime – The Zombies
* Summer – Alien Ant Farm
* Summer Angel – Minus the Bear
*Summer Well – Interpol
* Jewel of the Summertime – Audioslave
* Summer – Shy Child
* Summer Moon – The Raevonettes
* Feel Good Hit of the Summer- Queens of the Stone Age
* Dirty Black Summer – Danzig
* Swollen Summer – The Bravery
* Summer- Moby
* Soundtrack of the Summer – Art Brut
*You’re So Last Summer – Taking Back Sunday
* Summer in the city – Regina Spektor
* Guns of Summer – Coheed & Cambria
* Summertime Rolls- Jane’s Addiction
* Island in the Sun – Weezer
* Black Hole Sun – Soundgarden
* Sunny afternoon – The Kinks
* Blister in the Sun – Violent Femmes
* Sun it Rise – Fleet Foxes
* Big Sun- Phoenix
* 100 Suns- 30 Seconds to Mars
* Wake Up the Sun- Haste the Day
* Holidays in the Sun – Sex Pistols
* Sun King – The Cult
* California Sun- The Ramones
* Sun is on my Side- Gogol Bordello
* Yellow Sun- The Reconteurs
* Don’t Look Back in the Sun- The Libertines
* We Used to Vacation- Cold War Kids
* Holiday – Green Day
* Holiday in Cambodia – Dead Kennedys
* The Holiday Song – Pixies

Happy summer!

control

I am starting to get things under control...just barely. Taking over a running business is easier than a start-up until things which were supposed to be a cakewalk turn upside down. Like when that friendly cowboy fire marshal decides to hand his job over to some nasty electrical guys who don't understand theatre lighting or how many electrical outlets are required for a rock show to go on. But I digress.

I got the men's bathroom partially painted today (black and white striped walls anyone?) and heard back from my web-designer so things are looking up. Soon I will be able to post some pictures of the new project and get you all clued in. It isn't going to be elitist snazzy, but we won't be the gnarliest place in town anymore. Things are still ultra-chaotic and my children's desire to be free-range hippie kids plus we are living in the in-laws' basement for another 2 weeks are what I find to be standing in the way of control but I am beginning to see the light. Wish me luck.

SONG OF THE DAY:

"Standing in the Way of Control" - The Gossip

why i am such a spaz: the hiatus

I realize I totally dropped off the face of the planet.

Not only did I pick up and move 1/2 way across the country but I am starting a new business. I bought out an all-ages club out in Boise where I used to live. The owners were retiring and as the only all-ages place if it wasn't bought out quickly it would have been shut down and that would leave a lot of kids on the street with no live music. With music getting kicked out of schools, it is really up to the private sector to keep it alive, so I felt a social and personal obligation to keep the place running.

I spent all my free time and money going to all-ages shows from the time I was 15 up until, well, honestly now, and since the stars all aligned I jumped at the chance to upgrade my status to "club owner". Right now it is all the gritty work, from cleaning out the nastiest greenroom you have ever seen to trying (unsuccessfully) to get the fire marshal to give me a new occupancy permit (I should have worn a lower cut blouse), and buying new microphones and patching the hole in the men's restroom. You know, the very un-glamourous part. Once I get our new website up I will post a link on the sidebar.

However, in a cool twist of events, The Ataris (my last post) happen to be one of the bands on my calendar for this month doing an acoustic set. Maybe if I bat my eyes and have good catering they will take my request to play "Boys of Summer".

So, bare with me as my posts will be spotty for the next few weeks while I set up shop and then move into my house at the beginning of next month.

I can't even think of the best song to describe my status right now so I will do something different. Our local record store was doing a freebie give away yesterday: a signed Peter Murphy CD cover with purchase of the CD. I thought people would be all over it, but I was the first one down. But, lucky me, I now have a CD signed by Peter Murphy and the CD was on sale for $10. Nice. Here is a great tune from his new album.

SONG OF THE DAY :

"I Spit Roses" - Peter Murphy

School's out...let summer begin.

The boys got hair cuts for the summer so we are ready to begin. Yaz got a buzz and Macaroni got a shorter version of the Ataris' drummer's 'do. The boys of summer can come out to play.

This is my favorite summer song.

SONG OF THE DAY:

"Boys of Summer" - The Ataris (cover of Don Henley)

Going, going, gone

It's 5am and I have been tossing and turning since 2:30 when I finally decided I had packed and sorted as much as I can to go for the final load into the moving POD tomorrow, which is, in fact, in just a couple of hours. Apparently my mind can't quit playing moving Tetris until everything is finished.

Besides mentally shuffling our various belongings into a 16 foot trailer, I have been thinking about the chaos of being married to my International Man of Mystery, aka Mr. IMo?. As already established he's not anything as glamorous a spy, just a guy with dreams of walking through an airport handcuffed to a briefcase, which we all know is totally old school and never going to happen. Despite the occasional weird out-of-country excursion he's just a regular under-appreciated desk-warmer who occasionally, quietly, saves the world one piece of paper at a time.

The way this all ties in of course is how this job, which ranges from the horribly mundane to the occasionally critical and rarely exotic, effects our glob-trotting ways. There are perks like that trip I took to Italy to visit a friend I met while living in Asia, but the real test comes when the call comes that it's time to move. I box almost everything into storage, pack what I can into 1 suitcase and 1 carry-on per person, and as I say goodbye to 99% of my earthly possessions, we live out of that suitcase and carry-on for months at a time (more times than you may believe) until it is finally determined where exactly in the world we are headed. We had been told California's Bay Area, but now that doesn't look like the real destination. All I really know this time is that at least the kids and I are staying in country.

And so my gypsy ways re-emerge, and I sturdy myself for the uncertain life most people will never have a chance live. Never risking living on the streets but sometimes living out of a car for more days than I am willing to go on record admitting. Is it worth it? Who really cares. I have seen more since I hooked up with Mr. IMo? than my young provincial self ever dreamed possible. My still very young kids have already had multiple passports.

This weekend I drive into the sunset, carrying the most basic necessities (and a few things that keep a house running until the last minute & when just starting up) so the kids can spend time with extended family while we await our final landing coordinates. I can no longer remember how many times exactly I have driven across the country, with and without kids or Mr. IMo? but as we stop to see the worlds largest ball of string or dig for dinosaur bones, I have to admit the unknown destination is as fun as the journey getting there. And honestly I no longer really mind that all our stuff gets hauled away and on its way it may crash all over the highway or sink into the ocean and it could all be gone, gone, gone. I don't care because we are going, going, gone and too busy having an adventure to care.

SONG OF THE DAY:

"Gone, Gone, Gone" - Echo and the Bunnymen



"...My instincts are to kiss this train, I hear it coming.... To all this grand old scheme of things, to all the pain it brings, to all those who pull the strings, I bid good riddance...The normal rules do not apply. The mind is not to reason why. Gone, gone, gone".

Tetris is my theme song

Today we packed the POD. My friends I can pack and stack with killer accuracy. There is room to spare.

I like this trance Tetris remix.


SONG OF THE DAY:

"Tetris Theme Song"