every genre under the stars

this show was all over the place, literally from 1 end of the musical universe to the boundaries of the next--Sharks With Knives showed up on the front porch the day before the show, his place to stay in Cincy had fallen through and he needed a place to stay--side point, in his economic hatchback and strapped on camp box, Sharks (1 man folk band) may be the most efficient traveller we've had at the shack--so we got the pleasure of the Sharks company (his real name is Chris) for 24 hours and i am happy to say that his set sounded just like i imagined it would based on his porch presence--thoughtful, uplifting, at least 1 song where he had the entire room singing along lah di dah--he even has an upbeat song about hanging out on the porch and smoking cigarettes--if you ever have been to the shack, you know that's close to our hearts--but he also has songs about struggle about justice but like all great artists he takes the pain of life and makes it a little more bearable by juxtaposing what's hard with a happy little melody--well if Sharks With Knives was a little misleading in the naming of his project (i mean don't you picture some dark tough punk not his disarmingly happy folk) Cryptorchid Chipmunk more than lived up to it's name--almost too weird to describe--start off with the sound check keyboards, guitar, seemingly normal set up but as soon as they start to play, just a little tease of base and board fast and funky and only about 30 seconds i'm already dancing--"thank you and good night" but reading between the lines you know they are coming back what are they doing? costume changes--easily the most colorful band to play at the Shack--gods i wish i had gotten a good picture, superhero chic, as insane as the music--an ever shifting hodgepodge of ska, hardcore, electro, hip hop, and sheer stage presence most of their songs end in in crazy cacophonic chaos--couldn't make out too many of the lyrics--they had a song called Sexy Lexy (you're such a hoe you give everyone everything) and one equating love and drugs (girl you're my ketamine) just as fast and hard as they can go, abrupt stops, 15 seconds of really good ska, chaos, obviously freestyled rhymes, repeat, actually no repeats each room a new plane of weird--but rocking--any band calls themselves Cryptorchid Chipmunk are obviously on the next level and they clearly are (plus their drummer gave me a beer--cheers to the kindness of strangers)--how could anybody play after that--Vietnam Werewolves did an admirable job though--their classic punk anthems got more adventurous, more epic as they placed--songs about the suburbs--hard hitting power chords--crap there goes the egg timer, time to wrap this bad boy up--the Werewolves (i wonder if they know about Lexington's American Werewolves, what a great double bill) really did rock and brought on the real falling of night--wrapping up was our own Noisy Crane--great ending to the show--very laid back, even though it was electronic we kept the door open (breaking our own rules) and let the music out into the night--violin, soft guitars and voices nothing over powers--pretty much in direct contrast to Chipmunk, that's what i meant about the show being all over the place, which i quite enjoy, let's throw every genre at 'em and see what sticks--well i'm out of time here so you know--keep rocking--oh and see you at the Honey Town festival this weekend (if you have to ask you'll never know)

acoustic night

it was a beautiful saturday afternoon, the rain had broken and the oppressive heat of the preceding days lifted--perfect weather for chilling outside and listening to the acoustic boys (no lady musicians tonight) on the porch--now i struggled with whether to tell the story of how Matt Ward saved me from burning the neighborhood down--but in the spirit of moving along (plus this story makes me seem like a complete idiot) i will just say that i missed Joe Magnum because i was busy in the backyard--hard to give up the back to the skeeters but yes i surrender--Pocket Full of Rain sounded especially good, the front porch is fine, songs of trying not to be bitter, sometimes sadness is ok and i for one really felt Pocket's tales of love and loss--1 song about the shows themselves, self depreciating 3 chords, and whats that song--wagon wheel by old crow medicine show--very nice--and Joe Harbison who I can't help but compare to a young Jack White, who tore through his set, nailing all those high notes but still sounding tough, most memorably a brilliant song set on death row where our doomed protagonist takes a pregnant pause to appreciate the church that sent him a fruit cake--this shit is deep--Records Night, named after nights of record sharing with pop and sis, really fun and disarming, sad songs funny songs, 1 a love song set in 1986, they used to call him fat willie, you know--all to set up Doc Dailey--authentic honkey tonk ballads, complete with Alabamian flags--stranger, stranger, i don't know you but i want to love you--or the story of the woman who's husband didn't pick her up from the airport, she takes a cab back home, catches her man with another lady in his pickup truck, so she tells the cabbie to take her straight to the bar where she has a divorce party--my favorite line--i'm just a pinball in this pool hall fueled by honkey tonk and alcohol--by the end of the show, we had the porch lights up, very rock and roll against the coming night--very peaceful, very satisfying--and isn't that how an acoustic night should make you feel--until tomorrow night--keep on rocking

the rest of the story

ok, maybe the rest of the show gets the short shift after all--it was my magic jack (keroauc) who stole and twisted hippocrates' aphorism life is short art is long around and into art is short and life is long--meaning that life pulls us away form the blog, away from the show--but the intrepid chronicler fights back--even if it is short shift--just to get the thing done--so where did we leave off--dazed and confused, enlightened, and moved by the brothers of Sound and Vision--where are we to go from here--not far, we rise and sort of stumble from the living room and right out onto the front porch for the acoustic portion of the evening--Zephania plays first--this kid is so talented, he's also from here, so look for him playing at the house again--his music so fits the lazy summer dusk, the kind of thing where people walking by on the street stop for a minute, listen and smile--the porch fills up pretty quick and we take it to the back for Soft Summer Persons--1 quick (yet sad) side point about the back yard (truly an oasis of nature in the middle of the city)--after talking it over with the housemates we are afraid our window for backyard shows may be gone until the fall--in the heat of the summer the backyard belongs to the skeeters--but don't worry, that's what front porches are for--but anyhoo--Soft rocks the discordant yet somehow still pretty 1 man folk, sometimes seems like he can barely muster the energy for 1 more line--oh mamma where have you been--what's it like to be dead--bread in the toaster again--meanwhile, while Soft was baring his discordant death defying soul, the Eye, the Ear, and the Arm were setting up back in the living room--and boy it took them some time to set up--3 piece with a dude on drum kit and 2 ladies who (i think) both had guitars, both had keyboards, both had beat machines--the end result being 1 of the fullest sounding 3 pieces i have EVER heard--really once they started to lay down layer after layer of sound, but instead of building a wall of sound they create junkyard dance music, i start to think, these guys are going to blow up into the next Vampire Weekend--they seem like they would be just as at home in Ireland or the UK as here at irey uk--i know you can't judge all music by how it is to juggle along with (all reviews are subjective, my job is to chronicle not review) but these kids were 2nd only to Big Fresh for extreme jugglability--that's heap um big praise for me--truly it is rare to find something so pop, so danceable, but still remain human and sincere--1 last thing about the Eye--these are the kids who contacted us through an old fashioned hand written letter (you know snail mail)--they arranged their whole tour that way--so you can't catch them on the internet (honestly even their CD which i eagerly snatched up isn't nearly as good as their live performance) so all you can do is hope they come back this way someday, and of course, kick yourself for missing this show--but let he who is without sin cast the first stone--i missed the last band because life came knocking on the door and offered me a cheeseburger (true story but that's another blog)--you know, art is short and life is long--see everyone Saturday night for another acoustic show--I won't miss it for a plate full of cheeseburgers--til then let's keep rocking

electro folk fusion

First off are the hometown heroes of Sound and Vision. I first became aware of these kids at Lexington's Freeky Fest, back at the end of May. They were that 4 piece xylophone outfit playing the second stage right as I got to the festival--missed Big Fresh because I had to nap, but that is another story--Sound and Vision with their tight ethereal beats for me created an imaginary boundary of sound, transforming the parking lot into an exotic market outside of regular space and time. But I digress, the point here is that they just blew me away in May and I couldn't wait to see what they did at the shack. Sorry, I didn't catch any names but I'll just call them guys 1, 2, and 3. First we had 3 very separate and distinct solo performances. Right away you these kids are very serious about what they do--all 3 played pre-composed pieces but I believe only Guy 1 played an original piece. Interestingly, he was the only one who actually read sheet music going line by line word for word beat for beat. That first piece was quite frantic--quick finger movements over a not very big drum--some sort of sounded vaguely african chanting--a little pid-pack-a-dop-(guttural)sheeeshack--building and breaking out into english, each syllable a beat--"and he was bleeding from his wounds"--I believe the subject was a motorcycle wreck, I couldn't really be sure, but something of deadly intensity, a long sigh of relieve as the crowd in the living room comes back from this place of sheer passion and violence--and you thought avant garde drumming was going to be dull--next up is a cover originally composed by our very own Jordan Munsen of Karate Jones Duo fame--Guy 2 is a master of the slide across the drum head that sounds like whale songs--then as he lulls us into these deep waters he introduces faster fish--intricate finger slaps--the name of the piece is Those Who I Fight I Do Not Hate--and you can sense both the antagonism and the deep sense of perspective behind the conflict--really a very moving piece--Guy 3 used an entire kit, though he had mounted an assortment of strange doodads over his set--he played with 2 sticks in both hands and did strange little syncopations--bad-a-bip-bap--sometimes almost spinning around to lightly slap a drum at an opposite angle--now it's almost dusk and I start to feel like he is teasing the night from the dusk--like laughter from a tickle--something shifts--they play 1 more all 3 together--all 3 playing their everything including the kitchen sink kits--pots, bells, weird little obviously sculpted for sounds--this last piece sounds the most like traditional drum beats--they play off each other and step into the now--and it rocks.
This wasn't the end of the night for the Shack, far from it, the evening was just begun--but I'm realizing that in order not to give the other band short shift, I will stop the blog here for today and write about the rest of the show after a little rest for me--quantum blog bits--a little patience and we'll get through this together--'til then keep rocking.