The Minutemen doc We Jam Econo, which I saw a screening of last year, still isn't due out on DVD until June (2 discs with a bunch of extra interviews!), but in the meantime, some dedicated fans have digitized an Nth generation bootleg of Corndogs, the legendary-but-never-officially-released SST home video from 1985, which is full of all sorts of videos, performance footage, interviews, general bizareness and evidence of George Hurley's amazing hairstyles, much of which was re-used in Econo.

Labels: Mike Watt, movies, The Minutemen

1) We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen
Last night I drove down to D.C. as soon as I could leave school and met up with my friend Mike, and then walked down to the Black Cat from his house. We were a few minutes late, and the movie had already started and the little downstairs bar where they were screening it was packed. It was kind of crappy conditions, we had to cram ourselves in the back, and there's a big column in the middle of the room, right in our line of vision, so most of the time I could only see about 1/3rd of the screen. I'm still glad I went, though, and I look forward to seeing it again under more ideal conditions. There are many bands I love more than the Minutemen but maybe none that inspire me more and make me more excited about the act of making music. The live footage was amazing, and since the individual songs are so short, they could be incorporated into the movie without threatening to interrupt the narrative. Lots of good interview moments, too, although I sometimes felt like I was waiting through the hyperbolic praise just to get to the personal anecdotes and really interesting stuff. At the end of the screening, a guy, I believe one of the filmmakers, said he want a picture of everyone at the screening to send to Watt, which we all smiled and waved for.

2) The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
I have to admit I was kinda geeked out about seeing this. Growing up I had access to my father's huge personal library of sci-fi books, but of course, the satire stuck with me more than most of the real stuff. I mean, it's probably been at least 10 years since I read any of those books, but the prospect of a movie being made of it and being done well was still pretty exciting to me. J.G.'s also a fan of the books and wants to see it, but it'll be a couple weeks until she graduates and comes home from school for good. So I'll probably see it again with her, but I was impatient and had to see it opening weekend. And it was good. I'd read the name of the director a few times in articles but it wasn't til the opening credits rolled that I realized that it was the same guy who did all those music videos as Hammer & Tongs. I was skeptical of Mos Def's casting from the beginning, mostly because I think he's pretty overrated as a rapper and haven't seen any real evidence of his acting talent either, but ultimately I was rooting for him to be good in it. He was really the weak link of the cast, though, had tons of funny/memorable lines from the book to work with and didn't manage to make the most of any of them. Everyone else was solid, though. Sam Rockwell was good, although I was kind of put off by the fact that he kept doing a slight G. W. Bush impression (because his character is an idiot who became president, GET IT? wink wink). Just kind of a cheap joke, if you ask me. Lots of other things I could say, but mostly I was satisfied as a semi-fanboy and it even did pretty well at the box office, which is nice.

3) Sin City
I heard plenty about how good and cool-looking this was, but not nearly enough about how funny it was. For the first hour or so, I wasn't sure if I was laughing at it or with it, but by about an hour in, it was pretty obviously the latter. Like, the reaction of that guy with the swastika on his forehead to getting impaled? Hilarious. Supposedly that winking comedic element isn't in the comics (excuse me, graphic novels) at all, which is interesting considering the creator was so involved in the movie he got a co-director credit. Did he set out for the adaptation to poke fun at the source material, or did Rodriguez talk him into it, is what I'm wondering, I guess.

4) Dreamcatcher
Saw this on HBO a while back while dogsitting at my dad's house watching sattelite TV all day. I can't remember the last time so little about a movie was given away by the trailers. So much so that it feels like saying really anything about it is a spoiler. But I will say that it was completely ridiculous and shockingly bad. After a certain point, you don't care at all what happens but you just have to keep watching to see what else they have the balls to throw in there. OK, i'll tell you this much: there's an alien that nests inside of people and makes them fart until it escapes out of their butts. And the alien, whose name is Mr. Gray, is repeatedly addressed by a mentally retarded character (played by DONNY WAHLBERG) as "Mr. Gay". I swear I'm not making any of this up.

Labels: comedy, Mike Watt, Movie Diary, movies, The Minutemen

Here's something to read while you're waiting for a chance to see We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen: some great D. Boon anecdotes from Tom Troccoli. And check here to see if there's going to be any screenings of the movie near you. May 2 at the Black Cat! I'm so there.

Labels: Mike Watt, movies, The Minutemen

About 2-3 years ago I was hanging out a lot with a friend of mine named Chris in York, PA and playing drums in his band (I live a half hour from the MD/PA border so it's not a long drive). Chris strummed really slowly on an acoustic guitar and ran it through a bunch of effects and delay and I just played along and sometimes we had a keyboardist and/or a bassist and/or a violinist. Chris was a cool guy, I liked hanging out with him, although I wasn't really on the same wavelength with him musically at all. I don't think he was at all aware of how indifferent I was about some of his favorite bands (Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, etc.). But in a way I'm more cool with people like him who are kind of naively enthusiastic about their generic indie taste than cynical or really trying to be cool. Anyway, I kind of regarded it as a fun challenge to play slow, pretty shoegazey music, even if that's not really the kind of thing I actually listen to. Actually, come to think of it, all 3 of the bands that I've played in for a significant amount of time and accomplished something with (i.e. play in front of an audience and/or record original material) have all been rock subgenres that I don't really listen to (my last band was a metal band and in high school I played in I guess you could call it a 'screamo' band, although again I know nothing about that stuff). That's kind of the gift and the curse of being a drummer, though; you can have a completely different background than everyone else in the band and it doesn't matter if you can keep a beat. But it also means you rarely get to play what you really want to play. This is pretty much the reason why I'm taking a break from playing drums in other people's bands to make a solo record so I can actually figure out what kind of band I really want to play in by making one up.

Anyway, where was I? The band in York...Nice folks, although everyone I knew up there seemed to be a morbid alcoholic, and to this day my general impression of York is that it's this really depressing little college town where everyone drinks too much, although for all I know that's just the people I hung out with there. But Chris was a nice dude, I haven't seen him in a while and keep meaning to hang out again. At one point while we were doing the band thing he asked me to make him a mixtape, and I kinda tried to go for some of that slow pretty guitar music he likes, but from some indie-ish bands that I like (plus the Built To Spill stuff because he was really into them). I think it came out pretty well.

side 1:
1. The Posies - "Coming Right Along"
2. Ted Leo - "Parallel Or Together?"
3. Shudder To Think - "Red House"
4. The Geraldine Fibbers - "Outside Of Town"
5. Ben Folds Five - "Twin Falls"
6. Built To Spill - "By The Way"
7. Cat Power - "Rockets"
8. Jeff Buckley - "Mojo Pin"
9. Death Cab For Cutie - "Styrofoam Plates"
10. Sonic Youth - "Rain On Tin"

side 2:
1. Lake Trout - "Holding"
2. The Dismemberment Plan - "The Face Of The Earth"
3. The Minutemen - "No Exchange"
4. The Minutemen - "History Lesson - Part II"
5. Ted Leo - "Biomusicology"
6. Ken Stringfellow - "Your Love Won't Be Denied"
7. The Geraldine Fibbers - "Butch"
8. The Posies - "Every Bitter Drop"
9. The Posies - "Fall Song"
10. Chris Lee - "Dixie's Door"
11. Two Dollar Guitar - "Stones Vs. Zep"

Labels: Baltimore music, Mike Watt, mixtapes, Sonic Youth, Ted Leo, The Geraldine Fibbers, The Minutemen, The Posies, Two Dollar Guitar

This is a tape I made last July entirely from a bunch of MP3's on my hard drive:

side 1:
1. Rocket From The Crypt - "Dick On A Dog"
2. Billy Idol - "Rebel Yell"
3. New Pornographers - "The Body Says No"
4. Spymob - "Half-Steering"
5. Ben Folds - "Zak and Sara"
6. Stephen Malkmus - "Jenny and the Ess-Dog"
7. Portastatic - "Bobby Jean"
8. Brendan Benson - "Metarie (demo)"
9. Bobbie Gentry - "Reunion"
10. Shania Twain - "Nah!" (Sean C Brown mix)
11. Shania Twain - "Ka-Ching!" (Sean C Brown mix)
12. Shania Twain - "Waiter! Bring Me Water!" (Sean C Brown mix)
13. Shania Twain - "Up!" (Sean C Brown mix)

side 2:
1. Small Faces - "Ooh La La"
2. Neil Finn - "She Will Have Her Way"
3. Afghan Whigs - "66"
4. Mike Watt - "The 15th" (live)
5. Wire - "The 15th"
6. Talking Heads - "What A Day That Was" (live)
7. Travis Morrison - "Sixteen Types of People"
8. Ween - "Where'd The Cheese Go?" Part 1
9. Ween - "Where'd The Cheese Go?" Part 2
10. Ted Leo - "Walking Through"
11. The Strokes - "What Ever Happened?"
12. Incubus - "A Crow Left of the Murder"
13. Hank Williams - "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)"
14. Christina Aguilera - "Beautiful"
15. Eamon - "Fuck It (I Don't Want You Back)"

Everything on there is either not commercially available or from a record I don't own and/or by artists I don't own anything by but like that particular song. I don't know where the Brendan Benson demo is from, but I got it from Jeffy (who also has a similiar weekly Tuesday mix feature, and as it happens his WTF-centered mix this week also includes Eamon), and it's not the album version or any of the lame alternate versions that are on the "Metarie" EP. Also, I like the Mike Watt version of "The 15th" so much more than the original. Back when he used to tour with a guitarist (before the current incarnation of his live band that features an organ), I saw him do it live a few times and it really is a genius transformation, with almost twangy vocal harmonies that noone else would have thought to apply to that song.

Labels: Mike Watt, mixtapes, Spymob, Ted Leo, Travis Morrison

My 15 Favorite Albums In The Nels Cline Discography (well, not all necessarily most favorite but what I think is his best work)

1. The Nels Cline Trio - Ground (Krown Pocket)
2. Mike Watt - Contemplating the Engine Room (Columbia)
3. Thurston Moore & Nels Cline - In-Store (W.D.T.C.H.C./Father Yod)
4. Destroy All Nels Cline - Destroy All Nels Cline (Atavistic)
5. Scarnella - Scarnella (Smells Like Records)
6. Nels Cline / Gregg Bendian - Interstellar Space Revisited: The Music of John Coltrane (Atavistic)
7. Nels Cline - The Inkling (Cryptogramophone)
8. Carla Bozulich - Red Headed Stranger (DiCristina Star Builders)
9. The Geraldine Fibbers - Butch (Virgin)
10. Nels Cline / Andrea Parkins / Tom Rainey - Out Trios Volume 3: Ash and Tabula (Atavistic)
11. Mike Watt - Ball-Hog or Tugboat? (Columbia)
12. The Nels Cline Singers - The Giant Pin (Cryptogramophone)
13. Gregg Bendian's Interzone - Myriad (Atavistic)
14. The Nels Cline Trio - Sad (Little Brother)
15. Nels Cline & Devin Sarno - Buried On Bunker Hill (Ground Fault)

Labels: lists, Mike Watt, Nels Cline, Sonic Youth

I don't have many guitar heroes (mostly with me it's songwriter heroes and drummer heroes and producer heroes), but if there's any living guitarist I worship, it's Nels Cline. I first got hooked on him in the mid 90's when he was running with Mike Watt and the Geraldine Fibbers and Sonic Youth, and have followed him through countless more obscure projects, but this year has been an interesting one, with him joining Wilco a few months ago. All About Jazz recently ran a biiiig feature on Nels that covers the Wilco situation pretty well, among other things. Their latest album was recorded before he joined, so he's only been touring with them so far, but there've been implications that he's more than just a touring guitarist, and the first Wilco song with Nels in the lineup was recently released on the Spongebob Squarepants OST (which has got to be the weirdest entry in the lengthy Nels Cline discography since...well, that Blue Man Group album he played on). I've never really been into Wilco (I think I listened to Summer Teeth a couple times and even as an oversensitive teenager dismissed it as a lyrical pity party), and I dunno if his involvement would motivate me to check out their next album, but I am glad he's finally got a gig that will pay his bills and probably help him bankroll his next round of projects. I don't know if it will give his own work a lot of exposure, though. His own brand of noise and improv is not too far removed from jazz, and is pretty out of step with the Wolf Eyes school of noise that gets hype these days.

What I'm excited about, though, is that he's still got plenty of his own stuff as a bandleader and a collaborator coming down the pike while he's on the road with Wilco. He's always got a steady stream of releases, probably about half a dozen a year, but just in the past month alone, 3 albums he plays on have come out, 2 of which I've snapped up already and may be fighting it out for a spot or two on my year-end top ten. His current touring trio the Nels Cline Singers just released their 2nd album, The Giant Pin, which is an improvement on the first album, Instrumentals (which was no doubt titled to clear up any confusion about the tongue-in-cheek Singers name). Still, I don't know if I'm feeling the Singers as much as his '90's trio, the Nels Cline Trio, or some of the one-off projects he's done in the past few years like Destroy All Nels Cline and The Inkling. The Singers do have good chemestry, though, and they were good the one time I saw them live. But like most Nels projects, they very rarely make it out to the east coast, touring mainly in and around his native California.

The other one I copped recently is Volume 3 in Atavistic's "Out Trios" series, Ash and Tabula by Nels Cline/Andrea Parkins/Tom Rainey. I'm not generally as interested in Nels's improv collaborations as I am with his stuff as a bandleader or writer, but I made a point to pick this one up because I wanted to hear more of Andrea Parkins, who was the highlight of the show I saw a couple months ago on the last night of the High Zero Festival Of Experimental Improvised Music here in Baltimore. She plays an electronically-processed accordian, which she gets some wild and not at all accordian-like sounds out of (her cousin is Zeena Parkins, who plays an electric harp and has also collaborated with Nels). So her and Nels together with a drummer is a pretty shit-hot combination, and sometimes they lock together in ways that are pretty impressive for a record that was "spontaneously composed".

Labels: Mike Watt, Nels Cline

It's annoying how weeks can go by with no shows or anything like that that I really wanna go to, and then suddenly there'll be too many things overlapping in a single weekend to do them all. This past weekend was one of those, and I had to miss out because of my band's show and other personal commitments. Lewis Black performed at the Towson Center on my school's campus, and since I work for Towson's events department, I had to set up the stage and seating for the event, but wasn't able to actual go see him that night. I saw him once before at the Baltimore Improv a year or two back, but it would've been really great to see him froth at the mouth less than a week before the election, his material practically writes itself these days.

On Saturday there was a good bill at the Ottobar that I had to miss out on. Two bands that I'm up for seeing anytime (Skeleton Key and Mike Watt), plus another (Rasputina) that a friend from work was hyped to see and I wanted to go and hang out with. I'm not too broken up about it, though, just because they both tour constantly anyway. And now that Watt's new album, The Secondman's Middle Stand is finally out, after years of talking about it (I interviewed him 4 years ago and we discussed it in detail) and touring the material, it's kinda underwhelming. And I say that as someone who *loves* Contemplating The Engine Room, so I have no problem with Watt's grumbly spiels or his 'punk rock opera' concepts. But where Engine Room had some of Nels Cline's best work ever and heartfelt tributes to Watt's father and fallen bandmate D. Boon, Middle Stand has a B3 organ (which sounded great on the last couple tours when they covered "Little Johnny Jewel" but not so much on the originals) and parallels between Dante's Inferno and Watt's near-fatal illness that are so faithful to the experience that inspired it that it's pretty unpleasant to listen to at times. "The Angel's Gate" is pretty intense, though.

Skeleton Key, on the other hand, had one awesome under the radar major label album, Fantastic Spikes Through Balloons back in 1997, then broke up, and then about 3 years ago one of the founding members, Erik Sanko, bought out the other guys for the use of the name and re-formed the band with a completely different lineup. I've seen the new incarnation of Skeleton Key a couple times and they're alright, but it's kind of a bittersweet consolation for not having caught the original lineup. Recently, the official SK website had a bunch of mp3's up of a bunch of cool remixes of Fantastic-era songs by people like Christian Marclay, Foetus, Sparklehorse and the Automator, and one of my main motivations for writing this post was to link that, but just now when I looked the MP3's are gone. Dammit. Hopefully that collection of remixes will pop up in some form, legit or otherwise, sometime soon.

Labels: comedy, concerts, Mike Watt, music