Photo by Michael Alan Goldberg

Planes Mistaken for Stars, Cursive, Against Me!, Mastodon. There is no artful way to describe it. These bands all played together, and I was there.

It’s a different kinda show that happens at the Fenix in Seattle, WA. Located in the heart of the, I don’t know, let’s call it the mostly-abandoned south industrial district, the Fenix used to be a dance club in the center of the 2 am stabbing district. It’s basically a large auditorium-esque space for people with blacklight stamps on their wrists to drink heavily. There is also a large space for people to do their slam dancing and what-have-you dancing in front of the stage, but I placed myself towards the back of the beer-drinking crowd, eager to investigate the people associated with a show like this.

Continue reading →

Rating: 6.0

Everyone seems to adore the new Grinderman album. The band, if you are not familiar with them, is basically a stripped down version of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and features Nick Cave, who has decided that he should grow a ridiculous handlebar moustache, Warren Ellis, Jim Sclavunos, and Martyn Casey. Their new self-titled CD is getting great reviews as people are likening this project to the Birthday Party, Nick Cave’s vitriolic first band. The truth, however, is that this group couldn’t be further from the fury and intensity that defined the Birthday Party. It was destitution, youthful angst and copious amounts of drugs that drove them at their core. Grinderman is nothing of the kind. In many ways, they are the opposite of the Birthday Party, as Nick Cave is fairly uninspired, wealthy, drug free and pretty much has nothing to say these days, so he relies on mundane catch phrases and jokes in the place of the his first group’s glorious, often psychotic prose.

Continue reading →

I’m not going to fuck around here. I started really listening to BRMC about a week before the Seattle show. But man, did I bombard myself with Baby 81 and Howl during Black Rebel Motorcycle Crunch Week. I would listen to these albums in the tub, at work, on the can, at other shows, at the Seattle physic convention. I created elaborate musical mnemonics that helped me to remember song titles in sequence. I made flash cards. For instance, I would draw a cold, cold wind on one side of the card and instantly remember the corresponding BRMC song is called “Cold Wind”. None of this actually helped.

Continue reading →