intellectual properties

NIN

NIN, originally uploaded by benchun

there was something so perfect about hearing the crowd sing/scream along to Terrible Lie in the middle of las vegas that i have trouble even forming words around it all. or maybe it’s because i’ve been up since saturday morning that i can’t form words. in any case: AWESOME.

more photos and all the news that’s fit to print later.

goth vegas

we are going to Vegas to see Nine Inch Nails in 6 hours.

i have packed: a lot of black, and glitter.

in fact, i have my black glitter boots on right now.

ready. to. rock.

music from the oblivion

sometimes i listen to music at work, sometimes i don’t. depends on the day, who’s in the office, how much the phone rings.

today i’ve been listening, and here are some good and interesting things that have been through my ears today:

the first thing i listened to was starrie’s (aka selekta stjärna) downtempo/electro/techno mix from 10/19/08. it was good music for a cold gray morning.

then i started listening to KALX, which is always quirky-amusing and aurally satisfying.

The Zydepunks: New Orleans’ Favorite Cajun Irish Jewish Punk band - “Song for Mike” off the album Finisterre

they also played Screaming Trees earlier this morning. jay and i were listening to Sweet Oblivion over the weekend, as he is currently uploading our entire CD collection onto the music drive (except Enya didn’t make the cut, apparently), which includes CDs as old as from when we were in high school. i bought that Screaming Trees album in 1992 and i don’t remember the last time i listened to it. i still like grunge; it’s still good.

11/13-11/16

well, it’s wednesday and it’s been over a week since my last autobiographical post and i haven’t written about last weekend yet so i better get to it before i’m a week behind.

thursday 11/13:  obi-j played transportedSF along with nanda. it was a warm clear night with a full moon and it was absolutely gorgeous. first we went to ocean beach, where the moonlight on the water created weird optical illusions on the horizon, and danced to nanda’s set, which i really enjoyed. and then to crystal springs reservoir, where it looked a lot like this. jay was playing and the moonlight on the water and in the forest was magical and the whole thing seemed like a moment out of time. i live for those moments.

friday night 11/14 we went to the INdependent to see justin’s counsin’s band Ezra Furman & The Harpoons, who were opening up for Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. i really liked the energy of ezra furman and the sort of bob dylan-ish prose style to his songwriting. the band was tight but not too tight; definitely still had that raw opening-band feeling and really played their hearts out.

then grace potter came out, and the fancy lights came on, and everyone got quiet. grace plays the organ and sings songs about love and loss and drinkin’ and dancin’ in a very smoky-bar voice, and sort of the vermont version of southern rock - but without the boots. they were very polished and outside of the fact that somehow someone let this otherwise very fine-looking 30-something woman on stage in MOM JEANS (or, more specifically, the newer, fresher version of mom jeans: high-waisted, slim fit, tapered ankles that hipsters and other fashionistas victims are wearing, usually with ballet flats or with knee high boots over the top. i’m sorry, but unless you are built like olive oyl, the fit looks like MOM JEANS), there was obviously a lot of style/production value. the kind of style difference 10 years makes between that raw opening-band feeling and the slick mainstage act. which, to be quite honest, i thought detracted a bit from the kind of music they were trying to put on up there. grace was good, the band was good, and they were playing one of my most favorite styles of music, but we kept waiting for them to really loosen up, to really rip into it. it kept getting really. close. they would delve into a sort of deep psychedelic, rootsy grind, but there was no led-zeppelin-esque moment where after the organ swirls around in the smoke for a bit, the bassline drops and the drummer goes nuts and the room goes wild. it would just sort of ….. maintain. and stay dreamy. there was no primal scream. it just never happened. maybe they used to be that way and somewhere along the line someone told them to keep it all a bit more refined for commercial reasons, or maybe they really don’t know how to take to the next level, i don’t know, but even though the band conjured up the spirits of everyone from tori amos to lynyrd skynyrd to mahalia jackson, because they never really let it go, it sort of seemed cheesy to me, like a lounge act, and a gutsy bluesy rock and roll band. all the other ladies in mom jeans in the crowd really seemed to like it though. i told ezra, who was sitting next to me for much of the rest of the show, that i liked his band better.

then saturday morning 11/15 after not enough sleep i got up and went to do a photoshoot with miranda caroligne and LEC photo that took NINE HOURS. not kidding. it was all fun and games and a full day of playing dress up until about the last hour, when one of the other models had too much to drink and started getting really distracted and whiny and bitchy, and while we were all laying on the floor for the last long posed shot with her head DIRECTLY NEXT TO MINE, she suddenly started this incessant chatter and wouldn’t shut up about how long everything was taking and she had 2 kids at home and she needed to get out of there and WHY IS THIS TAKING SO LONG and i sort of got into it with her in a bit of a catfight moment, which i am not proud of. if her mouth wouldn’t have been directly next to my ear during her little bitchfest, i probably wouldn’t have said anything, but i just couldn’t take it any more. anyway, then i made the mistake of looking at my raw photos when we were done, comparing myself to the 20-something models, and left the shoot exhausted, cranky, and feeling old. i had meant to go out that night but was honestly exhausted and my body hurt from holding all the long poses. playing dress up is hard.

sunday morning 11/16 we got up and went down the peninsula to belmont, where jay and zach went mountain biking and i went hiking for about 2 hours near waterdog lake. i was still sore and tired from the day before, but it was an unbelievably gorgeous day (80+ degrees and sunny in november!) and so i pushed myself and hiked the full canyon. it was great. afterward we hung out in SF and had dinner at @ magnolia, which, since they remodeled themselves from a haight street pub into a much more “upscale” bar is not NEARLY as good to just hang out at (beers still good; menu now mostly inedible for me with mostly oysters etc. ). then we went out to the inner richmond to the buckshot bar @ geary and 3rd ave to meet up for our friend sam’s birthday, played some pool and skeeball (no one ordered the Ike Turner Special), and finally called it a weekend around 11pm.

next up:  MMW @ the fillmore tomorrow night, and the Black Rock Arts Foundation benefit on Saturday, for which i’ll be doing a bit of “fashion sculpture performance art”, whatever that turns out to be, wearing things from miranda similar to what we wore at the YBCA fashion event.

and then, probably, esctatic dance sunday morning.

and….i’m already tired.

wake up to diaspora

are you sleepy and lethargic on this cold november day?

here. watch this video from Buraka Som Sistema. warning: you might want to get up and dance.

love it!!!!

more info and links to more music here.

~everything and more~

This mix is, among other things: a love letter, a meditation, a rediscovery of the horn section, a confession, an apology, proof that vocals can be more than samples, a weekend night in, a tribute to David Foster Wallace, a deep breath, a swirl of sensory memories, and heartfelt hope for the future.

featuring tracks by Murs, Bil Bless, Frou Frou, Jay-Z, Underworld, Thievery Corporation, Santogold, Massive Attack, Morcheeba and Booka Shade

Download here.

disco.punk.ish.

friday night we stayed home and did nothing while many of our friends went in for round 3 of the hay maze party down in half moon bay. (read last year’s report). i just wasn’t up for a drug-saturated ant farm and so we stayed home, although i did kind of want to be outside all night. it’s one of the only reasons i go to all-night parties. i like being outside all night. i like hanging out with other nocturnals. i like seeing the sunrise. once in a while i’m willing to put up with the bad music and the mania for my own personal rewards. just not this time.

saturday night we went to see The Faint @ the Warfield, and it was pretty kick ass post-punk post-disco electro rock. ish. high energy, full sound, good composition and lyrics, great performance. actually much more rock-n-roll live than the sort of stripped down sound on the albums, which was good. i hate it when it’s the other way around. fave track: forever growing centipedes.

they had two opening acts: Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head & Dr. Doom aka Kool Keith.

NPSH was frickin’ ON IT and looked exactly what i imagine all indie rock bands i hear on KALX look like. like american apparel exploded all over them. but they had GREAT energy and good songs and the early audience was into them. they even had a song that was prefaced by “this song is about making an extreme hair commitment and then wondering for the rest of the day if you’ve made the right choice.” i had just dyed 75% of my head blue-black that very afternoon, so i related to this.

and then came Dr. Doom. i don’t know who booked these guys, but FAIL. and especially FAIL that they put them between NPSH and The Faint. they should’ve played first to half empty room. hipsters only PRETEND to like hiphop. they don’t really. they really like fluorescent pants and synthesizers. not only that, but they were just not that good. 2 MCs and 1 DJ and it sounded like 8th grade kids from berkeley high. they only had 1 song that i liked but that had nothing to do with them; i just liked the bass track.

anyway, then The Faint came on and rocked it, and then we went home before midnight like old people.

next up on the music menu:

thursday night obi-j plays the Transported SF bus

friday night @the INdependent: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals and justin’s counsin’s band Ezra Furman & The Harpoons

next week: MMW @ the fillmore on 11/20, thx to our friend joel, who gifted us the tix

and now on the near horizon: NineInchNails on 12/13 in vegas. yes!

crystals and shit

Bright Black Morning Light: i heard one of their new tracks on KALX yesterday and it was awesome. long, slow, psychedelic, intricate. think i want to go see them tomorrow @ 9:30pm @ the Starry Plough in Berkeley.

Crystals, totems, communes, singing a whole tour with an arrowhead in his mouth as a protest against war — there’s a lot to recommend Nathan “Naybob” Shineywater as a first-class cornball hippie. Naybob and Rachael “Raybob” Hughes, his partner in Brightblack Morning Light, have dubbed their current tour the “Crystal Totem Turr,” exhorting fans to bring a crystal to the show, and if you don’t have a crystal, to go find one that speaks to you.

Even to a non-cynic, it sounds like a lot of posturing. Consider, for example, their artist’s statement about how only people from the South can make authentic Southern music. Fair enough. But then, what’s the deal with putting Native American imagery on their album cover? How authentic is that? I don’t care about personal reinvention, but Shineywater may have a bit of a double standard there.

It all doesn’t really matter though, because Brightblack Morning Light’s music is so fucking awesome….

…Prior to the recording of the new album, Hughes and Shineywater relocated to the mountains of northern New Mexico, then moved to a nearby house with solar: four panels with nine golf-cart batteries. “We’re totally off the grid, man! That’s how we made the record,” Hughes enthused cheerfully, betraying almost no hippie-ness as she talked about her love of rural life and nature, instead of crystals and love-ins. “That had a huge influence on our approach to the record, because what was outside dictated what was going on. When the clouds come, or the snow, you have to regiment your time, you have to power down. It controls you.”

…If there’s anything certain about Brightblack Morning Light, it’s that there is nothing else like it out there. What other indie band incorporates gospel, while at the same time being steadfastly psychedelic? What band is steadfastly psychedelic without sounding like it’s retro? Despite any hippie trappings, Motion to Rejoin doesn’t sound an ounce rehashed. (When asked if they might play some crazy willow groves or something on this tour, Hughes laughed hard: “Me and Naybob really, really love subwoofers!”)

Here’s the real paradox: imagine in your mind a crystal healing devotee. Now imagine the music they listen to. Now imagine them at the Starry Plough or at Cafe du Nord heavily blunted and swaying to the slow grooves of Brightblack Morning Light. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure this is the most amazing crystal healing music I’ve ever heard. –East Bay Express

yeah, so i’m on a indie-rock music bender these days. there are so many bands, like this one, i’ve been listening to and really enjoying for years but since i’ve spent nearly all my music and dancing time with DJs and at clubs the last couple of years, i’ve never seen any of them live, and not-so-suddenly, i don’t care so much about DJs and clubs right now. i really want to see live music. particularly dark, weird, trippy, crystalized music.

tinkerbeats

my super funky spunky and talented friend sara kremer debuted as a DJ at priceless, and she’s uploaded her wonderful set for all to hear @ ghettoboxsf - download the 1 hour MP3 here.

in her own words:

for your listening pleasure, i’ve released a 1 hour mix of priceless beats taking you on a time travel adventure to the recent past (my travels in india) onto the more distant past (childhood nostalgia and 8bit madness) and resolving in a bit of futuristic robotic glitch step. part original tinkerings, part DJ’d. ENJOY!

also check out her mypace page: tinkerbeats

more girls making music - yes!

i can get some

i’m listening to Cat Power cover “Satisfaction” on Pandora right now, and it is awesomely melancholy.

also, i’ve been really enjoying listening to The Faint again and so i might get got tickets to the show @ the Warfield on 11/8.