BILL'S SAC SPOKESMEN (With comments by Brian): Recent Episodes
Anderssert
It is worth documenting that for the first time in history, all four blokes from the sac spokes were at a show together. It was not really very much planned either. Mainly since Blossom, er, Donut, surprised us all with his appearance at a dreaded "indie pop" show.
La Sera was off the hook. Katy Goodman totally ruled the night at Bows and Arrows. Half her band was half the opener band called Cold Showers. They were fun to see too, and could have just as easily been called Blank Stilts Division. Their set got increasingly better, start to finish. Opener to the opener was Sweat Chakra sounding a bit like Fugazi at times. Thanks to them for making Donut get to the show, which is making this post happening right now.
Listen up flesh-eaters (Donut not included)! The deadline for the great 2010 Halloween mix is Friday October 22th! Send us your list by blog comment (or better yet, your MP3's) and the spokesmen will judge your worth...over the weekend at their leisure.
Submit your best 13 song Halloween mix tape list to the Sac Spokesmen (via comment post) and we will decide if it's worthy of the becoming this year's commemorative Dark Entries Mix Tape! Only the most disturbed, depressing, and dangerous song list will be compiled for eternity on magnetic tape with handwritten liner notes in red ink. Please don't bother sending us anything that wasn't brooded over by candlelight with Nosferatu on the telly for background horror. Your entries will be judged by a jury of your peers.
Half the Spokemsen showed up last night to see the Drums on their San Francisco tour stop with supporting band Surfer Blood. The Independent was sold out. Fortunately Mack'nCheese scored some face-value tickets hanging out by the door. We missed the very first band entirely but caught the whole Surfer Blood set. Without knowing much more than a few listens on myspace before the show, Surfer Blood came across at first sounding somewhat like Abe Vigoda with some heavy cowbell, repetitive guitar riffs, and strong vocals. Later into their set, they pulled out some very poppy songs with instant appeal. Their frontman has some hilarious dance moves...like an effeminate prep-school male cheerleader. There were moments of genius and they played it tight. My expectations were exceeded.
The drums came on next with lots fog machine and gorgeous backlighting. There are two guitarists: Jacob Graham and Adam Kessler. One plays hollowbodies and the other plays a Rickenbacker(haven't figured out which, apologies). Hollowbody picks out the rhythm line and dances like he's taking his guitar for for a waltz around his side of the stage. Rick is a bit more subdued but cuts through with the melody nicely. No strumming at all that I've noticed, just picking. The lead vocalist, Jonathon Pierce, was a bit low in the mix but his stage presence was well received. He has the mod dance moves and dramatic poses down! He could be in love with himself or the crowd, but he is a bit infectious and fun to watch. The drummer, Connor Hanwick, was solid, and I'm guessing he's the one that hits "PLAY" to start the backing electronic tracks for each song. Even the whistle on "Let's Go Surfing" is pre recorded. At least there was no lip-sinc or hint of pretending that they were playing some of the keyboard parts. The whole effect was very easy to get caught up into and start dancing. I couldn't help myself. Blake, of the Beneficiaries, who was also in attendance was quoted saying, "I find them completely in-line with what bands ought to be doing to doing today." Other post-concert descriptors of frontman Pierce included "pretentious" and "Morrissey rip-off". They definitely force you to have an opinion one way or the other. Hard to sit on the fence with loving or hating this band.
The Sac Spokesmen converged on the Phono Select store for a lunch time browse of some prime mid-town stacks. Thanks to Donut's connection with the founders we've had a chance to sneek preview the progression from interior construction, pricing and stacking the music, and the final pristine version seen this past week. The listening station turntables by the front window make you feel like a DJ when you lay the needle down and tweek the fader. There's some great display vinyl above the racks with choice selections. This visit we were pleased to see some 45's brought out for general consumption. Dal even let us buy some from the "to be priced" box! The CD selection is busting out of the shelves and there's a new hot item rack to check out. Can't wait to check the unveiling of the tape selection. My one suggestion at this point is to get a BIKE RACK out front! Meet up with the spokesmen for future wednesday lunces at phono select!
I have a new toy from the island of little lost instruments: The Thomas organ by Heathkit. It's a small kit organ with the standard cheesy voice selections. Upper and lower decks with some footpeddles as well. Several of the contacts are not working for the keys, so I need some advice on how to clean those off (Donut!). I'm pretty stoked to fiddle with it.
From the heart (bowel?) of 'Donut Labs', as Bill likes to call it, here's the newest addition to the family. Currently residing in a U-Haul cube, on its way to Seattle with one of the poster's best friends and bandmates, this submini tube puts out a monstrous 1 watt (approx). The upshot is, you get to totally overdrive the tubes and still play at a volume that won't have the cops at your door. In other words, if you're going to be renting out a basement apartment in Queen Anne, and you still want to record a cranked tube amp, this might just work. Being the first time around the block with this circuit, there were some difficulties, but overall I'm pleased with the end result. The video at the bottom of the page gives a taste of the sound, (though you have to hear it through a crummy camera mic, a room fan, and people talking). I got to hear it for about 3 minutes, since I didn't have a proper cabinet to test it with. Bon voyage, little amp.
Due to the excellent rapport the Sac Spokesmen have with The Beneficiaries...here is a sampling of their latest for your consideration.
My wheelset came in yesterday, and I started building around 10:15 pm. You know, like I was on meth. About an hour later, I had something rideable, and as of this morning, here's how it is looking:
In the interest of having it ready for vacation, I've put some less-than-optimal parts on there.
The pedals are from an old, not terribly high quality mountain bike, replacing the metal ones that would no longer turn. The brake pads are a mix, but the best I could come up with that would safely stop the bike.
It is apparent that I'll need to continuously upgrade this thing, as the chainring is worn, and the cranks are janky. Anyhow, for less than $150, I'm pretty happy.
Today I achieved a rare feat:
4 free coffee drinks in one visit to Peets.
It was like this, but with coffee:
Look upon my works, ye mortals, and WEEP.
Provides a visual representation, in decibels, of the volume of sound being sent to tape, should one decide to record music.
As we emptied the last stuff out of the practice space, we finally found my long-missing Sennheiser MD504. Back when we started Spokesmen, I was looking for it to loan to Brian. Now that we've finally been reunited, I'll probably hang on to it for a little while.
Burnt Toast will be hosting the first of many "docu-lunches". The first film is about the artist/writer/mentally-insane Henry Darger. The running time will not allow the DVD to be consumed in one lunch hour, so we'll take a one-week intermission between halves. Showtimes are at noon on Monday - June 7 and June 14 at the Toast House. Sorry, but this one is closed doors - for Spokeys only.
Andersert was kind enough to give me a CD compilation of Left Inside Breaks. [OK - I begged.] It is 18 songs, including 10 covers. All of the Sac Spokesmen cover songs are represented here, as well as a few other nostalgic picks, like "Leave Me Alone" from New Order and "Down On Me" from JAMC.
The LIB version of "Down On Me" could easily be a demo version from the band itself. "Leave Me Alone" keeps the strained/yearning trademark-Sumner vocals, the impossible-to-get-out-of-your-head bass hook, and the dreamy guitar melody, while mixing in a shuffling surf drum beat.
The thread keeping the entire comp consistent is the stolen surf drums. That, and the warbly guitar, whispered singing, and blurry bass. The untapped LIB-sound is captured nicely in Joy Division's "Disorder". The song is moody and rapturous, like the JD original.
Andersert's original songs are as gorgeous and consistently terrific as the covers. Try "Small Party" for a dreamy afternoon. It will make you drink tea if you don't already. "Click Clack" is a stand-out, sounding very close to early-period Elliott Smith. "The Beta" appears on the comp twice, because it is that good. The acoustic version credits The Beneficiaries and has a decidedly cheerier feel. Tones of bossa nova will make you swing and sway on the instrumental "Inside Poor".
The comp closes with my favorite LIB track, Broadcast's "Corporeal". It is so creepy and moody, and probably even a bit difficult. The song is 3am, broken streetlight, someone following you, no escape, spine-chilling music. It builds and builds and threatens to fall apart at every turn.
The smart thing to do is to get your hands on a copy of this comp.
Disclaimer: I had to fake the cover art (above) because our scanner is weird.
Sac Spokesmen (aka 'Old Spolks') cover song challenge is quickly becoming due. The song is Tanks by Let's Wrestle. The due date is April 30, 2010. Things are getting pretty tense around here. I've even printed out the lyrics.
After ordering the wrong bike cog not once, but TWICE, I finally have arrived at a faster, better, stronger fixie. I'm not really excited about stopping cause it just wants to GO. Maybe Toast can run a workshop on the hipster jump and skid move... On an unrelated note, Edmund Bedford's latest cover song is now posted for streaming. STYLAPHONE!
The Beneficiaries is Bill and Blake. Bill from Sac Spokesmen acclaim. Blake claiming all of San Francisco. Blake is a mathematician by the way. He likes Jonathan Richman's late period. Weird. So Beneficiaries had their 3rd open mic stint. The first two took place in Stockton at a coffee place that puns on the theatre it is housed in. I forget the pun, and therefore forget the name of the place. But Rock-It Room is in San Francisco in the district of emmmm, I don't know. I got there at 9:15pm, right after The Beneficiaries played. But the open mic policy is that you can play twice. TWICE! So around the strike of 12:00, the second set was performed. Two quick songs were applied, assured and easy, like a good deodorant. They surf-iachied through a 3 minute instro which elicited several cheers of joy (unless that was just the girls at the pool table making a shot). The Beneficiaries finished the evening strong and fragrant, like a familiar perfume, with a sweet ode to ex-love and a hummable chorus. When asked for a summation of the night from Andersert, it would be "no more 10 year Scotch - nothing younger than 16 for me". If someone can find a picture of the little boy in Desperado playing the guitara, please replace the image above. Salma was cool 10 years ago, but now she's on 30Rock and her chest is a parody of itself.
Welcome to our first edition of the Spokesmen podcast! In this edition we rant about Jeremy Jay. Burnt Toast wants to know: "Is this guy for real?"...Hilarity ensues...
1)To listen from this blog, just click the play button or the picture below.
2)To subscribe to the actual podcast, do this:
On itunes just go to menu item Advanced/Subscribe To Podcast/then copy the link from the title of this blog post into the URL dialogue box(hover your pointer over the title and then right click "copy shortcut" to save the link address).
Halfway through watching Tarantino's latest offering my DVD rental from the local Redbox froze up and refused to play 3 whole tracks from the basement bar/shootout scene. I am affronted. The DVD looked like someone held a lighter up to one edge of it. That's what I get for letting my Netflix queue get tied up with chick flicks...The rest of the movie I was able to view was classic Quentin!
The Spokesmen checked the Sacramento Electronic Music Festival Saturday night at the Townhouse for the last night of the event. We were basically Lifeliner groupies for the evening and taking in the whole scene. As an outsider to the world of electronic music here’s my general observations of the event:
I have no idea what is really going on with all the tweaking of knobs and buttons on all the equipment! In general each of the acts had a minimum of one or two mix masters hunkered over a table laden with two or three glowing drum machines, some laptops, various other analogue or digital gear and tangles of cords and wires. As the set progresses, these dudes will fiddle with knobs and tap the glowing buttons as if it were a keyboard. To the discerning ear it may seem obvious what they’re doing, but to a newbie the first question we asked ourselves was, “is that stuff legit? Is he actually doing something or is this just something prerecorded he could walk away from?” The answer of course is yes, they are talented skillful at whatever it is that they are doing…It just looks too complex to be true.
Some highlights of the event were:
1) Lifeliner opening up the night with an excellent set of drum and noise machine tweaking 101.
2) The group Homo-Erectus playing their set with oversized paper-Mache Unicorn head helmets.
3) MothSpy donning Zorro outfits had a nice slow groove with ebow guitar and a guest female vocalists.
4) Night Night provided a glorious rendition of Bella Lugosi’s Dead. Best line of the night, “I’m just checking email up here…”
5) DJ duo downstairs using an actual Nintendo hooked up via midi and set to beats. Excellent cover of Ace of Bass.
6) Paper Pistols has a huge sound for just two guys. Turns out Mogwai doesn’t really need 6 or 7 people in the band, just these two guys!7) Lovely array of fixies displayed up and down 21st street.