Saturday Night
In the background, the Director’s Cut of Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii just started. I have heard it had additional footage and longer performances so I grabbed it at Sound Exchange today. So far, all I’ve noted is that the newly added stock footage is pretty annoying and breaks the flow of the original. [Hint to the editors, use a similar film stock. I mean digital shots of the solar system? C'mon.] Still the music is great, the digital transfer is from a very clean print, and the sound is better than my old VHS copy now if I can just ignore the added crap.
Friday Night!
Kilian’s cardboard art opening at Super Happy Funland was a nice success. I was a bit sleepy despite a nap but it was nice to see everyones work. (I saw Kilian taking some digital photos so I’m sure that you’ll get to see them soon.) Before we left some high school kids were playing Super Happy Fun Land so we were a bit curious to see what these kids would pull off. To our surprise, the kids were playing this awful proggy/lite-jazzy/Grateful Deady stuff that had us all wondering “What the hell are these kids listening to?” I guess The Dimes had us all fooled. Damn!
[By the way, any scenes of Pink Floyd eating food is hilarious.]
We headed out to see Sebadoh over at Walter’s. Bonus was that, unbeknownst to us, The Bent Mustache was the opening act. If you love bands like the Ex and Dog Faced Hermans these guys are right up you alley. The one difference between TBM and their mates from Holland is that the bassist Ajay is so goddamn joyful. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone with a more childlike “Lookee! I’m on stage! Isn’t this fun?” vibe than this guy. The highlight was him involving some poor 9 year old kind named Ian to play tambourine with the band. Ian obliged and stood shoulders slumped, head down, in front of the drummer, with his back to the audience. It was a sweet gesture by the band and Ian instantly became the coolest person that night. By the way the drummer was another one of those rail thin bastards who would beat the shit out of his kit while the guitarist played that percussive angular style we’ve come to love over on this side of the pond. Solid performance but I didn’t get the vibe that the audience was really too open for any band beyond Sebadoh. Is it me or is there a different crowd for big national touring shows?
[Tracking shots of Pink Floyd performing - Cool! Tracking shots of Pink Floyd eating breakfast - Hilarious]
Anyhow Sebadoh took the stage afterwards and played a enthusiastic set for a good two hours. I love the fact that they kept playing encores saying “OK well play one more.” then immediately play three more songs. By the second one I was on to them. Encore my ass! You guys are just looking for any excuse to play more songs; It was actually very endearing and well worth this morning’s hangover.
["Aw, these are juicy oysters, aren't they?" "Yes." "These are good oysters here aren't they?" "Yes." "It must be the right season of year. The Oysters are quite good." "Well I don't know what nationality they are." " I like to think oysters transcend that."]
Thursday Night
Somehow Kilian had suckered me into playing with his Redo Makeshift Band which basically meant I was going to be playing with various members of De Schmog and other musicians with significantly better chops than I. Rehearsals, meanwhile, consisted of my listening to acoustic demo MP3s from Kilian the day of the show. In short, I was out-gunned and unprepared but my hauling my gear, a dinner of Rudz’s Fish and Chips, and a steady diet of Guinness and Stella quelled any rational sense of panic I should have had.
[Fuck! Does Pink Floyd do nothing but eat?]
Bright Men of Learning opened up with a great set. Bright Men do this Roots Rock/ Americana/ Country/ Rock thing that I’ve really come to enjoy. It’s real slick stuff where you just know the band has every tone and nuance down to a mathematical certainty. Admittedly, being one who embraces musical chaos and uncertainty, this took some warming up to. It wasn’t until I heard them play a live KPFT Radioactive event with really dodgy sound that I came to really appreciate what they do. There, the band had to struggle against a ragged sounding PA but their hard won battle against it had a rawness that appealed to my particular bias and ever since then I’ve come to really get a kick out of their shows.
[OK, this film was made in 1972; what the fuck is the space shuttle doing here!!!]
The precision of Bright Men of Lerning was a beautiful juxtaposition to The Mathletes who followed with a set of pop music that seemed to threaten to collapse at any moment. The best song was easily the Animals song (see Justin’s post yesterday) and the closer where Joe Mathlete sings that he can’t sing, play the drums, play the guitar, et al. I hear that the Dimes once backed up Joe Mathlete. That would be pretty awesome but sometimes when you are just playing to friends on a weeknight at a bar it’s fun be a little sloppy and still deliver the goods.
[Wow! a bad computer model of Pompeii? Director's Cut My ass! ]
Can I emphasize the importance of “a little” in the sloppy. A few Guinnesses, Stellas, and Gin and Tonics later I suddenly realized, oh shit, I’m playing. I dutifully set up with my Marshall at 1. [maybe if I play quiet enough...] The first song starts. Kilian sounds out the chords Cmaj, Fmaj, Amin. Easy I actually did get to rehearse this. Oh fuck! There’s a disconnect between my brain and my fingers and I keep fluffing the changes. By the time I get the groove, the song is over. My brain is clearly in the LP4 mode thinking here’s where we just hammer out the chord changes Krautrock style no? No! You Fail! Next song! Oh good! Two chords Amin to D. I was a bit more worried about this one when I practiced it a bit but, in my state, I’m at least holding down the changes. Kilian then tells me to solo. I take one and to be honest I have no clue if it was good or not. I’m not fishing for complements I’m just saying I don’t know. At least I had a decent tone but in all reality of the three people with guitars it was obvious who should NOT have been taking a solo. This means I was playing with either very nice or individuals with a very nasty sense of humor. 
Then I had to learn a simplified version of Running with the Devil and sluffed my way through it. No huge disasters. Success. Oh no wait we’re going to do some De Schmog songs? You know you are in trouble when, on stage, you’re wondering, “Shit what key is this in?” I think they foolishly gave me another solo of which all I remember is jamming my guitar into the speaker cone and playing with the feedback. I can only think how out of place that was.
“Oh duuuuuude check out this tone.”EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
“Ohhh yeah, huh huh. bend the neck a bit.”
EEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Really, I just wanted to show Joe Mathlete that I can outdo him on sloppiness any day.
[Oh fuck in the Special Features they have the original concert film as we know it and it fucking rules in every way the "Director's cut does not. No extraneous shots and no digital bullshit. All the cool 70s stuff is back in, the extraneous "Dark Side" recording stuff is gone , and the unrelated new new bullshit of gone. I just keep thinking why did they think the new stuff looked better than the original - even the simple titles have more style than the new computer aided ones. It's night and day in terms of style, continuity, and feel! God what the fuck were they thinking? Oh well, Guess I'm watchign this version again.]
Links
Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii
The Bent Mustache
Sebadoh
Bright Men of Learning
The Mathletes
Photo Credits:
Pink Floyd still from the movie directed by Adrian Maben. Cinematography by Willy Kurant and Gabor Pogany.
The rest of the photos. Please, share with us who took ‘em if you know ‘em.
in an effort to avoid name-dropping i’m afraid that you edited out the fact that we were celebrating our 11th year wedding anniversary.
elektramummy your pieces at the birdhouse museum looked terrific all hung up and spotlighted like that. justin’s stuff was right next to yours! i took the appropriate spot next to the toilets.
The Dimes still frequently play with Joe… they played the last three songs or so at his Notsuoh show. Seriously, everyone should go check out the Mathletes whenever you get a chance… the songs are fun, and you never know what you’re going to get. The Notsuoh show was, I am convinced, an anomaly even in that context: Joe had three different rhythm sections, an ad hoc choir (in choir robes even!), a horn section (me and Mike, natch), balloons with things written on them, a bandmember who included amongst her instruments a gun that shot bubbles, and covers of both “Dry the Rain” by the Beta Band and “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads. I’ve also got to say I’m quite partial to his cover of “Linger” by the Cranberries.
Conratulations Rosa & Ramon! And many more.
I just think its awesome the corss pollination going on here. Nap peope exhibiting together and playing gigs together, other nap people going to barcelona. I think we are officially a scene! Could a movement be far behind?
Oh, and the cardboard art show was great. I love it whenever I get to see an art show involving a number of very different takes on the same rather unique concept. Some of them kept a largely consistent thread running through them (like Justin and Olivia), some of them featured a great link between artwork and title (Mike), some of them were photos (Rosa), and some of them were some of the oddest collage and/or 3-D compositions I’ve seen in a long time… I thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course, I missed seeing Mike there, and as I got involved in the Houston music scene a little too late to catch de Schmog I didn’t really know which person was Killian and wasn’t feeling social enough to figure it out (sorry Killian), but at least I got to say hi to Ramon and catch all the art. I didn’t stick around to hear what the high school band sounded like; I only saw them setting up, but I had to remark to Ramon how I saw them in the performance room and thought it odd that they all seemed to look alike. All these skinny kids with the same dark curly hair. Maybe they were all brothers. It was just weird.
“NO! You Failed! Next Song”
This was easily my favorite post of yours Ramon.
And Congratulations you two!
Wish I could have been there for the cartboard show.
Ramon never told me he was married. I’m charging him next time. And just to let you know, my test results were positive. I told you there was a hole in it!!!!!!!!!
Lisa
Yes, Rosa Exactly! I could have easily done a whole lot of name dropping this week but I purposefully avoid that.
Wow. Congrats RnR I wish I’d known. I’d have given y’all a big kiss but I bet I did anyway.
We watched Live at Pompeii a hundred times in high school. My friend’s older brother had it and a cd copy of Meddle. He would play the album and watch the video because the video didn’t have good sound. I’d like to hear a dub of the Gilmore DSotM solos from the studio footage over the final solo on the recording. I went to Pompeii when I was twelve, it was trippy enough without Pink Floyd.
Mr. Mathlete is a busy dude. I got to play with him again with the IBP gala band on Saturday. He changed costumes three times. And there was another Joe Mathlete present. I bought a drawing on an index card from the fake Joe Mathlete because he undercut Joe’s prices. I asked for a picture of Joe Mathlete singing “amoebas are animals.” It’s now hanging in the BMOL practice space. I want to write Joe Mathlete one more time. Joe Mathlete.
I loved the cardboard show and Charlie did a great job of summing it up. I’ll put something up as soon as I can but I don’t have the usb for the digital with me so it will have to wait a couple of days. Too bad I didn’t run into Mr. Naked. How could I miss him?
I want to do the show again in December with a little more prep and have some bands play. We could certainly have had more people out. Didn’t help that it was a rainy night. Great great work all around. I was damn proud.
Ramone was great btw with the Redo band (and so was Mike Switzer), don’t listen to him bad mouth himself. His droney distortion played well against the twang and jangle Brando and I usually do. Reminded me of the dS show that Roberto played. Lots of FUN! And how cool that Mr. New York Night Train Jonathan Toubin just happened to be in town (escorting a very attractive Dubliner I might add).
I got the added privilege of getting to share the stage briefly with Mr. Justin Crane too. That was a great feeling and btw Mr. Crane’s cardboard art was HI-larious. Now I know what secrets his bedroom closet holds.
I just got back from Brad Moore’s new bar, the Pearl (formerly Mary Jane’s). The unofficial opening on the patio was fantastic. Today’s h-town weather was the abso-frigging-best you could hope for, and Keith Reynolds played piano.
W h a t A w e e k e n d ! ! !
Jeez I could go on. Anyway I loved the way you worked the PF into this. Love that concert. Sing like a dog.
p.s. ended up at a real blue collar ice house E610 after the cardboard show. the band played sweet home chicago and I’m ready for it just so I can sleep for a few days.
Btw the Cardboard show is up at SHFL through the 20th and y’all Houstonians should check it out. Thanks.
Hey ramon who was playing the proggy, jazzy, deady, stuff? I’d probably love em’.
I was the fake joe mathlete. I sold thirty dollars of index card art, all for IBP, but some people still owe me two bucks..like Joe Mathlete himself who didn’t pay me for his requested drawing of “Willie Nelson riding on the back of a wooly mammoth smoking a doob in outer space.” Pay up Joe.
(Killian, like the gentleman he is, paid promptly for his art.)
BTW Kilian,
When you get your chance to post the cartboard, is any of it still for sale?
Satiated artist,
Em
EM – there’s still plenty for sale and frankly it’s a steal. There is quality stuff up right now that took hours of hand-crafted work to create going for 20 bucks and under. You can’t go to friggin’ Pizza Hut for that.
“W h a t A w e e k e n d ! ! !”
Good lord, I should start writing a sociallite column.