mossiwo’s Neighborhood

Crypticon 2009 was a bit disappointing, compared to last year. As with last year's cancellation of Tom Savini, this year it's Charles Band. What upset me was that Band's disinvolvement wasn't even mentioned anywhere on their website. As of this writing, their website still lists Band as a guest: "6:00pm Charles Band and his Full Moon Road Show in the Music Room 2nd Floor."

This year, the merchandise room was reduced to a size of a large bedroom, so you walk in and out in about a minute. I did manage to pick up some stuff, but they weren't cheap. Celebrities prints are costs anywhere from $20-40, we weren't allowed to take pictures (if you did purchase a print, then taking pictures would cost an extra $5). Last year, most of the nicer stars let us take pictures for free.

As for merch, the usual bootlegs, toys, horror t-shirts were there, but because of the smaller room - it feels like there weren't a lot of choices. Some commonly seen t-shirts were Nightbreed and Hellraiser, which I thought were cool, since I have always thought Clive Barker is genius. 

Also, this year they had music as part of the show. The person that was supposed to give me a pass to the music area was not at the ticketbooth and I didn't feel like paying extra to see music. Besides, all of the bands seems to be either punk or metal, not really my cup of tea, so I didn't bother to make much effort in getting the pass. 

Anyway, since Charles Band wasn't there, his Q&A was replaced with Linnea Quigley and Don Calfa (both actors appeared in Return of the Living Dead). If I had known, I would've rewatched the film to refreshed my memory. But it would seem even the stars had some trouble remembering what happened on set. 

Still, some interesting stories came out of it. 

First of all, they paid George Romero a million dollars to use the name "Of The Living Dead".  Romero's third sequel, Day of the Dead came out a year later, but was not as successful as Return. 

My favorite was when Calfa said one of the star wanted him to punch him for real, so he gave two hard slap. What's funny was that as he was telling the story, his hand gestured the slap and the next thing you knew: he had hit the microphone in front of him! Way to each that mic a lesson.

With the disappointing cancellation, incorrect/false information (is updating a website too much to ask?), the smaller space, and expensive admission ($30 at the door) - this will be the last year that my group will attend.

Parking in the college area known as "Dinkytown" in Minneapolis can be kind of hard, especially when the meters on 4^th Street runs until 10pm. I didn't mind walking a few blocks to the beautiful Varsity Theater as the weather was nothing less than perfect that Friday evening.

Opening up for Har Mar Superstar are three very different genre and acts. Starting with Koo Koo Kangeroo (official / myspace), whose music styling is that of hip hop - for toddlers. Their songs are dead simple, like "AOA" (sample lyrics: "aye oh aye oh aye") and "Cheh Cheh Chi" and "LMNOP", but they're catchy and easy to sing along. The highlight of their set was when they threw down a white tarp-like covering and the audience was dancing under it like a party fort.

Wow, Bang Bang Eche (myspace) are young. Someone told me that they're about 18 years old, but they certainly look much younger. Their music is very punk high-energy and reminds me a bit of Arctic Monkeys influenced. My easily favorite song from their set is "Fist Full of Dollars", perhaps a reference to Sergio Leone classic film? They ended their setlist with "Die Hippy Scum". Oh, also, it's worth noting that bassist T'Nealle sported a three keyboard cat moon t-shirt. Adorable.

The odd group on the bill was two-person group, Lookbook (myspace). The band is basically guitarist Grant Cutler, who plays guitars and handles the pre-recordings, with vocalist Maggie Morrison. Their music sounds like 80s pop, not exactly the "body-moving" type of music that you'd think Har Mar's audience would demand. Not really much to say, except I think Maggie looks really cute and I will be talking about them in further detail on my "book"-theme news on Sunday.

Har Mar Superstar ♥ Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (11/06/09)

Compared to the last time I saw Har Mar Superstar, which was basically a man and his undies and boombox - he now has a full band, all dressed in white with a red cross on the back. Also, the last time I saw him, he basically stripped down after the first few songs - this time, he started off very heavily dressed with an African cover, hat, etc.

After the first song, he took off his hat. After "DUI", he took off the overall to reveal a Prince "Purple Rain" shirt. He kept taking off articles of clothing as the night went on. From "EZ Pass", to "Girls Only", to "Creative Juices"... the audience was loving it all.

Har Mar and Melinda Park singing "Powerline"

By the time "Brothers & Sisters" was played, he inevitably took off his shirt. The pants disappeared with "Apple Sauce", followed by "Turn it Around". The finale song was "Tall Boy", which Zach, from Bang Bang, and some woman called Melinda Park (or was it Mindy Park?) joined on stage to help sing the song. Park would later turn up again to help sing one of the encore, "Powerline".

The very last song, Har Mar sang an a cappella version of Boyz II Men's "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday". He would pretend the song ended and everyone would clap... only he would continue to sing the refrain. After the third false ending and after he said "goodnight", he came back and sang some more.

Har Mar's latest album is Dark Touches, available from Dilettante Recordings. Read Andrew's review of the album, pick up a copy at amazon

I arrived at the 400 Bar sometime after the doors opened, and the place was pretty dead. I thought there would only be a handful of people out that night, but thankfully as the night got longer, the place filled up.

Brazos ♥ 400 Bar, Minneapolis (11/04/09)

Brazos (official / myspace) warmed up the crowd around nine. What I liked about them is that they have a lot of lyrics in their song. The highlight of their set is the Adrienne Rich poem turned into song. I didn't recall the title, but I'm sure it had "Africa" in the lyrics.

Personally, I thought the best song on their setlist is "Feeding Frenzy", featuring these lyrics "We're interlocking, we're interlocking. It's a bitter conflict, this staring contest."

White Denim ♥ 400 Bar, Minneapolis (11/04/09)

In contrast to the lyrics-thing, White Denim are more like crazy pyschedelic, garagey, experimental rock 'n roll - with minimal lyrics. Whatever singer James Petralli spouted out, it didn't matter because you were so in awe of his amazing guitar-playing ability. You can just tell the guy is a rock god, the way his fingers frantically moved up and down the neck of the guitar.

I reckon these Austin lads don't care so much to slow down or stop, so all their songs are medleys - one song flow into the next, and pretty soon about six songs have passed before they have to take a breather.

If you like your music loud, loud, and loud, White Denim is the band for you. Be sure to bring earplugs.

White Denim's latest album is called Fits and is available now at their record label, Downtown Music, or amazon.

Patience Hodgson, from the Grates, tells me for Halloween, she dressed up as a cowgirl. She went into a store and saw a guy working there, all decked out in a cowboy outfit. She complimented how great his costume was, only to realized that it was how he's normally dressed. That's Texas for you.

That's the kind of weird stories you hear from her, even on stage, they're referencing strange things like trying to hi-fi-ing the "fat guy with the beret" or asking if there were any vikings in the audience. But before I get to all those crazy details from the 7th Street Entry last night - opening up for them was Zoo Animal (official / myspace). I had seen singer Holly Newsom before, but as a soloist. This time, she's doing Zoo Animal songs, not just her solo material.

Holly made some jokes, like how 'grate' the Grates should be to noticing that They Might Be Giants were playing next door and how "we might be miniatures". Most of the audience that showed up early, I think showed up because of Zoo Animal and possibly Ice Palace.

Unfortunately, at the last minute, Ice Palace canceled (I am told the singer was sick), they were replaced by Story of the Sea (official / myspace). Bassist John admitted that they only had a five hours notice. Despite the feedback and false starts, I thought they held up pretty well all things considering.

I will say that they seem older, for the kind of crowd that was there last night. Their music sounds like classic progressive rock. I don't know any of their songs, but I did like the song that had something to do with eyes and being gone. 

The Grates came on with full energy with their often-intro song "Trampoline". Yes, Patience does do that weird rabbit hopping dance, as seen on their Til Death Do Us Party: Live At The Forum DVD. Patience is now a blonde, dressed in a gymnastic outfit.... making her look even more child-like than ever. Which may sound quite weird to hear her talk about wanting a baby of her own (I thought to myself, well there's always cloning...)

Other things I learned from Patience: if you eat enough of your hair, you'll have to take a pill to poop out the hair. Hence "hair butt". Fist-bumping, she tells us is called "boning". She likes to climb onto things, or jump into the audience and singing... while using a twirling baton. Fun to watch, but they also require audience interaction.

"It was this big!"

I thought the highlight of their set was either "Howl" or "19-20-20". I'm not that familar with their new material, but I did recognize their single, "Burn Bridges", from the setlist.

If you are looking for a good time or see cuteness in action, check out Brisbane's export, The Grates touring through your area. They are quite approachable, so please have a friendly chat with them after the show. Their lastest album is called Teeth Lost, Hearts Won, which if you get it on vinyl, will come with a bonus CD. I might also suggest checking out their debut album, which four singles from that album made it onto Triple J Hottest 100. I'm sure Sally will keep us informed of the 2010's Hottest 100.

The Grates - Trampoline

 11/04/2009 04:57:32 ♥ vu () ♥ thegrates.com ♥ myspace.com/thegrates 

You must think it's so great to review music, even as a hobby. That is until you realize that I've been listening to nonstop Christmas music ... in October!! Most of the smarter record labels are releasing their Seasonal music of or prior to that American tradition known as "Black Friday".

What we have in store for you are three very special Christmas albums that's already released or coming out soon-ish.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Is Zat You Santa Claus Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Read More Putumayo World Music http://weheartmus... Putumayo World Music was established to introduce people to the music of the world's cultures. Th...

Putumayo Presents: A Family Christmas
putumayo.com

Putumayo's Christmas album came out at the end of October, and features eleven tracks of very well-known Seasonal songs, including "Winter Wonderland" and "Frosty the Snowman". The emphasis seems to be on "family", as these are all very cheery and traditional-sounding. Which should also translate to boring/age-old songs, but this being from the folks at Putumayo, is nothing but predictable.

Starting with appetizers, Johnny Bregar's banjo-like strumming and snapping to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". We move to some smooth drink with a jazzy "Holly Jolly Christmas" by Martin Sexton.

The main dish for me is a swingy big band "Is Zat You Santa Claus?" by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Now, I've heard of these guys when "Swing was the thing" movement, but I had no idea they were so good. Based on this Christmas song, I can see why the band was honored to play the half-time at Super Bowl in 1999.

My other favorite off the album is the Hawaiian Christmas song, "Mele Kalikimaka", as a duet between Debbie Davies & Matt Perrine. The song sounds very retro to me, like something you'd hear in the 1950s by The Andrews Sisters, especially because I have visions of Ukulele and Hulu hoops, as I'm drinking my Kauai Cocktail.

The rest of the album seems very snacky, especially with the acoustic version of "Winter Wonderland" by Deana Carter. This works because of Carter's sweet voice. The other girl-singer Kate Rusby, who brought an international flavor to "Here We Come A-Wassailing", you can tell with her English accent.

The album comes to a close with a dance-for-all jamboree "Frosty the Snowman" by Lars Edegran and his Santa Claus Revelers. This instrumental sounds very New Orleans to me, a bit of jazz and wild swing that grooves you to dance out of the restaurant.

As usual, with all Putumayo's releases, this release comes with a handsome packaging with large lyric book (two pages of biography is devoted to each artist, written in English, French, and Spanish). If you're not convinced, you can hear three more songs at putumayo.com with the option of downloading a free song from there.

Tour Dates 12/05/09 Vaughan’s New Orleans, LA 12/07/09 Blue Nile New Orleans, LA 12/10/09 Bullet’s New Orleans, LA 12/12/09 Vaughan’s New Orleans, LA 12/17/09 Bullet’s New Orleans, LA 12/19/09 Vaughan’s New Orleans, LA 12/21/09 Balcony New Orleans, LA 12/24/09 Bullet’s New Orleans, LA 12/26/09 Vaughan’s New Orleans, LA 12/27/09 Blue Nile New Orleans, LA 12/28/09 Balcony New Orleans, LA Read More JAZZ NOTE #6 KICK BACK & RELAX http://weheartmus... What I like about jazz is how multi-dimensional it can be. From Dixieland, Big Band to a small t...

Kermit Ruffins
myspace.com/kermitruffinsmusic

Speaking of New Orleans and jazz and Putumayo alumni, Kermit Ruffins has a Christmas album coming out on November 10^th called Have Yourself a Crazy Cool Christmas.

As expected, this is an album of Christmas standards, but with a jazzy twist. Lots of trumpets and piano-playing on the album. Ruffins does some scatting "What Will Santa Say When He Finds Everybody Swingin’", which you can clearly hear some Louis Armstrong-influences.

While I say these are standards, these songs often have change in either musical shifts or lyrics have been changed or sung in a very different way. I noticed that "swing" replaces a few words, like in "Santa Claus is swinging into town". Also, as with most jazz improvisation, the music often become its own entity, usually stretching out the songs into five or six minutes, when traditionally they're two or three minute songs. For instance, "Little Drummer Boy" is now a sad New Orleans-style six minute epic song.

My favorite on the album is the duet "Baby It's Cold Outside". My review copy does not include liner notes, so I do not know who the part of the woman is sung by. Anyway, it's not as cheesy as the Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews version, but it's still pretty funny whenever I hear this song about a couple fighting and the guy is locked outside his home. Ruffins' humor can be found on his title track, "Have Yourself a Crazy Cool Christmas" where he warns people to have a crazy cool Christmas, but "don't get knocked up!"

If you want to hear Christmas songs in a jazzy style, you do need to check out Kermit Ruffins' Have Yourself a Crazy Cool Christmas. The album will be available next week on Basin Street Records.

Tour Dates 12/12/09 Regent Theatre Melbourne 12/13/09 Regent Theatre Melbourne 12/15/09 Canberra Theatre Canberra 12/16/09 Opera House Sydney 12/17/09 Opera House Sydney 12/19/09 Thebarton Theatre Adelaide 12/21/09 PCEC Riverside Perth 12/24/09 QPAC Concert Brisbane Read More Tori Amos http://weheartmus... Tori Amos is a pianist and singer-songwriter. She is married to English sound engineer Mark Hawle...

Tori Amos
toriamos.com ♥ myspace.com/toriamos

On a similar note, Tori Amos' Christmas album is a reworking of classic Seasonal songs. While it's easy to dismiss these Christamosed song, I think she's doing a fantastic job on changing your expectations of these songs. If you have ever heard any Tori Amos cover songs, you'll notice that she always transforms the original song into something completely new and different. And that's exactly what she's doing on Midwinter Graces.

While some of the more popular and traditional songs, "What Child Is This?" (retitled as "What Child, Nowell"), "Emmanuel", and "We Three Kings" (retitled as "Star of Wonder"), are reimagined, I think there might actually be some original Tori songs such as "Pink and Glitter" and "Our New Year".

What else is new is that she has a full orchestra behind her on this album. You can clearly hear all the sweeping arrangements on all the songs, in particular "Harps of Gold". In contrast, my favorite is "Snow Angel", a quieter song with lots of violins and pianos.

If you're a Tori fan, there's something to like here: a bit of traditional with a bit of modern... but clearly a Tori Amos product. I've stressed before that Abnormally Attracted to Sins will only appeal to Tori Amos fans, with Midwinter Graces, I feel people outside of the Amos circle will like and understand. I mean, who doesn't like Christmas music?

Midwinter Graces is available next week on Universal Republic. You can pre-order the CD/DVD combo on amazon. Unfortunately, my review copy does not include the DVD portion, but I'm sure it's the usual interview and/or music video.

To understand The Slits, we have to take a look at their history. I mean, I have even heard about the Slits about the same time the Riot Grrrls thing started up in the early 90s, and by that time they had already split up. You see, back then, we didn't have the internet, most of the stories and mythology were read in letters and fanzines. Fanzines were important to indie music, because the major publications did not focus into these small niche.

The Slits shocked me when it was announced for their 30^th anniversary forming the band, that they had reformed. I believe only two of the original band members (Ari Up and Tessa Pollitt) makes up the new formation, but this is pretty common as far as reformed bands are concerned (see Guns n Roses, for example).

Most new "girl" band fans should pick up their debut 1979 album, Cut, as sort of a companion to their latest 2009 release Trapped Animal. Despite being thirty years apart, they sound complementary to each other. In some ways, my theory is that Animal is the direct sequel to Cut.

If words like raw, primal, tribal, experimental, doesn't appeal to you, then you probably won't like their music. While I do not generally like the pots & pans music that's so popular today, I do think The Slits are slightly better than most of the modern stuff. They've been doing it for ages, and, unlike modern music, they actually sing and sometime even have catchy melodies.

The other thing The Slits have going for them is that they're always tackling political and human right issues. "Issues" deals with child abuse, while "Ask Ma" deals about women rights. These kind of "freedom"/equality topics are generally associated with reggae music, and there are a few songs, "Babylon", & "Reggae Gypsy", on the new album that sounds a bit like reggae. Although, to be fair, The Slits have always been known to fuse a bit of reggae rhythms and angry female vocals.

My favorite song is "Cry Baby", which sounds more like a 60s girl group pop song than the usual Slits style. And speaking of not in their style, "Be It", sounds like they're singing in Japanese? It's brilliant, even though I have absolutely no idea what they're singing about. They are so different that if these songs randomly comes on the radio, you'd never guess it was the Slits, and I think that's saying something about their diversity and flexibility in the type of music they produce.

So find out why Le Tigre name checked The Slits, among others, in their song "Hot Topic". It's because The Slits are, and is, one of the most influencial and important band. Their latest album is Trapped Animal and available at all online stores. Old fans will welcome the new songs, while new fans will be in for a treat with Trapped Animal.