A Little Tornado»

The Kills: even better at the Black Cat than at death-trap Webster Hall. Fry your little brains with bad photography after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Time Ain’t Gonna Fix It, Honey»

While it seemed to you, my readers, that I was hard at work on the blog, the miracle of future-timed posting allowed me to sneak up to New York to see The Kills at Webster Hall. Many things were unexpected about the show: my old hardcore friend Paul Hanley, who I haven’t seen in ten years, was in charge of the guest list; the smoke machine worked full blast; FDNY stopped the show after five songs for about 20 minutes.

But the most unexpected thing was that young Allison Mosshart from Discount has become the irresistibly sultry frontwoman from the Kills. My God, what a performance — whipping her black hair around, throwing her million scarves to mark where she was two seconds before, frantically pacing the stage in an obviously-cocaine-fueled circle. It’s true, she ain’t born typical. I yelled out for “Mallary’s Mission” and “A-V T-Shirt” but wouldn’t you know it, they’d rather play Kills material. “Last Day Of Magic,” I submit, is the best rock and roll song to be released in 2008. But it won’t be the last day of magic, because I have my ticket for their Black Cat show tonight. If you see me, say hi.

Been Away For So Long»

Swervedriver, one of the best psycho-guitar bands of the 90s, are unfairly forgotten these days, at least here in America. But perhaps not for much longer! Adam Franklin, miraculously, has reassembled the band and they’ll be touring the U.S. in late May and early June. Which sucks for me because I’ll be in Afghanistan then, but you should really go and buy me t-shirts and such. Here’s them performing “Duel.”

Homie: this is a sign. Adam Franklin has reformed Swervedriver and is going back on the road. You are going to make it.

Don’t It Make Ya Feel Sick?»

Unbelievable. The Ramones played “53rd & 3rd” with Tim and Lars from Rancid! RIP Joey, Johnny and Dee Dee. (Marky, FYI, is from Flatbush!)

There Is No Other Place, No One Else To Face»

Portishead’s new record? Album of the year. I know I said this about the new Kills, and about the Re-Up Gang on the old blog. But we’re going to have to come to a three-way split decision, Joe Lieberman style. Kills have the best rock record of the year, Re-Up Gang has the best rap record, Portishead has the best whatever-else. Because what do you call this stuff?

It used to be, 14 years ago, that Portishead’s music was trip-hop. Big big big but spare and fragile, and extremely druggy. Their second studio album had those James-Bond horns. But Third is austere and frightening. “Deep Water” is Beth Gibbons’ terrified voice against a little-bitty-baby guitar, which plucks with unsentimental repetition as she sings about trying not to drown. I couldn’t actually finish listening to the song. Seriously, what do you call this stuff?

Everyone else: just push your release dates back. It’s not even May 1 but we don’t need any more new music this year. I feel like that guy — Lon Something-Or-Other — who goes on I Love The 80s to say “Wow, 1987… was a great… year… for music.”

Give ‘Em An Inch, They’ll Take A Mile»

I was listening to an old but recently neglected favorite on the train back to D.C. today: San Diego’s mighty Drive Like Jehu. My old friend and bandmate, Gentle Ben Manners, used to call Jehu the leaders of the Spirit of ‘94 sound. I confess I don’t exactly know what that means — When math-rock gets angry? When Ride only play power chords? — but they ruled. While I couldn’t find a YouTube of Ben’s favorite Jehu song, “Atom Jack” (their best, IMHO), here’s a vintage performance of them doing a raging version of “Golden Brown.”

We’re Two Parties, Two Parties Ending»

The Kills are playing the Black Cat on May 2! Midnight Boom is the album of the year. I do not need any additional records in 2008 thank you. (Until the new Clipse comes out in October, but history strongly suggests a two-year lag between the announcement of a Clipse record and its actual release.) If there’s a song released this year better than “Last Day of Magic” I do not want to hear it. Why can’t you let the Kills just have this year all for themselves, huh? Are you some kind of underminer?

Also, this means May 2 is a day that will feature both Iron Man and the Kills. Last day of magic indeed.

The Cry Of A Tortured Man»

Does Bush’s admission that he knew about his advisers’ approval of torture carry any legal implications? Kind of! All that and more in this new piece from the Washington Independent:

“I predict that there will be calls for top administration officials to be prosecuted in an international court for war crimes,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, a civil liberties expert who teaches at Duke University Law School. “This meeting supports the involvement of top officials — including the president — in approving torture.”

“If you, as an individual, order such conduct, you’re culpable under the aiding-and-abetting provision of federal law,” said Aziz Huq, director of the Liberty and National Security Project at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. “There is at least a colorable theory, a credible case, for federal criminal liability here.”

Also, Howie at Crooks and Liars links to a user-generated video of one my favorite Clash songs, “Washington Bullets.” I’m trying to convince my bandmate Rory that we should update it. Oh, did I not mention my band, The Surge? More on that in the future!

Can’t You See That It’s Just A Silly Ruse»

About that Pentagon roundtable I mentioned, it was off the record, but I do want to say that I think I’m the only reporter in attendance who had Sleater-Kinney playing on his/her iPod. “Dance Song ‘97.” Had I not wanted to hear that song so badly at that moment I would have had the presence of mind to put on something more appropriate, like “Combat Rock” or “Entertain.” So here’s “Entertain”!