Thursday, June 21, 2007
THE CANDY BUTCHERS - WHAT I WONT GIVE
"articulate slowly -- THE CANDY BUTCHERS"
When I first found Mike Viola and the Candy Butchers it was by accident. We found the EP in a dollar bin and it was recorded in a NYC diner. I figured it would be worth a listen. I was immediately impressed with this disc. This duo rocked out to a crowd of four including the kitchen help in this cramped diner space. But the energy that was delivered was amazing.
It was so memorable that it stuck in my head for the next 8 years. That release is finallly available on Itunes now and I highly suggest giving it a listen. The songs were well constructed and just made some good sense. I really enjoyed it and I found myself going back to it time and time again. Some songs were more memorable than others.
They were featured on David Letterman and by that time their sound was smoothed out quite a bit. The early track, "Bells on a Leper" was a mix of Squeeze meets a bare blazing soul of torment. Still even though some of the lyrics could be bleak the end result was very soulful and powerful. They were interesting.
But the other releases were good too. They never were able to capture that first initial rush I got from that EP. I really discovered gold that hot afternoon in Chicago.
Cantu 2007
THE DANDY WARHOLS - GOOD MORNING AGAIN
ah those were the days.. when GOOD MORNING came out in 98 I used to blast this in the office. Needless to say nobody knew what I was going on and on about. The multi levelled sound and video tracks are nice. It gets the message across.... that is to say... er.. if there is a message to this song.
There is a silent inner beauty to this track. It is hidden in the song itself. The one thing I adored about the Dandy Warhols was that they never paid attention to anything else that was going on around them. So they always sounded like they just came in from another planet. Even though they were from Portland they had no real connection to the "scene" that was mapped out for them on the American airwaves.
In short, they avoided boredomsville, USA.
Good for them.
Cantu 2007
THE DANDY WARHOLS - EVERY DAY SHOULD BE A HOLLIDAY INDEED
"The Original Video.. (OST - "There's Something About Mary")"
There is beauty in being odd.
There is even something even hypnotic about watching this band perform. I can't say the same for, "Something About Mary".... seriously... can you? Its just one of the rare comedys these days that doesn't star screen hog Will Farrell.
The claymation is nice. But even more significant is the intentional blur. This is a real throwback to the color graphics on the 4AD label. The Dandy Warhols are not a 4AD band but I enjoy them immensely as they are not afraid to be something unexpected.
Its interesting to see this guy dance and lip synch off key and still do all of own harmonizing.... with himself! Not sure about how their wardrobe works as a whole. It looks like payday at the Salvation Army but yet I cannot take my eyes off the band thanks to all the cool gel lighting. Its got real stage presence.
The sound is catchy too. What else do you need?
Cantu 2007
Sunday, June 17, 2007
THE ARCTIC MONKEYS - LOVE MACHINE LIVE
"getting on with the mad sound......."
This is great to see. Its nice to plug into music on your own terms. I haven't listened to my local stations in MONTHS... and I know if I do I can expect to hear the same songs they've been hauling around for the past twenty years......
The Detroit market seems to push... the band LIVE.. I know, its stupid, but I am in Detroit. This is serious. Let me continue.... They also like to push STONE TEMPLE PILOTS for some very weird reason and a lot of Eddie Veddar rip offs. 89.X for the most part does a terrible job and yes I know they are out of Canada but they have a tremendous influence over... what used to be a great metropolis? (lol) Detroit Michigan.
SO when I find a band like the Arctic Monkeys doing a great new sound of course I am going to latch onto it WITH A SERIOUS FEVER. The news is that this song is a remake of Girls Alouds version. Its still good to listen to and a bit unexpected. The pacing of this video is a bit frenetic but its matching the rythym of the song. Yes its hard on the eyes but carrying on quite well by inventing another visual dialect for the eyes to contend with.
Remember that in the early days everyone complained about the "rapid fire machine gun editing of MTV". This takes that energy and offers up a new version of that. The circling camera movements and the choppy editing really sellls this song. AND ITS GREAT.
Cantu posted this on Sunday, June 17, 2007 at 11:21 pm
SCTV - BATTLE OF THE PBS STARS
"NOTHING IS MORE SERIOUS THAN SCTV SPORTS!"
Ah... Fred Rogers, (The Slender Champ) vs Julia Child. This is premium entertainment. This is done with some accuracy. There are some great supporting characters. Check out Mister McFeely.. Speedy Delivery mail man... and the likeness is so close its almost unbareable.
The rooting King Friday is beyond hilarious. I like when he picks up the puppet and clubs her over the head with it. Its genius.
Cantu posted this on Sunday June 17 at 10:45 pm
Why I Hate SONIC YOUTH
"Sonic Youth Were Generations Apart From Their Idols - Despite What They Claim On Film"
Watching Thurston Moore reminisce about the good ol days with Joey, Dee Dee and Chrissie is enough to gag a magot. I was watching a punk video on the history channel a few weeks back and Thurston told his story with historic acuracy.... well... as accurate as ANYONE who has done thier homework from a Tower Records book department.
Sonic Youth came out in the late 80's and barely made a stir on the campus airwaves. You had to find people who liked them in 87. Even after "EVOL" came out, ( a record I returned for lack of musical likeability ) it took a while for their sound to have any type of recognizable melody to it. To put it frankly you had to be on drugs to really dig this sound, (the drug part eurupted in the early 90s and THEN their sound took off).
But the really awful thing about Moore was watching him pontificate about how great it was to be around Dee Dee and Joey from the Ramones... and more oddly, Patti Smith! Now, maybe what he was babbling about was partly true. I am not in the music business. But the GOLDEN YEARS he is referring to was back in 1976 in New York City in the punk rock scene. Moore is younger than I am and when the punk scene was taking off I was ten years old.
And now I am supposed to suspend belief that Moore and Co. were partying backstage at CBGB's with Patti Smith and the New York Dolls? How fucking ridiculous. So we are supposed to believe that he was a hard rage rocking punk rocker at age six? What horseshit. Seriously.
I wanted to jump through my tv screen and beat the crap out of Thurston Moore as I watched this clip. The entire claim was not only bogus but totally absurd. Patti Smith is about a hundred years old and even when she was considered big news she only had one or two early albums that really made a huge headline with Rolling Stone Magazine.
It was brief.
Hint: In the late 70s there were no Sonic Youth records..... It was Devo man, Clash, Pistols and in America it was the Plasmatics and Blondie.
Honest Cantu 2007, posted this on June 17, 2007 at 10:38 pm
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