Couches on Fire

The Week That Was

2007-04-16T09:41:00.000-04:00

Things have been slow around these pages lately. My bad. I've seen a lot of music lately, so let me fill you in:

Saturday, 4/7: Caught Thred at 123 Pleasant Street. I had a great time. It's hard for Thred to impress me anymore, since I've seen them so many times. On this night I thought they sounded funky and on point, and found myself really digging what they were doing and listening with more focus than usual. A couple of the band members weren't happy with the show afterwards, so it shows what I know.

Monday, 4/9: Big Ass Mantee's masks were creepy in a good way. That band is fun, and they've set the bar pretty high for onstage outfits. I beleive they'll continue to one-up themselves. Kid Koala was great. I'm not a DJ guy, but was impressed and entertained. The bar was pretty full, and it was weird to be out - the vibes inside re-inforced that notion. It was a Monday after all.

Tuesday, 4/10: Desperate to see a show outside 123, I headed to Pittsburgh to see Widespread Panic and I don't know why. This band, unlike many other bands who are the opposite, is LESS than the sum of it's parts. Dave Schools is great, and I love his work with Jerry Joseph and J.Mascis. John Bell writes good tunes. Jimmy Herring is as good of a guitar player as is living today. Together, what do you get? Boredom. Jesus christ people, can we lay off the bongos for five minutes? I did see one pillar of the local music scene up in the 'burgh for the show, hanging his head hoping no one would see him. You know who you are.

Saturday, 4/14: Treehugger's Ball at Sunshine Daydream. '85 Flood played our second show as a rock n' roll band and it went well. Had to play for a half an hour longer than we have material for, and a long drawn out version of Neil Young's "Down By the River" did the trick. I don't think the hippies seemed to mind. Avett Brothers headlined, and I think they are my favorite band going right now. How do they do it? I don't know. I'm blow away by everything that band touches. They were so good, I'm considering driving to NYC for their CD Release show. Too much? Nah, not for the Avett's. Drew Emmitt Band closed things out as the latenight band and were an alcohal fueled high paced good time. They closed with a cover of Townes Van Zandt's "White Freightliner Blues" and I couldn't have been happier. That is until the next morning when I had to have that "I'm never drinking again...." conversation with myself. But that's a story for another time.

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Weekend Roundup 3/30 & 3/31

2007-03-29T13:16:00.000-04:00

Friday, March 30th
123 Pleasant St. - Treasurecat
Get throttled
Fuel - I am Ahab
I am the whale.

Saturday, March 31st
123 Pleasant St. - Billy Matheny & the Frustrations, Moon
Rock-tastic
Fuel - Beloved Dead
Industrial

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Weekend Roundup 3/23 & 3/24

2007-03-21T16:09:00.000-04:00

TONIGHT!
123 Pleasant St. - Monkey Knife Fights, Meuwl, Big Ass Manatee
Monkeys and Meuwls and Manatees... ooh my!

Thurs. 3/22
123 Pleasant St. - '85 Flood, David Bello & His God-Given Right, Beats the Devil
Rebirth of the flood.

Fri. 3/23
123 Pleasant St.- I Am Ahab, Hogblast, Dr. Murph,
Bringin' the rock
Fuel - Symmetrical Kickboxing
Last Chance to Dance Trance

Sat. 3/24 
123 Pleasant Street - Rocky Votolato, Drag the River, Love Me Knots, Owen
Whiskey and twang 
Black Bear - Dan Cunningham
Finger pickin' good


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Weekend Roundup 3/16 & 3/17

2007-03-15T12:02:00.000-04:00

Friday, March 16th
123 Pleasant St - The Bridge, The Sextet
Jamtastic
Black Bear Burritos - Mike Morningstar & Rick Roberts
Pickin' and grinnin'
Fuel - The Longest Line
Geometry at it's finest

Saturday, March 17th
123 Pleasant St. - A Benefit for Danielle Bartug
feat. Billy Matheny & the Frustrations (6:20), Jonestown (7:00), The Stonewall Jackson 5ive (7:40), Thred (8:20), David Bello (9:00), Meuwl (9:40) Ill League [Profit Money, J Cart, & D-WHY](10:15), J.Marinelli (10:50), M Iafrate & S Decker (11:30), Bedtime (12:10), Drown Culture (1:00)
Fuel - I AM AHAB, Treasure Cat, West By God
Luck o' the metal.
Mercury - DJ Saenz
Ole, ole, ole.
Side Pocket Pub - Jonestown, Billy Matheny solo
Drink the Kool-aid

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Weekend Roundup 3/9 & 3/10

2007-03-08T12:46:00.000-05:00

Fri. March 9th
123 Pleasant St. - Thred, Boogie Hustlers
Gots the funk
Archie's - The New Relics
Pop-tastic
Blue Moose Cafe - Bob Shank, Rachel Eddy & Friends
Benefit for Augusta Scholarships
Fuel - WestbyGod, Mojo Filter
Hard rockin' in the basement
Mercury - Sabor Latino
Latin music explosion
Side Pocket Pub - Johnny Harmonic, B Hyphen & Ace Beanz
Throw your hands in the air

Sat. March 10th
123 Pleasant St. - Treasure Cat, the flyinghellfish
A benefit for Cory Bicanich
Blue Moose Cafe - Todd Burge, Cracker Stackwell
Singin'/songwritin'
Gibbies - Cheap Truckers Speed Reunion
Blast from the past
Sabor Latino - Side Pocket Pub at Mountainlair Sabor Latino
Muy caliente!
Fuel - Manaia, The Last Rock Show
Rock stylin'
Mercury - The Skinnys
Under the covers

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A Band Resurrected (albeit only briefly)

2007-03-07T13:44:00.000-05:00

I've never seen Cheap Truckers' Speed.

From 1997 to 2001, while I lived outside of Washington DC this alt-country combo held court in Morgantown as one of the town's finest local acts. If you missed the boat on Cheap Truckers Speed, as I did, it's not to late.

Frontman Brian Porterfield has resuscitated the group for a one off celebration this Saturday night at Gibbie's. Joining Porterfield will be Raj "Boom Boom" Chandren on drums, Kim Monday on bass, and former CTS drummer Billy Matheny playing utility man on guitar, lap steel, mandolin and more.

Cheap Truckers Speed will be revisiting their entire catalog, and it looks to be a marathon affair of twangy guitars, cheap whiskey, and fast women. For this special occasion the group has also re-released everything they ever recorded as a two cd compilation titled Six Strings and the Will to Live. If tunes like "I Only Love You When I'm Drunk", "Hard Liquor, Hard Livin', Easy Women" and "Jehovah's Key Witness" sound like your thing, make sure to check this one out.

Saturday Night's Alright

2007-03-05T10:30:00.000-05:00

This Saturday night in Morgantown, I saw four bands in three differant venues. I don't ever want to hear anyone say that there's nothing to do in this town.

I started by stopping by the Blue Moose Cafe to catch some of Billy Matheny and Haley Slagle's set. I've sung Matheny's praises on these pages a number of times in the past, so you know how I feel. Slagle continues to be this town's finest singer and was a standout on a set-closing cover of Patty Griffen's "Florida". Other tunes in the setlist included "I Hope I Don't See You Today", "Don't Feel Guilty", "Reckless" and a cover of David Bowie's "Modern Love". Billy told me later that I missed the new tunes at the beginning of the set, which was disappointing, but it was still a delightful appetizer to kick off a full night of music.

Athens, Ohio's The Princes of Hollywood took the stage next with their mellow brand of acoustic pop tunes. Intresting instrumentation and melodic harmonies make the Princes stand out in a crowd. The closest comparisons that I can think of are to the Kamikaze Hearts or acoustic Counting Crows. I caught about half of their set before heading out to catch another show. I would have liked to stay longer, but I was a man with a plan. A plan to see as much music as possible.

I rolled down to McClafferty's where Herb & Hanson were holding court with fingers flying up and down the fretboard with aplomb. This acoustic duo, who are techincally from out of town, have done their time in the trenches of the University City. Tonight's show was a three set affair stretching from 10pm-2am with an interesting blend of originals from their newly released "The Whiskey Fund", and an eclectic array of covers. For their sparse instrumentation, either two guitars or one guitar/one mandolin, these two got a whole lot of sound and energy out of their axes and the audience responded in kind.

Finally, I headed up to 123 Pleasant Street as the Librarians were midway through their set opening rendition of "Right On". At this point, I'm devoted to their music and these guys never fail to amaze. The energy that this quartet gets from their audience can make the hair on the back of your neck stand at attention. My only qualm with this show was that I was too late to catch It's Birds (if you did, tell us about it in the comments). The set closing combo of "Sweet Sugar Lip", "Culture Vulture" and the Clash's "Straight to Hell" was a juggernaut that pushed me back out into the night clamoring for more Librarians.

All in all, it was a Saturday evening well spent.

Weekend Roundup 3/2 & 3/3

2007-03-01T11:59:00.000-05:00

Friday, March 2nd
123 Pleasant St. - Meuwl, Soundvizion feat. 6'6"240
Throw your hands in the air
Fuel - The Lytic Cycle, Hey Alaska
The 50th state...
Gibbies - the love me knots
Rock n' fucking roll, son

Saturday, March 3rd
123 Pleasant St. - Librarians, Its Birds, Stuck in Standby
They should blame the skipper, but they're blaming me...
Blue Moose Cafe - Princes of Hollywood, Billy Matheny & Haley Slagle
Folkin' fantastic
Fuel - The Flying Hellfish, Haywire Deluxe, Thirteen-Thirteen
Basement rock
Mercury - DJ Saenz, Dave Longfellow Ensemble
Sweet steel sounds
McClafferty's - Herb and Hanson
Acoustic Destruction

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The Two Faces of Theatre

2007-02-27T10:38:00.000-05:00

The banner up top says music “and culture” blog, though, I will admit, the latter rarely gets covered. However, this weekend, I didn’t see one minute of music but instead saw two different plays. My experience couldn’t have varied more from Friday to Saturday. Just as the symbol of the theatre is two masks, one smiling and one frowning, I found both of those looks on my face this weekend.

On Friday, I went to see the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance’s production of The Vagina Monologues on campus at Eisland Hall. Now, I have nothing against the play itself, however this production left quite a bit to be desired. Performed almost entirely in shadow behind a cloth backdrop, this would be a feat for a seasoned production team to pull off, but in the hands of novices, it actively detracted from the play being performed. A couple of the monologues were delivered well, but the majority lacked the enthusiasm and panache necessary to deliver them. To cap it off, a few performers didn’t even know their lines. It was an auspicious beginning to a weekend of theatre to say the least.

Thankfully, Saturday’s play was as good as Friday’s play was bad.

The Monongalia Arts Center’s production of Robert Schenkkan’s The Kentucky Cycle was as good of a piece of theatre as I can remember seeing. The play itself, winner of 1992’s Pulitzer Prize, is in fact nine one act plays that follow three families and one piece of land over 200 years of history. The MAC opted to only put on the first act, or first five plays, and cannot be faulted for their choice. To produce the entire seven hour opus would be an undertaking of monumental size, and too much for a theatre company on the MAC’s budget. The production was well staged, utilizing the intimacy of the theatre to bring the audience directly into the action. The set design left nearly everything up to the audience’s imagination, save for a bench, a porch and a doorframe. No matter the setting, be it around a campfire which does not exist, or on a raft barreling down the Cumberland River, the actors involved sold the audience on the action being presented. Disbelief was willingly suspended.

The troupe delivered the goods. There was not a weak link, each member of the cast holding their own and delivering the goods. Dan Stevens delivered a brutal and menacing performance as Michael Rowen, family patriarch. His taking (and I mean taking) of the Indian bride Morning Star, played with a quiet resolution by Suzanne Lawrence, was one of the most gripping moments in the play. Though Michael and Morning Star are easily the two most substantial roles in the play, the actors in charge of smaller roles did not let that dissuade them from fully developing their characters. Jason Scott as young Randall Talbert, Evan Fedorko as Deputy Grey, and Kyle McGlothlin as Jed Rowan each turned in scene stealing moments in characters that found themselves onstage for only small periods of time. There was no cast member who did not pull their weight.

Top to bottom the play was a success. I had become attached to this play six months ago when Aaron Crothers (director of the first act, Masters of the Trade) had told me that the MAC was planning a production and encouraged me to read it. I loved it. When I finished reading it, I wanted to flip the book over and start at the beginning, again. I had high hopes. Lofty expectations. The sort of thing that can lead to a whole lot of disappointment. Never once did this production leaving me wanting. Cheers to the team of hardworking individuals who pulled this one off. I expect even greater things to come.

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Weekend Roundup 2/23 & 2/24

2007-02-21T11:14:00.000-05:00

Friday, Feb. 23rd
123 Pleasant St. - Dub is A Weapon, Tom Batchelor Band
Jah rastafari!
213 Green St. Artspace - J.Marinelli, Sparrowhawk, Depresbyterians
Benefit Show for Cassidy Wheeler
Country Inn - Solar Plexus
Spacey jams, dude
Fuel - Billy & the Floating Eyeball of Doom, Myth of Est, Subdue the Sky, I Am Ahab
Basement rock!

Saturday, Feb. 24th
123 Pleasant St. - STDio, Hovel, Treasurecat
Catch it!
Blue Moose Cafe - Sabor Latino
Es muy caliente!
Fuel - Omega Love
New jazz from the 'burgh
WV Brewing Co. - Yankee Zydeco Company, The Ticks feat. Rachel Eddy
Get down with the old sounds

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Weekend Roundup 2/16 & 2/17

2007-02-15T09:34:00.000-05:00

Friday, Feb. 16th
123 Pleasant St. - The Recipe, SEVEN
The Recipe soldiers on
Mercury - Star City Orchestra
Gots the funk
Side Pocket Pub - Songwriter Night, hosted by Todd Burge
Singin' and/or songwritin'
South Middle School - Worley Gardner Winter Music Concert
feat. Rachel Eddy, The Curmudgeonly Hickory Winded Frothy Slosh Band, and Stewed Mulligan

Saturday, Feb. 17th
123 Pleasant St. - The Morgantown Rounders, Burge n' Billy
Acousti-palooza
Fuel - Walking Out Blind
Shreddin' for Jesus
Gibbie's - The Love Me Knots
Rockin' and rollin'
Side Pocket Pub - DJ Saenz
Muy caliente!
Mercury - The Dave Longfellow Ensemble
Steelin' the night away

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Morgantown Miscellany

2007-02-13T10:44:00.000-05:00

Since my last post, which recapped the last weekend of January and earned the scorn of Richmond, Virginia, there’s been no shortage of live music in this town. Though I’ve been too busy to write about it, here’s the capsule breakdown of what I saw:

Friday, Feb. 2nd – All Mighty Senators/Thred – 123 Pleasant St.
A great show which featured rejuvenated energy from all parties involved. Thred opened things up and were the perfect support band. Thred’s show is beginning to evolve - they added a few new tunes and generally played with a sense of immediacy and a great deal of energy. The All Mighty Senators are heading in the right direction as well, giving us some new tunes for the first time in a long time. They also seemed to be turning over a new leaf and dedicating their band to growth and renewal after a period of time where it seemed like the band may have been on its last legs.

Saturday, Feb. 3rd – 6’6’’240 CD Release Show – 123 Pleasant St.
I wasn’t planning on hitting this one, but at the last minute decided to go out, and I was very glad I did. Maybe the best local show I’ve seen in awhile. I was impressed with how tight the show was, and how the cast of characters was constantly rotating. Throughout Soundvizion’s set, it was hard to tell what was coming up next, as each tune differed from the one prior, musicians coming on and off the stage at a rate of substitution that would make the football team proud. By the time 6’6’’240 hit the stage, the crowd was ready for it, and the top dog delivered. The musical chairs continued, and even gave some local indie rockers a chance to show their street cred and throw down with Motown’s finest MC. All told, it was an introduction to a scene I don’t see very often, and I was impressed both by the quality of the music, as well as with the professionalism and showmanship with which it was delivered.

Friday, Feb. 9th – Larry Keel and the Natural Bridge – 123 Pleasant St.
Larry Keel ranks high on this town’s list of beloved bluegrass players - a position he earned through a number of local displays of his flat-picking virtuosity. This show was no different. With no opener, Keel and Co. played two long sets clocking in at over 2 ½ hours of blazing bluegrass. The group felt little obligation to tradition, and can whip out nearly any song you can think of at the drop of the hat. The highlight of the show was a high paced and exploratory segue between the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” and Bill Monroe’s “Kentucky Mandolin”. You just don’t see that everyday. For the encore they invited Morgantown’s own Matt Showalter (of Tanglewood and Black Bear fame) onstage for “Groundhog”, which might just be a sign of new burritos to come.

Saturday, Feb. 10th – Mayday! Prom feat. The Emergency
It’s no secret to anyone who knows me, or reads this blog, that I am devoted to the Emergency. I hold them in high regard as one of my favorite local bands of all time. The last time I saw them, however, I found their show listless and without much drive or panache. Honestly, I left that show a little depressed. Going into Saturday's show, I wasn't sure of what to expect. Prom night (the greatest night of our young lives) proved to be a different case all together. The band delivered and the crowd responded with glee. The setlist was stacked with tracks from Doo-Lang Doo-Lang with just the right amount of How Can You Move? sprinkled throughout, for effect. Highlights for me included “Do the Uptight – United States Now”, mainly because I can’t get enough of the crowd singing the horn parts. I also support bringing back the older tunes and was thrilled to see “Striped Shirt”, “Morning Announcements” and “Girljacketdrunk” get dusted off after an absence from the playlist.

Sunday, Feb. 11th – Mountain Stage – Creative Arts Center, WVU
WV’s finest export returned to Morgantown on Sunday night, with one of the best lineups I’ve ever been privileged to see at a Mountain Stage taping. The Greencards opened with their blend of Australian roots music, banjo legend JD Crowe & the New South followed before giving way to locals Freeman, Bloom & Shank. This trio brought three dulcimers to the stage (lap, bowed, and hammer), and though I am no great fan of the instrument, I was blown away by some of the sounds these three could get out of them. Their reading of “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream” brought out a vocal show of support from the capacity crowd. Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver were up next, and delivered what was, hands down, the best set of the night. Blending secular and gospel numbers Lawson and company showed that years and years in the spotlight can really pay off. Their two a-cappella numbers reminded anyone who had forgotten just how powerful vocal harmonies can be. Local yokels, The Morgantown Rounders, followed, and were the band that many in the audience (myself included) were there to support. The crowd cheered raucously each time their name was mentioned by emcee Larry Groce. This was a great opportunity for the Rounders to get some international exposure and I watched their set with a proud smile on my face. It was great to see them play to a huge audience in the company of some of music’s greats. I will say, however, that they got jobbed by having to play after Doyle Lawson and crew. Iris DeMent closed out the show, and delivered six songs in her trademark voice. Honestly, she was a little disappointing, but that’s mainly do with the unbridled anticipation I had for seeing her perform live. In my book, she still has my favorite female voice out there, regardless of whether or not she wowed me with it on Sunday night.

Dispatch from Exile

2007-01-29T11:02:00.000-05:00

Howdy hoodlums... it's been awhile, I know. Sorry about that. I resolve to change that in 2007, but that's going about as well as any of my other resolutions. Don't worry folks, I hope that this coming year brings many things, but one of them is a renew-ed Couches on Fire. (That said, if you or any of your friends, or your friends friend, or.. well, you get the drift, ANYONE would like to contribute to this site, send me an email - we need more reporters).

Either way, the impetus for this post was that this weekend brought a couple of great nights of music my way and I figured you'd want to know about it.

Friday I caught the Drown Culture/6 Parts 7/Librarians stack up at the ole' P Street. Good show. I showed up midway through Drown Culture's set, but paid little attention. I don't know what I thought Drown Culture would sound like, but that wasn't it. 6 Parts 7 was up next, and I dug their spacy instrumental sound. I picked up their album after the show and have been enjoying it ever since. It was a poor financial decision, but a good musical one. If we've learned anything, it's not to operate my wallet while intoxicated. Finally, the Librarians closed things out. Good god is that band on fire right now. I really don't know what else to say about the show. They just ripped it up. They really are the best band in town right now. They're a lot like a frieght train - they aren't going to change course on your account, so it's up to you to get on or get out of the way. As far as I'm concerned, they sky is the limit for those guys.

Saturday night brought the Hackensaw Boys to town. I had a hard time getting into it, partially because the room was packed well beyond my comfort level. Eventually I found a nice sweet spot near the back of the room, in time to hear the band run through a couple of my favorite tunes, "Alabama Shamrock" and "Nashville". They closed their set without the help of the PA system, something that ruffled the feathers of showgoers a year or so ago, but no one seemed to mind this time. If anything, it forced the audience to focus more. More than anything, I would say their set was a testament to how an out of town band can really "work" this town into a dedicated and devoted tour-stop. The Hackensaws have been coming here for years and each trip into town bears fruit for thier labors. They've done it, Lucero's done it, the All Mighty Senators have done it (back in town on 2/2), who will be the next band to get adopted by the University City? Can't wait to find out.

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Weekend Roundup 11/17 & 11/18

2006-11-17T16:45:00.000-05:00

Friday, Nov. 17th
123 Pleasant St. - Davisson Brothers
Hillibilly throwdown
Blue Moose - Dan Cunningham
Folkin' Fantastic
Fuel - Pumpin' Ethyl
Get assulted with rock n' roll
Gibbie's - The New Relics
Pop pop pop

Saturday, Nov. 18th
123 Pleasant St.- Donna the Buffalo, Morgantown Rounders
Zydeco explosion
Appalachian Gallery - Dan Cunningham
Paintin' and pickin'
Bugsy's - Holly Spears
Singin' and songwritin
Fuel - the flyinghellfish
Time to get rocked
Gibbies - Holly Spears
More singin' more songwritin'
Mercury - The Dave Longfellow Ensemble
Steel drums in the winter

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Son, I hope your mother raised your allowance.

2006-10-30T15:14:00.000-05:00

That is all.

Though if you haven't run to the Den or Off Beat Music to buy these yet, you are seriously remiss in your duties.

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Weekend Roundup 10/27 & 10/28

2006-10-27T10:35:00.000-04:00

Friday, Oct. 27th
123 Pleasant St. - Billy Matheny & the Frustrations, 63 Eyes, Burge & Billy
Raise a glass to the Frustrations!
Blue Moose Cafe - Andra, Andrew Slater & Brett Hammon
Folkin' fantastic!
Fuel - The Premature Ejaculators, Black Mountain, Pumpin' Ethyl
Rocks the basement
Gibbies - the love me knots
Alt country style.
Side Pocket Pub - Mark Miller & the Origional Rocktronics
Think Bowling League meets bowling alley.
WV Brewing Co. - Borderless Puzzle
Mom always said to try to put the border together first.

Saturday, Oct. 28th
123 Pleasant St. - Librarians, Ennui, Triggers, Jonathan Hape
Bring a costume you can dance in.
Black Bear - Dan Cunningham
Two words: conducter hat
McClafferty's - Tanglewood
The fall of the house of Tanglewood
Side Pocket Pub - Stonewall Jackson 5ive, One Foot in the Gravy
Hard rockin' like a bowling ball.

Halloween!
123 Pleasant St. - Mayday!
Zombie dance party
WV Brewing Co. - Treasure Cat and Thred
A tradition three years in the running.

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The Man Matheny

2006-10-26T12:49:00.000-04:00

Billy Matheny & the Frustrations
Born of Frustration
Gyroscope Records, 2006

Born of Frustration, the new release from Billy Matheny and the Frustrations, is forty rock solid minutes of good old American rock n’ roll. With each track Matheny moves from rock to folk to country to punk, leaving the listener with twelve tracks chock full of grit, twang and pop sensibility.

Backed by a contingent of musicians spread over nearly incarnation of the Frustrations, Matheny has at his disposal nearly every tool needed to bring his songs to fruition. The standout contributor is Haley Slagle whose soulful voice graces a number of the album’s strongest tracks such as the duet, “I Hope I Don’t See You Today”, and the Slagle-sung closer, “Reckless”. The later evoking the feelings of a lonely broken hearted night spent driving around listening to Patsy Cline fade in and out on AM radio. Thematically, the soured relationship permeates the album, but the songs come off neither whiney nor overly melodramatic. More than anything, like so many other songs which hold a place our hearts, the listener is never left pondering where Matheny falls into the equation: the songs aren’t about him. They’re about you.

The two dueling Matheny alter egos, the punk rock kid and the folksinger, both appear prominently on Born of Frustration. Whether the breakneck thrashing of “I Came In” to the up close and personal quiet folksiness of “Friday Night Alienation” Matheny seems equally at ease. The album’s standout track, “If You See Him Tonight”, bridges the two, by alternating effortlessly between twangy tear in your beer sentimentality and crashing distorted guitars. It is as if the man wants you to lend him your ear so he can draw you in close and deliver a punch to the gut. The end result is twelve tracks that engage and entertain the listener.

The harshest criticism that can be leveled at this record is that it’s strongest three tracks are buried at the very end, but that seems to be a trivial matter at best. The truth is that this is a real good piece of work and has the mark of a seasoned songwriter all over it. It could be very easy to view Born of Frustration as the end product of a period of growth and development for the man Matheny. But this ain’t the end folks. This is just the beginning.

Born of Frustration is available locally at the Den and Off Beat Music as well as online at CDBaby.com.

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Weekend Roundup 10/13 & 10/14

2006-10-13T14:45:00.000-04:00

Friday the 13th
123 Pleasant St. - 6'6 240 and more
Blue! Gold! Cd! Release! Show!
Fuel - Shane Hines and the Last Rock Show
If this band is gonna keep playing, they need a new name.
WV Brewing Co. - Tom Batchelor Band
Local jam stalwarts.
Mercury Tapas Bar - Star City Orchestra
Can I get it on a good foot? Good god!

Saturday, Oct. 14th
123 Pleasant St. - The Emergency, The Slop Models
Doo-lang Doo-lang CD CD Release Release Show Show
Gibbies - Satchel Brown
Under the covers.
Side Pocket Pub - DJ Saenz
Muy caliente!

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Weekend Roundup, 10/6 & 10/7

2006-10-05T15:28:00.000-04:00

Thursday, Oct. 5th
123 Pleasant St. - Hackensaw Boys, '85 Flood
Come watch me sweat.
Archies - Davisson Brothers
Hoot and hollar

Friday, Oct. 6th
123 Pleasant St. - Librarians, the Red Velvet, The Gunshy
Who said you can't dance and rock out at the same time?
Side Pocket Pub - Distorted penguins, The CMD
Ska-tastic!

Saturday, Oct. 7th
Black Bear Burrittos - Dan Cunningham
Folkin' fantastic
The Blue Moose Cafe - The Curmudgeonly Old Hickory Wind Frothy Slosh Band
The band name to end all band names
123 Pleasant St. - All Mighty Senators 123 Pleasant St
Dedicated to moving your ass.
Genes - Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere, Owen Davis
Give me Keith Richards Blood!
Gibbies - Star City Orchestra
Get it on the good foot, good god!
Side Pocket Pub - Billy Matheny
Billiards and Billy.

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Weekend Roundup, 9/29 & 9/30

2006-09-28T13:59:00.001-04:00

Thursday, Sept. 28th
123 Pleasant St. - The Avett Brothers, The Morgantown Rounders
Are you as excited as I am?
Archies - The Davisson Brothers Band
A throwdown of a hoe-down.

Friday, Sept. 29th
123 Pleasant St. - The Clarks, Good Brother Earl
Pop + rock = Timmy's stomach exploding
Blue Moose Cafe - Dan Cunningham
What if Joni Mitchell wore a beard and a conductor's hat?
Fuel - Jeremy Batten and the Last Rock Show
Probably not the last rock show forever, just for now.
Mercury Tapas Bar - Star City Orchestra
Get your funk on
Side Pocket Pub - Walking Out Blind
Usually a good way to trip and fall.

Saturday, Sept. 30th
123 Pleasant St. - Moon, Ish, Stonewall Jackson 5ive
Local stalwarts strap on their axes and do battle.
Fuel - WestbyGod, Treasurecat
The basement is shaken by rock
Side Pocket Pub - Duck and Cover!
Jah rastafari!
WV Brewing Co. - Jim Savarino (8pm), SEVEN (10pm)
Singers, Songwriters, and acoustic guitars.

Stay Alive With The SJ5!

2006-09-26T19:18:00.000-04:00

Okay, this review's about seven months late, but I had to test the waters, per se. A-la bringing along this slab o' coated plastique on many a bike ride, five songs (by five dudes for five bucks) sammidged MP3wise betwixt Mission of Burma's newie and Fucking Van Fucking Halen Fucking One. And somehow it all seemed to fit; the sharp curves of gravel-throated Pistvox 'n' hamfisted barre-chordage 'n' offtime (but not mathy/masturbatory!) B&D thudlife a fitting (Epic!) Soundtrack for spilt sweat on concrete, facial roadrash and permanent bikechain-shaped scars on my left aknle. Hallelujiah!

First off, you can't write a song called "Stoogery" without making goddamned sure it lives up to its (hallowed) name, and the Five invoke more than just the namesake of the Fab Four from Ann Arbor. And quicker than you can say "Ooh I Been Dirt And I Don't Care", the lead track provides plenty of primitoid Ashton-esque string bending (courtesy of Southpaw Don Duppee, who may be a dark horse in the running for the Mark Poole award for Morgantown Guitar God status), hyperspaz crescendo snarefills and a vocal that when not falsettoing-out a-la Iggy circa '69, tears though more hardbought, tuffluck images of vengeance, transgression, and...well... vengeance than you can shake your older sister's copy of Fun House at.

"Psychobabble" is a respectable stab at Burmacity -- even the sympathetic, harmonic layer of acoustic and electric guitars brings plangent visions (heh!) of "That's When I Reach For My Revolver" and "All World Cowboy Romance." But it doesn't seem to REALLY take off until the elongated guitar-orgy coda where bassist singer Jeff "The Fuck Yeah Guy" Hindal and drummer Dave Krovich leave us with the singular thought: "...every single goddamn day/is getting harder now" ad infitium, as if to remind us of what we already know. Maybe in someone else's hands it wouldn't work, but when screamed with such forcefulness, earnestness, and conviction, you can't help but believe it even more.

In case you were not at Clampdown 2006, where the 123's floor erupted into '77-styled pogo heaven during the Five's version of "Clash City Rockers", let me remind you -- The Stonewall Jackson Five (or 5ive?) can play classic three-chord punk better than anyone in this 'burg. For those of you not in attendance, the duckass-tight "Dirty Poncho" will stand as proof positive that even West Virginians in their mid-30s can take the kids to (old) school -- and with more piss and vinegar than the entire Cherry Red catalog: "You are living in the past/ You can't make it last/ Too bad, revolution's done/ It's over now, you're living for the drugs/You're irrlevant/You're irrelevant/I am flogging a dead horse/But it's too bad, gonna stay the course/Face it, you can't open your eyes/I'm proud of, never closing mine."
And goddamn if they don't end their two minutes of piss-and-vinegar with some actual Pistolsness, by way of a majestic, affectionate nod to "God Save The Queen." A suggestion that if God exists he's definitely a rhythm guitar player, and his name may well be Jeremy McMillen.

The last two songs -- "No Yoko In The Studio" and "This Shit Ain't Free" feature the SJ5's secret weapon, and that weapon is none other than avid Hawkwind fanatic and Hyperceramicisit Jeff Ryan who divides his time between an unwholsome, reverbed-out Gretcsh Rocket guitar and the corrupted harmonics of a distorted, modulated cheap synthesizer. You'd also be surprised to learn that (aside from his tenure in a mysterious two-piece late-90s outfit known only as The Gooch -- a sly reference to the bully on "Diff'rent Strokes", for all you pop clututre obscurists) this is his his first ever "real" band. Interestingly enough, Ryan's raw naivette is what makes the SJ5 a "real" band. Unfettered by the restraints of what most veteran musicians see as the "right" way of doing things, Ryan sprays his Eno-ish guitar/synth ambiance all over the SJ5's angular, strict, disciplined rock. In "No Yoko" he's much more subtle, throwing a Jackson Pollock splatterpaint of synth beneath the bubbling bass, guitar and drums, but on "This Shit Ain't Free" the EP's closer, he steps to the fore (beneath lyrics written from the perspective of a crack-dealing whoremonger type), and the single arpeggiated note he plays during that song's verses suggest an alternate universe where Devo grew up in the late-80s Midwest, alongside suck "Pigfuck" luminaries as Killdozer or Die Kreuzen.

If you haven't already (tho' I suspect you may already have), buy it. Morgantonians can find it easily at the Den, Rocked Records, or OffBeat Music. Give it the once-over twice (or even thrice), 'cos it's a dense batch of jams. Better yet, upload it and take it with you everywhere you go. Play it loud. Play it proud. Just watch out for the wet pavement. And the goddamn potholes.

2006-09-19T15:09:00.000-04:00

Lay Your Hands Into the Soil

Anticipation often plays sordid tricks on fan boys. The two or three months leading up to the release of an album can often be a living hell for avid listeners because the entire amount of time is spent wondering how it will sound and hoping, even praying, that it will sound how YOU envisioned it from day one. It gets to the point where different schools of thought arise, and fans of good bands begin to form different sects. It becomes religious, political groups form. The "They're Better Live" group emerges, ridiculing and slamming the "Studio Guru" group because of their less than holistic standpoint on the finer qualities of the juice of the music.

That seems to be the particular case in point found within 123, and it's a dilemma that has pierced the infrastructure. There are some frequenters of the venue who simply get and understand what Librarians are doing, and that just because it's dance music doesn't mean it can't be somewhat liberating. And their live show has supplied me with countless hours of admiration, feelings of lazy metropolitan indifference, jealousy, romance-fuelled psychological romps with myself and my female companion, and even studious brooding (as a guitarist, I like to scan their fretboards in an attempt to read between the lines), so it would be dumb to say I don't like them or their music. They have filled in the gaps in the soundtrack of my 123 existence perfectly, which is really a very volatile patch of chaos, if I think about it. A lot has happened since late 2003. They are a constant, and at times an unpredictable variable (The Clash Benefit, anyone?).

So when it comes to reviewing the album, all of these factors must be considered before criticizing/hailing it. One may be compelled to turn one's back on his countrymen in times of war and political upheaval, especially when a finished product from a band with just as many enemies as friends is in question (former enemies, maybe?). But I've found myself at a mute point in the journey of hard decision-making. The jury is hung. And it seems that I am happy at pointing out the inconsistencies as well as the beautiful moments in Librarians latest alibi, "Alright Easy Candy Stranger."

Which incidentally brings me to the first noticeably awkward portion of this review: my opinion of the album title. There is only one thing about the title that bugs me, and that's everything--its empty meaning, ambiguity, and its lack of care for the city that birthed it. With an album that is so chockfull of Morgantown culture and poetical devices (isn't "inside's the new outside" an Aaron Hess rant of some kind?), why not just go the matter-of-fact route? I'd personally rather it be called "Morgantown's Finest Beatnik Explosion of Slightly Perverse Yet Still Somehow Original Dance-Wave Ever" than what has been chosen. Be blunt; be honest with the drunks.

Onto the actual music. Oh, the first track. I remember watching Librarians' first performance of "Culture Vulture" back when it was probably called "Ryan's Precious Little Beat," or something. They were coming off a pretty good string of shows, having just opened for Blood On the Wall and Enon weeks prior, so there was a pretty nascent buzz surrounding them. The now instantly recognizable fast-strumming parts that give it its edge were not intact, and in fact, all I remember was the main melody. It struck me as a potentially anthemic kind of song, but i'm not sure the band was so confident at the time. Ryan actually apologized after they finished playing the song, as if he had just subjected the chill Fall crowd to a virtual cacaphony. Relax, it wasn't that bad. The song was there. Now, after hearing it in its final form, I can say that this song has seriously had one intense ride through its near two-year lifespan (it's probably older than that). Slowing it down hasn't hurt it at all, and I can finally hear the lyrics. Best ending of any song on the album, not only because of its feeling, but because of its mention of rich men in Bentleys looking down on Indie kids. It's so weird how the beats shaking the cabs of the Bentleys aren't much different than the ones emanating from the thin walls of 123.

My favorite live track by the band is no doubt "Sweet Sugar Lip." That song in particular has always propelled my fascination of the group. I can't say I like the way it's recorded here, the build up just isn't loud enough and I feel like the interlude/breakdown near the end of the song is somewhat overshadowed by the production. It's sad, but at least I can close my eyes and pretend I'm at 123.

"Wax Teeth," "The 9-ft. Tattoo" and "Fool Full of Favorites" are, in my opinion, the best tracks on the album. They are relatively low-key songs without a hint of pretension. Straightforward, if you will. Nothing in these songs is taken too seriously and since none of them are that old, fans have the luck of not having to worry about production translations.

"Wax Teeth" is actually my nominee for best album track because of its austere and casual, yet nasty, tone. I don't know what it's about or anything involving the lyrics, but it is the overall best deal on the album. You can accuse me of being that guy who really likes the singles and gives the rest of the tracks only modereate attention; I could care less. It has great vocals ( not too intentionally sexy sounding, see: half of the other tracks), a nice selection of guitar musicianship (a structured main riff that doesn't sound TOO structured PERFECT), and great percussion work. Nothing wrong with this track--it's spotless.

Some of the other tracks should've taken cues from the aforementioned tunes. It seems somewhere in the process of recording the band was injected with an overly high morale or something, because some of this is just too focused on dance, too robotic, too (dare i say) '80s/Club...too...Huey? There are many guitar flourishes that seem like an afterthought, only put there to take minds off the fact that they sound a little like some other bands we've all heard of. What's the point in caring about that though? There are parts that I wish would've been left out soley based on the reason that you can't add on to what already clicks with an audience. It can't and shouldn't be done. But we live in foolhardy times.

That aside, it seems that I have chosen a middleground. I like it. Can't deny that. I'm not going to give it a rating of any kind, however, because that is really cheap and most readers only concentrate on the rating and will later continue to ask why this band received this particular score as if it is a major injustice that their favorite band got a B- instead of a B+. There isn't one person I don't agree with when I'm told "They slowed the tracks down; now I can't dance," or "I love this lovely piece of nostalgia reborn." I sympathize with both sides of the spectrum becuase I am an objective workhorse of a writer who sees the beauty in every criticism, whether bawdy and unfocused, or sycophantically retarded. In other words: you'll never see me taking sides on an issue that is as polarized as this one. I will continue liking the band while still sticking strong to my convictions.

Hunter S. Thompson once said that it is very common for a man to stand in the middle of a road in a place where nothing is happening. When and if Librarians quit putting out records to become DJs, clerks, journalists, construction workers, WHATEVER, THEN we can rest on our laurels and be ambivalent towards the subject. But for now, there is definitely plenty of goings-on in their realm, lots of action, so it's hard for many people not to pick a side of the road to be on at this point. The traffic is just too much to bear.

I choose the freedom of understanding.

Working for the Clampdown!

2006-09-13T13:46:00.000-04:00

Clampdown! 2006
Friday, September 15th
123 Pleasant St.
$5 / 18+ / 9pm

All Proceeds Benefit the Mountaineer Boys & Girls Club

featuring Clash songs performed by local artists:

The Librarians, The Emergency, J. Marinelli, Stonewall Jackson 5, Purepleaser, '85 Flood, Beloved Dead, Billy Matheny & the Frustrations,
Ish, Billy Sheeder, American Sound Syndicate, Jonestown

That should be all that needs to be said. See you there.

Saturday Night Stack-Up

2006-09-11T16:38:00.000-04:00

Good times this Saturday at the ole 123 P. St. A four band cross-genre stack-up with the Emergency, Krueger's Circle Jerk, Descension Rate, and Thred. Good times. Not as packed as last year's show, but still a really great time with wall to wall great tunes. Each band showed up and did what they do best. The Emergency played early (for a change) and it had little effect on their set. The crowd wasn't quite as sizeable at that point as those guys may be used to, but they didn't let that stop them. The pulled out all the hits. You know, the best tunes on that album we haven't got to hear yet. Rob assured the crowd he credit card has been charged, so the wait should be minimal by now.

Krueger's was up next. I'd never seen or heard them before. Their band name didn't do much to entice me, but once I heard some of their tunes, I'm now a fan forever. Entertaining. Hiliarious. Fantastic. Inspiring. There's a lot of words to describe this band, but I still haven't found the right ones. All I know is that I bought their album "Power Dying" and it hasn't left my car CD player since. "Late Night Roger Daltery" and "Tellmewatchasee" are my two new favorite songs. Like of all time.

Descension Rate took the stage next, and if you've ever seen these guys before, you know what you're in for: a full on throttling at the hands of madmen. I mean that last sentance in the best way possible. Their music is delivered with precision and intensity. Anyone who has even an inkling of taste for metal or industrial music best take notice.

By the time Thred took the stage, it was ten 'til two, and the crowd had begun to thin. This did little to fave those guys and they tore through their staple tunes with a sense of urgency rarely found at Thred shows. This, of course, had much to do with the late hour but it led to the band sounding tighter than I had heard in awhile. Necessity (not Zappa, as Van Scoy will respond) is the mother of invention.

By the time Paul pulled the plug (after 2:30 had come and gone) I had been once again reminded of something I try and tell people all the time: this town rocks!

Weekend Roundup 9/8 & 9/9

2006-09-08T09:43:00.000-04:00

Friday, September 8th
123 Pleasant St. - J.Marinelli, Monkey Knife Fights, Hate Ashbury, A Lesson Learned
MKF Cd release show! Benefit for A New Morning.
Bugsy's - Holly Spears
Singin' and songwritin'.
Creative Arts Center - Nickel Creek
Pop grass stars on campus.
Gibbies - The New Relics, Shane Hines
Pop-tastic!
Side Pocket Pub - '85 Flood
High water in the bowling alley.
WV Brewing Co. - CK9 and the Old E All-Stars
Jam-a-rama.

Saturday, September 9th
123 Pleasant St. - Thred, the Emergency, Descension Rate, Krueger's Circle Jerk
Morgantown musical exposition.
Fuel - Andra, Theodicy
Bringing the Rock.

Support Local Music!

Friday Night Fun

2006-09-05T10:44:00.000-04:00

This Friday was a good night to be in Morgantown, especially if you like music, which I think you do.

Kicked my evening off early at Black Bear Burritos for some Tanglewood. I'm a big fan of this band, Wade and Matt are top rate soloists, and Sam Lamont has to be one of the most underated singers in this town. Food was good, Pabst was cold, and it was a perfect kick-off to the first home football weekend of the season.

Afterwards, I headed up to the Blue Moose to catch the Diana Jones/Todd Burge show. I was on the fence about this one. It was raining, my friends were boozing it up in South Park, was I really in the mood for folk music anyway? Well, I'm happy I took the plunge, this show was great. Todd Burge amazes me. His songs are like books. They're filling and
satisfying. With a lot of tunes as long as you're there for the hook, you're fine. Not Todd's. Miss a word and you're sunk. I was held rapt.

Diana Jones was up next, but I'm not gonna lie, I was there to see Todd Burge. I debated bolting, but I stuck around, and again it was the right choice. She had the voice, but more importantly, she had the songs. Each one was better than the one before. The highlight for me was a wonderful love song ("I don't write a lot of these," she quipped) based around an Anias Nin quote about Blake. Paraphrasing: It's the cracks that let the light shine through. Unbeleivably moving. I wish I had a copy of it, it'd be playing right now.

After the show I walked down to 123 to catch the Librarians CD release show. I'm not going to lie: when this band first hit the scene, I thought they were all hype. After a few months of careful deliberation I realize I was very, very wrong. I'm not sure if they're the band who taught the hipsters to dance, or the dancers to rock, but either way they get things going. Their set was a short and sweet sonic assault lasting only about 45 minutes but each passing second brought an infectious energy to the packed room. I didn't manage to pick up their new CD, but it wasn't for lack of wanting (it was for lack of dollars) but plan to make the plunge sometime real soon.

So for those of you keeping score at home: that's 4 bands, 3 venues, 1 evening. I love this town.

Anybody got a match?

2006-08-29T10:41:00.000-04:00

Alright.

I know.

This place, like the rest of town has died down for the summer. For my part, I apoligize. I haven't had internet at my house for months, and my job gets nuts in the summer. That said, I think this weblog is a good thing, it just needs some fresh ideas and new blood. I'm going to get back on the horse and do my best in posting weekend roundups, cd reviews, and show reviews. However, I am but one man, who only can see so many shows.

We need some new ideas. Interested? It can be anything. It just has to be remotely related to the local scene. Rants and diatribes about flyers, band practice, noise ordinances, drop d tuning, sound guys, scenesters, festivals and house partys would all fit. The sky's the limit.

If you're an old hand at this Couches thing, I encourage you to jump back in. If you've never written anything before, drop me an email at aaron_j_hawley@yahoo.com and I'll set you up to post here.

We need help. Ultimately I think a thriving local music scene depends on two things: talent and communication. We have talent coming out our ears here in Morgantown, we just need to be a little better informed about it.

There some incredible stuff on the way this fall, including new cds from the Emergency, the Morgantown Rounders, and Billy Matheny, the unbelievable Clampdown! 2006 benefit show at 123, and and Wilco coming to town.

C'mon folks we got it good.

Sincerely yours,

Town E. Dispatch

Show Help - Aug. 24th

2006-08-08T13:29:00.000-04:00

To Those of You in Bands,

Atlanta-based Untied States need a band or two to play with for a show they're playing at Fuel on Thursday, August 24th. That's the Thursday prior to the first week of classes if I'm not mistaken (and I often am).

You can listen to them yourself and decide but they remind me a lot of Fugazi-era noise rock band but much weirder and with less traditional song structures. They seem like nice young gentlemen with some touring experience. Maybe if you can scratch their back they'll find some way of scratching yours. Maybe it'll just be good karma. Anyway, if you can't play this show or aren't in a band, maybe you know someone who could? I don't know these folks but they appealed to me for help and I'm trying to be a good samaritan. I'm sure they're good as gumdrops so fire up your browser and call your drummer to see if he has squaredancing lessons that night, for the love of god, man.

Independent's Day

2006-07-05T20:14:00.000-04:00

I had a good extended weekend this weekend, and it proved it again to be a good time to be a Morgantownian. Thursday night I saw the Emergency rock, and managed to get Billy Matheny to play me a one-off request at McClafferty's between two tepid versions of "Pride and Joy" by a random drunk dude at an open mic. On Friday, Lucero came to town, and the town came to Lucero. What a good show. I'm not going to pick it apart, but sheesh is that band great or what? Plus it was packed, mainly with out of towners, but it was fun to see the bar full. Finally, on Saturday my band, '85 Flood, played a show at McClafferty's which had been scheduled and canceled at the Brew Pub. The show was a raging success, in spite of the fact it almost didn't happen. The rest of the long weekend was spent grilling, drinking, and setting shit on fire: but that's what the holiday's are for.

It's good to live in Morgantown.

Even in the summer.

Don't forget it.

Weekend Roundup 7/7 & 7/8

2006-07-05T19:55:00.000-04:00

Friday, July 7th
123 Pleasant St. - Mayday! Two if By Sea
Dance like no one's watching
Fuel - False Profit
Will crush you

Saturday, July 8th
123 Pleasant St.- Purepleaser, Pagoda, Novaflow
Tri-bill fer five bills
Black Bear Burritos - Holly Spears
6:30 early show
Buck's - Dusty Hays
Acousticity
Gibbie's - Holly Spears
Singin' and/or songwritin'

SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC!

Weekend Roundup 6/30 & 7/1

2006-06-29T20:56:00.000-04:00

Friday, June 30th
123 Pleasant St. - Lucero, Murder By Death, Vedera
You know you're going.
Archie's - The New Relics
Acousti-pop
Fuel - Leap Year
Only comes to town every four years.

Saturday, July 1st
123 Pleasant St. - One Foot in the Gravy, Hovel
The other foot in the pigpen.
Fuel - Fifth Column, Shadow of a Martyr
Basement roxx.
McClafferty's - '85 Flood, Dusty Hays
The Irish save the day.

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Weekend Roundup 6/23 & 6/24

2006-06-22T18:55:00.000-04:00

Friday, June 23rd
123 Pleasant St. - Benefit for Cory Bicanich - the love me knots, Sugarcamp, Stonewall Jackson 5ive, Frank Bombardiere
Rock out for a good cause
Black Bear Burritos- Holly Spears
Singin' and/or songwritin'
Fuel - False Profit, Pumpin' Ethyl
Bang your head
WV Brewing Co. - WestbyGod
RockbyGod

Saturday, June 24th
123 Pleasant St. - Moon, Billy Matheny
Local rock greats old and new...
Gibbie's - the love me knots
Little bit country, little bit rock n' roll
WV Brewing Co. - darynyck
Dudesnguitars

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Weekend Roundup 6/15 & 6/16

2006-06-15T19:02:00.000-04:00

Friday June 15th
123 Pleasant St. - Dave Longfellow Ensemble
Steel away the night

Saturday June 16th
123 Pleasant St. - Girl Talk , Big Ass Manatee
Girls and manatees learn to co-habitate
Blue Moose Cafe - William and the Healers, Billy Matheny
Folkin' Fantastic
Bucks - The Greens
Tuck throws down in bend
Fuel- Soberpill
Basement rock n' roll
WV Brewing Co. - Seven
Jam your heart out

SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC!

Weekend Roundup 6/9 & 6/10

2006-06-08T22:37:00.000-04:00

Friday, June 9th
123 Pleasant St. - Mayday!
Your ass was made for dancing
Fuel - Jetpack UK
Nashville pop.
Sunshine Daydream, (Terra Alta, WV) - BrewGlass Festival - Halftime String Band, Mike Morningstar, John Cowan Band
Ring in festival season
WV Brewing Co. - Borderless Puzzle
Jam all night

Saturday June 10th
123 Pleasant St. - Love Me Knots, One Foot in the Gravy
The clickity-clack of the gravy train
Buck's - The Greens, Jr. Pezz
Hogback jams
Fuel - February, Soberpill
Bring the rock
Sunshine Daydream (Terra Alta, WV) - BrewGlass Festival - Davisson Brothers Band, Hillbilly Gypsies, Jackass Flats, Vince Herman, Jim Beer, Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Quintet
Bluegrass heaven continues...
WV Brewing Co. - Althia
Prog your heart out

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Less than 100 words on why you should buy this local record...

2006-06-06T20:21:00.000-04:00

Moon
Flight Logs

The title track has more than enough do do do’s to reel you in.

Yesterday’s Coming for you too.

So you can appreciate drums cracking a song open like a shook up Black Label.

This band has been in this town way longer than you.

The weather’s nice and you aren’t afraid to sing along with the car windows down.

The moon is to the earth as the Morgantown music scene is to Moon.

Because it goes up to eleven.

This CD is available at your finer local record stores and online at thebandmoon.com

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Weekend Roundup 5/26 & 5/27

2006-05-24T19:08:00.000-04:00

Don't say there's nothing to do in this town...

Thursday, May 25th
123 Pleasant St. - One Foot in the Gravy, Thred
Gravy + Juice = delicious!
Fuel - Angels Beneath Me, Diabolus
Cold hard metal never felt so good.

Friday, May 26th
123 Pleasant St. - Bowling League, Headlights, Xylen Roberts
Everything you love about gazing at rented shoes and keyboards all rolled into one!
Bucks - Thred
Funk comin' round the bend
Corner Cafe - Cryptorchid Chipmunk, Da Nest! Bragturd Boys, Morbid Toothbrush
Better see it to beleive it. ALL AGES.
Fuel - Genius Negative
Mensa-rock
Metropolitan Theatre - Saving Jane, The Argument
The Argument's last show... again.

Saturday May 27th
123 Pleasant St. - Treasurecat, Hovel
Proof that mere sounds can knock a person on their ass.
Blue Moose Cafe - Rachel Eisenstat & Rafael Chavez
Singers and/or songwriters.
Fuel - The Comfies
Tennessee bred and fits like your favorite old jeans.

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Less than 100 words on why you should buy this local record...

2006-05-22T19:59:00.000-04:00

The Hillbilly Gypsies
One Foot in the Gravy

The Hillbilly Gypsies are a spectacle to behold live, however, they can‘t all fit in your car. This CD can.

You need some banjo in your life (and some fiddle too, come to think of it).

“West Virginia My Home” … and it’s your home too. Show some respect.

It’s twenty tracks deep, that’s what my grandma would call “bang for your buck”.

Two songs about chickens.

If you’re down with bluegrass, this CD is your thing.

If you’re not down with bluegrass it’s a damn good place to start.

This CD is availaible at your finer local record stores and online at thehillbillygypsies.com

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Weekend Roundup 5/19 & 5/20

2006-05-17T23:15:00.000-04:00

The town is cleared out, but the shows have come back...

Friday, May 19th
123 Pleasant St. - Anna Popovic
Soviet Bloc Blues
Maxwell's - SONiA and Disappear Fear
Politi-folk
McClafferty's - the love me knots
Dusty roads and whiskey
WV Brewing Co. - Herb and Hanson
Double acoustic explosions

Saturday, May 20th
123 Pleasant St. - Stonewall Jackson 5ive, American Sound Syndicate, Slop Models
Home brewed rock and roll
Fuel - Jeff Richie
He's from New Jersey, that's all you need to know...

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Weekend Roundup 5/12 & 5/13

2006-05-10T17:11:00.000-04:00

Could somebody please book a show?

Friday May 12th
Spring Jam - Sunshine Daydream, Terra Alta WV - Special Ed & the Short Bus, Crackers and Jam, One Under
Kickin' off the hippie festival season...

Saturday May 13th
123 Pleasant St. - Hogblast
Will rock you
Spring Jam - Sunshine Daydream, Terra Alta WV - Thred, Out of Body Experience, Roots A-risin', Col. Bruce Hampton & the Codetalkers, Wish You Were Here, Papa Mali
Hippies still dancing...

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Weekend Roundup 5/5 & 5/6

2006-05-04T18:09:00.000-04:00

Consider the lazy days of summer officially here...

Friday May 5th
123 Pleasant St. - The Emergency, Meuwl, 8Bitz, Nakano
Final show for the greatest Nintendo-themed group of all time, plus those other guys we like.

Saturday, May 6th
123 Pleasant St. - The Librarians, Cobra, Slop Models
Dance punk, or punk dance music. Depending on how you look at it.
Cheat River Festival, Albright WV - Stewed Mulligan, Rachel Eddy and the Morgantown Rounders, Tanglewood, Hillbilly Gypsies, Wolf Creek Session, Herb and Hanson, Young Abe and Friends
Bluegrass-travaganza for a good cause.

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No Permit? No Problem!

2006-05-03T17:13:00.000-04:00

I can easily say that this past Saturday’s “No Permit Concert on the Lot” was one of my favorite local shows of all time. First of all, the music was great. Personal highlights for me were the Billy Matheny, J Marinelli, and Weedhawks sets. I also enjoyed the opportunity to check out local acts I hadn’t managed to see yet, like American Sound Syndicate, Cryptorchid Chipmunk, and Stonewall Jackson 5ive (best local band name, hands down). The music was almost as nice as the weather. It’s always a crapshoot playing outside, but this time the risk was well worth it.

There’s been some discussion on these pages about other options for local bands besides bar shows, and this event proved that more of these need to happen. Face it, there are people in this town who dig music, want to support the local scene, but have no desire to stay out until the wee hours in a smoky bar. There needs to be more alternatives for these type of show-goers. The folks behind this thing did a fantastic job setting up a tight, professionally run, multi-band bill in a new and unusual locale. While some complained that the crowd could have been bigger, I’ve got no qualms. There seemed to be an average of fifty people at all times, though the people differed from set to set. I would say that over the course of the afternoon a couple of hundred folks managed to stop by and check things out.

Finally, throughout the afternoon over $300 was raised for the Mountaineer Boys & Girls Club. As I said earlier, I have been in their employ for the last five years, and have intimate knowledge of all the good things they do for our community on a shoe-string budget. That money, which may seem like a very small amount to some, will go a long way in helping us provide services to our community’s youth. It will be spent on gas for our vans, snacks, field trips, supplies and other essentials for running our program. I want to send out another big thanks to all the bands that played, all the businesses that donated items for the raffle, the Weedhawks for donating their CD sales, and lastly, but surely not leastly, Terrance and Woody for putting this whole thing together. Rocked Records and Offbeat Music helped support their community, now it’s time for the community to help support them.

Maybe you should get down with Maximum Headlessness

2006-05-03T14:14:00.000-04:00

When recently communicating by email with Maximum Headlessness creator, Jett Bailes, Bailes had the following to say about his song writing process: "Writing songs comes as natural to me as pooping."

MH's recent self-titled release is a bizarre fusion of punk rock, industrial, a medley of sound clips, and well, toilet humor. If you are looking for some peaceful, non-threatening tunes before bedtime, this album is not for you. Maximum Headlessness should be listened to on a huge stereo at volume 11 in order to experience the full anxiety attack.

The first track on the album, "Treading Water," is a short electronic song made up of grinding machine noises while a monotone voice clip says over and over, "I am a slave." Bailes seems to be a slave to his computer for finding just the right clips that bring across his dark, sarcastic social commentary. On songs like "Bunnies with Gunnies," "Cats and Kittens," and "Go Out and Play," which might seem humorous on the surface, Bailes also expresses something of a childhood innocence lost. This artist like most of us has become jaded by the challenge of trying to cope with the corporate hold on America, and his music is a form of sweet revenge.

While the Maximum Headlessness album contains a lot of sound bites, which may be a bit overwhelming at times, Bailes' incorporation of such media blended with his clever songwriting style constantly leaves you guessing (you could also play a guessing game with the album and all of its pop culture clips). On "Go Out and Play", after a minute and a half guitar/keyboard break down of the Legend of Zelda theme song, a sample surprises saying, "It is quite obvious that you do not understand me and in all probability you never will." Then, Bailes returns with his own voice screaming, "Maybe you should get down and play/maybe you should get down and pray / maybe you should get down." The song ends with a chorus of children laughing. You don't have to understand him or the song. Maybe you should just get down.

The last track on the album, "Bubbles" is a stripped down, guitar-driven song that could be impressive for Maximum Headlessness' live band comeback. Just as Maximum Headlessness was beginning to get gigs around West Virginia, original drummer, Brock Wilson left for the Navy. The live band also includes Mike Kulina (vocals, sound clips) and Stosh Bubnowski (bass). Since Wilson's departure, Bailes has been looking for other drummers without much success. By email, he said, "I'm considering hiring a monkey to do it." However, Bailes has used his time wisely by recording all the parts himself for the self-titled release which came out on Roil Noise Records in Kansas City. The album can also be purchased locally at The Den or on www.roilnoise.com for $7.

Maximum Headlessness is darting off in a lot of odd and interesting directions, and it is difficult to tell where they will turn to next. One thing is for sure, if you are looking for something to break the musical monotony, Maximum Headlessness will not disappoint. Besides being as natural as pooping, Bailes also had something more serious to say about his song writing, "I look at an empty cd as an empty page in a notebook and just start doodling. Then I just look cross eyed at what I drew and make something out of it. I love doing this and I don't see myself ever stopping. Just getting better and better."

Weekend Roundup 4/28 & 4/29

2006-04-26T22:47:00.000-04:00

Finals, schminals...

Friday April 28th
123 Pleasant St. - The Emergency, The Argument
Pop + Rock + Coke = ?
WV Brewing Co. - Treasurecat, Black Out Thursday
Get throttled.

Saturday April 29th
123 Pleasant St. - Mayday! Dance Party 3 Year Anniversary
Dance your way out of the terrible twos.
Rocked Records - No Permit Festival (noon - 9pm) feat. Billy Matheny, Cryptorchid Chipmunk, American Sound Syndicate, J Marinelli, Weedhawks, Stonewall Jackson 5ive
Support the local rock scene while supporting the Mountaineer Boys & Girl Club.

Support Local Music!

Cut a rug while you still have legs!

2006-04-26T18:34:00.000-04:00

I just got in a fender bender that was completely not my fault. This girl backing out in a 4x4 truck plowed into me without even looking where she was going. I remember screaming and feeling frozen, but no one was injured except my Ford Taurus now sporting a thick back scar. It happened at the Morgantown Parking Authority lot right up Willey Street from The Den.

According to the Morgantown police, this area is considered "private property," which makes no sense because it is smack in the middle of down town. Because the accident site is considered private property, the police will not file a report which again makes no sense. So basically, it is going to be her word against mine because the Morgantown police are off the hook when it comes to so called "private property."

Along with the five dollar tickets for a first time offense, is this just another instance of the Morgantown Parking Authority jocking me and the rest of this town? I think so. The "private property" business is total bullshit and even the police officer I spoke with quietly admitted it. My insurance will probably skyrocket because of this unfortunte mishap, so to those of you who drive during school hours - beware in those crazy parking lots. If any one wants to file a complaint about this, please contact the lovely president man of the MPA - Tom Arnold at attn: Tom Arnold 300 Spruce Street Morgantown, WV 26505. His office telephone number and email address are convieniently not listed on the internet.

On a lighter note, no one was hurt in the accident. I could be in the hospital right now with a hurt arm instead of a dent in my car. So I feel like celebrating! Tonight Mike Fitch is opening up for Philadelphia's Brothers Past at 123 Pleasant Street. Fitch's emotional song writing will be sure to stir up the crowd for the electronic rock of Brothers Past, who were featured in today's Daily Athenaeum. But for those with a tight budget right now like myself, the cover will be $7 instead of the usual $5. Also in the Daily Athenaeum today, there was also a wonderful article about Treasurecat, who are playing a show at the Brew Pub Friday the 28th with Black Out Thursday.

Heard on the radio today that Cool Ridge on High Street will be sponsoring a showing of the Wizard of Oz at the Metropolitan Theatre (also on High Street) on Friday April 28th. Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album will serve as the soundtrack for the film. I always heard that this was sooooo trippy in high school, so for those of you who are still interested, it may be something to break the regular weekend drinking routine. A time was not announced on the radio, but you can call the Met at (304) 296-2900 for more information.

The Emergency and The Argument will be playing at 123 Pleasant Street this Friday too along with an incredible band from the Washington D.C./ Arlington area called Gist, who can be found on myspace. I highly recommend listening to one of their tracks and coming to see their first show at 123 Pleasant Street. The cover will be $8.

Well, it is getting a little crowded in this computer lab and I feel like getting out of here and celebrating my uninjured legs, so be sure to cut a rug with your own pair of legs at one of these fine weekend festivities.

Weekend Roundup 4/21 & 4/22

2006-04-19T10:42:00.000-04:00

The weather is nice, so get outside. If by, "outside", I mean, into a smokey bar and see some live music...

Thursday, April 20th
123 Pleasant St. - Morgantown Rounders, Tanglewood, '85 Flood
Morgantown's Bluegrass Holiday Throwdown!

Friday April 21st
123 Pleasant St. - Soundvizion Hip Hop Showcase
Throw your hands in the air.
Fuel - Death Virginia, Memories of the Fallen, The Rider
Basement rock and roll.
Gibbie's - The Love Me Knots
Alt-country standard bearers.
Side Pocket Pub - The Librarians (Up All Night, sponsered by U92FM)
Are you afriad to dance?
WV Brewing Co. - Borderless Puzzle
Dude, look at all that jam.

Saturday April 22nd
123 Pleasant St. - Sierra Club Benefit feat. Vern's Pot o' Chili, Strung Out String Banned
Funk and bluegrass speak for the trees.
Side Pocket Pub - DJ Saenz (Up All Night, sponsered by U92FM)
Latin dance party.

Support Local Music!

M.T. Pockets performs "Barricades" written by Jeremiah Munsey

2006-04-08T12:26:00.000-04:00

I went to this play last night simply for enjoyment, but I found myself scrawling notes on the program in the dimly-lit theatre. "Barricades" leaves you feeling the need to communicate. It is a harrowing tale of two journalists at high risk in a war zone amongst young vigilantes whose entire beings have become infested with violence.

"Barricades" opens with three outlaws, Sam (Aaron Crothers), Jess (John Harper), and Lee (Drew McGlothlin) hiding out against a barren set that clearly illustrates their desperation. Their weary bodies rest beside a mauve wall with a dried blood stain, a dark doorway, and a badly tattered, venetian blind partially covering a window. These men are on the run and must attempt to cross the 8-foot barricades in order to return to safety. It is clear that their lives could end at any second, since the enemy is always watching, and Lee's knee is injured, which will complicate the barricade-crossing process. Severe arguing breaks out, and Sam mocks Jess and Lee for cowardice. He reminds them fiercely, "Remember who you are." Tired of the chaos, Lee makes a start for the barricades while Jess and Sam try to stop him. Shots explode and the three lay dying beside the gloomy shelter.

Then, the killers arrive - a group of four, young vigilantes, and their leader, Captain (Peter Medley). A reporter and a photographer also follow the group. One of Captain's men realizes Lee is still breathing. A gun is handed to the Captain's seventeen year old son, Tim (Shea Thompson). He is urged to finish the criminal off and nervously shoots Lee five times for his first kill. The vigilantes force the photographer (Jordan Munsey) to take a picture of them standing beside Lee's corpse. As the flash goes off, the Captain declares, "This is what it means to be a man."

Part of what makes this play so compelling is the audience being able to hear stories from both sides of the barricade inhabitants. I found myself obviously empathizing with the outlaws, but also occasionally with the killers, who are severly misinformed about their enemy. Location is not specified in "Barricades," and this creates the effect that such conflict could occur anywhere close to home, especially with out government approaching a more and more totalitarian path each day. The director, Daniel Smith, puts it best in his notes from the program, "These men on stage tonight may represent a future to us that can be prevented, that can be avoided if we make the right choices, but for others this is their reality; this is their story, and its ending has yet to be written."

Tonight at 8pm is the last night to see "Barricades" at M.T. Pockets Theatre located on Spruce Street. For more information, call (304) 284-0049.

Weekend Roundup 4/7 & 4/8

2006-04-06T23:20:00.000-04:00

An extra hour will get you three days of shows, big and small...

Friday, April 7th
123 Pleasant St. - Descension Rate, American Sound Syndicate, Devola, Meuwl
Top notch across genre local goodness
Corner Cafe - '85 Flood, Dusty Hayes
Washtub in the window
Side Pocket Pub - Star City Orchestra
Funk City
Winston's - Hillbilly Gypsies
Burning Bluegrass

Saturday, April 8th
123 Pleasant St. - Duck and Cover Dance Party
Look out!
Blue Moose - Johnny Staats & Robert Shaffer, Todd Burge
Music returns to Walnut St. with two of the Mountain State's finest.
Fuel - Model with Cary Aria and Two Ton Grizzly
Indie
Side Pocket Pub - Nakano
Etheral space rock

Sunday, April 9th
123 Pleasant St. - The Gunshy. Librarians, Mikey Iafrate
On the seventh day there was rock
CAC Concert Theatre (7:30pm) - Great Big Sea, Bob Schneider, Trevor Hall, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Shawn Mullins
Mountain Stage - West Virginia's greatest export

Support Local Music!

Duplication Survey

2006-04-02T12:38:00.000-04:00

Someone asked me to pass these questions on to some local musicians. I don't know if this is just for a class or for a real possibility, but it's just a few qustions.

1) If there were a local company in Morgantown that could perform good quality CD duplication for very cheap would you do business there after seeing an example of a product?

2) How would you describe good quality in CD duplication?

3) What other products would you be interested in getting that would specialize in helping local bands besides CD Duplication? (ex: stickers, buttons, ect.)

Weekend Roundup 3/31 & 4/1

2006-03-29T18:45:00.000-05:00

No fools here...

Friday, March 31st
123 Pleasant St. - Moon, Stonewall Jackson 5ive, Cobra
Brothers of Indie-vention
Corner Cafe - Future Kings of Nowhere, Midtown Dickens, Monkey Knife Fights
Catchy tunes from international waters (and North Carolina)
Fuel - Amber, Black Market Diary, Asleep, Stranded on Third
Hardcore rock and roll
Side Pocket Pub - The New Relics (Up All Night sponsered by U92FM)
Soothing pop sounds
WV Brewing Co. - Zen
Jam-a-rama

Saturday, April 1st
123 Pleasant St. - Jackass Flats, Halftime String Band
Halftime String Band CD Release party!
Fuel - Mojo Filter, Genius Negative, OFFSET
Loud and rowdy
McClafferty's - Herb and Hanson
High speed acoustic duo
Side Pocket Pub - Strung Out String Banned (Up All Night sponsered by U92FM)
Bluegrass to sing along too
WV Brewing Co. - Thred
Funk Pranksters

Support Local Music!

The virtue of the right venue?

2006-03-27T19:18:00.000-05:00

I like that I live in a town where "I didn't catch alot of music this past weekend", means I only saw two shows.

I started out at 123 Pleasant St. on Saturday night for the Hackensaw Boys/Morgantown Rounders show. The Morgantown Rounders are really cooking right now. They played a short and sweet support set which was in contrast to their all-night St. Patty's Day throwdown I had seen the week prior. The energy at both shows tops anything I'd ever seen from them in their "home venue" of the Rosewood. The crowd was large, hooked up with the band, and ready to get down. The Hackensaw Boys delivered an hour and half set that gave all in the room exactly what they came for: a two hour dance party of sing-along heavy bluegrass.

Both crowds were here for the band. They came for the music first, and the party second which leads to attentiveness and activeness on the audience's part. I for one, feel a good show starts with the crowd feeling like they are participating rather than observing.

I found out that such was not the case in all situations.

At setbreak I headed up the street to catch part of Thred's set at Chic n' Bones. Now, I don't frequent Chic n' Bones and other bars of that ilk, something I'm pretty sure I share in common with most of the people who co-habitate in this corner of the web. For me, if it's not a place I see live music, I don't really go. Now, recently Chic n' Bones has added a huge new room that is very, very nice. It has a high stage, a big dancefloor and an elevated bar that stretches the length of the back wall. It's the kind of room that in a bigger city would book exclusively mid-range national acts. I'm not sure what the capacity is, but I'm sure it's pretty big. It strikes me as twice as big as the Rosewood, and much more polished.

So here's Thred, ripping away with their origional brand of funk on a nice stage, in a nice room, getting a nice guarentee, and playing to hundreds of people who are doing everything in their power to pay as little attention as posisble. Hell, with the bar positioned as it is half the room have their backs to the band.

Now, these people didn't come to listen to music. They're here to get wasted and laid. Band? Music? Who cares. In fact, there is now a new line inside the bar to get back into the "old room" which is more suited for simply sitting and drinking.

On one hand, the band is being paid nicely (though I beleive had to bring their own sound), it's a nice room, and there are alot of people there. To grow as a band you have to expand your audience past your friends, roommates and non-gender-specific significant others, but at what cost?

The question is: is this type of gig a good gig for a local band who plays origional music?

Everyone Needs a Drummer

2006-03-27T16:54:00.000-05:00

Reports this week that the number of formerly drummer-laden bands now drummerless in the town of Mo has reached three. Maximum Headlessness have been on the prowl for a drummer for some time (I think theirs moved or went into the military), Bowling League have been sans drummer since the departure of workaholic Kevin Post, and Descension Rate robo-drummer Vicious is moving to Tennessee to start a new job. Drummers often end up doing double duty but I suggest flyering to find some unmined drummers in the rough.

As for the D-Rate, they will soldier on with a completely robotic drum machine but are reportedly on the lookout for a human drummer who uses normal drums and a keyboardist. In the meantime they have two more shows with their current lineup, one multigenre show here with rockers American Sound Syndicate, hip hop heavyweight Meuwl and out of towners Devola from NYC, who apparently sound like every genre form the second half of the 20th century, and are female-fronted as well, keeping the bill 50/50 on singer vocalist ratio. The show is Friday week, one week after this Friday's Moon / Stonewall Jackson 5ive / Cobra rockfest.

Almost forgot to mention though that Descension Rate got on the bill of a major industrial show in Pittsburgh. They'll be opening for Slick Idiot, which is some of the fellows who used to be in KMFDM (#1 in Descension Rate's list of influences). Also on the bill are Pittsburgh's industrial flagbearers Rein[Forced] and a couple other bands I'm not familiar with. If you want some details, check out Descension Rate's Myspace page. Kudos to them for landing a spot opening for some bigtime folks in another city entirely.

Lastly I spoke for a while to Arms over Arteries drummer Chris Quattro when I ran into him at the Den the other day. I didn't catch their show at the Corner Cafe but they've apparently been touring a great deal and not playing much locally. I hadn't seen their name about for a long time until the show's flyers began surfacing, but they're still going strong.

Oh and very very lastly, I noticed via our barely-used forums that local one-man recording unit Shoe has finished an entire album which he describes as indie pop (not, I noted, indiepop) and is giving it away completely free to download here. Go out and get some free new music, and use the forum dammit. Thank you and goodnight.

Let the one-man cavalry rage on

2006-03-25T14:22:00.000-05:00

For those of you who like wide open spaces, and otherwise tortured actoustics, let's face it: Morgantown is not your idyllic sound station. However, if your cup of tea is being up close and personal with artists, and having a small bubble of sweet and blissful sound gracing your ears, then we'll steal your heart in a jiffy.

Now's the time to bring up a venue and start questioning it. The Corner Cafe, which is best known for hosting small acoustic acts and punk shows, hasn't been in the limelight in terms of venue stardom as of late, but I think that's about to change. Last night's show, featuring The Privates, Acid Police, Mr. J. Marinelli and Xylen Roberts, was a unique show for multiple reasons. Turnout was about as expected: heads were present but no one felt like sardines, and the rate at which people eventually showed up throughout the night was steady. There were several different flyers made for the show, and they were posted everywhere around town (the only sad thing about that is that the Den tore them down from their wall early Friday morning). Despite many people's inconsistent thoughts on just how helpful flyers can be, I know for a fact they worked. My girlfriend wouldn't have came it wasn't for the flyers made by J., Chris and Liz Beardsley (get in touch with her if you want whacky collage flyers made), and my sister, of apparent Summit fame, commented on many of the flyers plastered in the multitude of areas in mo-town.

As for the show, no pictures were taken, and it's something I regret now, seeing as I could have turned this in to a pretty layout and even introduced some fresh faces from out of town that no one around here as seen yet. But alas, till another day. Getting down to business, every band was great. Being a little siouxed, nothing could've hindered the time I had, but as taking a look around the Cafe, I know for a fact that everyone was having a good time and it was not just my solipsist nature telling me this.

First band up were post-punk hardcore thrashers the Privates, who many liken to a more metal-sounding Sonic Youth. The band was incredible at creating long, scathing compositions, and while they were playing, odd, sardonic thoughts entered my brain that will go unsaid. No one moved around much, but they were fools not to, cuz this music is made for that: never a dull moment, never a clean note of the guitar played--just havoc havoc havoc. And it was all controlled and sustained enough to make any new age punk fan happy. Thing is, after the show, I heard a lot of wry comments coming from the band regarding Librarians. It doesn't surprise me that two dissimilar bands would form such an indecent rapport, but what I thought was funny is that they actually kinda SOUNDED like Librarians at times. Some of the riffs were danceable in that sexy Librarians kinda way. Oh well, if it wasn't strikingly apparent to anyone else who saw the show, then I MAY take back that statement. Maybe.

Next up, the wonderfully dissonant Acid Police, who played a random sound piece that may or may not have started off as an actual written work. I'm not sure. The group is comprised of J. Gonzalez and Jim Rita, two key components of the Project Active Media syndicate, a stylish and well-run media group that has been doing an excellent job on raising scene morale in the western part of the state and in Marietta, OH. They used two guitars and a few effects pedals, some rare and vintage (a really cool Danelectro which produced sitar sounds) and others not so cool (does anyone remember the GRUNGE pedal...i think's it's made by Boss or Digitech). Anyway, the set totalled 20 minutes and every lush second of it was choas at its finest. The fryed circuit board that is their collective brain did a good job of clearing the room of less interested individuals, but a good amount of serious folk stayed to see what arbitrary sound would shoot out of the mainframe next. After the show, Rita said that the music (non-music?) was a "mental necessity." I think he's right. Let's hope they can come back occasionally to open for the edgier elite of mo-town.

J. Marinelli, always rallying against tradition, decided to play in the bar and took all the devoted '80s underground fanbase by storm with a pair of covers, one by Beat Happening, and the other by Jesus and Mary Chain ("JUST LIKE HONEY"!!!). However, these were hidden like buried treasure in his plentiful set and were not necessarily the highlights. I'm pretty sure he played all the songs off of "Pity the Party" and then some. It was good to see him set up in front of his monster stack of priceless vintage amps, too. What was planned to be a set mild in length turned out to be a walloping and energetic period of time. The people up front kept imploring the master to play one more song, as he did two or three times.

Playing last wasn't necessarily on Xylen Roberts agenda for last night, but he took up the opportunity like a seasoned vet, calmly and humbly. Also choosing to expose the bar area to his erratic stylings, Roberts set up shop and thanks to Marinelli's sound setup, was able to add a sprinkling of old-time effects to his sound that made all the difference. He played through a heaving helping of long tracks, some of which are available on his myspace site, and some of which may not be heard again. The instrumentation, although only brought to the plate with a single keyboard and some programmed drum beats, is what is kept in the forefront and it's always a pleasure to hear the man go off on long tangents between verses. A large chunk is improvised and another large chunk is planned, but it all comes together as a nice hunk of electronic lovin'.

Weekend Roundup 3/24 & 3/25

2006-03-24T10:29:00.000-05:00

Pick yourselves up off of the floor and go see a show!

Friday, March 24th
123 Pleasant St. - MAYDAY! feat. Camera
Dance party/indie rockers
Corner Cafe - J Marinelli, Xylen Roberts, Acid Police, Homes
One ain't the lonliest number
Vandalia Lounge (Mountainlair) - Songwriter night hosted by Todd Burge (Up All Night sponsered by U92FM)
Share your tunes with the Mountain State's premier singer/songwriter

Saturday, March 25th
123 Pleasant St. - Hackensaw Boys, The Morgantown Rounders
Hootin' and/or hollarin'
Chic n' Bones - Thred, Magic Bronson
Funkin' throw down good time
Corner Cafe - Hip Hop Night hosted by Quote
Local hip-hop
Side Pocket Pub - Jathara (Up All Night sponsered by U92FM)
Soul/R&B

Sunday, March 26th
123 Pleasant St. - Law Biting Citizens, Moon, Monkey Knife Fights
Bid farewell to staples of the Morgantown music scene.

Support Local Music!

Using Eventful.com

2006-03-20T23:17:00.001-05:00

So, probably none of you know this, but my other passion, aside from music, is the internet, and emerging new technologies and design therein. Recently I heard about a new website that I wanted to tell you all about here, because I think it's something that all of us as both music enthusiasts and music organizers and creators can benefit from. The site I'm referring to is called Eventful.

Eventful is a web application set up to help us create, promote and find events of any kind, and it comes in particularly handy for creating and organizing shows of any kind. Bands, concert promoters, even venues can use Eventful to set up informational pages about a show. This seems like a better solution to the Myspace events, which I have used before, but I think a lot of people find aggravating. Check out this Eventful posting for a Cordero show at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco. Cordero played at 123 a year or more back, if I recall. You can see that there are links to the band, their label, maps showing how to reach the venue, quotes about the band, and one of my favorites, a series of tags describing the event which you can customize. So if you move to a city, you can do a search for rockabilly tags or krautrock tags or whatever floats your fancy, and it'll provide you with results tailored to your interests. The database that Eventful uses is open to anyone to use, and some enterprising dudes have even created an application called Podbop which finds all the bands coming to your city and finds free MP3s from their websites and downloads them so you can sample who you will be able to see in the coming weeks. That is if people use it.

Eventful is very new and not everyone has been taking advantage of it yet. In Morgantown I've only found listings for events at WVU's Creative Arts Center. Club Cafe in Pittsburgh (where I caught Cinerama once and will hopefully be catching Thomas Dolby very soon) has begun using Eventful to advertise their shows. In Charleston if I wanted info on the Nickelback show, I'd be good to go. So let's start filling this with actual content whicih interests us! I'm making an event for Friday's Mayday! and posting it there. Click here to go to it and check it out. Obviously you know what we do at Mayday!, but I do want to plug my friend Nate's band Camera, who will be playing with us. They're from Pittsburgh, and they've been touring extensively throughout the East Coast. They just released a new album, recorded with, I believe, someone who produced the White Stripes. They have a kind of bouncey, mod indie rock / pop sound. I think if you dig the Emergency you'll find something there to like. But don't take my word, check out their Myspace page if you want to hear them for yourself.

UPDATE: Almost forgot to mention one *very* cool function of Eventful. It has a 'Demand' section where you can request a band or event come to your town. So maybe if we all go on there and demand that, say Gang of Four come to Morgantown, well if there's enough demand maybe they will?

Lastly I wanted to mention TheGazz.com, which is a site maintained by the Charleston Gazette. I think the Gazz is an effort to appeal to a younger, hipper audience. But seriously, it's worth looking at and seeing how they're covering the live music scene in Charleston. I'm sure we could pull off something just as sllick if we did it as our day job. Anyone want to start paying us salary?

Weekend Roundup 3/17 & 3/18

2006-03-15T19:08:00.000-05:00

Beware the ides of March (ie, spring break)...

Friday 3/17
123 Pleasant Street - Braille Drivers, Hovel, The Love Me Knots, J Marinelli
Rock's finest.
Corner Cafe - Arms Over Arteries, The Draft
A fantastic good time with the scariest band name ever.
WV Brewing Co. - Rachel Eddy and the Morgantown Rounders
Mo-town's hottest bluegrass and old-time.

Saturday 3/18
123 Pleasant Street - Tom Batchelor Band with Small Axe's Tim Wiltshire and Duff McIntosh
Jam / reggae from a local staple.

Support Local Music!

Saturday Night Rock Show

2006-03-14T23:09:00.000-05:00

Saturday night at 123 Pleasant Street, the house was served a healthy helping of rock fury by two local acts, One Foot In the Gravy and American Sound Syndicate, along with Martinsburg, West Virginia's powerhouse, Vox Populi.

One Foot In the Gravy lured the crowd in first that evening. Lead singer/guitarist, Dave Krovich and bassist, Paul Valette opened the set with a syncronized scream, then they broke into the powerful instrumental, "Brooklyn". An audience member had this to say about Krovich, "Easily the best scream in Morgantown." New drummer, Kevin Post, appeared very solid and confident backing up the two guitarists, and the current line-up is very promising for future material.

The group followed with another instrumental cleverly titled, "Deuces Are Out Of the Question," on which Krovich addressed the audience, "I promise there's words coming soon." The instrumentals are far from boring, though, with aggressive guitar noises, and Krovich and Valette swinging their guitars around as well as striking fists between quick breaks in the music.

Krovich's voice is somewhat mellow and haunting at times which contrasts greatly with the dark guitar sound of One Foot In the Gravy. While there is an element of tongue-in-cheek humor with the name (the origin of the name can be read at www.myspace.com/onefootinthegravy), stage antics, and a cover-ish of George Thorogood's "I Really Like Girls," One Foot In the Gravy is very successful at incorporating hard-rock rage into their music without sounding mundane.

On a quieter tune called "Architect," Krovich sings aggressively, "Got this throbbing in my head/There's a bureaucrat to kill." One Foot In the Gravy is emerging as one of the more intelligent hard-rock acts in Morgantown, and rumor has it they are planning to record soon.

Vox Populi from Martinsburg, West Virginia followed One Foot In the Gravy, and their performance was full of intense rock n roll twists and striking lyrics. The name which is pronounced, pop-u-lee stands for the Latin phrase, "the voice of the people." Singer, Todd Young, revealed their twist on the pronunciation of the name to the 123 Pleasant Street audience, "We prefer the lie - Vox Pop-u-lie." Clearly, the group promotes the voice of the people while also being fueled by their own sense of hardcore individuality. Their myspage page quotes "revolution through revelation," and their URL boldly states, www.myspace.com/voxpopulithefirst.

The songs seem to be all about waking up and seeing the world as it truly is. On "Everything," Paul Cogle's guitars start out with heavy, drawn out notes and the echos of distortion while Todd Young performs spoken word lyrics, "Ladies and gentlemen/ we regret to inform you/ that we may have found/a cause for alarm."

On their last song of the evening,"Colorblind", the building crescendo of guitars blended with Young's incredible message created a storm of fury. "Fuck the things we’ve always felt/ it’s past time to free our minds," Young screams. "Fuck the ugly hand we’ve been dealt/ let’s take another look at each other: colorblind."

The power of Vox Populi is undeniable and anyone watching the performance had their eyes glued. Vox Populi is the kind of brutally honest rock n roll band people are drawn to with fans from Martinsburg, WV driving to Morgantown for the Pleasant Street gig.

Morgantown's rock veterans American Sound Syndicate headlined that evening, and the group was extremely confident on stage despite the recent loss of singer, Malissa Goff and the incorporation of new bass player, Dave. Haley Slagle, guitarist and lead singer, mentioned during the performance how it was weird being in the middle of the stage now, but this rock n roll woman beared no signs of such feelings when the music took over. She interacted with the band fearlessly, turning to face the drummer Woody O'Hara at times, and bowing next to her amplifier. Guitarist Adrian Larry's solos were particularly strong that evening as they have sometimes been drowned out at previous performances. New bassist Dave, also appeared very comfortable with the group and accompanied Slagle with backing vocals on some songs.

American Sound Syndicate is in an interesting stage of new development right now, and the 123 Pleasant Street audience Saturday backed them up all the way. In a recent Daily Athenaeum article, drummer Woody O'Hara (who has also opened Off Beat Music Store on Pleasant Street) stated they have been working on a new album and only have to "finish up a few more songs." American Sound Syndicate's last album was filled with Slagel's pop melodies fushed with Larry's rock guitars and O'Hara's intriguing drum beats. Surely, this confident group will produce another stunning collection of songs on their current effort.

Singer/ Songwriter Night at Fuel

2006-03-10T20:52:00.000-05:00

Singer/ Songwriter night at Fuel Wednesday proved to be an unexpectedly moving experience. There was plenty of blues mixed with fire-stirring rock n roll.

Shannon Jones from Bridgeport, West Virginia was the first act I saw that evening, and her deep soulful voice provided an insightful twist to several of the popular and original songs she played. Among the cover songs were, "The Drugs Don't Work" by The Verve, Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees," and oddly enough, "...Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears. At first, I was kinda turned off by the song for obvious reasons, and Jones even introduced the song as "a silly cover." The bluesy way she manipulated her guitar and allowed her rich vocals to take precedence somehow created a touch of depth in the pop song.

Throughout her performance, Shannon Jones appeared very casual in front of the small Fuel audience. She performed her set sitting down and swayed her body with the rhythms while appearing to lose herself amidst the songs. On an original titled, "Mood Paintings," Jones described the song as "a wave of emotion."

Jones' casual stage presence could be attributed to playing guitar since the age of 12 and also embarking on a tour with The New Relics. Jones even played it cool when a drunken male fan approached the stage area, and asked her to play a song about "having your feelings hurt by love." Aptly enough, the song Shannon Jones chose was titled, "Anything For You," and lyrics like, "I'm trying hard to give you what you need/ I'm asking you what have you done for me," struck a chord with audience members, who shortly after positioned their chairs closer to the stage area.

Among the other acts that played that night were Chris Monk on guitar and Ben Harki on harmonica. Monk, who an audience member described as "the guy who always has his guitar with him," also plays in The Strung Out String Banned, which Fuel owner, Bob, clarified is intended to be spelled, 'banned'. Harki and Monk stood comfortably throughout their set and shared a microphone while appearing well acquainted with each other's musical styles. Monk would gradually step away from the microphone to allow Harki the opportunity for solo.

Many of the songs possess a country feel with plenty of finger-picking, however, lyrics sometimes seem to be a bit improvisational, and after one song, Monk confessed, "I have no idea what I just said." Monk's songs feel as if they would be perfect for a rowdy, old-time bar setting full of beer bottles clanking around, and loud voices stirring, yet the intimate Fuel crowd looked quite attentive at the end of each song.

The third act of the evening was another young woman named Andra, who began her acoustic set with a sincere introduction, "I feel so honored to be here and play with all this talent." While her sound is somewhat aggressive at times and reminiscent of Ani DiFranco, Andra expresses a sharp sense of her individuality through her lyrics where she ponders several topics from travel, to relationships, to politics. During a political song, she sang out boldly, "I support the troops/ but fuck if I support you."Andra concluded her performance with a gutsy a capella rendition of Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz."

While the evening was approaching 2:30 am, David Bello sound checked briefly then awakened anyone, who was starting to nod off, with his intensely personal songs. Though the song, "Balls" is based on Bello's friendship with a jilted country musician, Bello's forceful singing style reveals some of his own personal struggle, "Fuck this town/ Fuck the music scene / I want to prove that I am a man."

Bello, who comes across as a shy, kind-hearted guy in conversation, bursts with passion in his songs. During "Monster," which deals with the topic of someone committing sexual abuse against another human being, Bello sends chills to the bone by singing from the perspective of the abuser, "No one knows I'm a monster, but I am." Bello clearly exorcises his demons through music, and for those who have not witnessed the emotional force of his songs, catch him at a local venue or pick up his new self-recorded EP Vicious Rumors at The Den.

Overall, Fuel is beginning to prove itself as a decent showcase for emerging local talent. Bob, the owner, has plans to hold singer/songwriter night again once a month. So keep an eye out for flyers or stroll by the Club Z meat market line to check out Fuel's events board.

Indie film night is BACK, finestyle.

2006-03-10T13:25:00.000-05:00

As you know, 123 Pleasant Street has (rather irregularly, if I'm not mistaken) has been showing some very worthwhile underground films on Monday night. And, on Monday, March 20th (the Monday after WVU's spring break), will be screening Rocket Fuel Films' We Jam Econo -- The Story of The Minutemen .

Not only is this film an extraordinary documentary on one of the most important and influential post-punk/proto-indie bands of the Reagan-era American underground, but it has yet to be released on home video, and is currently making small runs through small theaters and music/art venues throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The movie will start at 9:30 (so all you working stiffs and/or poor student swots can get to bed at a reasonable hour), and admission is FREE (yay!), so you'll be able to enjoy some culture (really!) without having to pay an arm and a leg.

So, if you have the time, and the interest, I urge you to attend.

More info:
www.theminutemen.com
(the movie's web site -- includes a Quicktime trailer w/cameos by Thurston Moore, Ian MacKaye, Richard Hell, Greg Ginn, Henry Rollins, et al.)

www.hootpage.com
(Mike Watt's incredibly charming web site, chockfulla awesome tidbits)

GL1TCH, 123 Listings

2006-03-06T10:21:00.000-05:00

Hey All,

Just got a bulletin from Dave Riggs, who organizes GL1TCH (I'm not sure if he has help or not), that they are looking for live electronic musicians of 'any genre,' although they want people who will actually be performing, not just cueing something up that they've written. They're also seeking people who can do video to go along with the music. They're looking at a possible date in late March. Their website is here.. Send e-mail to meow@gl1tch.com if you would like to participate. GL1TCH has been held a few times in the past with various local musicians and a few out of town guests. Most of them are faces you'd recognize from the live rock scene as well. The music tends to be more of the 'chin-scratching' kind of electronic music and not so much the 'ass-shaking' kind. So you'd be more likely to hear Downtempo and IDM than you would Ghetto Tech and Miami Bass. Last time some of WVU's Intermedia students did some pretty cool video and I hope they'll continue that tradition.

Also a reminder that tonight the Suicide Machines will be gracing 123 Pleasant Street with locals Law Biting Citizens (playing their next to last show ever) and veteran ska shockers Cryptorchid Chipmunk. It should be a big night for punk rawk. I *also* noticed that 123 has begun putting more updated postings on their Myspace page than they have on their .com site, which is both good and bad. I know that the website would be updated frequently if LJ kept in better touch with the guy who updates the listings (aka my roomate Tommy Molecule), and I think he runs the Myspace page himself so that's probably why.

Flyers and a Good Weekend I'm Missing

2006-03-03T00:13:00.000-05:00

Hey Folks,
I keep starting this blog post and having to stop it for something else getting in the way all week now, it's pretty frustrating but what can you do? By the way, if you want the weekend roundup just scroll down a bit. I wanted to talk a little about flyering, which I've considered talking about for a long time now but it seemed particularly pertinent this week. I got wind from a friend of the Librarians that they are having a problem with flyers disappearing. I was around town today and I noticed specifically that I didn't see any flyers for their show Saturday with Dayton's insane indie rock duo Swearing at Motorists and sultry Pittsburgh post-punks the Sexes (unfortunately it coincides with the date I'm going to see Belle & Sebastian in Philadelphia, I'm out tomorrow night). Apparently Ryan spent $30 getting some nice flyers made and they all got torn down lickety split. Now, there are plenty of possible reasons for this that affect everyone, but if there is someone specific tearing down flyers that is really shitty. Even if you had some beef with the band, it's a disrespect to the other bands on the bill and a shitty thing to do to the promoter (who in this case I think is LJ) and the bar itself.

That said, I thought it would be a good time to tie this in with my Athens visit from last weekend. Athens, Ohio that is. Ohio U. is in Athens and it has a roughly similar student population to Morgantown, but the town is a lot smaller in and of itself. So in terms of the student population they have a similar opportunity to us but in terms of the town not nearly as much. One of the big things I noticed is that there were a TON of flyers all around town and a lot of locations for them. Most local businesses including bars and retail shops offered a bulletin board that was right by the entrance where everyone could see it. Fat telephone poles beckoned to be flyered all around town, and not the metal ones we've got, nice soft wooden ones. You can see an example there on the right. I recommend clicking it just to enjoy Dance or Die's slogan "Surrender the Booty," with their pirate themed flyers.

The Blue Moose does a decent job of offering bulletin boards, although until recently I felt weird putting things there that would compete with the Rosewood. Black Bear has a bulletin board but it's way in the back and a bit hard to see. The Pita Pit and the Tomb of the Unknown Fanboy don't have boards but will allow you to put your flyers up in the safety of their store if you ask politely. The Den does allow ample wall space but as Rob was telling me the cleaning dudes tear flyers down on a regular basis, despite all his efforts (which include getting the landlord's go-ahead). I've also heard tell of some private citizens who despise flyers and routinely tear them down all around town. Please note that you can get a fine for plastering flyers up on telephone poles and on the the PRT pylons and so on. That said, I don't know anyone who has, and I'm not saying I've never done it.

The university is a lot better, providing good bulletins in the Business & Economics building, the Mountainlair (which you have to get stamped, be warned, but they're easygoing) and the Life Sciences Buildings, as well as scattered places in some other downtown buildings. The CAC has good bulletin access but Evansdale is much trickier. I used to put flyers up in Towers but you're supposed to get permission there too, and recently I discovered they won't let you flyer there if your event is at a bar (though the Side Pocket would probably be ok) even if you don't mention drinking. You could put some up and not ask but they'll probably get torn down fast.

Other colleges and other cities provide public access places for flyering. I'm of the opinion that it might be worth trying to find out if the city and the university would be willing to do this. It would cut down on the vandalistic flyering and allow people to organize cultural events more easily. ANyone else ever looked into this?

I just wanted to add that I have definitely seen a lot more flyers lately, which I think is a good sign that the live music scene (and the DJ scene) in Morgantown is healthier than it has been in a while. I can't emphasize enough, though, bands, DJs, promoters, please remember to devote some energy to flyering. I have been lax in the past when I'm busy (and I'm only in town three days a week) but it will really help attendance if you do this. I love Brian Connelly and Bombscare (I would be there right now if a severe allergy attack hadn't left me coughing and wheezing and asthmatic) but I don't see a lot of flyers for it and I think the turnout would be a lot better if there were a few regular-size, non-handbill flyers out and about. It's time consuming but if you've got time to put on a show, you've got time to flyer.

Just a reminder, I guess it's too late to plug Bombscare but tomorrow night is Bica-fit at 123. Lots of flyers with Corey's face plastered on them are all around town. Please go, the bands are great and the cause is a very real and close to home thing. The D.A. had a nice writeup and I hope it helps. I also noticed the D.A. covered a hardcore show at the Waterhouse which is interesting. I know it's a specifically Christian venue, and I haven't been there. Has anyone checked it out?

Weekend Roundup 3/3 &3/4

2006-03-02T17:54:00.000-05:00

Let the madness of March begin...

Friday 3/3
123 Pleasant Street. - Bica-fit A Benefit for Corey feat. The Emergency, Sandra Black, Tresurecat, J Marinelli
All-Star local show for a very good cause.
Side Pocket Pub - Hip Hop Open Mic hosted by DJ Mosta Lung (Up All Night, sponsered by U92FM)
Come bust some rhymes
West Virginia Brewing Co. - CK9 and the Old E All-Stars, Thred
Pittsburgh and Morgantown funk summit

Saturday 3/4
123 Pleasant Street - Swearing at Motorists, Librarians, The Sexes
Dayton Duo, Morgantown Mischief, Pittsburgh Power Pop
Corner Cafe - Hip Hop night hosted by Quote
Hip Hop
Side Pocket Pub - A Lesson Learned (Up All Night, sponsered by U92FM)
Hardcore Metal

Support Local Music!

Catching up and Some New Recordings

2006-02-23T22:37:00.000-05:00

Hi Folks,

Sorry things have been silent on my end. Luckily Mr. Hawley has been keeping things up on his end. First off, we have a new blogger here, Danielle from Ish will be our first female blogger and hopefully help us keep up with everything even better.

I was hoping to drive up to Huntington on Wednesday to catch Austin, TX's amazing Voxtrot but the show was cancelled. This may have been due to some problems they've been having at Huntington's HYAMP which is a shame. They're asking for donations to help keep the club running so you might want to take a look at their plight. I won't have a chance to compare and contrast Huntington and Motown but I am going back to Athens, Ohio this weekend for the first time in forever and will be attending a show at the Union, their version of 123 Pleasant Street. I'll be sure to post some thoughts. Incidentally, Voxtrot are mulling over making a stop in Morgantown to make up for a cancelled DC show. Please write them and encourage them to come, they're one of the best new bands I've heard in years and I know kids here would love 'em.

I've seen a few shows lately but been a little busy with Valentine's and Mayday! and work and so forth. Descension Rate had a stellar performance at their show last week with J. Marinelli, Electricity Comes from Other Planets and Nakano. They debuted several new songs, some absolutely crazy makeup which had drummer Vicious looking like something out of an old Wax Trax video and frontman Jeff Jordan looking like the male incarnation of a Narnian witch. They put out a 4-song EP which they're selling for the dirt cheap price of $3. I was present during the recording of said EP last year up at NYC's Quad Studios, which was an amazing thing to take part of. I threw a picture from the recording sessions up here from my Flickr for your edification, follow the link for some more. Anyway they sounded and looked fantastic at their show, and thanks to a good writeup by the DA there were a ton of metal dudes and dudettes out enjoying things, it's nice to see them bring so many folks out.

Speaking of ECFOP, they've really matured a lot since I last saw them. New guitarist Nick is a fantastic addition to the band and they remind me a lot of the kind of things Sonic Youth was doing when I was in high school and first getting into indie rock. Good stuff. I caught them with J. again as well as Ish and Bowling League at Fuel last weekend, which is a little small but cozy. J. also has a new EP which he's selling at shows and via Myspace. He recorded it at home onto 4-track, lo-fi style, but when you're a 1-man band the recording process is a little easier. Also he's got another EP coming out on Project Active Media and I don't recognize many song titles so I think it's mostly new. Hopefully we can get some reviews of these up here soon, and with the Emergency and Librarians working on full-lengths there should be a lot of recorded material out there representin' Motown soon.

Last, but certainly not least I wanted to mention something really important. 123 will be hosting a benefit on March 3rd for Corey Bicanich. You may not know Corey but he has played guitar in a number of Morgantown bands, including Sandra Black and Lobelia, but I'm sure many more. Corey's got some amazing stories about Morgantown and he's been here a long time. He had a really bad car wreck recently and is in a coma, and this is a benefit to help raise money for Corey's medical costs. Corey really deserves all of our help, and it's awesome that the local music scene has banded together to help. Some of the area's most veteran rockers will be playing, including the aforementioned Sandra Black, Mr. Marinelli and the Emergency as well as hard rockers Treasurecat. I really hope that everyone comes out to see all of these talented bands and support a really good cause. It could easily be any one of us in Corey's shoes and he really deserves our help.

Rosewood no more...

2006-02-23T12:13:00.000-05:00

Just thought I would repost this here for anyone who hadn't heard yet...

---------------------------------------------------
The Rosewood Theatre & Cafe Newsletter
February 22, 2006
www.rosewoodtheatre.com

.....a message from Gary Tannenbaum

Hello all, after a year and three months of many, really awesome shows and lots of good times, The Rosewood Theatre and Cafe has run out of steam. Due to a handful of problems (all of them having to do with money), I am cancelling upcoming shows, until further notice. It is with heavy heart and reluctant hand that I make this announcement, the Rosewood has meant so much to so many. I believe it had raised the bar on Morgantown's "culture meter", bringing new life to the music scene here.
The reality is that, the business end of things is in a stranglehold, and I just don't see the light at the end of the tunnel (all these metaphors, sheesh).
At least for the time being, folks, we have shut down.
Special recognition goes out to my staff for helping make the Rosewood what it had come to be.....thanx to Heather, Walt, Becky, Veronica, Casey and Jeremy. It would never come this far without you guys.
Thanks to my friends that have helped materially and with moral support.
Thank yous go out to all the performers that have played here. Keep making music!!
....and of course, many, many thanx to all of you that have come to shows...... keep supporting live music!!
We will keep you updated on any developments...... Rory Block ticket holders can return them to Blue Moose Cafe for refund..... sorry for canceling the rescheduled show (Rory will be at the Fur Peace Ranch in Meigs County, Ohio on April 9th)

Take care, Gary

A weekend of surprises...

2006-02-21T18:08:00.000-05:00

Had a suprisingly good time this weekend.

Didn't really plan on it being a rager, but it ended up that way nonetheless.

Caught Baltimore's All Mighty Senators on Friday night at 123 and they delivered, as usual. With no opener, and no local dates in almost a year, there was the very real possibility that this town could have forgotten about this band. Turned out to be just the opposite. By the time the Senators hit the stage around 11:30 the place was packed to the gills, and energy of an excited audience was palpable. Many folks around me were talking about how long it had been since they'd seen the Senators, or that they remembered great times seeing them way back when. Such was the same for this guy as well, as the evening as a whole seemed like a very real night in my life a few years ago, with a lot of old friends who I rarely run into at shows any more coming out of hiding for this one. The show was fantastic from start to finish. Guitar player Warren Boes may be the band's unsung hero sliding effortlessly back and forth between funky rhtyhms and blazing soloing, but all eyes are still on frontman Landis Expandis. AMS tore through most of their catalogue as well as Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire", ZZ Top's "Tush" and fan favorite "Rocky Top", delivering over two hours straight of their patented brand of rock and soul. Let's hope it doesn't take them nearly as long to get back.

Saturday brought to town the flat-picking fireworks of Larry Keel and Natural Bridge, as well as the exciting collision of the Emergency and MAYDAY!

I started at the Rosewood, and was instantly impressed with the turnout. Both types of Rosewood patrons were well represented: the sitters and the yee-haw factor. You can put me in the second catagory, one I found woefully unrepresented at Keel's last local apperance, where I felt my drinking, dancing, and enthusiasm were unwanted by some in the audience. Keel and company tore through number after number at a breakneck speed, rarely slowing down for a quiet moment. When he did, it was a cover of Mother Nature's Son delivered in his trademark low gravelly drawl. I checked my watch, and knowing that Keel would play for hours, I decided to get a move on and head down to 123 for what all involved promised would be a very special Emergency show.

They were right.

In honor of one skull shaped seventeenth brithday, the Emergency brought us a set comprised almost entirely of pop culture nuggetts gleaned from the likes of Husker Du, Wire, Belle and Sebastian, and the Pixies among others. I'm not afraid to admit that I barely recognized any of the tunes, myself. However, I greatly appreciates what it represents. Not only did the Emergency pay tribute to a pillar of the Morgantown scene, they are also exhibited their ability and desire to throw their audience a curveball every once and awhile, something I heartilty applaud.

Few bands, local or otherwise, deviate from the norm. They do what they do, and rarely make a concious decision from deviate from that. That's great. Especially when, like the Emergency, they're good at what they do. But a local band depends on repeat attendance, and in order to acheive that, one has to keep their audience on their toes.

After over a half hour of covers the Emergency brought us a closing trio of "Lie Detecter", "Sharper Chins Will Previal" (my favorite Emergency tune, not that you asked) and "Channel U". And that was it, time for the dance party. I, for one, could have used a couple of more tunes but I'm greedy that way. The best thing about Saturday's show was that the Emergency pushed the envelope, and upheld the number one rule of rock: leave them wanting more.

I spent the rest of the night split between the two bars catching the last 45 minutes or so of Larry Keel before returning to the dance party. The MAYDAY! scene was cool, and though I'm not much of a DJ guy, I was impressed at how raging the dance party was. I dug the light show and the songs, and the party in general. All told it was a weekend full of surprises, though in the end the biggest surprise was how much people like "Come On Eileen".

As usual, I saw some great shows at the expense of missing shows that were worth seeing. I missed the Marinelli/ECFOP/Ish/Bowling League stack-up, Star City Orchestra, Strung Out String Band and Todd Burge. All shows I would have liked to catch. Did any of you see these shows? How were they?

Weekend Roundup 2/17 & 2/18

2006-02-15T17:41:00.000-05:00

The doldrums of winter just gave way... for now.

Friday 2/17
123 Pleasant St. - All Mighty Senators
Rock and Soul, dedicated to movin' the booty
Corner Cafe- Hello Cantelope
Ska-based melons
Fuel - J Marinelli, Electricity Comes From Other Planets, Ish, Bowling League
Morgantown music marathon
Side Pocket Pub - Star City Orchestra (Up All Night, sponsored by U92FM)
Funk onslaught

Saturday 2/18
123 Pleasant St. - Mayday! feat. The Emergency
Dance party / indie rock big fish
Corner Cafe - 5th Column, Ashes of Serenity All Ages!
Contributing to the hardcore delinquincy of minors
Rosewood Theatre - Larry Keel and Natural Bridge
Flat pickin' virtuoso
Side Pocket Pub - Todd Burge (Up All Night, sponsored by U92FM)
WV's premier singer/songwriter

Support Local Music!

To The Forum, James!

2006-02-13T11:40:00.000-05:00

We've added two new forums to the Couches on Fire web forum thingy. One of them is so you can advertise for bandmates. The other one is so you can advertise shows. I do this because I love you.

Weekend Roundup 2/10 & 2/11

2006-02-09T18:41:00.000-05:00

Be Rock's Valentine.

Friday 2/10
123 Pleasant St. - Nakano, Decension Rate, Electricity Comes From Other Planets, J Marinelli
Morgantown-a-palooza
Corner Cafe - '85 Flood, Andy Tuck
Bluegrass Bastarditos, Greens frontman
Rosewood Theatre - Rory Block
Traditional Country Blues
Side Pocket Pub - Strung Out String Band (Up All Night sponsered by U92FM)
Bluegrass-travaganza
WV Brewing Co. - Treasure Cat, ZEN
Hard rockers, hippies

Saturday 2/11
123 Pleasant St. - Grafton, Stonewall Jackson 5, Ish
Rock love child of WV and OH
Corner Cafe - Quote, D Why, Chris FX, Black Haze and Meuwl
Free Hip-Hop release party
Rosewood Theatre - Old Time Jam
Bring your instruments. This means you.
Side Pocket Pub - Matt Estel (Up All Night sponsered by U92FM)
One man rock show

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Reviewing Friday's Show (and a couple other things)

2006-02-05T21:04:00.000-05:00

With all the discussions of touring acts not wanting to come to Morgantown, perhaps we should look at our reluctance to look further than our record collections for groups to check out at live venues around town. I, along with a sizable contingent of Morgantown, attended this weekend's Emergency / Apparitions / Priesthood show and I for one had a great time.

The Rosewood has a lot of good features as a venue – nice ambience, a big space and a fine selection of wine. Unfortunately for the non-wine drinkers amongst us, cheap beer, though present, is never copious enough. But the biggest issue from before, the sound, seems to have improved markedly.

Openers Mikey Iafrate and the Priesthood sounded good. I'm starting to become more familiar with their set and able to pick out the catchiest of their songs, although it was a little tough to hear the vocals and I always forget that they have an organ, the sound engineer usually buries it in the mix.

I didn't catch all of the Emergency's set but what I did hear was awesome. The can still bring out the old favorites and warm the cockles of my heart, and their new songs stick in your head long after the show. I'm really stoked to hear their album when its ready, and I hear it'll be soon. Also I can exclusively tell you that our boys have some BIG surprises in store for their appearance at our monthly Mayday! dance party in a couple weeks. It's a big secret but don't be afraid and come see them again, you'll definitely be glad you did.

Lastly I wanted to talk about the Apparitions, who are from Lexington, KY and Washington, DC. I talked to their drummer, Robbie, for a little bit and he was super-nice. The reason they've chosen to stop in Morgantown is a long-standing tradition of bands they've been in playing concerts with the Emergency, who were coming with them to DC Saturday.

They've been around for a few years, but this was the first time I'd heard of them. Their sound reminded me of a lot of bands in the 00s tradition of running indie rock through a vaguely britpoppish, glammy Iggy Pop filter, but they threw some of their own twists into the mix, like having three vocalists who can harmonize and had me thinking of the Byrds. They had tons of hooks and tons of energy. They have a new record out, entitled As This Is Futuristic that is apparently doing decently in CMJ. The crowd response was great and they seemed really happy to play here. Check out my Flickr stream for more photos from the show.

Now, if I still lived in Brooklyn it's possible these guys would have never hit my radar, but I've got to say that a big part of living in a town like this is taking some risks on upcoming bands and having a listen to someone you haven't checked out before who might even be playing with a local band you dig. I didn't catch Saturday's show at 123, but I hope it had a similar tone. Boston's the Beatings, who I hear compared to 90's Touch & Go Records stock, which made up a lot of my high school years' listening, so I'm wishing I could have seen the show.

Lastly I wanted to mention that Maximum Headlessness, who have a pretty good claim at being Morgantown's most crazy band, have released their debut CD and are selling it for $7. Check out their myspace page for more information. Also, Librarians are nearly complete recording their debut album in Wheeling. I haven't seen them out in a few months but it looks like they'll be returning to the stage March 4th opening for Dayton, OH's Swearing at Motorists who are returning to 123 after a long hiatus. That's gonna be a great show.

Weekend Roundup 2/3 & 2/4

2006-02-02T18:05:00.000-05:00

The Pittsburgh Steelers aren't the only people worth cheering for this weekend. Try any of the bands listed below.

Friday 2/3
123 Pleasant Street - The Argument, the love me knots
Pop meets barroom
Rosewood Theatre - The Emergency, The Apparitions, M Iafrate & the Priesthood
Local indie standard-bearers meets out of town rockers
Side Pocket Pub - Sabor Latino (Up All NIght - sponsered by U92FM)
Me gusta!
WV Brewing Co. - The Greens
More than just the blues

Saturday 2/4
123 Pleasant Street - The Beatings, Sandra Black, Sir David Bello and His Good Men
Art opening followed by indie explosion
Rosewood Theatre - Preston Reed, Wayne Rowand
Acoustic virtuosity
Side Pocket Pub - Bowling League, Electricity Comes From Other Planets (Up All Night - sponsered by U92FM)
Complete with bowling and rental shoes
WV Brewing Co. - SEVEN
Acoustic Roots Soul

Support Local Music!

Like Two Positively Charged Ions...

2006-01-30T23:31:00.000-05:00

Listen up all you angry, disheveled promoters who think that our "small town" market can't pull in a sizeable heap of starving observers willing to eat up any interesting act out there: This place is all we have and when we ask you if there's a chance one of your clients can grace us with their presence on a stage (no matter how small and filthy), the least you can do is POLITELY decline the offer and concoct a lie that better suits my needs. I'm sick of all this "we've had trouble there before" and "sorry, we're only playing major markets." The latter of those two was honest, but still, what's it going to take to pull in some indie heavyweights?

For one, it usually has something to do with the particular promoter being dealt with. I'm obviously not going to mention names or even pretend to conceal company names with fake company names; that's simply not my style. What I'm going to do, however, is cry and complain and hope that someone out there reading this feels my sardonic pain.

Live music is my baby and my baby is currently malnourished. But that's not to say the local acts haven't been pulling their own weight. Oh god no. Every local show I've been to in the past few months has been more than stellar, and it's actually good to see new acts sprout up and finally get their piece of the pie (who knew Bello and Black Giraffe would kick so much ass right out of the box?). Thing is, amongst all the live stuff there are hundreds of kids/adults/music enthusiasts who NEED their fill of national touring acts. As much as we're all up on music, it's definitely impossible to cure all of our ills, but I seriously don't understand why some bands I contact have to give me the proverbial slap in the face.

I guess I just miss the heyday, you know, when at least one band everyone worships came to 123 every month or so. Remember Enon? TWICE? Even though they cited our stage as the "filthiest stage in show business," we still got them here and it was a huge success across the board. Does anyone recall Deerhoof and the Walkmen...all in the span of a week? That sure did fill my heart with more impetuous sparks of joy than any other week in rock, but I'm starting to become sad and dissilusioned over the prospects of another picturesque outing.

By the way, before I sign off and pass the mic to whoever cares to break it down for the kids, does anyone remember how pissy Camper Van Beethoven was when they performed at 123 a couple weeks ago? Even though I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the set, they had an air about them that was incredibly pompous and at times outright abominable. LET'S BRING THEM BACK.

So what did YOU do this weekend?

2006-01-30T13:14:00.000-05:00

I thought this past weekend was a really good one for the Morgantown Music Scene. There were a lot of shows, and most of them featured local acts. I managed to catch the Wailin' Elroys and David Childers show at the Rosewood on Friday night, and musically that show was tits. Both bands put on spirited performances. The Elroys have been quietly cultivating a Morgantown fanbase, and Childers seems to be more well known (by others in attendance, not by me). Whether or not you dig the honky-tonk sound, it was a fantastic show.

Saturday, I started at Pleasant Street and caught Thred's set before the Poogie Bell Band. A pretty standard "power hour" by a local band in support of a national touring group. I was mostly impressed by how great the sound mix was. Though it may seem like beating a dead horse, 123 is still the best venue in town and will continue to be for a long time. The differance in the way Thred sounded compared to their show at the Brewpub two weeks prior was like night and day. Too often local bands let their sound get mixed to the point where it comes to the ears of the listener as a muddy mess. I have little knowledge of the technical end of making music, and mixing sound, but I can tell when it's being done right. The 123 crew do it right.

I stuck around for a little of Poogie Bell's set, it seemed fun and galvinized everyone in the bar to have a good time, and that's what counts. Nice cover of Jimi Hendrix's Little Wing, though the rest of the tunes I caught seemed to focus on smoking weed and moving your butt. Eh, well.

From there I moved on to the Herb & Hanson show at McClafferty's (which is one of my favorite bars, but can be decidely hit or miss when it comes to music). That show was a great time, with a fairly enthusiastic crowd and spirited playing. Herb & Hanson mixed originals and covers throughout the evening, and generally tore it up. Rarely do you see a duo that features top notch playing by both members like this, but neither Herb nor Hanson are lacking when it comes to chops.

Still, what strikes me most about this past weekend were all the shows I would have liked to catch, but missed. Tanglewood seemed to be doing a good business across the way at the Brewpub. I heard the Matheny/Porterfield double bill went well, and that the Hovel show was fun too. Any place DJ Cutman is located is sure to have had its share of memorable moments.

So what I really want to know is this: what did you do with your weekend? Did you see any good shows? Wanna tell us about them?

Weekend Roundup 1/27 & 1/28

2006-01-25T22:56:00.000-05:00

It may be cold outside, but you should get out more.

Friday, 1/27
123 Pleasant Street - Hovel, Ish
Instrumental hard rock, three peice indie rock
Archies - The New Relics
Local pop-rockers
Rosewood Theatre - Wailin' Elroys, David Childers & the Modern Don Juans
Steel Driven Honky Tonk, Straight Up Rock n' Roll
Side Pocket Pub - DJ Saenz (Up All Night, sponsered by U92FM)
Latin Dance Party

Saturday, 1/28
123 Pleasant Street - Poogie Bell Band, Thred
Drummer driven dance rock, local funksters
Rosewood Theatre - Billy Matheny & the Frustrations, the Love Me Knots
Alt-country sensations
Side Pocket Pub - DJs Cutman & Blackout from Mayday! (Up All Night - sponsered by U92FM)
Will alter you forever.
McClafferty's - Herb & Hanson
Acoustic Duo
Fuel - Dave Bello & Shane Hines
One man slack rock non-bands

Support Local Music!

Open Mics

2006-01-25T21:07:00.000-05:00

Hey All,

Well, the weekend fast approacheth, but I think one of the biggest news items is the return of the Hip Hop Open Mic Night to 123 Pleasant Street next Thursday, the 2nd of February. If you're not already familiar with the night, people can come out and freestyle or do one of their own songs, and this time they're even having a 'beat battle' for up-and-coming producers. The night is hosted by DJ Monsta Lung and DJ Mischievious from U92, and Ace Beanz and Johnny Harmonic will be performing some sets as well. So I guess it's sort of a combination open mic / regulars night, despite the name, and that's why you'll be seeing a $5 cover. It's been a little while since the night was put on and hopefully they can get it started up in a regular way again. It's really nice to see so many different genres flourishing side by side in town and I hope it continues.

If hip hop's not your bag, the Rosewood has their regular acoustic open mic night on Thursdays as well, and you can usually catch Brett Hammon & Andrew Slater there. In fact, I believe that McClafferty's ALSO has an open mic night on Thursdays hosted by former Cheap Truckers Speed frontman Brian Porterfield. Keep in mind it's 21+ though kiddies. 123's regular weekly open mic is tonight of course, but if you're not already there you probably won't read this beforehand. I heard that Sea Hag, a metal side project of some of the boys from Librarians and Dave Bello's band, might be making their virgin voyage tonight if you make it out. Fuel has their open mic night on Tuesdays so you've got yet another place to be heard during the week. I also heard Thred would be appearing on WCLG tonight at 10pm, so if you're constantly checking out Couches on Fire you might actually have time to listen, otherwise it's probably too late (too bad I was busy at work today).

Lastly, nearly all of this info came from our brand new Myspace profile. Add us if you aren't already our friend, and if you're in a band, keep those bulletins coming and we'll pass along what information we can. Hopefully we can get another weekend roundup out before too long, but since it won't make it in before then, I should mention that the Virginia Coalition will be appearing at 123 tomorrow with support from the Underwater Sex Plants, who have some really nice sounding demos up on their Myspace profile. I can't recall the last show they played but it seems like it's been a little while.

Morgantown via Myspace

2006-01-23T22:56:00.000-05:00

The other day it occurred to me that Myspace was taking over the universe of band websites. Here's a site that makes it easy to connect with fans, give them songs to check out and ways of giving feedback to your band/project/thingee. The other day I noticed how even though the Emergency have a lovely website complete with their own domain, I was drawn instead to their Myspace page. Now I know some people despise Myspace, but for a fan of non-mainstream music it's gotten difficult to avoid because of the promotional options for bands, dance nights, clubs, and even record labels.

I browsed through Morgantown's offerings, and I noted most of regularly gigging bands at places like 123, the Rosewood and the Brewpub have myspace pages. So I thought I'd take a stab at separating the wheat from the chaff and provide you all with a vaguely comprehensive list of who's who on the Morgantown Myspace nexus, including all genres, entities and so on. It's unavoidable that this will leave someone out, but I'm trying to include pages where people have actually put in some effort and might conceivably play a show in the future, or did in the past. I counted about 120 active bands, musicians or projects, plus a smattering of venues, defunct bands and dance nights.

Due to the immense number of links I have divided them into some rough categories. Hopefully people will understand the need for this and not be too nitpicky on who's in what category. I also tried to separate active from inactive bands but I may have lumped some of each in the wrong section. And before I go further, does anyone know who the Foolish is? It's a one-man band with some of the yummiest influences, a record deal and a bunch of really good tunes and I've never heard of him/them before. Anyway take a look, there's a bunch I'd never heard of, maybe there's someone who could open up for you next time you play a show?

Clubs

123 Pleasant Street
the Rosewood Theatre

Indie

the Aviator
David Bello and His God-Given Right
the Black Giraffe
Bowling League
Braille Drivers
Electricity Comes from Other Planets
the Emergency
the Foolish
the Greenwalds
M. Iafrate and the Priesthood
Bobby Lane
Librarians
J. Marinelli
Moon
Nakano
Sandra Black
Xylen Roberts

Jam / Bluegrass

the Adventures of Maximum Jackson
Rachel Eddy & the Mo-Town Rounders
the Greens
Adam Hurt
Scott Phillips
Solar Plexus
Tanglewood
Thred
Vern's Pot 'o Chili

Hip Hop / R&B

304 Reconz
6'6" 240 (supposedly this is the link but following it gives the wrong profile, but he's on there if you search for him)
8bitz
Ace Beanz
B Hyphen
Big Savage Fats
Chivalry
D-Why
DJ Andvil
G-Mode Morgantown
Johnny Harmonic
ICE$I$
Jathara
Meuwl
Mischievious
NHC vs AOD
Profit Money
Questionmarkomcross
Tynisha
Way-D's Side Projects

Electronic / DJs / Dance Nights

Beloved Dead
Big Ass Manatee
the Bloodblisters
Bombscare
DJ ComaKid
DJ Brian Connelly
DJ Dude K
DJ Phorest
Dreams of Mirrors
Evasdad
HailDark
Mayday!
Plastic Surgery for Music
Anthony Steele
Telesys
Underwater Sex Plants

Punk / Ska / Emo

Accidental Fashion
Cryptorchid Chipmunk
the Days Past
Hate Ashbury
Hello Canteloupe
J.C. and the Latter Day Taints
A Lesson Learned
Law Biting Citizens
the Monkey Knife Fights
the Non-Stop Ultimate
Smokehouse
Unsupervised
xAPx

Metal / Industrial / Hardcore

Anger Within
Blind Tempest
Descension Rate
Diabolus
Justification
Mechanical Failure
Pinebox
Rezinus
Seahag
So Run Like Hell
Sweet Cuppin' Cakes
Thrall
Withouteyes
Walking Out Blind
Warren Hughes

Rock Comma General

American Sound Syndicate
the Argument
the C.O.Z.
Cherry Grove
the Doughboys
Matt Estel
Fake Eddie
Grundeldrag
Hovel
Ish
Jason Lewis
the Love Me Knots
Billy Matheny
the New Relics
One Foot in the Gravy
the Ones That Got Away
Sha

Experimental / Weirdness / Comedy

ah.
Tony Castillo
Demon John
Huron
Jimi Original
Krueger's Circle Jerk
Maximum Headlessness
Shoe
the Dirty Rotten Tampons

Acoustic

Almost Heroes
the Black Knights
Brett Hammon & Andrew Slater
Malificent
the Night Armoury
Triplane
Your Old Converses

Defunct Bands

Buddha Thunkit
the Caterpillar Scheme
the Devolvers
Dev / Null
the Dylans
Karma to Burn
Kukim
Peter & the Pets
the Tighty Whities
Tomorrow the World

Oh, and lastly as soon as it's working again I'll make us our own Myspace profile for Couches on Fire and post a link to it here soon.

Weekend Roundup 1/20 & 1/21

2006-01-18T13:43:00.000-05:00

Just because nothing has been going on here lately, doesn't mean nothing's going on here.....

Friday
123 Pleasant Street - Nakano, The Sea, Like Lead, Sparrow's Swarm and Song
Local Art-rockers supporting a local art show.
Rosewood Theatre - Steppin' In It
Old-Time Music from East Lansing, MI
Side Pocket Pub - The New Relics (Up All Night, presented by U92FM)
Local pop-rockers
WV Brewing Co. - Borderless Puzzle, Oshe
Jam-rock from the 'burgh.

Saturday
123 Pleasant Street - Davisson Brothers Band, Zen
Rollicking country-rock n' roll.
Gibbies Pub - the love me knots
Alt-Country
Rosewood Theatre - Shayar & Krooshal Force
Reggae, former Burning Spear alum
Side Pocket Pub - Ish (Up All Night, presented by U92FM)
Local three piece rock.
WV Brewing Co. - '85 Flood
Homegrown acoustic bedlam.

Support Local Music!

Exploring Reunion Tours in the iTunes Era

2006-01-18T12:21:00.000-05:00

So I went to the Camper Van Beethoven show last night, and I'm not gonna say much about their performance. I took a day off work so I could see the show, but also so I could get some work done today. I struggled to complete all the crap I had to do at work and drove back up to Motown in a rush with a little time to spare. When I got in the door I really wasn't positive I wanted to go out, because I was tired and a little frazzled, but I didn't want to miss the show. The openers really did nothing for me, so I went down to the bar and played pool for a little bit.

I never quite felt like being in a bar at a show but the steep $20 cover kept me from leaving. Camper Van Beethoven took the stage so I and my lady friend went up there to see them. Now, I won't pretend to be the world's biggest fan of Camper Van. I really only knew two songs: one an MP3 and one on one of the best mixtapes I have ever received. Judging on these songs, I anticipated something of a cross between the 80s college rock stalwarts the Feelies and the joke punks the Dead Milkmen.

I don't know if the band has always sounded as they did last night, or if they 'matured' as they aged. Knowing only two songs, it was hard to sit through material I didn't really know with probably quite clever lyrics I couldn't really hear. I was reminded of when I saw Aussie atmospheric rockers the Church at Mountain Stage in Charleston, based solely on their ethereal cult hit Under the Milky Way and Dreaming. It's difficult to enjoy rebirthed songs you don't know, even if you can imagine yourself liking the originals. When I saw the Go-Betweens' and the Pixies' reunions I knew all the words, and how every song went, so to see it reinvented was glorious. When I saw Mission of Burma I didn't need to know every single song, they had such bombast it only mattered that I knew half of their canon. But for Camper Van Beethoven, I think it was a tougher sell to someone hearing their songs for the first time. They just seemed a little blah. I hope it was just me. I saw a few other readers and contributors there, what did you guys think?

Everyone Has AIDS This Year

2006-01-17T22:12:00.000-05:00

AIDS is not just a disease. It's a lifestyle that millions of Americans are finding more and more appealing. Back in the '90s, nobody wanted AIDS, but now everyone wants to take a big ol' bite out of the AIDS pie, grinning ear to ear as AIDS juice drips down their chinny-chin-chins.

With profit margins and popularity at an all time high, many AIDS carriers are enjoying unprecedented success.

"The positive energy is just incredible right now," said Putnam County resident Darla Haynes, "when I first got the AIDS back in September of '99, I thought my life was over and that it would only get worse as I got older, that is, even more over than before. And that's pretty gosh-darned over if you ask me, but now I've got a new lease on life thanks to the recent popularity surge of my sexually-transmitted terminal illness."

Darla isn't alone. AIDS clubs are sprouting up all over the world and the official AIDS website boasts over 90 thousand registered users. AIDS is in full bloom, but that's leaving some commentators wondering if all this AIDS hysteria is good for your health.

Dr. Miguel Cintos of Dracula Valley says AIDS isn't cool at all "and neither is G-Unit, for that matter." Dr. Cintos believes that making a fatal STD a positive indicator of social status is going too far.

"I think it's going too far." the doctor said.

Some people wonder if AIDS is here to stay or if it's just a passing fad like Tickle Me Elmo, Swing Music, Flash Mobs, Crystal Pepsi, or Testicular Cancer.

Others, like 3rd year UCLA Sociology major Leo Jacobs, view this question as irrelevent.

"AIDS isn't about popularity," Jacobs said in a trendy uptown establishment "it's about respect. I had AIDS before the media even cared and I resent all these AIDS amateurs coming in here and contaminating a perfectly good disease."

Though the verdict is not yet in on the AIDS craze, Darla Haynes says she's going to ride this bad boy out for as long as she can.

The 32 year old single mother told the Associated Press "I used to think AIDS was the worst thing that ever happened to me, but now it's like I'm the Queen of the Prom. I don't want this to ever go away. If it does I'll probably kill myself."

A Panoply of Musical Events

2006-01-10T20:01:00.000-05:00

Dear Readers,
Well, those of you who didn't stop reading after our holiday abatement, anyway. I just wanted to throw a few forthcoming events out there that I thought were worth paying some attention to, some of which you may not be aware of. One is tomorrow night, and it's quite a packed bill. Harm will be headlining, and I don't know how they make their current incarnation, but I know John Lancia used to make synthy indiepop with them back in his Pittsburgh days, and speaking of John, 8bitz will be playing the show as well, possibly the biggest draw. Philadelphia's Squares will be coming down too and the local openers will include David Bello and Xylen Roberts. Dave has been playing some new songs out lately and Xylen Roberts hasn't played a show in a while, so I'm looking forward to seeing both of them if I can kick this cold I've gotten.

I also wanted to give a heads up to you all for next week. Tuesday is of course Camper Van Beethoven, one of the 80's college rock scene's most beloved and wackiest, whose Take the Skinheads Bowling can be heard during Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine, among other places. Thursday is a last minute DJ event that's being put on by Brian Connely, who sometimes spins with us at Mayday!. It's called Bombscare, and will feature four different DJs spinning house, trance, drum n bass and techno. I know that the electronic music community in Motown is very loose and has been trying to coalesce and do something, so I hope people come out and support them so that they can keep doing things like this. Brian will also be appearing alongside myself, Jeremy and musical guest Girl Talk at Mayday! on Saturday.

So to sum it up, a night of synthpop, a night of electronic dance music, and a blast from the past that we should be thankful is making a stop in our bonnie wee town.

Catching Up

2006-01-04T10:09:00.000-05:00

I don't know how everyone else's holiday break went, but mine involved a lot of hours working, and not much live music nor time in Morgantown. I didn't get to take part in New Year's at 123, I spent it in a hotel room in Atlanta, where I hear someone brought a couch down from WV on their flatbed truck for the burning purposes. Likely it's cinders now.

As for forthcoming shows, I'm curious about checking out the Sam Lowry show on Friday. Reason#1: because I haven't been to 123 in a dog's age (NOT a dawg's age) and because Mikey Iafrate and David Bello are once again combining their musical forces Constructacon style as openers. Reason #2: Sam has the same name as the protagonist in Terry Gilliam's Brazil. Oh, and while on the subject, Dave Bello Band has a new myspace page. It's got downloadable MP3s of some of the songs they play live, although I think they're Dave's mostly solo recordings, not the full band.

Then a week from Tuesday we can see David LowEry and company with Camper Van Beethoven. Hell yea. I'm gonna have to take off work for that. Did anyone hear who the opener was? The Emergency maybe? Oh, and a little plug, Jeremy and I will be spinning on Saturday the 14th, but you should really come out to see Girl Talk, who is making his triumphant return to Chez 123 and will surely be pantsing himself to the beat of Janet Jackson mashed with the Creation. Or something.

So did you all see any good live music while we were gone? Got some best-of-2005 lists maybe? I'm holding off on mine until I fully digest the new Broadcast album. Yummy.

Show Review: 12/6/05: Lucero

2005-12-08T12:30:00.000-05:00

I’m not really sure what to say about Tuesday night’s Lucero show. It was good. Really really good. It was the kind of rock show where you wake up the next morning wishing you could go again.

I thought I could approach it in a clear cut manner, a box-score-esque recount of the evening’s events like a lot of show reviews. They opened with Joining the Army > Tonight Ain’t Gonna Be Good. They closed with That Much Further West. In between, they played nearly thirty songs for two hours. They played my favorite Lucero song (My Best Girl), and they played songs I didn’t recognize. Hell, they even played a sloppy-drunk rendition of Sweet Home Alabama at the request of some of 123’s most vocal attendees (nobody’s casting stones, I’ve been that guy before).

The band was enthusiastic about playing in Morgantown, and Morgantown was thrilled to have them. In fact, over the course of the last eighteen months, Lucero has grown into quite a phenomenon around here. Tuesday’s show saw some downright fervent Lucero devotees treating a 123 bar show like a major rock and roll event. The show opened with the crowd’s enthusiasm literally spilling onto the stage in the form of a shower of Black Label. I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing, but the band seemed fine with it, despite Ben Nichols complaining that his pedals had mysteriously stopped working (hmmm… I wonder why?). I saw a lot of Lucero T-Shirts. I saw autograph seekers. After the show bassist John C. Stubblefield called the called the crowd “wild” and Ben Nichols autographed breasts (if that’s not the definition of ‘rock-star’ I don’t know what is).

During Tears Don’t Matter Much, the last tune before a three song encore, Nichols sang, “…and the kids they sing along”. And the kids complied, belting out the lyrics with gusto. Beers were raised in support, and friends were hugged. The cynical rock snob in all of us may turn up our collective noses at the crowd going nuts for a band’s biggest hit, but this just wasn’t one of those times. It was a “goose-bump” moment where the band and crowd were seeing completely eye to eye.

This town believes in Lucero. You know what, I do too.

(authors note: if anyone has good pictures of this show, send them to me or Pennington so we can put one or two up)

A little bit country...

2005-12-05T15:33:00.000-05:00

There’s lots of good action around town (and out of it) this week for those of us who are down with the country side of things.

Tommorrow night, Memphis, TN’s Lucero will be making a return engagement to 123 Pleasant St. This should come as no surprise to many of you, as Lucero has built quite a local following over the last year delivering a number of energetic performances that have spread the word of mouth like wildfire. For those of you not in the know, Lucero plays a blistering brand of rock n’ roll that has been described as ‘country punk’, or at the very least, alt-country to the core.

Appearing Thursday night at 123 are New Riders of the Purple Sage, performing with local hillbilly dance favorites the Davisson Brothers Band. NRPS are best known for their string of early 1970s Columbia Records releases which captured country rock in it’s infancy. Original New Riders David Nelson (guitar/vox) and Buddy Cage (pedal steel) will be augmented by Michael Falzarano (of Hot Tuna), Ronnie Penque and Johnny Markowski.

Both of the above shows start at 9pm.

(Also, though technically off topic since it’s not a Morgantown Show: Del McCoury Band will be at the Carnegie Lecture Hall in Pittsburgh on Saturday. This band is the bluegrass gold standard by which all other bluegrass bands are judged.)

Suggestions + Upcoming...

2005-11-26T20:18:00.000-05:00

Hey all,

I'm hoping to redesign Couches on Fire this holiday break, and then we'd like to start putting flyers up around campus trying to inform the unwashed masses that yes, we are here. But before we started all that business I thought maybe I'd ask you, the readers, if you have any suggestions.

Also, it's too late by now but I hope some people are coming out tonight for M. Iafrate & the Priesthood's show. Out-of-towners are Drekka and Vollmar. The former is a side project of Bloomington, Indiana's Turn Pale, who usually channel goth and danceable post-punk at the same time (Bauhaus meets the Liars) but in this form are more compared to Xiu Xiu's creepy ass rantings. Vollmar are, I think, a couple of brothers playing folk music in a style that is compared to Dave Pajo, Nick Drake & Will Oldham. Sounds like a nice evening of alt-country and depressing folk. I'll try to write an account later in the week.

In the meantime, those of you who don't work in Charleston three days a week should count your lucky stars. This week not only will you be able to check out hyperactive new wavers the Epoxies on Monday night with a cavalcade of Myspace-supported punk acts including Against Me, but also get to see Canadian indiepop/dancepunk combo Kiss Me Deadly on Tuesday with newbies Black Giraffe and David Bello and his backing band who change names constantly. I am intensely jealous. Someone better review these shows to rub it in.

Lastly, we are getting another concert by a staple of 80's college rock in January. On Tuesday, January 17th, Camper Van Beethoven will be gracing the stage at 123 Pleasant Street. Surely as big of a coup as Mould at the Rosewood. You may remember Camper Van for their seminal Take the Skinheads Bowling, prominently featured in the documentary Bowling for Columbine. Or, if you will, the non-punk equivalent of the Dead Milkmen. Later, members of the band formed Cracker, whose Low was played constantly on MTV about 1995 or thereabouts. Regardless, mark your calenders.

Never Feel Neglected Again

2005-11-22T17:27:00.000-05:00

Has anyone read the UnderDawg's (Oops! Vomited in my mouth again!) new NorthCentral Noize column in the Graffiti yet?

All is normal(ly shitty and boring), until His Royal Dawgness gives us his take on the Bob Mould show:

Down at the Rosewood, it was former Husker Du frontman Bob Mould, solo, on the Body Of Song tour. This guy has been through more permutations than I can count, but never fails to entertain, and he was right on with an affecting vocal style that was reminiscent of Sting, and a guitar technique that brings back memories of early 'Floyd, and Emerson-Lake, & Palmer (sic). He started the set acoustic with some high energy anthems to post industrial angst and finished up electric, which gave the room a strong college radio vibe. Good show. Mould is maturing into a classy, intelligent artist. Catch him if he's in town.

***

Need I say more?

***

Of course I do!

So I wrote Graffiti a letter:

Dear Once-Great West Virginia Entertainment Guide Whose Name I Refuse to Speak Out Loud,

It's funny how things change, isn't it?

Back when "The UnderDawg" began writing the "NorthCentral Noize" column, myself and a lot of other hardworking, independent musicians here in Touchdown City (you know, the ones that frequent that wacky, crazy "123" place?) were quite miffed by the fact that His Royal Dawgness deliberately ignored every Morgantown band that was worth hearing.

Now, after reading The Dawg's take on a performance by indie/punk legend Bob Mould
-- in which poor Bobby is compared to Pink Floyd, ELP, and Sting -- I realize that being ignored by the Dawgster is really a blessing in disguise, as our canine scribe has little to no musical frame of reference after 1974 or so. In other words, he don't know Dawggie Doo.

So Dawgman, keep up the good work, and keep ignoring us. Please.

Fair Enough,

James Marinelli

***

I usually don't do things like this, but I have to let the Graffiti know that at least some of us have standards.

Gunshy and The Black Giraffe

2005-11-19T23:02:00.000-05:00

In the midst of a lot of run-of-the-mill solo acts touring the country right now, The Gunshy stands out like an indie kid waiting in line to see a WVU football game (I know that happens sometimes, but still...). Not only does his feral lamenting reach for the stars, but his tall, lanky frame does just as much talking through something known as well-placed body language. Some may want to beat him with the gimmick stick and claim these are all forced in order to turn heads, but I can tell you for sure that every movement this man made on Thursday night was inadvertent, channeled most likely from the very form and structure of the songs and the mind that made them. For the short span of time he had between each song, he felt totally lost, not even truly acknowledging the crowd.

He ran through a couple songs off the new LP "Souls," and also some other gems that most people didn't know. This, to me, was what made it all the more worthwhile. Not knowing how an artist is going to perform is half the fun. Most of his lyrics were simple, to the point, but fierce enough in the way that they were sung that every spine in 123 was chilled to the core. My smile never faultered or lost its luster, even when he admitted defeat in one of his last songs, singing, in a low hush, "I've fucked my life up for rock 'n roll." Maybe you have, man, but we love what you're doing, so keep it up.

The Black Giraffe, switching the opening spot for the closing spot out of necessity, literally pounced on the unassuming audience of regulars with an almost surreal vulgarity. Gunshy was nice enough to give them a lazy, but heartfelt, introduction by saying something to the effect of "Yeah...so...The Black Giraffe is up next. I hear it's their first show...I guess that's cool...I mean, it doesn't really mean anything, but it's cool..." Then he just trailed off, smiling a bit for his compatriots. Little did any of us know just how much it would mean.

It was basically one of the oddest mixing jobs I've ever witnessed a band get branded with at 123, as they were seriously a wall of sound. It worked graciously in their favor, however, catapulting them into some whacked out and higher frequency, arresting the sheepishly dumbfounded audience, especially after the end of the first song, "Smigel," and all throughout the power-pop of their soon-to-be-SMASH (see that, i said "SMASH") hit "Goodbye Jones." The classic thing about their songs and the way in which they are performed is that each person's role is emphasized to it's fullest, with each member having a certain amount of input in each song. "Black Tar Lawn," the only instrumental the band played, was a perfect expample, given it's complex nature. Some of the notes were so bullet-quick and off-the-map from the original foundation they layed down with the early songs that it seemed like they might not be able to bring it full-circle. Thanks to Dylan (THE frontman), who knows a thing or two about the art of putting on a show after having studied them at 123 for the past year and a half, had a plan with the noxiously fast "last" song. It was definitely post-punk with a party vibe and I was happy to hear it.

Now, since this is the part where I run out of things to say, let me just tell everyone that if you are interested in seeing the Black Giraffe again, they are playing with David Bello (who also plays second guitar in Black Giraffe) and the Montreal-based dance-punk quartet known as Kiss Me Deadly on Nov. 29. It's gonna be one hell of a show, ya hear? (Me how I sound after seeing Walk the Line last night...sorry, guys).

2005-11-16T18:49:00.000-05:00

This is on extremely short notice, but I thought I'd give some of the readers of this blog looking for something fun to do tonight a heads up:
Three extremely talented solo artists in the Morgantown music scene will be playing open mic night tonight at 123 Pleasant Street. Open mic starts at 10 o'clock with John Miller, who plays country-tinged folk rock on his acoustic guitar. Some of John's biggest influences are Lucero, Uncle Tupelo, and Bob Dylan. While I wouldn't directly compare him to any of those artists, I think any fan of those artists would find John's music to be very enjoyable. I know I do.
Directly after, at around 10:30, David Bello will be playing a half hour set with keyboard accompaniment by Bernard Parsons. Seeing David play solo after a solid month or so of full band shows is very nice because he gets to play a lot of old favorites that the band hasn't learned yet and doesn't play. Bernard Parsons will add an interesting texture to the music that will let the crowd experience familiar songs in a new way.
Once David has finished his set, he and Bernard will switch places for a set of songs by Triplane, Bernard's current musical project. Bernie plays a mix of melancholy songs that remind me a lot of Mark Kozelek's work and more upbeat songs that could be compared to Mountain Goats. David's keyboard and guitar playing will add extra flavor to the already extremely impressive songs.
These three artists alone make it well worth going to open mic night tonight (it's free!), but there will almost certainly be other great musicians there. Almost every time I go someone very talented I don't even know is playing. And sometimes even bands I do know play: Nakano has been know to show up and play the final set of the night and Librarians even got up once to play a song (the trick is to have Pat Manzi yell "Librarians .... ASSEMBLE!" from onstage). So check out open mic night tonight if you can. Play a song if you want. I fully encourage you.

The Future Is the Future

2005-11-14T21:46:00.000-05:00

Sandra Black are in a way my first Morgantown band. I heard them before I ever moved here, and nearly everyone who's ever been in the band went to my high school in Charleston (current and ex-guitarists Brian Newruck and Corey Bicanich being two exceptions). They've been around far longer than that, but I picked up on them a while after their first album's release, and when I moved here 4 or 5 years ago I remember them as a band who made complex, layered shoegaze, a genre named for the tendency of its member bands to stare at their feet instead of moving around on stage.

Five years or so later, and a matured Sandra Black took the stage at 123 Pleasant Street this past Friday to promote their second album, The 40 Ounce Confession. Describing Sandra Black to someone has gotten harder as they begin to sound more and more unique. Songwriter Billy Zweiner
has hollowed out the layered washes of his previous influences, leaving only gently throbbing bass lines and alternately chiming and jangling guitars. At times the guitarwork suggests the wintry pristine quality of Scotland's Cocteau Twins, others the gleeful gooey guitars of early-90s indie rock groups like Boston's Drop Nineteens, who remind me of a kid stealing the sugary icing off of the My Bloody Valentine cake.

But it's not 1992 anymore, it's 2005, and Sandra Black have melded the moody, taut emotions of bands like Reagan-era darlings Echo & the Bunnymen and their modern descendants like Interpol. Mind-bendingly complicated drums form a rickety skeleton rhythm which the band tightly stretch their melodies along. The tension and driving pace of the music makes numbers like title track "40 Ounce Confession" and "Evil" the perfect soundtrack to night driving. Zweiner's smoky voice gets so hot it practically sears the words into the song. Meanwhile, "AM Rock" breaks down into a stripped down acoustic guitar and piano jam that would have made the Bunnymen smile ear to ear with pride.

But all is not dire in the world of Sandra Black. Happiness has reached into their songbook and helped pull out songs like the unabashedly titled "Love," and the practically bouncey "Eighteen." My own personal favorite is the gentle, graceful "Downer Hill," a sweet interplay of Cocteau guitar chime and piano and a sprinkling of sleigh bells slip effortlessly down into drummer Billy Zweiner's hyperactive pummel and then back to a snail's pace which Sandra Black heap their guitar and piano melodies back on until it slides back into silence.

As far as I can tell, most of the songs on the new album had been played at Sandra Black shows in the past, and they all made an appearance at Friday's show. But beforehand the band wisely asked local one-man band J. Marinelli and four-piece Librarians to open. J. ran through a quick set including a couple new songs and covers in front of a rapidly growing audience, and Librarians swelled the ranks of the crowd with their glammy danceable grooves as anticipation mounted.

But it was Sandra Black who were the stars of the show Friday night, and as they comfortably worked their way through their set of new material, I remarked upon how amazingly tight they are, and always have been. Drummer Daniel Zweiner and longtime bassist Jason Henry's rhythmic interplay set the stage for the guitar fireworks by Bryan Newruck and Billy Zweiner's vocals and synth work. I won't go into the live show too much since I've written so much about the album, but the final treat came in the encore. It began with a personal favorite of mine, "Change of Atmosphere," and included two more songs from their first album that I can't remember them playing for ages. The pinnacle was surely "Nyabinghi Dancehall," ironically a song named after the club 123 used to be, years ago. And with that final closing number, the tale of a band who must by now be 10 years into their career came full-circle. Here's to waiting for the next chapter.

Show Review: 11/12/05: Wailin' Elroys, Billy Matheny, Latvian Radio

2005-11-14T17:11:00.000-05:00

Everyone in this town knows we have shows. Good shows and bad shows. Shows that run late and shows that end early. Shows that start on time, and shows that never start at all. Loud shows and quiet shows. Out of town bands, and in town bands. Shows that are packed and shows that are empty. We’ve got it all, and see enough of them, and you can get jaded to the point of thinking you know what kind of show equals what kind of night. Sometimes you end up wrong.

This Saturday’s Wailin Elroys / Billy Matheny / Latvian Radio show at 123 Pleasant Street was the worst kind of show: it was fantastic and there was no one there. It could be wrong to compare it to the Billy’s 21^st Birthday Bash from a few months prior (also with Matheny and the Elroys) but this show brought my ears hours of music that I wished could be shared with more people.

The show was opened by Latvian Radio, a once and awhile group fronted by former Morgantown resident Patric Westoo and flanked by venerated pillars of Morgantown Matheny, Monday, and Porterfield. Westoo’s tunes walked that fine line between indie pop and alt country each had their moments, and all of them were highly accessible to those who (like myself) had no idea what to expect. Though only a once and awhile project, it was hard to tell. Save for one slightly botched ending, the tunes were tight and compact, Westoo’s vocals delivered with gusto, Porterfield’s solos driven and concise, and the Matheny and Monday rhythm section pushing everything along at just the right pace.

Matheny and his new band consisting of Adrian Larry, Haley Slagle, and Woody O’Hara (of American Sound Syndicate) are beginning to gel in all the right ways. Haley Slagle’s vocals are absolutely to die for and she adds so much to Matheny’s tunes that I don’t even know where to begin. “Reckless”, a slow and torchy Slagle-sung number opened the show and I’m still trying to get my mind around it. Every once and awhile you hear a song at a bar that is so good all you want to do is go home and put it in the CD player on repeat. This is one of those songs. As the last notes of “Reckless” hung in the air the band crashed into “One Story Town” and we were off. The rest of their set passed in a blur of twangy guitars, screaming vocals, and Matheny’s high energy stage persona. This kid never ceases to amaze. Most of the tunes from his self-titled EP made their appearance, but it’s the new songs which truly impress and make this reviewer salivate at the thought of a full length release from one of Morgantown’s brightest talents.

The Wailin’ Elroys were up next, and closed out the show. This Athens, Ohio trio does country the way country should be. The Elroys are not the tight jeans and big hat wearing country music of radio and video. They are the dusty, twangy, liquor and heartbreak filled music that the term ‘country music’ still evokes for me, but for few others. I stumbled randomly into their last Morgantown performance and found myself blown away by Bram Riddlebarger’s tunes and Johnny Borchard’s smoking steel guitar. I was sure that this town would take to the Elroy’s and they could build a loyal following here. I don’t think I was wrong, but it seems that the sparse crowd at Saturday’s show was a step in the wrong direction. The band was hot, and they didn’t let the lack of attention stop them from ripping through their set, consisting primarily of tracks from their Rhythm Bomb released Route 33. Their sound is classic, Riddlebarger with a vocal style that begs for a yodel here and there, and Borchard’s mellifluous licks melts your ears and breaks your heart. This band deserves your attention. Hopefully when they return to Morgantown, more of you will turn out for it.

I Saw God and/or Bob Mould

2005-11-11T13:45:00.000-05:00

Typical exchange, post-Mould gig.

Q: "What did you think of the show, J?"

A: (Wiping flecks of spittle from his slackjawed face) "Uhhh... I'll let you know when I've regained my powers of speech."

***

Half-stumbled, half-floated to the Rosewood Theater just in time to miss opener Donovan Monday, and -- with no-cal Moose Houseblend (black -- no cream, no sugar) in one paw, hi-cal Can-O-Feckin-Beamish in the other -- found a spot up frontwise, stage leftwise, where fellow "Let's-Listen-To-Zen-Arcade-On-Acid-Tonight" veteran and Morgantown punk staple Jeff "A" Antonini harrangued me about choosing not to open the show (I would have, if I didn't have to wake up at 7AM that morning, commute an hour to work and an hour back, etc. Sure, I gave the esteemed Robin MacWehrlebird the same harrangue -- he shoulda! -- but I digress, me hearties...). Acourse others were there, as Mould does indeed inspire a rabid, Madonnalike following; but instead of a plethora of teenage gurls in teased hair, black lingerie, fingerless lace gloves and Rosary beads the place was buzzing with thirtyfivefourtyish guys with the distinctive Mould "look": tallish, bookish, sexually ambiguous gents with close-cropped hair, work shirt tucked into belted blue Levi 501s, black work shoes, well-worn copy of Our Band Could Be Your Life or New Day Rising tucked away in canvas messenger bag for a hopeful postgig autograph. Glaven. I myself was gonna bring some Husker vinyl for the same purpose but I didn't wanna go all Chris Farley on poor Bob's ass like I did in '92.

Unsurprisingly, a representative from (just about) every worthwhile Morgantown band (Pabst and present) was in the hizzy. Not a shock, considering how Our Man (like fellow SST alumnus Mike Watt, a musician's musician) rewrote the book on his chosen instrument (an inspiration to everyone from Kurt "Sensitive Pisces Jesus Man" Cobain to Kevin "Pass The Fookin Donuts Ye Radge Ye" Shields), and by cracky, these blessed volume junkies didn't bat an reddened eye when His Mouldness strapped on his 12-string acoustic and launched into a frenzied, red-throated rendition of "Wishing Well" (from his outstanding, Richard Thompson-ish solo album Workbook) simply 'cos they knew that said 12-string would be the loudest, biggest, rudest, room-filling 12-string they've ever heard.

Having been absent from Mould giggage for upwards of a decade (Sugar at the Trocadero in Philly, 1995), It didn't take me long to notice a change in Uncle Bobbo's demeanour (and I ain't just talking about his fresh-from-Gold's-Gym guns, or the short, snowy beard either); the guy actually looked happy fer Chrissake; aside form perhaps one-odd dirty look to the soundman, gone was the famous Mould glower, replaced by an at-ease, almost self-deprecating humor (don't let the hi-volume, hi-energy, hi-angst body of work fool you, the man is an absolute sweetie). Of course, he didn't say a whole heck of a lot, as he had a lot of work to do. And what work! Mould rolled through a sprawling, epic batch of songs on both his 12-string, and his Sugar-era blue Stratocaster -- a setlist comprised of meteoric nuggets of joy and rage that must have been psychically culled from my own gray matter: "Wishing Well", "Celebrated Summer", "Egoverride","Circles","Favorite Thing", "Beating Heart The Prize","If I Can't Change Your Mind","Chartered Trips" (Holyfuck!! Chartered Fuckin Trips!),"Thumbtack", "See A Little Light","High Fidelity","The Act We Act","I Apologize","Sinners and Their Repentances", "Hardly Getting Over It","Paralyzed", "No Reservations"... each volley of song more intense than the last, Mould wrapped snakelike around the microphone stand, left leg pumping like a demonic piston, hands flailing on the strings of his Strat as if there were a loud, raggedly glorious band behind him.

Perfect.

After the encore (which included Husker Du's almost-hit "Makes No Sense At All"), and the second of two standing ovations, Mould left the stage to (in true D.I.Y. fashion) sell some merch and exchange words with the reverent masses, who--their minds being blown finestyle by Bob's set--left the room and went home recharged, inspired with the age-old punk ideal that Bob, like you and I, is an ordinary person, but an ordinary person who does extraordinary things.

Review of the new Sandra Black album

2005-11-11T11:47:00.000-05:00

Hey gang, tonight at 123 Pleasant street will be Sandra Black's CD Release party with J. Marinelli and Librarians, so I thought I'd review the new record in honor of the occasion.

Sandra Black's 5th record, "Children Are The Past" is a rock-opera concept album about the Whitney Houston/Bobby Brown relationship. Following in the footsteps of punk-pop megastars Green Day, Sandra Black is delving into less controversial but certainly not less compelling material.

The first track, "The Making of The Bodyguard" sounds kind of like Slowdive mixed with The Beatles song "Tomorow Never Knows" in which the calm re-assuring voice of Brian Newruck reads the lyrics to Houston's "I Will Always Love You" behind guitar noise and Billy Sheeder's demented cries of "I didn't know it would end up like this / I didn't know it would end up like this..."

Going into track two "Fame is Shame part I" we have an eery instrumental piece in which we hear droning sounds coming into constant conflict with the voice of Whitney Houston saying the word "Fame" followed by what is presumably Bobby Brown saying "Shame." Billy's brother Dan Sheeder plays accordian on this one.

Tracks three and four are nothing but insipid, My Bloody Valentine knock-offs that we've all heard a million times by a million different indie rock groups and Sheeder's lyrics, which are usually pretty good, take a definite turn for the worst. I mean, look at this garbage taken from "Whitney Whitney Whitney:"

Whitney Whitney Whitney
I cannot believe you changed
you were once such a cool lady
now you are a fool lady
you can't walk two steps
in dear ol' Morgantown
without catching a frown
from Mr. Bobby Brown
in Morgantown
West By God
from Mr. Bobby Brown

Whitney Whitney Whitney
the queen of the scene
has two faces it seems
i was on the pavement
thinkin' bout the government
hello darkness my good friend

At this point, one must speculate as to the future of one of Morgantown's longest-running and most beloved bands when they descend into a level of idiocy comparable to the Insane Clown Posse? Not to mention the blatant Michael Jackson ripoff in that second verse. If this were any other band, I'd have pushed the stop button and thrown the CD in the garbage, but this isn't just any other band. This is the band that gave us such musical gems as "I Got My Kicks," "Rock Song," "Milkshake," and "Holy Diver" I decided to sally forth and carry on and fight the good fight.

The fifth track and final track, "Where Will We Go From Here?" is actually really good. I don't know if it's good enough to make up for the horros that are "He Got Me Hooked On Drugs" and the aforementioned "Whitney Whitney Whitney" but it's pretty good. In this song, a more resigned, melancholy Billy Sheeder tells us all that "knowledge comes with death's release" and that until then "we should all love each other." This is the Billy Sheeder we are fond of, the Billy Sheeder who made the dream alive, the Billy Sheeder who bought us drinks, and the Billy Sheeder who unhooked our bras and felt us up in the ladies room. Billy Sheeder the Wizard. Billy Sheeder the Poet. Billy Sheeder the God.

In "Where Will We Go From Here?" we see a band at their best, but based on the utterly inane songwriting that precedes it, we are led to ponder how long before the magic is gone and the band relapses into a grotesque charicature of the band they used to be. Will future Sandra Black concerts feel like a Sex Pistols reunion concert? Only time will tell.

I GIVE THIS ALBUM THREE AND A HALF STARS, THREE YELLOW MOONS, TWO GREEN CLOVERS, AND ONE RED BALLOON!

Blue Tuesday

2005-11-10T17:59:00.000-05:00

It's funny how the term hype can lead to so many different subjective thought patterns. To me, Tuesday's show, all in all, was backed up by an extremely free-spirited sense of anticipation, seeing as I have never seen a full set from Nakano, and also that Isobella, a fuzzed-out shoegazer band, would be lifting their veil and exposing themselves to the Morgantown crowd for the first time since the last time they played here a couple years ago. Other people seemed to shift back and forth from mildly excited to alcohol-induced apathy by the night's end. Overall, however, the forces were with us on Tuesday, whether they were for or against.

After a debut showing of Aaron Hess' new self-produced film, "Has a Devil Put Aside," the boys from David Bello and Sebastian took the stage and received a strong group of admirers on the floor. In fact, the large crowds that have been gathering for show openers this year have outnumbered the closers by more than I can effectively count. At this particular show, Bello and friends took it upon themselves to use this to their advantage, setting up early and running through their songs like seasoned pros of 123. Breaking in to the first song, "Terminate," there were some minor difficulties with guitar tuning, but by the time the song picked up, it didn't matter: they shook it off, intent on increasing the power of the band's illustrious demagogue, Mr. Bello himself. Bello, for those unfamiliar with his style, can be easily compared to many folk-rock singers who, out of the respect I have in my heart, I will not name. To make a more educated comparison, I would link some of his lyrics to the carefree nature of bands like Built To Spill and Neutral Milk Hotel, albeit more emotionally charged and riveting. "Mountains and Valleys" and "Remember the Alamo," two songs likely to send the band to great heights, were well-received by the audience, especially those who have browsed his catalogue and know the songs by heart.

What was a little unexpected for me during the night was the affection displayed between Nakano and Isobella. It was honestly like a family reunion of sorts, with members of both bands bouncing words and one-liners off of each other at ever passing moment. You would've thought they grew up together, and after listening to both of their sets, you know they did, in some way or another.

I wasn't sure if one of the members of Nakano had taken time off or not, but the faces on stage definitely didn't resemble what I was used to seeing online and through short glimpses at past shows. Along with trading a face or two, they also traded in older some older songs for newer songs, and the voracity in which they played them was stunning. It was over before I could really pinpoint what had happened, but what does stand out from what I had heard previously was the use of long, drawn-out chord flourishes and less overkill on the three- to four-note, delay/reverb-drenched solos. This made for an excellent compliment to Isobella's style. Things ended on a pristine note as Mikey Iafrate joined the band onstage to do their own thoughtful rendition of a Smiths song that I can't really remember.

Isobella seemed as if they were on Cloud 9 during the entire visit, and it wasn't too long before they took the stage and let the happiness translate into musical form, doing so with only a Roland keyboard and Fender Jaguar at their side. They used pre-programmed beats and sound collages to lead them through that dark tunnel of performing in front a foreign crowd, and it helped; it made a good backdrop for their low-end sparkle fest of colorful playing. When I listen to them, either in person or at home, I get this overwhelming light-streaming-through-a-prism effect in my mind that I can't let go of. It's actually a lot like a kaleidoscope, and it rules. Their music could work a lot better without the pauses in between songs. Since it all comes from a very similar place musically, they could benefit from doing one long continuous track. But maybe I'm too picky; a movie soundtrack done by Isobella would be great though. The most thrilling part of the set for me was when it all came rushing to a climax at the end of their last song "Miles & Time," an aptly-titled song if there ever was one. That's all you really feel during it: miles, time, distance--the theory of relativity times 7. Whatever. It was a pleasure to have them here and for all of you who didn't stay for at least a taste of it need to be buried in the ground next to your pacifiers.

In other news, Bob Mould is playing in about 5 hours at the Rosewood and his set should hopefully span his entire career and also include several tracks off his new dance record "Body of Song," which further proves that the man has the guts to do something new and different. Also, a bit further into the future there will be an excellent danceable punk combo called Kiss Me Deadly playing, according to their press release, in Morgantown, PA. So if you guys wanna carpool up there, I'm down for it.

Are you out there?

2005-11-08T09:13:00.000-05:00

Dear Lost Souls,

We should have some new posts coming soon by people other than me (hopefully), but in the meantime I wanted to give a heads up on this week's shows. Tonight at 123 Pleasant, Nakano will be playing with David Bello and Sebastian and a touring act called Isobella. Isobella are evidently a shoegazer act, and have been compared to the Cocteau Twins and Slowdive, which has been my bread n butter since '95, so go and make me feel bad for missing it. Thanks, employer of mine. I caught David Bello & his merry band last weekend again and their songs just get more catchy each time. My offer of Jager shots for Baptiss Blacktick covery still stands, but I have to be there, boys. Also M. Iafrate will be lending his musical skieelz to Nakano, and Aaron Hess will be screening a short film beforehand, so arrive early and ready to revel.

And Thursday, for those of you unwilling or unable to pay the $14-17 to see Bob Mould, there's a band called Valencia playing at Fuel. I don't know what they sound like, but Mark Miller of Bowling League is setting it up, so it's reasonable to think it will be quite good. Show starts at 9, they play around 10:30 or 11.

Before I end this post, I'm curious as to just how many people actually read this blog. We have plans to redesign it and start flyering around campus to get more readers. Eventually. If you're reading this message, give us a shout in the comments and we'll see how many people are awake.

Surprise!! It's Bob Mould

2005-11-03T09:25:00.000-05:00

(from the Rosewood Theatre's website:)

Thursday November 10

Bob Mould

9:30 pm | doors at 8:30 | $14 ad / $16 day of show | 18+
Tickets available ONLINE, The Blue Moose Cafe, 1-866-468-7619

Last minute Bob Mould show, pretty nuts. If you've got $16 to spare, it'll probably be spectacular, if J. Marinelli's ranting about his newest album is true. For those not in the know, Mould made his name playing with Hüsker Dü in the '80s, a band who brought the word 'seminal' into our vocabularies. Not to be forgotten either is his mid-90s pop combo Sugar. Kudos to Gary for landing this, I hope a bunch of people make it out.

Weekday Family Fun

2005-11-01T10:59:00.000-05:00

Hear ye,

We've added a new blogger to our ranks, Patrick Dolan also writes for the DA and he'll be writing for us as well now, hell yeah. Legitimate journalists! That's right, we're not all scofflaws.

I wanted to take some time out to mention two weekday shows about to happen. Tonight is the Andy Pickens festival at 123 Pleasant Street. If you're unfamiliar with the work of Mr. Pickens, he's a local filmmaker whose work is often show by the Outlet, WVU's film club. There will be a screening of his films at 9pm, and 8bitz, Krueger's Circle Jerk and Rob Wehrle & Kevin Post from the Emergency will all be playing following that. I don't know if Rob & Kevin are playing Emergency songs or what, but if it's anything like Rob's few acoustic appearances you should really try and go. Krueger's Circle Jerk features Ryan Postlewaite from Descension Rate but there approach is much more comical than the old D-Rate. You can listen to them on their Myspace page. In fact they really don't sound much alike at all, but if you need to get your Ryan fix, then this is the time, as following last weekend's performance at Mayday!, Descension Rate are taking a break for a couple of months to write new material and present papers across the country on scientific concepts related to toxicology. No, I'm not making any of that up. Also at the show they should be selling DVDs of Pickens' work complete with bonuses like commentary tracks. How slick is that? Doors open at 7pm.

Secondly, tomorrow night there's another cool mixed-format show at 123. Local songmeister Mikey Iafrate will be opening up for folk singer Holley Anderson and a talk by Sander Hicks. All in all it sounds like a lovely evening of left-leaning carousing and libation. Hicks is oft compared to Henry Rollins and most likely will be covering issues related to his new book on 9/11, The Big Wedding. Holley's name can barely be separated from the adjective radical in some form, and her bio namechecks the folk powerhouses of Dylan and Difranco. So, if this Alito's-going-to-overturn-Roe v. Wade business has got you down, come down to 123 for a good pickmeup. Morgantown's stalwarts of punk rawk Law Biting Citizens will finish out the night. The show starts at 9pm, and the tide appears to have turned in the early vs. late show debate, so make sure you get there on time or you'll miss some stuff.

Grafitti & Halloween Weekend

2005-10-27T14:43:00.000-04:00

People must wonder why I ever read Grafitti, but there's a stand right by the Subway I sometimes eat lunch at in Charleton, and damn that line is long. A couple of us here at Couches... used to write for Grafitti...well, not myself so that narrows it down. Anyway, I was always kind of annoyed that they replaced Mr. Jeremy "Christmas Magic" Groghan with the 'UnderDawg,' a fellow who speaks mostly in dog metaphors and ignores most of what happens in Morgantown if it doesn't happen at the Rosewood. Not that the Rosewood doesn't deserve some coverage, but it's certainly not the lone center of entertainment in our city. Anyway I noticed he's gotten slightly better, mentioning a couple of the bluegrassier shows to come to 123. In this week's installment he even mentions Paul Vallette and Mikey Iafrate, although he somehow manages to misspell BOTH of their names. Still, don't look a gift dawg in the mouth. Um, sorry.

He also briefly mentions the Night of the Dead Bands and Mayday!, which surprised me even more. Given, he ignored the fact that Descension Rate are playing their last show until January right before Mayday! and Librarians are playing as well. In fact, Librarians are more of a Halloween tradition then our own dance party is. I'm speaking of last year's kickass Sandra Black / Peter & the Pets / Librarians show at Chez Penningtron/Edgar/Kuntz (see this link for photographic evidence of said party - warning: scandalous Jeremy Groghan photos inside). I can't wait to see everyone come out and dress up. The aforementioned Dead Bands show should be a treat too. I've never actually had the pleasure of seeing any of the bands, although I have played in bands with two of the people who were in them. Draegerman, Uk and the Peckerheads (members of these are now in Finder and Nakano) were all institutions long before I called 123 my home away from home, but hopefully as the living dead they will still be as limber and agile as in life, and maybe even eat some brains.

123 will also be hosting a massive metal show on Sunday featuring Southern WV juggernauts Byzantine and Halo of Locusts (ex-Lamb of God) as well as a celebration on All Hallow's Eve proper, Monday night, featuring the hilarious Dr. Murph and Hogblast. One time Dr. Murph showed a strange Nordic film in which a happy Nordic girl performed oral sex on a sheep. I think it was a she-sheep. It was still pretty bizarre and funny. Also if you're looking for something to do tonight, Meuwl, Jathura and Nauseous will be performing at a Hip Hop Showcase at the old uno due tre this very evening.

The Rosewood is hosting a Friday-night comedy show (Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad) and Sunday night SONiA & Disappear Fear will perform alongside Ryan Dunkerley. Disappear Fear apparently appeal to fans of folk, estrogen rock and Phish, so I think it will be a difficult decision for those waffling between this and the Byzantine show at 123.

Lastly but not least I wish Fuel and the Corner Cafe had websites but I did hear about a punk rawk show tonight at Fuel. Scandalous ska kids Cryptorchid Chipmunk are playing with Privates (sorry, I got caught up in the spirit of the moment), A Lesson Learned and JC & the latter Day Taints. I think all are Motown residents, although I remember thinking Privates are from Parkersburg for some reason. Anyway sorry to be writing more than my share but we should be adding some new bloggers soon so hopefully I can stop pestering you all soon.

Reviewing Monday's Show

2005-10-26T13:03:00.000-04:00

In between all my West Virginia jetsetting I wanted to write a little about Monday night's show. Monday was a nice break from the norm in quite a few ways. It was put together by someone outside the usual circle of promotion, featuring relatively new bands and the show STARTED AT 9PM and was OVER BY 1AM. With four bands. I kid you not. Kudos to Patrick for getting the word out for the early time and getting the crowd there early.

Upon entering 123 I was surprised by the lack of regulars - they all showed up after 10 or 11, perhaps not realizing the proper start time. Still there were a ton of folks there for a Monday night already, many of whom appeared to be new faces, and few of whom appeared old enough to purchase 'legal beverages.' Xylen Roberts was playing as I came in, but must have just started as I got there almost at 9. The setup is one guy singing and playing a Casio keyboard with an iPod providing the backup beats. It was an interesting juxtaposition of cheesy Casio tones (but not for the painfully alone), slow jamzz beats and sincere crooning that was a little like a very detached David Byrne. It sounds a little like someone trying to make little sci-fi symphonies out of the demo mode of a keyboard. I'd like to see his stage presence get a little more comfortable but it definitely sounded cool and altogether unique.

Next up was David Bello & the Stinky Slinkies, basically Mr. Bello backed by Trey Curtis from Librarians, Patrick Manzi, Kyle Vass and Dylan Balliett, and everyone except for Dave & Trey switches instruments. If you've heard David do an acoustic set you're pretty familiar with his voice and some of his songs. At times he reminds me of Black Francis. Maybe Stephen Malkmus on songs like Baptiss Blacktick where he howls "That fucker!!!" and then lets out this guttural squeal that cracks me up every time. I guess you could make a comparison to Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, because both David and he are very intense singers, but it strikes me as a bit off because Dave doesn't have that ridiculous air of melancholia and overestimation, and his songs are pretty gleeful. Like the vocals, little hints of early 90's indie rock poked out of the mix, most obviously Pavement and the Pixies. But like the vocals, none of the influence is overt in that way which so many "me-too" indie rock bands were in the post-Pavement wake. Standouts for me included the anti-love ballad Terminate, with clever lyrics and a bombastic, slackerish feel, and the surprisingly southern rock-esque (and I may slightly screw up this title) Hills and Valleys. The set was short but sweet, and I can't wait to let the songs sink in over repeated performances. If you want to see for yourself, check out this slick video made by the kids at Project Active Media.

The Planet The were up next. It was pretty incredible to see the headlining act start around or before 11pm, the time shows sometimes start at. TPT have two basic sounds. One style sounds as if someone took a pre-tragic-car-accident Tim Taylor aside and said "Look, Tim, this whole Brainiac thing you're doing is really cool, we dig the whole Devo on crack vibe, but could you maybe strip down the sound to guitar, drums and keys, up the tempos and change time signatures every...oh lets say 30 seconds?" Spastic, stop start robot punk/funk that you have no hope of keeping up with. The other mode is characterized by songs like High School Hands, a favorite of mine of their first LP, Physical Angel. The song began with singer Charles Matze grabbing a mic hooked up to a vocoder and spouting some of the song's surreal lyrics, and then a pause which seemed to draw on forever. He chanted the next line and then stopped. Finally the band broke into the song proper, easily doubling the tempo of the recording, in a process which geologists have termed "spastification." It kind of reminded me of the contrast between modern-day Enon and back-in-the-day Brainiac. Anyway, their set was quite good, as is their album on 5 Rue Christine (aka Kill Rock Stars). Apparently the prog angle is legit, because the stop-start stuff is fairly akin to Yes(?). But that's just what I'm told.

Anyway, last up were Red Oranges. They had a really good buildup to their first song with all the members running around the stage chanting, one of them yelling into a loudspeaker. Their delivery and intensity is good too, but despite changing tempos and being manic just as well as The Planet The, I never felt like they had enough melody or something I can't put my finger on. Bands like TPT and Pittsburgh's now-defunct A is A would change gears fast, but hit a meaty groove that you could have listened to for 5 minutes had they stuck to it, but Red Oranges seemed too attention deficit disordered to give you anything to latch onto. Still, very impressive technically, and nice to see a band from Shpeherdstown period.

Overall, very nicely organized show, good combination of openers and headliners, good promotion and very well attended. If you didn't make it you should definitely check out some of these bands in the future.

How about another weekend roundup?

2005-10-21T12:41:00.000-04:00

++++FRIDAY
123 Pleasant St. - Hackensaw Boys, Tanglewood
Rosewood - Junior Brown, Abigail Washburn
Corner Cafe - Spouse
++++SATURDAY
123 Pleasant St. - American Sound Syndicate, Ish, Billy Matheny - $5
Mountainlair - The Dave Longfellow Ensemble - FREE w/student ID - 10pm
Mylan Park - the Emergency - FREE - 7pm

What's everyone getting into this weekend? I'm thinking of driving up to the Warhol in Pittsburgh tonight to see the Mountain Goats, who put on a stunning show at 123 a year or two ago.

Alight the Thousand Couches

2005-10-15T20:46:00.000-04:00

Tonight is a night where we earn this blog's namesake. Have at it, miscreants.

Weddin' Bells

2005-10-13T10:42:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to post a big Congratulations to Beth Staley and Punk Rock Bill who are now engaged. Now instead of Beth, we can call her Mrs. Punk Rock. I'm frickin' happy as hell for you guys. You are awesome.

So, we have those forum things

2005-10-10T16:06:00.000-04:00

Poppets,

Long, long ago Mr. J. Groghan set us up the forums over there on the right. See 'em? Only him, me and Jodi ever signed up. Why is that? You could be using them even now to advertise for people to start a band with, or throwing out ideas for the newest David Bello and the... band. Idunno. Or you could least register. Indifference makes baby jesus cry.

greetings from the great white....east?

2005-10-05T18:41:00.000-04:00

Mo-dudes and Mo-chicks,
Everyone's favorite (perhaps least favorite?) impromptu party haver and 123 show booker, Jarrod Curry, here with a message from the city of brotherly love. Brian and Jeremy were kind enough to let me in on this little forum of Morgantown music despite the fact I'm no longer living in WV. The reason I asked to be a part of this thing was because I heard some people were "bent outta shape" (as my mom would say) regarding the $6 cover at certain local-style shows now. I thought I'd come in and make my little comment about seeing both sides (since I'm usually the middleman) and probably some sarcastic remarks that I think are funny but are probably in poor taste.
But I think for right now, I'm just going to keep my mouth shut and see what others have to say and how the show goes on Saturday. I'll be in attendance at said show and even though it will be the first show I've been to since I've moved where I won't hang out with celebrities or rock stars, I'll be hanging out with my friends and drinking some black label. So I'm excited. Feel free to discuss raising the cover at local shows, how awesome I am, how I suck, or whatever. See you dudes this weekend.

P.S.
Where the party at?!