Econo jamming with the Minutemen

Thursday, April and her sister went downtown for a run so I was alone for the evening. Normally that means video games, chasing the dog around the yard and listening to the stereo louder than I really should.
But not last night. Last night, I saw the light. The light of three out of tune punk rockers - D.Boon, Mike Watt and George Hurley - The Minutemen. Now, I've listened to The Minutemen many times before. There are a few albums at the studio, and "Double Nickles on the Dime" is in regular rotation on my iTunes. But watching "We Jam Econo" made it all pop.
How can a fat man, and his two skinny friends, who don't know how to tune their guitars grab someone as they have?
I have no clue, but their D.I.Y. approach to their music may be one reason. Raw guitar and bass with such an opposing approach to the treble/bass settings on the recordings that it would sound wrong in today's music market.
Political and social lyrics that don't take a literal approach. Dang! I think this is all I'll listen to this weekend.
Funny thing though. D.Boon died in a van crash in 1985 (not funny I know, bear with me) so the band stopped playing. Watt and Hurley along with singer/guitarist Ed Crawford formed fireHOSE. My sister was a fan of Firehouse - the 80's/90s hair band (she's embarassed now I know, I exposed this to the world so I'll one up her by saying I had a lot of fun at the Rod Stewart show we saw in '91) anyway, she bought 'Fly your Flannel' by fireHOSE thinking it was Firehouse. She didn't like it at all. I remembered this because my friend Robert and I were talking about how the same thing happened to a friend of his who was a Firehouse fan. Funny huh?

-DJr.-

Lollapalloza Day two - the crowds double

It was hot on the second day of Lollapalooza, so we decided to again, take a later train. We got to Grant Park in the middle of Built to Spill, and shot right over to where Wolfmother was about to begin.

Wolfmother was awesome. A great refresher into why people start to bang around on guitars and drums. Energetic, enthusiastic, fast and fun. We watch 45 minutes of this show with about 40,000 other people and decided that we were never going to pay for a festival of this size ever again. Thank goodness we got in for free. We met our friends Chad and Tammy and another couple whose name I can't recall. Sat for a while at the very back of the park listening for a few more minutes then began the walk to see ..

Sonic Youth. Neat. Finally, after listening to their fuzzy crunched up brand of feedback rock for 14 years, I got to see Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon on stage. They were great. A whole hour of screeching rock n roll. It makes me want to get a few of their albums I'm missing.
We didn't leave our spot after Sonic Youth since we had a pretty good blanket location. We decided to wait the hour out for ..

The Flaming Lips. Oh man, oh man, oh man! When people look back at everything they saw at Lollapalloza, they'll be talking about the man who stepped into a clear plastic bubble, and walked over the crowd to open the show. They'll talk about the 15 alien cheeleaders on the left side of the stage and the 15 guys in full Santa suits on the right. They'll talk about how the lead singer, Wayne Coyne, launcehed 20-30-foot long streamers over the audience, the 30 to 40 huge blue balloons he kicked into the crowd. The bags and bags of confetti that were being thrown around. The 20-foot-tall Santa Clauses, aliens and spacemen that danced behind the drum kit. How everyone participated in sing-alongs. I think all but 1,000 people that walked through the gates on Saturday were at the north end of the park to see the Flaming Lips. Not only was it a visual mind blast, but the music was stellar. Everysong was strong in its presentation. April and I decided that if we missed their show the next time they were within a three hour radius, we were not worthy of being fans of live music.
Once the Lips were done, we decided to take the early train home, take care of the dogs and get a good nights sleep. We skipped Kanye West. It's OK, It was April's idea, I just agreed to it.
Overall, a great Lollapalooza experience. We'd go back, but only if it were free again.
-D.Jr-

The center of our Lolla pop

So we've returned from our two days of Lollapalooza. We didn't catch everyone we'd planned on, but caught as many as we could.
Train schedule mishaps and the sort made us leave later than we planned on Friday, and had us coming home earlier than we'd hoped on Saturday, but we had a great time.
Friday we saw ...
Ryan Adams - what a dick. Plan and simple. The guy can play guitar great. He does some awesome Dead covers - Franklin's Tower, Wharf Rat were good. His songs were not. Plus, he played 20 minutes longer than scheudled throwing off the schedule at the opposite stage where we were waiting to see ...
Iron and Wine. I was real happy with these guys, plus, their lead singer has the best beard in the world. We stayed here for about a half hour, then walked to the other side of Grant Park (about a 10-15 minute walk) to see ...
The Ranconteurs. Wow! These guys were ten times better than we'd imagined. What I'd heard on the radio kind of bored me, but I'm glad we walked over. These guys rocked. A fun bluesy/rocky/punky mix of guitar driven sound. April said she wants to pick up the CD now. We fought the sweaty and sunburned crowd back to the other side for ..
Sleater Kinney. The all girl trio is taking an extended hiatus after this show so I wanted to make sure I saw them at least once. They were good. Not as good as I'd hoped, or maybe the sound wasn't loud enough, but they seemed to be lacking something. I did enjoy seeing them play and I think April felt a little more empowered after watching them. When they finished, we turned around to the other stage on the north side to watch ..
Death Cab for Cutie. Having been a long time fan, I was excited to see them .. but could've done without most of the people who showed up to 'watch' them. They considered watching to be talking on the phone, chatting about how much they'd been drinking, and screaming for no reason. And of course, standing right in front of Apirl so she couldn't see ... anything. The six songs we stayed for were great, and we made note that seeing them at a show that's just them would be better. So, we made the trek to the south side to see ..
Ween. YEAH! I love Ween. Childish lyrics about mollusks, children with back problems, break-ups, sexually transmitted diseases and pill poppin' child molesters. This is not music for your mama, but it is music that's catchy, filthy and funny. I loved every bit of it.
We packed up and walked around Millenium Park for a bit, caught our train back home and got ready for Saturday.

Day two has arrived ..

So, we missed our train yesterday and took a later one. We missed Panic at the Disco (no biggie) and the eels (Dang) but ran into our friends Chad and Tammy and made plans to meet again today. I'll do a full review soon.
Today, we'll catch the train - hopefully the right one today - and catch:

2:30 - Built to Spill:
Loud. Loud. Loud and very power driven. We'll get there in the middle of their set, but that's OK, I'll catch them at the Metro in October.

3:30 - Wolfmother:
A few guys from Austrailia have been getting buzz for about a year now and I finally get to hear what its all about. Their album is a fuze of BlackSabbath and early Led Zeppelin but modernized a little with updated lyrics.

4:30 - Sonic Youth:
One of the great D.I.Y. bands of all time. Fuzzy noise and feedback induced jams. I don't think this band has ever tuned their guitars in their 20-plus years of touring. I'm excited to see them for the first time. I've always thought of them as Velvet Undergroundy, but before they play everyone drops their guitars four or five times to get them out of tune.

5:30 - Smoking Popes:
One of Chicagos favorite locals that got kinda big, then broke up because the lead singer found Jesus. They got bac together in November for a club show/benefit at the Metro. APril and I were there and we'll be there for this one for sure. Power pop at its finest with warm harmonies and fun lyrics. This is one I'm looking forward too .. but we'll leave this stage a few minutes early to make it in time for ..

6:30 - The Flaming Lips:
If I could properly explain how excited I am to finally see this Okalhoma band I would have to jump out of the screen and force you to listen to 'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,' 'Soft Bulletin.' Lead singer Wayne Coyne throws pounds of confetti while his two band members play in full fuzzy animal costumes. They are surrounded by dancing bears, suns, moons, dancers and all of them are shining colored lights while Coyne uses a hand puppet to sing along with. Fake blood, and chaos on stage along with some seriously catchy tunes ... It's hard to explain. But in anticipation, this is up there with the first time I saw the Grateful Dead, my first Phish show, waiting for Paul McCartney to walk out on stage and seeing Ray Charles.

Nothing big at 7:30, we'll probably just walk around and pick up free stuff and maybe some ice cream ... mmmm ice cream.

8:30 - Kanye West:
OK, so most people wouldn't know that I like rap. Not much of what is out there today does it for me, but on occasion there's an album that pops. Kanye's 'Late Registration' and 'College Dropout' albums are pretty danged solid. April has been talking about this for weeks. We've never been to see a rap show live. Granted one of the biggest rap stars today .. in his hometown .. with the skyline behind him. Vibe should be high as West will parade around spitting out lyrics about growing up on the south side. I'm excited to see this too.
So, that's our Lollapalooza attempt for day two. We'll jump the train at 11 and head back to Indiana to get up at five pack and drive to Indy for the Brickyard 400. Hopefully Newman represents and Tony Stewart crashes right in front of us.

-DJr.-

Finally .. the updates I've promised

So today is Lollapalooza-Day 1.
With me working as much as I have been I didn't get to update as much as I wanted. So today I'll do a rundown of today's shows with a follow up tomorow.
So, here we go:

2:15- The M's:
A relatively local, up and coming Chicago band I"m not familiar with. I just want to see them to start off the day and hear what the local buzz is about.

2:30- Panic! At the Disco / The eels
April wants to see Panic! at the Disco. I hate this band. I truly believe they were formulated by the folks that run Hot Topic stores so they could sell more TShirts. The real story is they're a myspace / YouTube phenomena who spread like crazy through word of mouth. Now if they would only be ten times better live, than their recorded album is they might be OK.
The eels are one dude and his band of ever rotating folks. A couple of mid-90s acoustic rock hits and some solidly poetic (and weird) lyrics puts him right up my alley.

4:30-Ryan Adams:
The Whiskeytown frontman has gotten a lot of buzz playing with the Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh. Even playing Garcia's old guitar 'Wolf' on occasion. Someone I don't know too much about but that's what big festivals are for. The only thing I don't like about him is that he's insulted Chicago band Wilco many times. I hope he doesn't do that today.

5:00-Mates of State:
I have one album from them and can't remember what it sounds like. This is basically a refresher/filler spot before ...

5:30 - Iron & Wine:
Some may only know this band's cover of the Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" from the M&M's commercial. Soft acoustic ballads that can really brighten a day, or depress the hell out of you. Depending on what track you listen to.

6:30 - My Morning Jacket:
Having seen them open for Pearl Jam twice in May, I'm excited to see this band get a full hour of playing time. Kentucky twist of Allman Brothers/Black Crowes style rock. Both albums of theirs are in good rotation on my iTunes.

7:30 - Sleater Kinney / Violent Femmes
Decisions get tougher as the day goes on. I just turned April on to Sleater Kinney. A trio or punk rock chicks who could kick a man in the balls, pick him up, give him a hug and send him on his way. I love every three minute rough edged power chord of their early albums. April loves their more polished, later stuff. I'm sure we'll get a mix of both as this is one of, if not, their last live shows.
The Violent Femmes - one of Wisconsin's most fun exports (save my friend Jim Norlin) I've seen them three times already, but multi-thousand person singalongs are always fun. Especially when their drummer only has one drum and one cymbol. The minimalism of this band should make the White Stripes drool.

8:30 - Ween / Death Cab for Cutie
Dang ... what to do. April hates Ween. We both like Death Cab. I imagine we'll start with Ween, stay as long as April can stand it and then finish out the night with Detah Cab. I'm fine with that. Neither of us has seen Death Cab before. They are one of the bands I discovered six years ago. Became a fan, missed their local dive bar shows, only to watcht their fan base grow and grow because of MTV and the O.C. I was bitter for a while, but I got over it. Their still good. They'll still get my money when a new album comes out.
So, that's our day in a nutshell. Throw in some turkey legs for lunch and about 78 bottles of water and it'll be fun.
Day two in the morning .. I promise.
-DJr-