Dumbek's Random Stuff

I was going to bore everyone with the goings-on from the last week, but I decided I'd rather bore you with a few random songs - selected for no apparent reason, other than they're what I wanna hear tonight.

First up - and the most important song of the night - is a track by Radio Birdman. RB was one of the last links from the Stooges/Dolls era to the Ramones/Damned era of punk. From Australia, no less. Criminally unknown in the US, they're worth checking out. Lucky for you, their very first US tour hits The Black Cat next week. That's right - first US tour. It only took them 30 years to get here (they started in 1974) . Now's your chance. Don't blow it.

Radio Birdman - Aloha Steve and Danno

Sloan - The Good In Everyone - Just your basic, kick-ass perfect pop song. These guys should be huge. No justice, eh?

Funkadelic - Funky Dollar Bill - The world needs more funk. Get off your ass and jam, indeed. From the incredibly uneven (but wonderfully titled) Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow.

Cedars - This Century - Despite my last post, these guys are still a great band. Big, dreamy sounds. Looking forward to the new cd.

These next two always remind me of high school. Back when WHFS was "our little secret". New Wave was was fun, exciting and oh-so-cool for the few of us living way out in the ghetto who got it. Most of all - it was a good time. These songs always remind me not to take myself so damn seriously.

Captain Sensible - Wot
Jona Lewie - You'll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties

The Phobes - Poverty Jetset - Apparently, these guys broke up. Too bad - great band. Good Nuggets-esque garage-punk

Pat Benatar - Heartbreaker (Live) - Suck it, hipsters. Pat rules!


Songs are only up for a week or so. If you like them, go buy something. If nothing else, do yourself a favor and go see Radio Birdman next week.

Hey Cedars - The next time you don't want to play a gig - just cancel it. If you can't be bothered to play for more than 30 minutes when you're the only band on the bill*, don't waste your fans' time. It takes some of us that long just to drive to The Black Cat. I feel bad for the folks that came in 10-15 minutes late and paid the cover charge, only to see you play about 4 songs and say "goodnight". Nice. 30 minutes is barely acceptable for an opener, much less a one-band show.

My partner was actually looking forward to the show. He heard a few songs from your Safety In Numbers EP and really wanted to check you guys out. Not only did you not play very long, but you didn't play a single song from your only official release. When you were done, my partner thought you were ok, but he was disappointed and agreed that we would have been better off staying home. Good job. Way to win over new fans.

Even when someone (no - not us) called out for "Fleets" as you were leaving the stage, you seemed to think about it for a minute, then decided it wasn't worth it. Thanks. You remember "Fleets"? It's the song that got lots of airplay on WOXY and brought you to the attention of a lot of your early fans. You could have at least thrown us that bone.

And while I'm whining, what's with charging money for something that's labeled a "promo cd"? If you're charging for it, it's not a promo - it's just a cheap cd. (a cd-r, actually)

I'm sure I'll be back, and I'm sure I'll buy your cd when it comes out. But last night's show just reeked of laziness and disrespect for the people that showed up to hear you play. I know you can do better than that.



* - the headliner canceled

From TrixieDVD:


The city of Portland, Oregon sets the stage for the third installment of Burn to Shine. Chris Funk of the Decmberists brings together 12 of his favorite Portland bands to perform in a house that is about to be burned to the ground. A cross section of Portland's vital music scene is captured in a single day, celebrating a moment in time and place.

Featuring performances by:

The Thermals
Quasi
The Planet The
Wet Confetti
Lifesavas
Tom Heinl
Mirah
The Decemberists
The Shins
The Gossip
The Ready
Sleater-Kinney


I haven't seen this one yet, but the first two were terrific. I doubt this one will disappoint.

Buy it here.

Crap.

Tower Records Files For Bankruptcy (Again). It's only Chapter 11, so they're not shutting down (yet), but it's still a drag.

Coolfer talks about it too.

It's only a matter of time until real record stores are a thing of the past. :-(

How much do I love The Slickee Boys?

I'm skipping a show by former members of The Grateful Dead. You have no idea how big that is for me.

I'm sure I won't regret it for a second. I love me a man in a fez.

Tonight.

A few quick thoughts on the last couple of days...

The Rollins Band show was intense. By the time the drummer would count-off a song, Henry already had veins popping out of his neck and sweat was flying all over the stage. He looked like he was ready to eat your children. Brutal would be another good word to describe it. Fantastic show. Good enough that I almost forgot they weren't the headliner. And loud. Boy-howdy were they loud. Search and Destroy, indeed.

X had the unenviable task of following Rollins. Not a task 98% of the bands out there could handle. X did a great job though. A few technical difficulties at the beginning, but they came through in a big way. Focusing on the first 4 records, they just kicked-it non-stop. Classic after classic. A few songs into it and I forgot all about Rollins. Billy is just as weird and flawless as ever. John always gives his all. Exene was...well...Exene. And that's always a good thing. I can't get enough of John and Exene singing together. That being said, having seen them more than a few times now, I can't say this was my favorite show. Maybe it just seemed too low-key after Rollins. I'm probably in the minority here when I say I wouldn't mind them expanding their setlist a bit. I know their first few records are classics, but I wouldn't mind a couple songs from See How We Are or even Ain't Love Grand. I'll take whatever they give me though. They certainly never disappoint. This show was no exception.

One weird thing....After about 6 songs there was a bit of a crowd-swell to my left. After a few seconds we noticed someone lying on the floor. Bob ran out to get help and within a few seconds the staff was there, helping the guy to his feet and walked him off of the main floor. I had just assumed someone had passed-out, but in the comments on my last post, John mentioned that someone fell off the balcony. Is that what happened? We were quite a bit in front of the rail. I would think he would have almost had to jump to get out that far. Nobody else appeared to be hurt. Did someone really fall off? Did anyone see that happen? I hope he's ok.


Anyway....Yesterday we ventured up to Philadelphia to catch Foo Fighters at The Tower. They're doing a short acoustic tour, featuring a lot of the songs from disc 2 of In Your Honor. I bought that disc the day it came out - not realizing it had copy-protection software on it. As soon as I put it in my computer it tried to install software. Nice. As a result, it's not on my iPod and I think I've listened to it 3 times. Thanks a lot BMG. F--kers. (I'm sure there are ways around this. I'm just too lazy.)

We went to Philly because the DC show was the same night as X/Rollins. I'd rather see the Foo acoustic show in a theater rather than DAR anyway. We were about as far away from the stage as you could get - upper balcony back in the corner. I think were were about 4 rows from the top. Yikes. But at least we got in. I think it was a pretty tough ticket. Unfortunately, due to a subway mishap we ended up missing all but 2 songs of Frank Black's set. Even those we heard from the concourse. Oh well...

The songs from In Your Honor were beautiful, as were the stripped down versions of songs from their other records - like "Big Me", "Times Like These" and "Next Year". They still managed to rock a little - even in this setting - with songs like "Best of You". Not surprisingly, "Everlong" closed the show. I didn't realize Pat Smear was playing with them on this tour. Bonus. Very nice show.

Slickee Boys tomorrow. WOOHOO!

It's simple, really. X is one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time. They've got the power of a punk band, the roots of rockabilly and folk, harmonies from Bizarro-world that just totally get under your skin (in a good way), lyrics that venture from personal to poetry to politics. When I hear them, I can never decide if I want to dance, jump around the room playing air-guitar, or just sit and listen - taking it all in. They're just that perfect combination of everything. No matter what mood you're in - they fit it perfectly.

Live, I've never seen them be anything less than great. Nearly 20 years later, X is still a band to be reckoned with. They still belt it out and put on a show that leaves most of these new little brats in the dust. They're playing at 9:30 on Tuesday. Don't miss it.


And if that isn't enough - opening for X on Tuesday is Henry f--king Rollins. Holy crap. Talk about someone who never fails to bring it... Henry could play for 10 minutes and come away completely spent and dripping with sweat. I haven't seen the Rollins Band before, but I remember those Black Flag shows. Yowza. And he just looks bigger and meaner and angrier than ever. Bring it on.

And if you can't make it to the show, listen to Henry's radio show on Tuesday from 8-10pm. It's called "Harmony In My Head". This week's show focuses on DC bands. Henry grew up here in DC. He knows his stuff. That promises not to suck. (Update: That may be PST. I don't know for sure.)

Oh - and Henry gets mucho credit for hosting the WedRock benefit here in DC a couple years back. Major points for that.


X - White Girl (live)
X - We're Desperate (live)



The X pic is from their website - copyright Michael Hyatt.
The pic of Henry came from his site - obviously.

Go buy stuff from X and Henry.

- a picture-perfect day
- a swimming pool
- a bunch of friends
- a keg of beer
- homemade cookies
- the Oozinator


Yes - Saturday goes down as another "good day". Dinger'll probably have a pic or two up later.

Thanks to everyone who came by.

It all rolls into one
and nothing comes for free
There's nothing you can hold
for very long
And when you hear that song
come crying like the wind
it seems like all this life
was just a dream

Stella Blue



It seems like 100 years ago.

It feels like yesterday.

I still miss him.

I got a very timely delivery of a bootleg DVD copy of The Decline Of Western Civilization yesterday. Timely because I'm going to see The Germs tonight at The Black Cat.

I don't recall ever seeing any video footage of Darby before. Good Lord - What a mess he was. Everything I've read about him talks about how people practically worshiped him. How he had a near Manson-like ability to control people. That's hard to believe, seeing how he could barely form a sentence or stand up.

Really looking forward to the show tonight. Darby won't be there (he's very dead), but I hear what's-his-name (who apparently used to be on ER) does a spot-on recreation of what Darby was like. Kind of a scary thought, really. He's a hot one though. Check out the pic.

Darby played for our team, btw.

Oddball Germs fact: Belinda Carlisle was their drummer for a very short time.



Here's a YouTube clip of "Manimal" from the Decline... video.

The guy in the purple/white shirt playing guitar is Pat Smear - Later of Foo Fighters fame. He's also the extra guitar player on Nirvana's MTV Unplugged session.



For your listening pleasure, here's "What We Do Is Secret".

Go buy it.

Last night's Sleater-Kinney show simply rocked. There's really no other way to put it. The ladies just came out and kicked our asses. Fantastic show. They're gonna be missed.

Last night I saw something I rarely see at concerts these days...an honest-to-goodness encore. Not a "we're gonna go get a drink, pee, come back and play a few hits" encore. We're talking a "house-lights are up, the exit music is playing, but the crowd refuses to leave and we won't stop cheering until the band comes back" encore. Sure enough - the house music stopped, the lights went off and they came back. Kick-ass indeed.

The show was broadcast on NPR. Download/Stream it here.

The last minute addition of French Toast as the opener was a nice, unexpected bonus. Technically, it was 2/3 of French Toast. Ben wasn't there - It was just Jerry and James. That was fine by me. I prefer French Toast when they were a duo. They were a bit more experimental then. As usual, they put on a fine set. Checkout Burn To Shine - DC for a glimpse of that version of the band. New record coming out on Dischord soon.

My post about the original postponed SK show made it into the Aug. 2 online version of The Washington Post's Express. Screen grab and everything. How about that?

Germs tomorrow.

8/18
The Slickee Boys
9:30 Club
Tickets on sale today (8/3)

I think I just peed a little.


Slickee Boys - "Gotta Tell Me Why"

Last night's Sleater-Kinney show at 9:30 was cancelled. Something about a power transformer overheating. It could potentially blow and kill the club's power. The DC Fire Marshall shut the club down.

I hadn't even been there 10 minutes when they made the announcement. I was about 4 sips into my beer when they told us to leave. I thought about lingering and finishing my beer, but I had thoughts of that Rhode Island concert incident and decided it was best to just leave while it was easy and safe.

It looks like the show has been rescheduled for this Thursday. From the SK website:

The DC show that was shut down by the Fire Department will be rescheduled for this Thursday, August 3rd. Doors at 7:30 pm, S-K will start at 9. Check back here for more details, or go to: www.930.com.

I guess I won't make it to see The Hard Tomorrows and Georgie James at Fort Reno tomorrow after all. Oh well.

Thanks to the club and the band for rescheduling so fast.

Remember when you didn't suck?


Dead Kennedys - MTV Get Off The Air