Dumbek's Random Stuff

I've only seen The Bellrays once - opening for The Pixies a couple summers ago. I remember being completely uninterested, but I couldn't avoid hearing them while sitting in 9:32, waiting for Bloc Party to come on next. Their sound kept pulling me in, until Dinger and I were finally standing on the hill outside the bar, totally getting into their sound. It's an old-school soul sound, but on top of a really hard rock band. By the end, we were dancing and cheering as loud as anyone else.

The Black Cat describes them like this:

The Bellrays might just be the best rock'n'soul band out there. And their secret weapon is Lisa Kekaula, a lead singer whose voice and stage presence occupies a middle ground between Tina Turner and Poly Styrene. As The Bellrays themselves like to say, "Blues are the teacher, Punk is the preacher.

I think the Poly Styrene comparison is a little steep, but not too far-off. I think it's more like Tina Turner fronting the MC5.

Much to my surprise they're playing the BackStage at The Black Cat on Tuesday. I was on the fence about this one, with the holiday and all. But after looking at a few YouTube clips, I'm all over it. I ran out and got my ticket this afternoon, just to make sure I don't bail at the last minute. This show is going to kick some serious ass. If you don't believe me, just watch the "Highway To Hell" clip starting at about 1:30. So awesome.


"Detroit Breakdown"




Covering AC/DC's "Highway To Hell"

setlist stolen from murmurs.com

R.E.M. 5/23/08 Vancouver, BC

living well is the best revenge
what's the frequency, kenneth?
ignoreland
second guessing
gardening at night
man sized wreath
disturbance at the heron house
hollowman
accelerate
west of the fields
houston
electrolite
losing my religion
time after time
let me in
the one i love
country feedback
bad day
walk unafraid
horse to water
supernatural superserious
sweetness follows
get up
i'm gonna dj
man on the moon


Holy crap. "Ignoreland"?! That's a song from A4TP that they've never played before. Never. That alone makes me think that anything can happen on this tour. Can "Sidewinder" be far behind? Just seeing "Time After Time" again is going to be worth all the traveling. So excited.

So, yeah, that band that I kinda-sorta like starts their North American tour tonight. It's R.E.M.'s first real tour in about 4 years. To say I'm a little giddy would be quite the understatement. Why am I not there? Because they're starting things off in friggin' Vancouver. That's a little far for me to go just to be at the opener. I can wait a couple weeks.

Things are shaping up nicely though. I got some time off work. We got our plane tickets for Atlanta a few days ago. Most of my show tickets have arrived. Still not-so-patiently awaiting my Merriweather tickets. I'll feel better when I have those in hand. We still need to figure out some lodging logistics. Dinger is bailing on MSG, so I think I'm just going to take trains from Philly->NYC->DC. Should be interesting.

After seeing these Ebay auctions, I had to run downstairs and make sure Dinger wasn't selling off my record collection. It doesn't look like it, but I'm keeping my eye on things. I have all but 2 or 3 of those records. Unfortunately, I bought most of them pre-Ebay and paid much more than they go for now. Oh well...


Photo of Michael singing Man On The Moon by Anton Corbijn and taken from REMHQ.

The Rosebuds - Lovely, as always. Started a little slow, but had everyone dancing by the end. I picked up a tour cd, full of b-sides, covers, demos, etc. Complete with handmade cover art. Sold to me by Kelly, herself.

British Sea Power - They were ok. They sounded fine, but dreadfully boring to watch. I loved them last time I saw them in 2004. Maybe it was just me. I left early.

The Cure - Fantastic. 38 songs. Over 3 hours. Perfect mix of hits, album cuts, old and new songs, including the first-time-ever for "The Perfect Boy". "Shake Dog Shake" and "Primary" were perfect. My two favorite Cure songs back-to-back. Excellent. Check out Kyle's pictures over at Pitchfork. Congrats on the byline.

Rustbuckit - Kicked-ass, as expected. The crowd loved them. Anxiously awaiting that cd (ahem...).

The Meatmen - Always classy. Where do you go after the first song involves a 3-ft. inflatable penis? Tesco brought the power, fury and fun. We even got a cover of Fear's "I Love Livin' In The City". It's been a while since I've been to a real punk show. I think I needed that. I think I'm starting to like Baltimore shows better than DC. $3 Natty Bohs, Hon.

Tomorrow - Los Campesinos! with The Aquarium and Pash. Nice triple-bill.

Blowoff on Saturday. I missed the last one. Looking forward to this.

The mother-f*@king Meatmen are back together. Stop whining and get your pansy-ass to the show. I don't care if it's in Baltimore. I don't care if it's a Tuesday. I don't care that some moron decided it was a good idea to book 4 bands on a weeknight. I don't care that it doesn't start until 9-f*@king-30pm and they probably won't come onstage until after midnight. You haven't seen them in over 20 years. You probably won't see them ever again. Don't be such a p*ssy and get your sorry ass to the show.

Fine. Fine. I'm going. Stop yelling at me.


And get there early, because Rustbuckit doesn't suck either.


Sheesh.

I think my new favorite album (at least for this month) is Despondent Transponder by Fleeting Joys. I know it's not really new, but I just got my hands on a copy. Bob turned me on to these guys a couple years back, but their CD has been long out of print. I had all but given up on it, but I just noticed that they decided to press another limited run. Excellent. Go buy it while you can. It's available on emusic and iTunes, too, if you're one of those download people.

It's total shoegaze goodness. A loud, fuzzy, swirly, feedback-laden, massive wall-of-guitar sound, with sweet, lilting, melodic vocals on top. It's like if Book of Love was singing over top of a My Bloody Valentine record. Beautiful.

Fleeting Joys - Lovely Crawl


In a perfect world, someone would bring them to DC and book them with A Place To Bury Strangers. That wouldn't suck at all.

The Patti Smith movie was awesome. Beautifully done. Not really a documentary or biography, but more of a collection of images, thoughts and scenes from the last 10 years. Highly recommended. It's coming to AFI for Silverdocs. You should go. The Q&A was pretty lame. Patti didn't seem terribly interested and she was kind of rude to Weasel when he tried to move things along - preferring to ask the audience for gum and talk about how much she hates wireless microphones. Anyway - We got 2 songs after the Q&A. "Wing" and "People Have The Power", both featuring her son Jackson on guitar. Excellent.

The B-52's were fan-tas-tic. I ended up getting there a little later than I had hoped, but still ended up about 12 feet back, directly in front of Cindy. The highlights for me were "Give Me Back My Man", "Strobe light" ("Let me kiss your Capital Dome!") and every song that involved Cindy playing bongos. The new stuff fit in very well. My only complaint about the new stuff is that they have to push out old songs to make room for it. No "Dance This Mess Around" or "Quiche Lorraine". Oh well. Great night though. I was sore for days from dancing so much.

The Virgin Mobile Music Festival was announced this week. We're in for Sunday, but probably skipping Saturday. I don't have the patience to sit through the rest of the crap just to get to the Foos. Sunday though - Wow. Stone Temple Pilots, Bob Dylan, Iggy and The Stooges, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Shudder To Think(!), The Go! Team and more. Yowza. I've never been to a real festival before. Should be interesting.

This week....ummm....nothing. I'd like to go see Travis Morrison, but it's not gonna happen. Again.

We're opening the pool this weekend. WOOHOO!

"Don't Take Pills!"
- Fred Schneider



Update: A commenter noted that Patti Smith: Dream of Life isn't eligible to be shown at Silverdocs. I was just going on what the film's website said. So you might be SOL for that.