Car of the Month: Honda Hiccup

March is almost over and we almost didn't have a car of the month! The car of the month for march is the Honda Hiccup. The Honda Hiccup is an old Honda hatchback from the 70s converted to a pickup truck by some cutting! My coworker said his friend came up with this and built one in Southern California, but I can't get it out of my head.

Kind of Like Spitting - The Thrill of The Hunt

Kind of Like Spitting is not a band I try to push on people. It's whiny and weird. The songs are desperate and ugly at points. But, I just picked up the new Kind of Like Spitting album, "The Thrill of The Hunt," and there are so many things to like about it.

First, this is the third KOLS release in almost as many months. Hush Records from Portland put out two releases: one of all Phil Ochs covers and one of all originals titled "In The Red." My good friends at Redder picked up the, well... leftovers, and put out this one. Although both Hush releases are great, the Redder one accidentally is the most interesting.

First, it's the most casual. The songs are some Ben Barnett originals, but a few were by David J (of another one man band Novi Split). In fact, the first song on this, the title track, is a David J number.

Also, there are numeroous covers interspersed with the originals. The covers are interesting and earnest, not unlike my favorite batch of covers ever, Bob Nanna's 2001 covers. Bad Religion's song "You" is done wonderfully and will appeal to any fans of Tony Hawk. Redder had posted three Kind of Like Spitting Bad Religion covers on their website, and this is one of them. Mr. Barnett also plays "Lay Some Happiness on Me" by Jean Chapel and Bob Jennings, and "A Song For You" by Leon Russell and Willie Nelson. Those are songs I am unfamiliar with, but I love the casualness of the covers. Because of this, the disc could sound like a 'party album.'

Furthermore, Kind of Like Spitting covers a Kind of Like Spitting song. "The Thing About Distance" is taken from the old Hush Records self-titled release, and was one of my favorites. It features the timeless lyric "It doesn't mean I can't wish her the best / I hope she gets that job in Ireland." It's a memorable track that will stick in your head, and it's a great example of Barnett as a great songwriter.

But the best tracks on here are some new ones. "Share The Road," which is available for free download on www.redderrecords.com, is a brilliant bike-riding-as-relationship metaphor. It's well done and brief, cutting the proverbial fat right when it counts.

There is another take of "You Got Served" which was one of the high points on Redder's "Metaphysics for Beginners." In fact, that song is one of the few complaints of the album. It is such a good song it should have been the album closer. Instead, the album closes with a cover of Big Star's "Thirteen."

I have a large problem with the track "Thirteen" on this record. First, "Thirteen" is covered more famously by Elliott Smith. It was recently used in the movie Thumbsucker and appeared on it's soundtrack. Smith covered it for almost his entire career, and it also appeared in another short film. Kind of Like Spitting covers this song in the same style as Smith, adding nothing.

This is what is wrong. Kind of Like Spitting and Elliott Smith are not the same thing. They are both emoish boys from Portland, yes. Their methods are the same, but their results are not. The cover of "Thirteen" would have been much better replaced with Kind of Like Spitting's Yo La Tengo cover "Tom Courteney," which is excellent!

For me, the last track almost negates the greatness of the rest of it. The track says "I was just kidding - this is what I wanted to sound like" and it doesn't compliment the talent of Barnett at all. Luckily, the rest of this is killer I still love it.

Lastly, yellow is a great color for this. Kudos to Aaron from Kalpana, who I assume picked it out.

www.redderrecords.com

"Mopeding through the Pacific Northwest looking for Bigfoot sounds ridiculous to many but is something I put everything into and on the line for."

The best story I've read recently is of this guy who rode his moped from Los Angeles to the Seattle area looking for Bigfoot. I wish I had read this a week ago, because I just went to a Moped Army meetup the other day and could have asked them about this. Although looking for Bigfoot is considered ridiculous by most, the author is unfazed. He explains everything and gets you into the story, from his perspective. It's perfect zine writing, and I love it. Please do yourself a favor and read it:

http://www.crappylittledreams.com/expedition.htm

The Secret Stars - "Wait"

In a few weeks I am hopefully going to see Geoff Farina play live. Geoff is an indie rocker who has played in two major groups: the jazzy-emo ensemble Karate, and The Secret Stars. The Secret Stars are not well known. They recorded most of their stuff in the early 1990s, and were a quiet boy/girl indie pop duo. Their first song on their first seven inch is called "Wait" and it was covered by Death Cab for Cutie, which probably brought this song to the biggest audience. The song is really sweet, and both The Secret Stars' version and Death Cab's version are available for download on the online. I don't think Geoff Farina will sound like this or play this song live. His solo stuff is more jazzy, I know. But, that doesn't make this song any less great.

Link to The Secret Stars' version:
http://www.southern.com/southern/band/SECST/biog2.html

Link to The Secret Stars' website:
http://www.secretstars.com/

Label that put out the original seven inch of this song (and a whole bunch of great other stuff I won't get into now):
http://www.simplemachines.net/

Link to Geoff Farina recieving NPR approval:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4138925

Death Cab's Version:
http://www.barsuk.com/

Testamonials:
http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=132214

+
Every town has a diner,
where I'll meet you
and your friends, too
Things are just a bit nicer
over some coffee, you can tell me all about your day
I don't know much about you
Not that I want to
Not that I want to
Sometimes I can't escape from my room
So excuse me
I'll be just a little late

You will wait for me
You will wait for me

Every town has a corner
Where I'll see you
And your friends, too.
Hang out, looking cool
Saying the same things
Over and over again.
Sometimes we all feel stupid
We say the wrong things.
You're not the only one.
Sometimes we all get left behind
In a race of style
It's a dumb thing.

You will wait for me.
You will wait for me.
You will wait for me.
You will wait for me.

The Softies - "Lambretta Boy"

The other day Brad and I went to a really rad record store and they had a ton of seven inches. I picked up another great K Records release: The Softies' 1994 7" in the International Pop Underground series. It has a song "Lambretta Boy" about a scooter boy! I couldn't believe I've never heard of this song, especially since "Holiday in Rhode Island" (which strangely I did on my scooter just last year) is one of my favorite records. Although I am not up to speed on posting an mp3 of this song, the Softies page on Epitonic.com has "Sleep Away Your Troubles" which is the song that sold me on them. here are the lyrics to "Lambretta Boy":

I'd like to imagine your kiss is like dynamite
I didn't think that you would call me tonight

I like you
things you do
you're mod through and through

let's go for a ride on your sparkly Lambretta
I'll sit behind you and cling to your sweater

I like you
things you do
let's talk about The Who

It's all tight trousers and records to you
let's wear our parkas and sport big hair-dos

you're only 16 but you seem so much older
I'm 25 now and I can't get much bolder

I like you
things you do
wish I wasn't too old for you...
lambretta boy

Track stand

Today I was walking around SW 4th Ave and saw a bike messenger at a stop light. He did a track stand, which is when you balance on the pedals of the bicycle at a full stop without putting your foot down. He had a fixed gear, single speed bike. It was pretty awesome. Then I took my bike out for a spin and tried to do what he did, and I obviously couldn't. Keep trying!

Car of the Month

For obvious reasons, my Volvo is the car of the month:

Site Specific: Defiance, Ohio

Defiance, Ohio is an acoustic punk group from Indiana. Yes, I'll call them powerfolk. Their sound resembles some of my favorite bands, like the Lucksmiths and the Weakerthans. They sing about the weather and riding bikes and a lot of things that I enjoy hearing about. I thought the name was made up, but then I found out there was an actual city in western Ohio called Defiance. Anyway, their website is great because you can download all of their songs, except for their new stuff that will be released on a new record on Florida punk label No Idea Records in a month or two.

I like the songs "Response to Griot," "Bikes and Bridges," and "Chad's Favorite Song" a ton!

In "Bikes and Briges" they sing "Sometimes broken things make the best building supplies" and it's exactly what I want to hear.

Check them out here:

http://defianceohio.terrorware.org/

Scoot it good.

I just sold my 1984 Honda scooter, but here is a commercial with the group Devo endorsing them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqyeIbQPINo&search=devo

Pretty rad.

Remembering the Battle of The Bands

Two years ago in February, SUNY Geneseo held a “Battle of The Bands.” The Pink Cammies made their debut performance, as did The Tennies and The Get Awesome Ninjas, while Castawaves made their final performance. It was held in this big ballroom on campus. It was a fantastic, strange, and sad event. Four of the bands were organized around members of the campus indie radio station, WGSU, while three of the bands were of unknown origin and could have been borne out in the DK house or out in York, New York for all I know. With four incredibly original and inspired bands, versus three “I love you babe” forgettable fare*, including one band that covered “Sympathy for the Devil” in a jam band style, which three do you think would “win”?

Yes, the three jam bands won. The Pink Cammies fucking blew everyone’s minds, specifically at the exact second Brad stomped the pedal to activate the drum machine. Their two songs “Robot Love” and “Cramp Yr. Style” were downright incredible. While “Robot Love” is a meditation of the disassociation of being in and out of love, “Cramp Yr. Style” is more of a punk song, commenting on the social life of a party school. Both were and remain brilliant.

The Get Awesome Ninjas were the “fuck you” to the school and everyone, but not even a “fuck you.” They were a punk band that kids would turn off to because they “didn’t get” them, but the irony was that the joke was on everyone else. There was nothing to get! The GAN didn’t promise anything to anyone and were only there for enjoyment: union suit, viking hat, CCCP shirt, and all. They were a brilliant group, and still might be in existence. (They are rumored to be working on a farewell album titled “Purposefully Posthumous.”)

The Tennies were an odd group who only played two shows. They began as a secret recording project with the intent to write songs only about one of their Geneseo friends. They didn’t survive much beyond the two shows and the one, 8 song album. Both unfortunately and fortunately, they have been resurrected by Kalpana’s drummer (who performed with them at their final show), who is reworking their songs on his website. One of their songs (which totally stole the chords from Radiohead’s “Banana Co.”) has been reworked into “Tock/Remembrance” by Glass Animal. Another was reworked into “College Girls!” Both are available, along with the originals, from www.glassanimalindex.com.

Also at www.glassanimalindex.com will you find The Pink Cammies’ incredible Stephin Merritt-namechecking rocker “Blood: The Song.” I cannot stress how awesome this song is. It is perfect. You must do what I did after I downloaded it: turn its volume up by 20 to 25 percent. Also, when listening to it you must hold your fist up in the air strong during the first bit of the song. Listening to this song makes me more consistently happy than a the vast lot of the other music in my collection.

The Castawaves, well, I won’t write about them right now. I will write that after the show we had a great party at our old Orchard Street apartment that I got a huge kick out of calling a “meet and greet.”

Here is what an astute Geneseo listener had to say about the show:

What Battle of the Bands Were You At?
"Lamron Staff Writer Doesn't Know What She's Talking About."
by Pat Puccini

After reading Karyn Patridge's Battle of the Bands write-up in this week's "The Lamron," and I really have to wonder what qualifies her to be reviewing music. She first compared the Castawaves to the White Stripes based solely on the fact that there was one guitarist and one drummer. First of all, the Castawaves clearly have more akin to the Pixies' brand of indie-surf noise than the White Stripes' bluesy garage rock revival. If we're going to compare bands based solely on the make-up of their members, then why not say Jet Lag is like Sonic Youth because there's a woman in the band? She claims that the lyrics weren't always clear in the Castawaves' songs. Oh, I forgot, music is only good if you can understand every lyric. She had similar complaints about the Tennies which also didn't have foundation in reality. She claimed the Get Awesome Ninjas were "unbearable to listen to," and I have to wonder if she was even there. She loved the 'jam band' outfits because of their "chemistry" together and the "sultry saxophone" from the Padraic Band. She goes on to describe the "well-balanced levels between [their] instruments and [their] vocals." Once again, I do not believe music is only great when the levels are balanced, and if that was true then some of the best recordings in history are no longer "good."

But none of the above compared to her greatest offense, yes that's right: hating on the Pink Cammies. First of all, I don't know that I would describe them as "mid-80s funk," since that brings to my mind Rick James. She then goes on to describe Brad's "silly antics" and "humorous lyrics," and calls the band "wacky." I'm sorry, but the Pink Cammies aren't a comedy act. They aren't joking. They are making brilliant music, and there's nothing funny about that. Not even Brad's "quirky dance moves." Oh and the melody lines were "simplistic"? Sorry hun, I don't agree. She later writes that when the Pink Cammies didn't win, the crowd's reaction was "disappointing." From where I was standing the crowd was disappointed, and I don't see how someone could be disappointed with the crowd. That seems a little pretentious to me, considering most Battle of the Bands let the crowd decide who wins. Woah Karyn, sorry the 'disappointing' crowd didn't agree that Lame Jam Band should have won.

Note: Pat’s original “Pink Cammies Fan Club” site was awesome and is still online: http://pinkcammiesrock.blogspot.com/

Also, The Pink Cammies’ own blog is still up, and is still very funny: http://pinkcammies.blogspot.com/

* - Did The Bessemer Process play at this? If so, those guys were cool and their show with Castawaves opening at The Statesmen was one of my favorite Castawaves shows ever.

POLL!

Question:

Who is the greatest current one-person band / songwriter to come to prominence last 10 or so years?

Here is my short list for consideration. I'd really like to hear other ideas. Post them up under the comments section.

Jason Anderson (Wolf Colonel)

Owen Ashworth (Casiotone for the Painfully Alone)

Ben Barnett (Kind of Like Spitting)

David Bazan (Pedro The Lion)

David Berman (Silver Jews)

John Darnielle (The Mountain Goats)

Marty Donald (The Lucksmiths)

Phil Elvrum (The Microphones / Mt. Eerie)

Ben Folds

Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie / The Postal Service)

Damien Jurado

Ted Leo

Jeffrey Lewis

Chan Marshall (Cat Power)

Stephin Merritt (The Magnetic Fields)

Mirah

Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes)

Will Oldham (Bonnie “Prince” Billy)

John K. Samson (The Weakerthans)

Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good To Me)

Jeff Tweedy (Wilco)

Roddy Woomble (Idlewild)

Car of the Month: Audi A2

I am driving my Volvo now every day. I really like the car. It's comfortable, fun, luxurious, interesting, and good-looking. However, the one thing that it doesn't have is good gas milage. I am used to scooter gas milage. I am used to the 60+ MPG of my 125cc engine, not this 2300cc behemoth!

Thus, my January Car of the Month is a VW product that is more New Beetle than the New Beetle. Unfortunately, it's not available in the United States. If it were, we Americans could enjoy gas milage on par with the Toyota Prius, all aluminium construction, comfortable seating for four (I've gone on a long trip in the back of a Skoda and many in the back of a GTI and they are no less comfortable than the back of an Accord), a large glass moonroof (which in a way evokes the Messershmitt bubble cars of the fifties), and (dare I say) cute styling.

Here's a picture:
here are some more pictures on a weird foreign site: link

This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb – “This Is What I Want”

First off, I love the name of the band. They invoke Woodie Guthrie’s famous “This Machine Kills Fascists” warning writ on his acoustic guitar. And they play Country-punk, which is an interesting proposition. You think it’s not going to work, and you will make jokes about Country-Rap, but for this band it totally works and is totally awesome. It becomes neither exactly country nor punk, as it falls into none of the traps of either genre. I would prefer to call it “Superstomp” or “Honky-core” or perhaps “Power-Folk.” Yeah “Power-Folk,” I think the band would like that one.

But I like this because I feel like it is music for punks made by punks. Remembering back to college, when the punk kids played at open mic they played acoustic protest songs. They were into socialism and food not bombs, but weren’t into the Sex Pistols or the classic clichéd punk. They liked Ani Difranco and Dylan. Those kids would like this a lot. It’s protest music, and it is purely positive.

I found this song after getting turned on to Against Me! by Meg 5 from WGSU. (More on Against Me! perhaps in the future. Thanks Meg 5!) The website declares “If it ain’t cheap, it ain’t punk” and all the CDs are $5 each! At that price, even I can afford their complete discography!

The lyrics start with “This is what I want: I want all the punks to take to the streets, playing their guitars. This is what I want. It’s what I want!” And from there on it’s just great. Listen for yourself.

This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb – “This Is What I Want" link

I have two other bits to sell you on this song. One: Check out a live version of this song from a show the band played at some place called The Bike Barn on June 22, 2005. It is available at www.archive.org. At that show, one of the band’s members got sick and the other band member left with them, which left only the drummer, Ted. Apparently members of other bands on the Plan-It-X record label helped out. The lo-fi recording has someone endearingly yelling “AW COME ON” after a false start and numerous other people singing along. Anyway, it totally sounds fun and great.

Two: members of this band also have another band called The Blank Fight with not Ted on drums but Aaron Cometbus, of the fantastic punk ensemble Pinhead Gunpowder and the indispensable Cometbus fanzine. It would be impossible to get more punk than that.

The Get Awesome Ninjas

The Get Awesome Ninjas play a certain brand of sloppy pop-hardcore that I find irresistible. Their first show was at the Battle of The Bands at SUNY Geneseo on February 12, 2004, which was also the first Pink Cammies show. They also played a fantastic Halloween show in 2004 that was killer. They also played at Gabe’s birthday party on November 19, 2004, which happened to be in the apartment formerly occupied by the guitarist from Kalpana. I went to every one of their early shows, and only recently missed my first GAN show.

The GAN are a power trio. Dan, the bassist, plays a fretless bass through a practice amp. This is one of the most “fuck you” setups I could think of. He also has the coolest moped (1964 Peugeot) in all of Livingston County. Zach, on drums, is a crazy art kid. Jeff, on guitar, has some of the most technically advanced guitar playing around. He loves metal and has an instrumental side project called Honeytoast, which is also great.

Much like The Shaggs, I wanted to get them into the studio while they were still hot. I brought them into the WGSU Production Studio and can be forever heard saying “go” at the beginning of many of their tracks. The GAN and the Pink Cammies were totally devoted to doing away with the “I Love You, Babe” fare typical of college-made rock (and tragically rewarded at the aforementioned band battle). They were bands I could love and didn’t have to play in! They were both killer groups whose recordings I will always enjoy.

The GAN definitely has their own GAN sound, yet their songs vary. “Phone” is a melodic hard punk song, with a breakdown and growling. “Beard” takes a contemporary dance-punk sound, and is a great, positive ending to their record. “Star Wars” sets the record to an explosive start. Its rhythm changes and guitar soloing are surprisingly inventive and technical. When the GAN change up their vocal styles for “Sex (Parts 1 and 2)” with operatic, Interpol-at-age-ten style of singing, followed by an emo style speaking section, the result is pure weirdness but also pure fun.

According to my iTunes setup, my favorite GAN song is “(I want to go to) Norway” which states: “I want to go to Norway / I want to live in a spoon / I want to be a Viking / I want you to come too.” It says volumes about their band. Their MO is to be nonsensical, but they want everyone to have fun. Actually, the band is a treat to the Geneseo scene. They are a punk band for everyone. After their first show, one famous Geneseo figure said “I could have listened to Dan sing “Sex Bomb” over and over again for like a half hour!” Although I enjoy being their biggest fan, I feel they deserve more fans and are not even big enough fans of their own music.

Their website: (http://www.geocities.com/getawesomeninjas/) offers this:

We came up with this band in January 2004 for the sole purpose of making some kind of noisy ruckus (hootenanny) and turning some heads at a "battle" of the bands in Geneseo the next month. Of course, Standard College Soft Rock won the prize but who was the moral victor? A question that remains unsettlingly unanswered, like the dinner bell on a West Virginia farm on a summer evening when something terrible is about to happen.

We also played at our friend Gabe's birthday party, something else, and a Halloween party where half the party was there to see us and the other half was there to play beer pong, repeat lines from Chappelle's Show to make themselves feel witty, et cetera. It is now late 2005 and there has been little to no progress but plenty of big talk.

The GAN are so punk, they don’t really even bother to give their songs concrete titles. Nevertheless, here are two of their songs:

The Get Awesome Ninjas - “This Phone Will Self Destruct In Ten Seconds” - Link

They call this one “Dance jam for you to dance to and drink wine coolers, has since been turned into a real song.” but I think of it as “Beard, Aflame” (which is a shortened version of the vulgar title they had when we recorded it!)

The Get Awesome Ninjas - "Beard, Aflame" - Link

If you would like a copy of their seven song, 12 minute CD, post up your email to the comments and I’ll see what I can do.

FACT: The Get Awesome Ninjas’ first show was almost exactly seven years after and 26 miles away from legendary D.C. art punks Jawbox played their last show ever at RIT. It was also exactly 5 years after the events documented in The Starting Line’s superhit “Leaving.”

Bluelights back close at hand?

Kalpana's website (www.kalpanamusic.com) reports:

rumor also has it that rockets and bluelights (close at hand) are all living in the same city again. this could be pretty good news. let's keep our fingers crossed.

Could this mean a Rockets and Bluelights reunion? If so, please let me know where they're playing! 2006 will be awesome.