Jimmy Jimmy

Continuing with the "MIA fucking rocks my face off" theme of the week, leading into the release of her latest record "KALA"

let's do a little before & after. In this segment, MIA covers Bollywood disco hit "Jimmy"

first the Bollywood clip....



and now...the updated MIA version....




I haven't been able to acquire this record yet & have been forced to listen to the crappy unreliable myspace leak (AND IT'S DRIVING ME NUTS!!!) Yeah tuesday!


and what the heck....just for good measure, as long as we're on Bollywood....it's been a while since i've seen "Little Superstar"

If it's too new, you're too old....

Yesterday we had kind of a cool impromptu outdoor show in a local Market Square parking lot on the East Side featuring none other than Jane's Addiction's, Porno for Pyro's & most recently Satellite Party's Perry Farrell. This was designed as a promotion for the show that night at The Pabst. Perry's outdoor antics were tremendously appreciated & I think it's pretty cool that an artist of that level of fame would go out on a limb & try something different & interesting

....that said...this is related...but at the same time unrelated....

As I walked through the crowd of about 200 people or so I ran into the owner/operator of one Milwaukee's finer record stores walking around with huge grin on his face video-taping everything he came in contact with. He came up to me & I said "Oh hey, how's it goin...pretty crazy show huh?" & he looked straight at me & said "Fuck yeah!...this is awesome....Perry's great....back from when music was still good" as he tapped me on the shoulder as if to imply that I must have been an advocate for this sub-par new fangled music he spoke of....

WHOAAH! dude...put the brakes the on dude! What the hell is that supposed to mean? Based upon this (and a few other) conversations, clearly, my record slinging friend has begun to go down the "I'm only listening to music from before year xyz"

This to me signifies that he is falling victim to the scary, unavoidable & reprehensible affliction that us people in the music industry called "Getting Older"

It's no strange coincidence that my record store guy made the claim that the period in which Jane's Addiction came to prominence was both the time period in whIch "music was still good" & also the time period in which he was between the ages of 19 to 25......

EVERY, i repeat EVERY generation goes through this. (That's why Milwaukee has 4 classic rock radio stations) For whatever reason, as many people get older, they stop having a desire to listen to new music. EVEN the proprietor of Milwaukee's house of new music in said record store has fallen victim to this. I myself never thought i'd think of Jane's Addiction as classic rock, however looking at the audience & listening to statements like that...it's clear that there's a major generational divide.

When your parents go to a concert what do they generally see? Probably something that was popular when they were in their teens & 20s, right? What about a movie? It would seem absurd to suggest that your parents wouldn't go see a new movie simply because they were getting older, right? Same thing with television....in fact as people get older they're need to watch things like current news coverage tends to increase.

Would somebody say to you... "turn this off....this is nothing but bad news...man, what i wouldn't give for some news from 1991"

while that may be an extreme & borderline absurd example, if you look at current TV shows, generally older people still watch new shows such as Law & Order, The Tonight show or even Extreme Makeover Home Edition...

So why should music fall victim to this affliction of turning our backs on all things current? Maybe it has something to do with the heavy emphasis we put on the music of our youth to define who we are as people. For many people, music is a much more engaging medium, for the time when we are younger & as younger people, it's a statement that belongs to us & not our parents....the downfall is once you become parental age.....what are you going to listen to? The answer is so often- music from when you were in your teens & 20s.....it's a perilous trap that almost exclusively leads to an unfounded bitterness about new music that really has less to do with what the music really is & more to do with the fact that it no longer belongs to your generation.

Although, i understand this phenomenon, i can't condone it, especially as somebody whose job it is, to bring new music to an audience that understands & appreciates it. Music is a vital part of our culture & communities. It's a reflection of our society & who we are as people. Of course in some cases, there is qualifiably bad music from every generation, but ultimately, eventually every generation past has also produced something that can be basically agreed upon as really great music. While this may not be an argument for why this generation is capable of making great....the other constant there is that the previous generation always looked forward to the younger generation & basically said "This new music is crap"....meaning that in 1988 when "Nothing's Shocking" came out....somebody who loved Black Sabbath in 1973 was standing at one of the splintered lineup Sabbath shows of the era pumping their fist & saying "Fuck yeah...this is back from when music was still good"

MIA on Pancake Mountain....

basically the coolest thing all week....

12 days- 10 shows

Nothing like getting back into the swing of things with a bang. Currently in the middle of a crazy august run of 10 shows in 2 weeks.

a few interesting highlights....

Two fridays ago Tilly & The Wall returned with super friends Juiceboxxx & Ssion
assisting in the mayhem. Tilly is genuinely one of my favorite bands to have play at The Pabst. This being their 3rd appearance here (one other headline & an opening spot for the 1st Bright Eyes show being the other) I couldn't think of a band that is more fun & likeable. These guys really bring the party in every sense of the word. Beyond just the novelty of the tap dancing percussionist, Tilly never ceases to amaze me with how versatile & more than anything personal they are. Got to check out some of their new material which sees them moving in some pretty interesting directions. they were literally leaving the very next day for a relatively extensive Australian tour & wanted to do the pabst as a warm up gig....we were happy to obige.

One of the more bizarre spectacles of the night besides Mequon Suburban nerd rapper Juiceboxxx climbing to the top of the speaker stack & making us all tremendously nervous for the audience below, was Kansas City group "Ssion" whose theaterical set was unlike anything i'd ever seen an opener do....don't really know how to explain it other than to say....yes there were giant bizarre projections, yes there were costume changes & the last song was called "Gee Whiz Street Jizz".....i rest my case

In any case, it was great to hang with the Tillys again....just a really fun show.


The following night was 80s synth pop originators- Erasure & i have to admit, these guys were pretty amazing live. For a band that i started the day not really caring all that much about, Erasure really turned me. with a HUGE stage set complete with giant shining diamonds hanging for the theater trusses, Erasure was almost more akin to a broadway show. It's sort of a bizarre thing because at least on the scale, the fact that milwaukee had 1000 or so for Erasure versus some of the other markets with a much higher gay/lesbian contingency, we were one of the better sold buildings....anyhoo.....pretty cool show for something i wasn't really all that crazy about.

Later that week we had the 1-2 punch of the Fratellis Tuesday & The Cribs on Thursday. nothing overly remarkable (to me) about either band. one thing that was interesting was the fact that Cribs openers White Rabbits actually seemed to be the main pull for audience what turned out to be a dismal attendance night.... I saw the Cribs for the first time in london at the university opening for all things for Death Cab for Cutie as they were just on the beginning stages of their upswing. A good band, but nothing to write home about... although OnMIlwaukee.com didn't seem to think so with the almost bizarre review of the show available here...

anyway, i'm just packing up Dream Theater at the riverside right now (which i'll tell you all about in the next installment).....

This week in shows...

Hello campers....sorry i've neglected you....i shall be updating as often as possible now that we're actually doing some stuff at the pabst & riverside....(at least as long as i don't get uber lazy here again...)

anyhoo...glad to be finally back in the swing of things with 3 shows under our belt for The Pabst & Riverside. Tuesday, we had a double feature with the odd yet workable combination of John Fogerty (zero of which i saw, but as i understand, was a pretty darn great) & an acoustic(ish) Jimmy Eat World show that also featured former Azure Ray singer Maria Taylor.



Maria put down a very nice set although i have to admit....i kinda wish her & Orenda would take a break from all this solo business & get an Azure Ray record. Nonetheless a nice intro to what turned out to be a pretty laid back Jimmy Eat World Show.

Jimmy Eat World has always been one of those bands that sort of started something that began as a good thing (i.e. The Bleed American & Clarity albums specifically) & went on to influence some pretty cruddy artists including Fallout Boy, Say Anything, Plain White Ts and on and on and on in the emo-crud genre. What's really disappointing as a result of all of this is the fact that whether it's deserving or not, previously supportive outlets such as CMJ, Pitchfork & others have gone on to really bash this band as of late & lump them in with a group of bands that they really don't belong with. To me it's sort of like faulting Nirvana or Pearl Jam for creating 3 Doors Down & Nickelback. Sure those guys probably had a lot to do with spawning the influence for some true crap, but at the same time would you prefer that they had never existed solely so that we wouldn't have to listen to that lunk-head from nickel back release the same single for the 500th time? probably not....

so...even if it's an unfair world of music in terms of who gets the big payoff & who is only modestly rewarded, if we end up with an alpine valley full of fall-out boy fans & a pabst or riverside theater with Jimmy Eat World....I'm just glad i work here instead of there....

in any case, i digress. The Jimmy show was really cool. Not the least bit intense, but instead a very laid back, not quite acoustic but definitely relaxed set. Lead singer Jim Adkins has is really one of the most unique artists i've encountered mainly because he's so normal & unassuming. Jim was walking around the theater kind of early in the morning & i stopped & said hey for a minute or two, really cool guy & not the least bit bratty, demanding or anything.

side note on this show, i reunited with Jimmy's tour manager Mark who i had been with for two completely horrid & difficult dashboard confessional college shows. Mark & I had the shared pain of a particularly bad gig in middle-of-nowhere-saginaw-michigan.

Interesting story on Mark... he's been out with some pretty interesting bands including Jurassic 5, The Roots, Dashboard & a few others & we had gotten to talking about ticket prices on shows (as jimmy's was a paltry $20) & got onto the issue of Rage Against The Machine's $60 concert tickets. In the middle of my diatribe, Mark said... "yeah, i used to play in a band with zach...doesn't surprise me much..."

so....there ya have it.

anyway....Erasure tonight & i'll blog on pt 2 "Tilly, SSION & Juice Boxxx" soon....that was a trip....buckle up.

St. Vincent

St. Vincent- Marry Me - Great record from 24 year old multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark who's done shifts both with Sufjan Stevens' band The Polyphonic Spree & most recently an opening solo slot for The Arcade Fire. Occasionally shocking and generally ironic lyrics paired with a tremendous knack for high drama direct for the Tori Amos school of dramatics, this very intense, intriguing debut solo offering from St. Vincent is just a really great record. I'd suggest it.

oooooh daaaaamn....new rilo video

for the full- porn-tastic version- click here: http://www.themoneymake.com/