I was not a fan of Blue Valentine, the film, but I loved the soundtrack by Grizzly Bear.  So while I doubt I’ll love the new film, Cianfrance has a flair for dour dramatics, I’ll probably enjoy the soundtrack.

Patton has done a series of scores over the past few years including the Italian drama A Solitude of Prime Numbers, for which he created delicately atmospheric arrangements. It’s a lovely listen reminding me of the Austin instrumental band, My Education, especially the Sunrise record, so I have high hopes for this new project.

Patton is also currently working on a new Tomahawk album with a projected late summer release date.

Meshell Ndegecello stopped by the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco on her way to a three-night gig in Chicago. I’da missed the show had drummer artiste, Deantoni Parks not called me an hour or so before they went on to remind me he was in town.  The drive from Sacramento to SF took me an hour as opposed to the standard two, ya dig.

This was not my first time seeing Meshell in concert, but the last time I did Tupac had just been shot, and she was in no kind of celebratory mood.  It was also the time when she was bucking against the “angry lesbian” label having just came out with her masterpiece “Peace Beyond Passion” and receiving some flack for her incendiary track “Leviticus: Faggot.”

Dayum, let me tell you, I never seen so many hip black folk in Boulder, Colorado, which was the last place I saw her.  It was a beautiful night.  Religious.  Truly, she had a choir of three to ensure the analogy stuck (though I doubt it was intentional).  Passionate tears were shed by many. She commanded that stage, with clear-eyed fire and laser brimstone. Standing front and center in the spotlight she asked us to take a moment to consider the life of Tupac Shakur and dedicated the performance to him.

Sixteen years  and seven albums later the peace beyond passion she yearned for back then must have been attained.  On stage at the Great American she chose to stand further back, allowing her touring band to perform as the collaborators they are, rather than hired hands.  The set ranged from a shoe-gaze soul (I just coined that term, thank you) rendition of “Lady Cab Driver” (Prince) to the romantically spare “Oysters” ending with the punked out jam “Lola” – this is where Parks went buck-wild on his kit.  Though she sang one tune from her debut, “Plantation Lullabies” it wasn’t her neo-soul hit, If That’s Your Boyfriend (He Wasn’t Last Night) and there were no songs from my favorite “Peace Beyond Passion,” which I have to admit made me a little sad, but then, she’s beyond that now having traversed many musical landscapes since her inception.

I agree with the anonymous voice from the audience: She has gotten better.

I’ve never been, and probably won’t become a fan of Tool. But I can appreciate their contribution to rock music.  And after watching Blood Into Wine, the documentary that follows Maynard James Keenan’s attempt to put Arizona wine making on the map, I was interested him specifically as an artist and sensitive human being.  I was particularly touched by his devotion to crafting a wine befitting the name of his mother Judith Marie who passed away in 2003.

After that viewing I did some mild investigation into his other works and landed on Puscifer.  It seems Keenan has a unique voice that repeats itself on each musical project he’s been involved with. Puscifer’s sound is reminiscent of his work in his other bands Tool and A Perfect Circle with the minor exception that Puscifer seems to be a pastiche of musical genres that ultimately sound like everything else he’s done. Of course his fans would disagree but they are a rabidly biased bunch as one groupie proclaimed (after being groped by security to ensure he neither had cellphone nor camera on her person), “Anything for Maynard!”

Personally I don’t enjoy having rules imposed upon me, especially when they seem like arbitrary whims.  As a photographer there to cover the show – the entire show – my genuine interest and bon ami turned to piss when I was told I could only photograph the third and forth song of the set.  For obvious reasons I was concerned:  What if nothing interesting occurred during those two songs? What was the lighting like for those two songs? From what position would I be allowed to shoot? How close would I be allowed to get to the stage? If any of you have attended a performance at The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco you know it poses some challenges.

I asked the handler these questions to which he replied: “You can only photograph during the third and fourth songs. You can’t go past the 10^th row on either the left or right-hand of the stage. You cannot block a patron’s view as it is not fair to them.” Really.

I made a valiant attempt to respect these demands, but submission is not my strong suit, especially when the rules are arbitrarily changed.  It took all of three pre-recorded loudspeaker announcements intoning Keenan’s demands to make me want to rebel, but the clincher was a video of Keenan dressed in military uniform (an obvious gesture of authority and the fact he served in the military) once again outlining the rules of engagement which included not blocking another patrons view, i.e. not standing up to dance around or to get a better view of the stage. But lo, after the fourth song one intrepid VIP fan in the first few rows (he paid dearly for his seat so I guess he felt he had the right) stood up to rock out during the fifth song, after which Keenan stated, “He’s got the right idea, you know…you can all stand up! This isn’t L.A.”

After that all sorts of people stood up even though every message received previously stated we shouldn’t because it would most certainly block another patrons’ view! Guess what? People started getting pissy with each other because all sorts of views were blocked. That venue is not ideal for rock concerts, oh wait, this was akin to an “opera” Whatever Maynard! But he can change the rules if he wants to, and if he can, so can I.

Perhaps the imposition of rules was a form of reverse psychology? If so, it worked! As it turned out there weren’t many interesting moments to photograph, and the overall effect left me underwhelmed. But here is a selection of what I considered the more interesting moments onstage, including a spare opening set by singer Carina Round – Keenan’s dueting sidekick.

All photos: Maria Colòn for FLABmag.com

Justin Pearson at Harlows in Sacramento (Photo: Maria Colòn)

Retox is a punk/noise outfit born from members of such notable bands as The Locust, Holy Molar and The Festival of Dead Deer. The common denominator between them all is Justin Pearson. He has either played in those bands or collaborated with members of them. According to their press release, which was mercifully spare, the band was formed as a “…reaction to the world that the members and their comrades have lived in: shitty childhoods, bureaucratic frustration, and the overall justification of continuous war.” I was intrigued by the “bureaucratic frustration” angle and I’m fond of The Locust, so I was inclined to check them out when they passed through Sacramento as the opening act for the Japanese punk band, Melt Banana.

My immediate impression was that it would be best not to get on Pearson’s bad side, but like most first impressions I was wrong. He’s actually pretty easy going and a willing conversationalist. In this interview he describes the differences between The Locust and Retox, why screaming, rather than singing, lyrics has its place and the ideal crowd for a Retox show.

LISTEN:

See more images from the show at Harlows HERE.

Visit Retox on the Web

Three. One. G | Facebook

Monday night at Harlows was an all-new music experience for me. I’d heard of Melt Banana but had never sought out their music. Likewise, I’d heard of Retox (only recently since they’re relatively new anyway) but had only that week listened to their new release, Ugly Animals. Both bands commanded the stage in their own way and were extremely enjoyable (especially Melt Banana) but the real surprise was seeing Nick Reinhart of Tera Melos performing an improvisational jam with a local drummer I’d never heard. Turns out his name is Jon Bafus and he is insanely good! Watching them both create spontaneously was an inspiration and for me, the best part of the night.

All photos © Maria Colòn

I’m not a fan of dub. I’m not a fan of metal. When I was told I’d be covering a live performance of a dub/metal band in San Francisco at Brick & Mortar, I was just confused. How do you combine these two seemingly opposite genres of music?

Dub Trio has taken this odd idea and turned it into a science. Out of Brooklyn, NY, drummer Joe Tomino, bassist Stu Brooks, and guitarist D.P. Holmes prove it’s possible to break genre stereotypes and blend clashing sounds into palatable rhythms.

As the back up band for the likes of Matisyahu and Mike Patton, it’s a real treat to see Dub Trio stand alone and unveil their specially crafted music. Their performance in San Francisco was part of their guerilla album release tour for IV, their latest record with New York-based label ROIR.

I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting myself into, but I quickly realized I didn’t need to be a heavy metaler or a Rasta stoner to be impressed by Dub Trio. Drummer Tomino drives the band with energy and precision, while Brooks and Holmes keep calm and composed as they let their instruments do the talking and scream through the speakers. The lack of a front man plays to the group’s advantage, allowing listeners to focus on the composition sans distracting on-stage egos.

Brick & Mortar, one of SF’s newest venues, has all the right ingredients to showcase a band’s true talent: quality sound system, minimal lighting, open floor space, and wall seating; good beer and clean bathrooms seal the deal. The 70 of us in attendance had the band all to ourselves. Dub Trio maximized the venue offerings: I felt every kick and chord pummel me through my seat.

What makes Dub Trio most interesting is how seamlessly they alternate from deafening guitar shreds to peaceful reggae melodies. The boys make it seems like the sounds were meant to be fused. It’s not too heavy, it’s not too light – they have mastered the balance, making for a pleasing and satisfying listen.

The trio put the audience under a spell and wouldn’t let our attention wane for even a second. Our heads went from heavy thrashing to light bobbing, our neck muscles abruptly switching on and off. We kept our feet planted, no one strayed from their place. They would wait until we finally relaxed into the dub groove, then blow up the speakers with combinations of evil riffs, warped effects, and off-guard pauses to wake us from our trance. Dub Trio keeps their live set fresh with random samples interspersed throughout the performance, including heavy metal screams, hip hop cop sirens, the overplayed DJ air horn, and even the original Lucasfilm THX sound effect. Toward the end of the show the band really teased us with their talent, making even sharper breaks between metal and dub, and transforming dub into hints of dubstep played live with metal distortion.

Dub Trio will surprise jaded music aficionados who stick to what they know and ignorantly snub our contemporaries. Dub Trio bucked my preconceptions with a gratifying listening experience: sometimes banging, sometimes spacing, sometimes puzzled, always intrigued. Find them and rock out.

-MACKGINNIS-

If you enjoy random pleasures like I do then you’d love meeting Giovanni Marks, also known as Subtitle, and also known as Gino. What a surprising pleasure it was. Brief as well, which is good in certain contexts. He introduced himself to me on a sweltering Saturday afternoon in L.A..  I was standing outside Vacation Vinyl waiting to interview a musician when he sidled up to me with his hand outstretched ready for the shake. As a taller than average woman it’s unusual for me to turn and look up at someone rather than down, so I was taken aback by his stature. The usual blah blah about being tall ensued. Then he disappeared.

This is where the insidious “Friend Suggestion” app on Facebook actually comes in handy. His face popped up in my news feed as someone who has mutual friends. Indeed.

After some emailing back and forth he brought me up to speed on his musical output, his history in the L.A. underground scene, even going to far as to school me on the why and way of the underground moniker. I argue it’s hackneyed and over used but having its subtleties and nuances as related to various points on the hip hop time continuum explained to me has made its usage crystal. (I suppose.)

If you, like I, enjoy brevity in certain contexts you will enjoy his latest effort, Blackjack Parsons, a bewilderingly short (17.3 mins) concept album that comes with a generalized back story regarding the making of the record. The intro track also generously offers up the point of fact that he will be releasing a full length album in the coming year.  He repeats this news in the outro as well which seems campy and indulgent, but also necessary to the proceedings as they relate to the re-introduction of the Subtitle oeuvre. While others re-worked his bio/discography on 11/11/11 we had a lengthy discussion that culminated in what you will read below.

Note: Legging are the style of the day. Priceless!

FLABmag:  Tell us about your evolution as a hip hop artist from the west coast? How was it that you avoided the quagmire of “gangsta rap” given that it is considered (by the mainstream) the dominant idiom of rap from California?

Giovanni Marks: I just did other stuff. Hip-Hop was always around and the first stuff wasn’t really gangster rap. Even then, the stuff that resonated with me at a early age was De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, 3rd Bass (and by proxy, MF Doom’s old group KMD), basically stuff from the east coast. This was just because that was the type of sound coming out on a major level, so to speak. As soon as I heard of Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, The Pharcyde and Freestyle Fellowship, I was sold on west coast hip-hop.

Not to be misleading, I listened to gangster rap too! At the time, I was living in Compton/Lynwood and gang life was a daily thing for everyone. Dre, DJ Quik, Ice Cube, Hi-C, Compton’s Most Wanted, whoever, all of that was getting listened to as well. It was just there, so in regards to rap, it got consumed. Since I wasn’t a gangster (nor did I have pressure to join a gang, due to expressing potential to do different), it wasn’t hard for me to not talk about “gangster shit” or carry on like I lived that lifestyle. As far as it (gangster rap) being the early staple of the west, that was because Hollywood made it happen that way. There was a whole stage of L.A. rap that was on Macola Records (and other imprints either serviced thru or owned by Macola) that remains almost unknown by the general rap loving populace. This is where Dr. Dre made his onstage debut, in sequins and mascara on behalf of the World Class Wreckin Cru.

FLABmag:  Define “underground” as it relates historically to west coast rap, where is your place in that scene and does the term hold as much weight today (given it has been co-opted by the mainstream and is used liberally to define pretty much everything that isn’t on the radio but still wildly popular via internet music blogs and social media outlets)?

GM: Underground west coast rap and it’s story of ascendance is too long to tell today. On the west coast, it was more like a minor league baseball system where you did your thing for however long until a larger label noticed you and “bumped you up” so to speak. Around 1997-2000, the industry took a crazy flip and this dovetailed with the whole dot com boom. What this translated to was a lot of dudes in the recording industry with lucrative deals all of a sudden finding themselves indie before there was a name for it, and a lot of other dudes being raised in this new alternate and blossoming DIY system. Just like now, there were more labels than there were administrators, which meant the bottom line was selling music versus making the best music that could be promoted to a large audience. By the time I “arrived” there wasn’t really any label infrastructure for hip-hop that wasn’t some top 40 type of thing. There were lots of really creative, and for the most part, engaging rap, but since rap labels weren’t touching this stuff, it was up to rock and electronic labels to break these artists that had been floating around forever. This made the music look less authentic for some reason, which meant that all of the ideologies and invention meant for hip-hop fell into the wrong hands.

As far as the co-opted thing, I don’t really think that’s the case so much. If so, it’s a buzzword like hipster is a buzzword, or swag is a buzzword: some uninformed individual with a coveted opinion set out to reinvent the wheel into something more relatable to that particular individual and whoever they view as their constituents. All of a sudden, stuff that people have been doing for years (or been into) falls under this broad brush for literal lack of a better term. Everyone who missed out the first time has a chance to go triple hard this next go-round, while the people who were there from the start become “regulars” and “scenesters” over something that was just there to entertain them in the first place. A lot of music is exactly that, just there. We use the classifications to make it more exciting or exclusive/elitist, but the truth is that it (and everything else) exists.

In most genres, you have to dig for the gems which is why that euphemism is used. Now that the world is smoked out on information, you have to dig harder because everything else worth checking for is hidden in plain sight. Last week I would have said something entirely different, but this week I honestly believe the idea of “underground” music is thriving and flourishing in this new media landscape. People making music with a 4-track can get it heard as long as they have access to a computer. Even if they don’t, if they are clever enough then they can figure out a way to dress up CD-Rs and cassettes and sell them as “physical merchandise”, which wasn’t even an option unless you were selling “imaginary merchandise” to go with it or as an alternative. And to make this weirder, underground stuff was ALWAYS viewed as stuff that was not on the radio or off the radar. Once the stuff (whatever it was, let’s say music) sold it’s way out the ghetto, then it was classified as “independent” versus underground. Where I exist in all of this is nowhere because only my die-hard supporters/fans monitor my output at this point. I model myself after someone like Kim Gordon or Mark McCoy, where they do whatever they want and the stuff that sticks, does exactly that. If it ends up available on the open market, the people who sell the most copies in bulk can call it what they want.

FLABmag:  Tell us about your experience on Gold Standard Laboratories? How did you get involved with the label? What was it like being one of the only rap groups over there and what was it like being surrounded by punk and experimental electronic bands?

GM: I met Sonny Kay through Chris Hathwell from Moving Units and we started hanging out around town when he would visit L.A., this was in 2001. He played Omar some stuff and I guess he liked it too. I originally wanted to work for them and NOT make music, but they talked me out of that, as well as doing all instrumental stuff. In retrospect, I would have been better off if I did the latter, but how I sound now isn’t necessarily how I sounded then. I was honored to be seen and heard alongside these dudes because I was listening to their stuff beforehand and loved everything about the records. Being the only rap dude was fine because:

a. no one in my community was even kind of tripping off what I was up to at the time, this made it easy to do my own thing and not compete for limited space.

b. no one on the label sounded like anyone else, this meant that we could theoretically explore the full breadth and width of our sound, as logistics permitted.

Of course there were many, many obstacles that got in the way of us promoting good music to the people that wanted it, but the catalog numbers won’t change and I’m VERY thankful to be a small part of the story that was Gold Standard Labs.

FLABmag:  You worked with Thavius Beck on the Lab Waste project, also on GSL, but are primarily know as “Subtitle” (also released on GSL). How did the LW project come about and what was it like collaborating with T. Beck? Where did you come up with the tag “Subtitle”?

GM: The subtitle name came up in high school, so to explain it at 33 would be to demystify it. This means that I would have to change my name and cry in the shower every morning. As far as working with Thavius, he and I have had a working relationship for the past 14 years that carried over to GSL. We were supposed to release our record on Gold Standard after touring with The Mars Volta in 2003, but that didn’t happen and I just ended up dropping my solo record in 05. We ended up releasing our first record through this imprint a rapper named Busdriver had through this label Mush Records, named “Temporary Whatever.” Collaborating with Thavius is always super fun, even though it’s few and far between these days due to our schedules. We both know what we make so we just sit down and come up with a slew of ideas when it’s time to record. I’ve been a fan of his forever and he’s a great teacher. As far as writing raps, it’s like we’re some 23 year old rappers, and that’s when we DO rap!

FLABmag: Your music is clearly not just straight “Hip Hop” as it has come to be understood in the mainstream, and even in the so-called underground, but the “art rap” label seems marginalizing and not quite right. Given the inability to accurately define what it is you are doing in terms that are understood within and outside the hip hop genre, how would you describe your sound?

GM: I mean, I joke around and call it ‘Crev-Wave’ just to be a fool, but it’s always been and always will be HIP-HOP. I gravitated to that style of music and that is what I draw from in terms of expressing myself. In the past, I have experimented with different types of styles but this was still coming from a rap foundation. Once I met other musicians that appreciated hip-hop for what it was, and were influenced by it as much as the music that they themselves created, I knew that I could make whatever I wanted as long as I was doing justice to the form and format. I got lumped into the whole “art-rap” thing by association. Many moons went by where I was doing straight sounding hip-hop over production by producers popular in hip-hop to no response whatsoever, but that was boring to me. I probably alienated my fanbase with every record because I was trying to outdo myself in my mind, as well as appeal to an audience that I ultimately never had the budget to connect to. Once I realized that all of the intellectual posturing in the world won’t get you in Wire or XLR8R quicker than a good publicist and better ad placement, I kind of phased out the artsier than thou line of logic and remembered that I was a rapper versus a rapping curio.

 

FLABmag:  It’s a hackneyed but warranted question: Who and/or what influences your stylistic choices – both musically and on the life ways tip?

GM: Sonic Youth, Mike Watt, Ian Mackaye, Sun Ra, Aleister Crowley, Steve Albini, Robert Anton Wilson, C.F. Russel, Malcolm X and Taz Arnold.

FLABmag:  It’s been said that you supposedly quit the music biz. If it’s true, why? If it’s not true, why did people on music blogs and other musician s jump on that rumor?

GM: It was true, I quit for 2 weeks. It would have been longer, if not for the ardent support and sometimes ridicule of my fanbase. I put it on Myspace because I felt like no one would even read it. Who knew? I ended up coming out of ‘retirement’ to play All Tomorrow’s Parties and released a record under my real name entitled Marks In Angles, a communist play on words. I wish the media picked up on and ran with my record that was released just before that….

FLABmag:  What insights can you give about the current state of underground rap and/or your thoughts on the game as it’s played today – especially within the context of social media and file sharing?

GM: People shouldn’t be making underground rap as a means of survival since it isn’t a viable resource of income like Top 40 music. If your calling is towards that and you don’t get hazed to the point of disillusionment by the very community that you pander yourself to, then contribute by making something you would refer to as quality music that can be judged by a jury of your active peers. Nowadays, music can be shared more than ever, this means the monopoly that music formats and their manufacturers had is now dead. If you still judge your output by a scale of how many CDs you can drop and sell in a year, then you need to re-evaluate your mission objective.

FLABmag:  Why this album (Black Jack Parsons), in this way, right now?

GM: I almost want to say ‘see above’ but really I wanted to test out a few things. The label that was responsible for the project being available through the local news agency is relatively new and it’s name is Hellfyre Club. Even though I know the entire chain of command very well for a long time, I was still skeptical of what they could do in regards to making people re-pay attention to me all of a sudden. I figured a free download is a good test to see how necessary a full length actually is, as well as a way to promote whatever I was about in the moment. Since I’m way about Jack Parsons and his belief system (to a large, but loose extent), I figured that I would work within that framework. The 11/11/11 date is one that I desperately wanted to work with, ever since missing out on 10/10/10 last year. Once Hellfyre sent it out, different people were down to do the exclusive stream thing but I kind of had to go with the L.A.Times. Blog or not, it’s the L.A. Times! This is ironic because the New York Times were the ones who broke my underground stuff back in 03 and the  L.A. press had to catch up with them. This time around, it was like I could have been in a deep freezer up until the 11th! Everything lined up and it dropped at 11:11AM on a full moon to the delight of all involved. Since everyone got selective memory, history once again got a chance to repeat itself.

FLABmag:  What’s next in the evolution of “Subtitle”?

GM: I always have something up my sleeve, depending on if I have enough money to own a sleeve. I’m working on a full length record called ‘My So-Crev Life’ and that is slated to drop spring/summer 2012, I have a little imprint called GET CREV that I run primarily through bandcamp and other online retailers when the need arises. I took some time off, but I usually drop stuff on there seasonally. I have some weird print and other physical projects coming up under my real name and who knows what else? No matter what, music will be involved somewhere in all of that, in some insidious manner.

Download Blacjack Parsons HERE

Subtitle on the Interwebs:

Bandcamp | Get Crev

Not

Also a pair of MP3s from Gangs are available:

Album opener, “BEAUTIFULUNIVERSEMASTERCHAMPION” is available for download HERE and the brilliantly titled “Search:Party:Animal” is HERE. Thanks to US/THEM Group for providing the downloads!

If you didn’t know already, And So I Watch You From Afar (henceforth to be referred to as And So by FLABmag – we like brevity) was recently added to the instrumental music loving label, Sargent House released the Gangs album to a North American audience on November 8th, 2011.

Evidently these guys are relentless in their touring so gigs around the states are sure to follow. If they are anything like their fellow Irishmen and labelmates, Adebisi Shank, their shows will surely be classified as “not to be missed.”

On the Web:

My favorite Midwestern band, Santah, just released a new video for Neighbors and Cousins, one of the more charming (and less tear inducing) songs off their latest release, “White Noise Bed.” The crew sailed around Lake Michigan on a sunny day – a far cry from their last video for No Other Women, which featured creepy broken dolls filmed on Black & White stock.

Director, Elijah Alvarado says of the video shoot “it is kind of inspired by the simplicity of the 90′s pop-band music video. We just went out on a sail boat and had a great time.”

See the breezy video above.

Santah also recently premiered their new Daytrotter Session which fans can listen to here.

If you haven’t purchased a copy of this truly perfect album you should do so immediately.

www.santahmusic.com
www.facebook.com/santahhhh
www.myspace.com/santahhh

Russian Circles / Photo: Chris Strong

Chicago trio Russian Circles post a full album stream of their forthcoming release Empros today. Listen to the album in its entirety HERE . Russian Circles also hit the road yet again this Fall with headlining dates across North America beginning in November. Unfortunately, they aren’t coming up t Northern California – at least not on this leg of what will sure to be a very long tour. Or at least one can hope.

Empros is Russian Circles’ first full-length to be released worldwide exclusively via Sargent House, the band’s longtime management company and record label that had previously released only the vinyl editions of its three prior albums. It will be available everywhere on LP, CD and Download on October 25th, 2011. Listen/download “Mladek” HERE.

On the Web:

www.russiancirclesband.com

facebook.com/russiancircles

twitter.com/russiancircband

Album stream:  Geneva

Album stream: Station