Well worth 2.5 hrs of sleep

Drinks on an empty stomach makes my lips numb and me say silly things. At least I now know it's pronounced Ann-drea and not An-drea. Just wondering.

Took a power nap, changed brake pads on my car, showered and arrived in the middle of Underwater City People's set at last night's Kiss or Kill. Eric from XUK joined them on viola for a few songs and it filled out the sound perfectly. Then Kevin and Emily from Midway stood as the horn section on the Banjo song, even though the song doesn't have one. During resident band Rainman Suite, Celeste from UCP joined in a great cover of Joan Jett's "I love rock'n'roll". Probably the highlight of the night for me.

The Randies were next and played a set that was a billion times better than their last Kiss or Kill outing. Finally a new catchy song too. Finally. Decided later to sober up a bit and enjoyed The Ebbs who were filling in for King Cheetah. It was perfect music for my perfect buzz.

People were nice to me.

tags: kork, the randies, kiss or kill

Kiss or Kill - podcasting, Knitting Factory show 5.6.05

Tonight (4.26) is a great line-up at Kiss or Kill wtih the Powerchords, Underwater City People, Rainman Suite, The Randies and the addicting King Cheetah.

18 an up and only 3 bucks, at the Echo. There might be smurfs too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fri. May 6th - Kiss or Kill Compilation CD release party!!!


All Ages!! --- 14 Bands: Bang Sugar Bang, Midway, The King Cheetah, The Letter Openers, Silver Needle, Underwater City People, The Randies, The OAOT's, The Knives, Billion Stars, The Waking Hours, Rainman Suite, Bobot Adrenaline, Chromosome Tea ---- 2 Stages ---- $5 cover and get a free KorK Comp.CD

They are expecting @ 1000 people. You're cool, you'll be there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Podcasting via Buzzplay
Maybe you're one of the 10% of iPod owners who actually use an mp3 aggreagator for podcasts. Even if you don't know what an mp3 aggreagator is or own an iPod, you still can download podcasts (they're just large mp3 files) and use any mp3 player (iTunes, real, winamp, ack..windows media player. So there is no excuse not to listen to the Kiss Or Kill Podcasts offerered for free from Buzz Play.com

click to start.

These are weekly 30 minute segments featuring music and interviews of bands from the Kiss or Kill scene. Saves you a lot of time from going to each bandsite looking for music samples.

I don't even own an iPod so I'm with other 90 Percenters who have to download the old fashion "save target as/right click and save" way.

tags: kork, kiss or kill, kiss or kill club, podcasting

happening / not happening

Tired and stressed. This should all be over in a few days I hope. Or it might get worse.



Made it back from the Bay Area where I did some crappy things that needed to be done, only to come home to deal with more crap. Escaped for a few hours to fly my kite (so lame, I know, but very relaxing), ate lunch at Frisco's Car Hop, checked out The Amateurs at King King last Wednesday and attempted to see Gemma Hayes at the Echo last night. Pink Grenade, the first band at 9.15, was interesting in a good way but it wasn't until 10.30 when the second band Molecule FINALLY started. Grr. After a couple so-so songs, my friend and I gave up and left, but apparently Gemma cancelled too.

Oh well.

So true

Saw this written in a blog today:

When one person is overreacting, the other person must underreact.

I'm the master of under-reacting, or so I've been told.

Gemma Hayes

The wonderful Gemma Hayes from Ireland has quietly been playing shows at Tangiers every Thursday this month I just found out.

Even though she has been nominated for The Mercury Prize, granted a bigger deal in the UK, very little has been made of these shows I assume on purpose. Often compared from Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez to PJ Harvey on her later works and has open/toured with Beth Orton, Rufus Wainwright and David Gray, Sparklehorse and Zero 7, so these are low key dates.

Randomly checking venue calendars I noticed that she is also playing a free show at the Echo on Monday 4.25 and picked up the Tangier info from her web-board. So you can see her tomorrow and next Thursday or go see her for free on Monday. (Viva K is the resident band on Monday..they sound cool in very different way)

tag: gemma hayes

Stressed Out

I'm so unbelievably stressed out right now. The end of last month started a whole series of cascading issues that I needed to resolve this week and I'm just shutting down. A very bad reaction when I need to get my shit together, but I will and by the end of this month I will know what lies ahead for this year. If I seemed a little out of it, this is why.

Convinced myself not to flake on Kiss or Kill again and enjoyed a great set from The Press Fire. I'm lazy, so this is what Joe wrote:

"the first band was the press fire. Two guitarists, drums and keyboards. Wow! They each took a fresh tequila shot even the smallish little girl keyboardist. They were really good. I don’t know if there is a name for this genre of rock I am seeing more and more where the melodies sound exceptionally punk with wails, yells and screams but the drums sound like dance beats...."

They were cool and fun to watch and now tagged on my to See Again list. Underwater City People were up next and amazing as always, but I'm going to write a proper post about them since a couple lines are not going to do them justice.

So Unloved were filling last minute for Bobot Adrenaline the next night at the Punk Rock Social so I had to check out my new favorite girl punk rock band. A different set with new songs I think this time but a step up in the rock star poses. If anything these kids know how to work a stage. It was nice to meet Sean who puts on these Punk Rock Social, and you should come out to check out his band Blockage. One reason alone to come to PRS.

I'm off to Bay Area this Saturday morning for the first time in almost two years. Going to be great to see my family, eat a great cheesesteak in Walnut Creek, and see/feel the fog that I miss the most. I don't how I've managed so long without going "home".

tags: kiss or kill, so unloved, the press fire, blockage, cheesesteak

So Unloved

I really like the Punk Rock Socials held at the Anarchy Library, since the crowd is so different from my usual Kiss or Kill nights at the Echo. I know I'm a tad lame looking, and not in the indie cool lame look sort of way, but when I can go into a bar/club by myself (which I hardly do) and feel at home with punks, hipsters and members of The Mongols motorcycle club (they seemed nice), then that’s fucking cool. I can't speak for most nights at the Anarchy Library, but the Punk Rock Socials are great there.

Missed the first band, The Renders because I got stuck at Wal-Mart (I should've known better), so I'll check them out at a later date. Arrived in time for the 50 cent well drinks specials and the band I mostly came out for, So Unloved, a young group out from San Antonio, Texas that just kicked ass. I highly suggest checking them out.

pictures by Aristeo Perez

Saw them at last week's Kiss or Kill, but didn't know they were a band until the flyers were being handed out. I didn't get one, but managed to find out that they were playing at the Anarchy, listened to some samples and knew I wanted to check them out. Now I'm still trying to figure out where I saw the lead singer Omega before KorK. Key Club for the last Dollyrots show?

Here are some more pictures by Aristeo Perez

Tags:
So Unloved,
punk rock social, Anarchy Library

Star Wars III - start lining up!

Folks have started to line up outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre [word is that it will be playing at the Archlight on Sunset] and put in place this "sign in, sign out" system to determine place in line. Placement is based on the total hours waited in line, so you could go to work, go to Hollywood & Highland, hang out for a few hours, leave, come back, and repeat for the next six weeks.
Pic is off the liningup.net site, I assume this week.

Make First Contact (yeah I know that's Start Trek, which kicks Star Wars ass btw)
I think I'm going to take a look at these, um dedicated fans later this week, but I hear they are answering the payphone, so why don't you call them!!!

(323) 462-9609 (no joke, it's true)

Read updated info at Boing Boing

(Thanks to blogging.la for the link to Boing Boing)

SRL

Survival Research Laboratories latest creations were going at it behind Dangereous Curve in downtown LA this last Saturday. Basically SRL builds these giant mechanical machines that fight each other until there is one large burning mess. This is from their site:

Survival Research Laboratories was conceived of and founded by Mark Pauline in November 1978. Since its inception SRL has operated as an organization of creative technicians dedicated to re-directing the techniques, tools, and tenets of industry, science, and the military away from their typical manifestations in practicality, product or warfare. Since 1979, SRL has staged over 45 mechanized presentations in the United States and Europe. Each performance consists of a unique set of ritualized interactions between machines, robots, and special effects devices, employed in developing themes of socio-political satire. Humans are present only as audience or operators.

There was a large 20 foot shockwave cannon that they would aim at the crowd, a 15 foot tall trojan horse with this mechanical guy hanging out the back, a giant (4 ft high/8 ft long) spider thing, these mechanical leg less bodies that crawled around with blow torches as hands. Crazy stuff.

Laughing Squid has all the photos of the set-up and show.

Even with ear plugs it was extremely loud with my fellow audience members plugging our ears. I was stuck behind this one 6' 5" parka wearing dude which blocked the first ten minutes, but would duck down when the shockwave cannon was aimed toward us. He eventually bailed leaving a clear view until the LAFD showed up.

See big parka guy? I'm slightly taller than the blond in the middle
Photo by chrisspurgeon

Tags: SRL