Intr0vert may have reviewed Brooklyn’s dirty-glamorous Semi Precious Weapons back in November, but I wanted in on the action. So when the chance came along to interview them before their show on Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball tour, I picked my jaw up off the ground, threw some glitter on and rented a sexy Kia Spectra to get to Rosemont.
From ditching their Brooklyn apartment and hopping on a tour bus that follows my beloved Lady, their lives have been turned a bit upside-down in the past year. Lady Gaga actually opened for Semi Precious Weapons, back sometime between being Stephanie Germanotta and a 23 year old woman with her own army of Monsters.
Sitting down on the bus with SPW, I was expecting 30 minutes of me being awkward turtle while they stared at me blankly, wishing for a legit interview. To my utter amazement, it was just the opposite. Yeah, I did have four gorgeous rock stars staring at me, but to my relief it was just 6 people (including Justin’s mom for awhile) having a conversation about rock and roll, tits, blood, glitter-you know, normal stuff. Click for more Trash »
Finally more KITH! Does it get any better than these cross dressing Canadians? How about morbidly obese fatsuits! (Be jealous: Bruce McCulloch and I go to the same Trader Joe’s).
This was my first time at Schuba’s, and I like that it was a small and intimate venue, albeit more long than wide. It’s just off of Southport and Belmont, so if you’re in the Lakeview area, not a hard place to get to.
Now, in my humble opinion, you have to be pretty famous to make people wait an hour, only to play a 30-40 minute set. Such was the case with Nico Vega, thus I was quite confused when they announced their final song so soon. However, when they finally did get going, it was clear that I was among many hard-core Nico Vega devotees.
They weren’t lacking in energy, which was much appreciated. I’ve read comparisons of Aja to Karen O, which I can kind of buy, but with one difference: Aja clearly was an active participant in all the fun, and really fed off the crowd’s energy. She came out in a Robin Hood-esque cape and hood, only to reveal the disco ball madness below it (it was Bob Mackieish). Her voice was soulful and angry, she was quite frankly a little scary (the fact that every picture I took gave her devil eyes didn’t help either). The sound is bizarre and haunting, sounds like a hybrid of several people (I’m thinking a little Grace Slick, some Leila Moss…) and that’s not to say her voice isn’t unique.
Rabbit in the Bag, very intense good moment, the song I was waiting to hear them play. Like Jefferson Airplane’s ‘White Rabbit’, albeit more in your face and sans metaphors. That song was definitely worth the wait, and with such sheer intensity the show reached its peak with this one. After that, they closed with “Beast”, much to my surprise. It was a great song to end with, but I spent most of the song disappointed that their set was over so quickly.
I guess in summary I would say that Aja’s amazing vocals and intense energy are what make this band worth watching. They already have a handful of songs in my head, and I wanna use the word “potential” without being trite. But I get the impression that with the wind blowing just the right way, Nico Vega could burst from their cult-following status to filling much bigger venues with devotees. I would definitely advice you to catch them if they’re in your area.
Hey! I’m back in my homestate somewhere in middle America and I’ve been hanging out with a lot of people who really want to come visit me on the coast but with money tight don’t really have that luxury. Behold a solution (of sorts)! Lauren Scheffand The Hawk host a show via UStream calledThe Real Sunset Strip LIVE from The Roxy Theatre. It’s a great chance to see what goes on during a typical Saturday night in the musical heart of West Hollywood that spawned bands like The Doors, Van Halen, Motley Crue and Guns N Roses.
Speaking of which, former GNR/Velvet Revolver/The Cult drummer Matt Sorum, a regular fixture of the strip, even stopped by a few weeks ago to chat with the guys about the glory days of The Strip (video below). Other recent guests have been Mark McGrath (Sugar Ray), Harry Perry, B-Real from Cypress Hill and Tattooed Millionaire to name very few. Other regular guests and skits from Scheff & The Hawk include bartenders, managers, drunks and misfits from various other Sunset Strip institutions like The Viper Room and The Comedy Store. You’ll probably see me pop-up there every now and then.
Check out the show! Join the Ustream chat sometime and make Twitter and Facebook friends with The Real Sunset Strip!
I consider myself a pretty bigButch Walker fan. After meeting him after a festival with The Marvelous 3 in 1999 I’ve followed his career intensely. All the while mystified because for the life of me I just can’t understand how this guy isn’t bigger than all of the artists he writes & produces for?
Butch is in the midst of a series of shows in LA, NYC, Chicago and hometown Atlanta where he’s dedicated each night to one of his specific solo records. During his November residency at The Hotel Cafe in LA I caught the first night where he played the 2004’s Letters (still my favorite BW solo effort) with his entire biker gang in tow.
February 2, Butch will release his 5th solo album, Groundhog Day: The AlbumI Liked It Better When You Had No Heart on VINYL! With a regular CD/Download dropping Feb 23…but you should probably get a record player anyway.
He’s calling his new band The Black Widows which seems a bit forced in an Is-Ryan-Adams-Starting-A-Death-Metal-band? kind of way. But I’d imagine it opens up a lot of possibilities for his graphic designer. Butch can do no wrong by me, bring it!
Wasting no time I see! The White Stripes are releasing a Documentary of their 2007 Canadian tour entitled Under Great White Northern Lights. I can understand that Jack White has been busy since then with his other band and his other, other band but is this still relevant in the general sense or are the White Stripes just throwing its Canadian audience a bone? The packaging is actually quite lovely and it does include 3 unreleased live tracks including “Let’s Shake Hands” but this seems like a release just for hardcore fans of the two-tone band.
I met Kate Micucci for the first time a couple years ago at a BBQ Joint in Chinatown LA that was having a comedy night and made her a “You Should Know:” artist just after I launched this incarnation of AvantTrash. I have a fetish for the Uke and this girl is the closest thing to a ukulele hero since Tiny Tim orAsian Babies. Besides that She and her partner in Garfunkel & Oates (Riki Lindhome) are both very funny and talented actresses to boot (You might recognize them from Scrubs or the remake of Last House on the Left). With G&O they write songs about a variety of brilliant subjects: 3rd wheel dates, Self-Esteem being low enough to date someone less than ideal, The smugness of pregnant women, and Douchebags (to name a few). Their lyrics blend a crass and beautiful truth with a much-more-than-folk sound coming from whichever 2 instruments they happen to be holding (Guitar, Uke, Keys…and Kazoos). It’s coincidental that tonight they made their debut on Jay Leno on the same night I made them the 7th day of Xmas (I’ve had all 12 days planned out for a month). I caught a preview of their Leno performance during their Holiday Spectacular at the UCB Theatre last week. They were even nice enough to give everyone in the theatre CD’s and DVDs…and candy. A fitting wrap up to the year is their video I posted last year around this time for “Present Face”. You may recognize a few more comedians in this video than you did last year, they aren’t the only ones that had a good 2009.
Good thing about the economy being in the can, less people exchanging awkward gifts.
This is a real product. They are relying on the cheekiness of the internets to let their so-fake-it’s-got-to-be-real video sell a 10 cent piece of rubber for $4.95 (but wait, you get one free!) You’re gonna see it anyway, it might as well be here.
How long until they figure out a product that they can call, “I need a blowjob!”? Maybe something that inflates balloons faster?
Maybe this will actually increase the number of handjobs…the world needs them. Real ones are free…usually.
That’s all the adjectives I had room for.
