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Issue # 30 Oct 2001 thewigwambam.com |
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| Ignoring Objectivity Since 1998
WIG WAM BAM “Albuquerque zine of music & nepotism” LYRIC of the MONTH:
“Its wet enough /to melt your backbone/I’d get irritated” ---Softball; from the LP Tenku, Asianman Records, 2000 |
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| TNA, Siva, GoMotorCar, Unit 7 Drain,
the Handsome Family, Selsun Blue, Snatched, Our Mother of Sorrow, the Fleshies,
the Intima, the Alarm Clocks |
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Randoms # 15 |
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| LOCAL
SHOWS |
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| TNA 9/1/01@ the Pit After an extended stay elsewhere, Midnight Penny returns to town to revive the mighty TNA.The set was short but that old jacked-up sound I know & love was especially improved with the likes of Mr Mike Day sitting on the drummer’s stool. I was somewhat concerned when Amy X didn’t kick off her heels as usual before stepping up to the vocal mike. Her shod performance was short-lived as she soon was wiggling her bare toes on the grungy floor. Bass guy Lawrence was moonlighting from his new gig with Coke Is Better With Bourbon and he still looks as shit-eatin’ happy as ever. I’m glad this band is back and with a new moniker (the name TNA always did sound like a frat-boy band) and very happy Penny is among us once again. Welcome home, darlin’. SIVA, GOMOTORCAR, UNIT 7 DRAIN 9/7/01 @ Cantina La Tuya (El Paso, TX) I drove 779 miles to see this show, featuring a Texas band and two NM ones. Well, actually, I drove the 50 miles from Las Cruces. See, I travel a bunch for work and found myself in a cool old motel on the crummy side of Cruces (rivaling the seedy East Central Ave here in the ‘burque; shitty diners, dying businesses, hookers on the street etc; the heart of America).It was a great room with the fake walnut paneling, wrought iron hanging lamp, vinyl armchairs, just classic in every way as well as clean and like the sign said, American Owned (by God!). So, it was either sit there and play Russian Roulette with cable or look for something happenin’. Since there wasn’t shit to do and I didn’t have to be in Ruidoso until noon the next day, the only sane choice was to head for La Tuya, the best club in ‘ Paso. That moment of seeing the look on GoMotor’s faces when I walked in? Priceless. Lenny D’ Wayne even accused me of being a GoMotorHead but that title was more rightly deserved for his pal who flew out from California for the gig and was set to follow them to Tucson the next night. I ain’t that crazy. Unit 7 Drain sounded clean & bright, partly from using GMC’s amps etc. I haven’t heard a bad set from these boys yet and they did just fine this night. GoMotor’s sound was a little different with the absence of Aaron’s vox & guitar so Mr D’Wayne had to do the rock star thing and keep at the mike all night. As usual, my favorite numbers featured Joego’s funky funky bass then veered off into bits of pyschedelia like the Doors’ poetic side or the like the song structure of emo (soft, hard, soft) but not like the execution. Siva was a great surprise in that ex-Chinese Love Beads drummer Mike was acting as frontman. I never knew the guy talked so damn much, bad jokes n’ all. The sound was self-described as experimental-indie or something. The first impression is free-style but it’s really not. Their sound has the power of the heavy & hard parts of emo but without the whine which is just perfect. The back and forth and back and forth loud/soft/loud emo formula is getting old, like watching a bad tennis match. But this, with drum, two guitars and on bass Mike’s wife (felicitaciones, y’all!) was powerful, wonderful and thunderful. While La Tuya is the only place in El Paso del Rio del Norte I’ve seen any shows, I hear it’s about the best as far as bookings, cover and coolness. With two pool tables, one big room and surprisingly good sound, I just wish I had more occasion to go there. the Handsome Family, Selsun Blue 9/15/01 @ Burt’s Selsun Blue started out with promise by playing AP Carter’s 1920s number Wildwood Flower -- incidentally, AP was the brother-in-law of Maybelle Carter, mother of June Carter wife of Johnny Cash & mother of Carlene Carter [who at one time vowed to “put the cunt back into country music”]. The Carters are the most historically important family in Country music (but that’s another story). Just thought you ought to know… In any case, Selsun’s strange blend left me cold. Steel guitar, snare drum & high-hat, tuba & trombone – it was godawful! I have nothing against brass especially in large swing bands or sax in old (i.e.original) rock n’ roll but whoever had the idea to sub tuba for bass in any number of alt.country bands is way off the mark. I had to get out & take a walk, which led me past Banana Joe’s and all the other flesh-markets. The excess, arrogance & monumental stupidity of Saturday night on Central Ave illustrated to me quite clearly just why we were attacked last month. If you have any doubt why, look no further than your cell phones.(Of course my arrogance too is blatant & colossal in itself but believe what you want. I know I’m right. Really. God bless Amerika) The Handsome Family on the other hand are all that’s right with country music. Brett & Rennie Sparks and now drum program (they are minus drummer Mike Werner) have been playing real country since 1994. And I don’t mean slavish imitation of style but with the integrity that is lacking in so many twangcore acts. The general public are without clue one. Even among those in the crowd that enjoyed this music were the ignorant such as: the girlies who wanted their friend to hop on stage and sing a Patsy Cline number during Selsun’ s set as if any band that twangs knows her repertoire(and come on people! Patsy was wonderful no doubt but look a little further OK? Anyone out there heard of Kitty Wells, Rose Maddox, Janis Martin, Cindy Walker? ). And there’s always the fools that, instead of getting step with the music, flail wildly like some refugee from The Beverly Hillbillies (just as many who hear some Freakbeat or Brit Invasion tunes insist on acting like dumbshit Austin Powers extras).But here, dignity was the Handsomes’ watchword coupled with healthy respect but without the forced reverence akin to weekend Catholics on Christmas Eve. There’s precious few who nowadays play country-like music with without trying to “interpret” it some fool way or another ; Gillian Welch, Sixteen Horsepower and Neko Case come immediately to mind as performers with integrity. The Sparks’ songs can even get a little goofy without being Hee Haw rejects (their all-time best song title? the literary She Awoke With a Jerk). Rennie is particularly versatile. She pens many of the lyrics although singing little but alternately plays bass, a keyboard thingie powered by breathing through a tube (a mellotron I think its called) and the particularly lovely but little-known autoharp (a multi-stringed hollowbody instrument cradled lovingly like a baby and strummed while damping the strings with a series of keys). One of the Selsun Blue guys hopped up for a few songs to accompany the married couple on six-string banjo – this another anomaly itself as banjos were originally a four string affair (based on the African marriage of a stringed instrument with a drum). Later added was a shorter fifth string, giving the instrument its distinctive sound especially when picked with three fingers in a rolling motion. Tonight it was strummed & fretted much as a guitar, diminishing the banjo’s presence as a percussive & melodic instrument as it is in bluegrass & old-time mountain music. The somewhat small sound of the duo was very big in its own way. GoMotorCar, Snatched 4/21/01 @ Sprockets The evening started out rather strange as the asshole quotient was quite high tonight. I was returning home from (yes its for real) Pietown, New Mexico (look it up!), driving a state-loaned full size pick up (not my usual little rice burner). So, first, three blocks away from home some jackass stepped out into the dark street right in front of the truck and was pissed off at me (why? Because I slammed on the brakes? Because his friends weren’t dumb enough to follow him directly into my path?). Okay, so that’s no big deal -- boneheads are ubiquitous. But then, one block left to make it home after nearly 10 hours behind the wheel, another one! This dick-for-brains was upset that I pulled up right behind him at the stop sign; he was on foot mind you, just hanging out in the street talking to his buddies who were talking to another dude in the car at the curb. He turns to me and in the headlights starts making faces and thrusting his hips at me. No, he wasn’t fourteen but college age. His friends were no prize either as they just watched him do it. I guess they were as stupid as he was (or maybe they wanted to see me run the shithead over?). Anyway, after all this crap, I figured it was too weird out there for me to drive to a show someplace (plus the fact that, like I say, the vehicle was state-property). So, I thinks, what’s right in my ‘hood, that place I don’t go to often? Sprockets! And being a sucker for girl bands I figured I better go to see this group from Boulder that GoMotorCar met on their recent mini-tour. The catch: these three women call themselves Snatched. The music was about as imaginative as the name. They were the textbook definition of the term “chick band”. The frontwoman was dressed in leather, singing in monotone and sounding like every other heavy-rock chick band in cut-out bins allover this land such as Smut, the Mystral or Stonefox. It wasn’t punk nor even metal just plain ol’ rock that of course lots of guys in the crowd approved of just ‘cause the band had more estrogen than they do. The highlight was a Nirvana cover (Tourette’s? Breed? I don’t know their stuff that well) and a PJ Harvey cover (I didn’t catch that one --you can thank Rachel ( as in “Blame It On…”) for pointing that out to me. And when a band’s highlights are the covers in their set, there ain’t much to say about the rest. GoMotorCar stepped up in full effect, back to a five-piece after the Aaron-less tour (see 9/7 above).There ain’t much I can say about these guys either but that’s because it was a great set especially in light of the dwindled house (many people left during the Snatched set. They rocked again and, after the strange start to my night, restored what little faith in humanity I actually have. Our Mother of Sorrow, the Fleshies, the Intima 10/3/01 @ Insurgo Insurgo’s one year anniversary was a ragin’ party, the place was packed and jumpin’ and – oh no wait. Did I say Insurgo? The place that’s hosted dozens & dozens of out-of-town bands that would have no other place to play, charging only a few bucks? Yeah, that one-- why would anyone bother to go for their birthday gig? Well actually, but for a handful (a very small handful) no one did. What else is new? Meanwhile people pack Banana Joe’s each night. Sad but true… With ex-menbers of Sistema Nerviosa, Logical Nonsense & Filth, Our Mother of Sorrow closed the show with the sound that you’d expect: rock n’ hardcore. On the Alternative Tentacles label, the Fleshies were the perfect blend of old-school snotty punk (snotcore?) and skull-splitting rock and roll; for reals, the singer was bandaged from some head injury he sustained on tour. I can’t imagine it felt any better after all the thrashing, jumping and rolling around on the floor that he did. I half-expected him to bust a blood vessel and spurt gore into the crowd. Audience participation! Openers the Intima are a wailing four piece (guitar, bass, drums and violin!) that pulled off some great avant-hoedown. It was sometimes hard to differentiate between the guitar & the violin in the mix but hearing rather one sound from the entire band. It was good and different, two things which don’t necessarily always go together. Speaking of which, the bands at Insurgo (like at any other venue) aren’t always good (but many times they are) but most are different than anything you’ll hear at the usual places. I don’t go there as much as I ought to but I don’t ignore it either. Neither should you. the Alarm Clocks 10/4/01 They’re back again! Isaac (on guitar) was in town from Portland, Andrea (on the keys) was in from Chicago, Chuck (on bass) was in from..ummm..downtown somewhere and Jeffrey (Bright Carvers, Nitrous Burning Cactus Tractor) was sitting in heroically on the drums after one (count ‘em) one practice. The newest wave of the new wave, they remain one of the best and funnest (is that even a word?) things to come out of the ‘burque. The very-occasional shows only add to their mythic stature. One questions though: why do more people dance after the band is done to Ben’s able DJ’ing than to live music? Just wondering… |
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DIRT CULTURE #3 60pp, 8 _ X 11, offset, ?; free PO BX 4513 Las Cruces NM 88003 scumbag@dirtculture.com Nothing new as far as I can tell. Let’s see…interviews with Dropkick Murphys, Antiflag, Fugazi (at least someone talked with the drummer for a change instead of fuckin’ Ian McKaye again); lots of reviews; ads you’d find in any “major” punk rag. As usual my bitch is where’s the local angle? This is from Las Cruces New Mexico but reads like it could be from any place at all. No worse than most such zines, no better. RANDOMS #15 20pp, 8 _ X 11photocopy, whenever; free (no contact info) Still going strong with more rants & raves, maybe more rants this time than raves. I dunno, its not like there aren’t some points being made here but its just tiresome sometimes to read pieces that end in “go suck a glass tit”, “go home & get anally raped by [your] dog”, “if I had the chance I’d puke on their shoes” etc. I’m not insulted by those words. I’m insulted that a writer would think that I need some shallow challenge tossed at me rather than trusting that I seriously read their argument and can draw my own conclusions. |
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Wig Wam Bam (by Captain America PO BX 4865 Albq NM 87196 captainamerica1941@hotmail.com) |
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| Wig Wam Bam is written by Captain America |
po box 4865 | albuquerque, nm 87196 |
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