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Issue # 32 Nov 2001 thewigwambam.com |
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| Ignoring Objectivity Since 1998
WIG WAM BAM “Albuquerque zine of music & nepotism” 
LYRIC of the MONTH: Wishing there was less of you? Are you really sure How much less is more Girls are shapely by design Exactly what you’ve got Is so easy to adore Throw me a curve not a straight narrow line Throw me a curve and I’ll show you mine Get the message Its divine Throw me a curve it looks so fine --Throw Me a Curve, The Go-Go’s from God Bless the Go-Go’s; 2001 I agree but why then did singer Belinda Carlisle make
sure she lost about 20 pounds before posing for Playboy just as the record
came out? -- editor
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| the Rapture, Below the Sound, Sally Go
Round the Sun, Standing Wave, the Albuquerque Blues Connection, Felonious
Groove Foundation, Jason Daniello Band, Fast Heart Mart, TNA, Misguided, Human
Nail, GoMotorCar, Feels Like Sunday, Alex Maryol Band, the Dolly Ranchers,
Ileana, the Saddlesores, the Won Tons, Kabochak, Dead On Point Five, Standing
Wave, Slumber Party submitted by Marvel Girl,
the Pernice Brothers, Bright Carvers |
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Four Songs [CD-R demo; 2001] Cloud Full Of Clowns Escape From UNM [s/t CD 2000 ] |
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“Albuquerque’s All Music Rag” 10/01 |
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| COLONEL AURELIANO |
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| That's Me in The Corner An historic Albuquerque remembrance by our Boston correspondent, Colonel Aureliano |
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| LOCAL
SHOWS |
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| the Rapture, Below the Sound, Sally Go Round the Sun 10/10/01 @ Golden West Great to be back finally in the good ol’ Golden West. It reminded of ‘94-5 when you could find worthy bands any night at the Golden, next door at the Time Out, down the street at the Dingo or in-store shows at Mind Over Matter, Drop Out Records or Back Door Music or even shitholes like the Iron House. Back then it seemed there was a wider audience for rock in general. As much as you might want to deny it, the scene got a boost from the whole Moshing Pumpkins alt.rock thing. Back then you’d walk the campus and see all kinds of people who were at the same show last night. Now just a few years later rap is the music of choice and the kids all look like aggro-metal mooks or one-love/techno-rave hippies. But, like they say, rock isn’t dead it’s just passed out in the corner. While everyone’s lining up outside vacuous joints like Banana Moe’s to hang out with people who have little style and less taste, a show at the Golden with three diverse bands goes almost unattended. Shit, when am I gonna get it through my head that for 99.9% of club-goers, bands are incidental, just background music to pick up a fuck-partner to? If I accepted this, I wouldn’t be so disappointed on such a regular basis… Sally Go Round the Sun especially reminded me of the recent past’s indie rock thing before it exploded like Kurt Cobain’s grey matter. Simple jangle rock like this just isn’t hip any more I’m afraid. But it’s as good as ever. Below the Sound roared out a fine set of…of…shit, I don’t know. It’s not punk, metal, stoner, hardcore, rock n’ roll or emo… it’s just good hard-edge rock that even while constantly evolving, still has little hints of the old Girls Against Boys sound. Somewhat sick, singer Dennis didn’t let that slow him down; I’m quite sure he felt even shittier the morning after. At first I wasn’t too impressed with the Rapture’s angular stop/start/stop again structures. This three-piece seemed to be all going in different directions that didn’t ever really meet.Then about half-way through, the set took form and songs (rather than “pieces”) began to emerge. The drummer was whacking on a sparkly Ludwig outfit that was a for-real vintage 70s set, in excellent condition. How the fuck you tour and keep a drum kit like that in good shape is beyond me. I guess it’s like playing rock that no one gives a shit about anymore. You gotta somehow protect it even as you slam it around. Standing Wave, the Albuquerque Blues Connection, Felonious Groove Foundation, Jason Daniello Band, Fast Heart Mart 10/19/01 @ Burt’s Is it so, that there is a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren. --Corinthians 6:5 I suppose its in somewhat bad taste to review a show at which I was enlisted to be a judge --just cause I open my big fat mouth on music a lot, people think I know what I’m talking about. This was the prelim round of the New Mexico Showcase and brother, there was no way I was gonna sit up in the judge’s booth, elevated with a little placard in front of me. Not that I give a rat’s about being recognized --lots of people know who I am; if you don’t, just ask-- but it was a bit too blatant. Any-way I got in free… Oh. Its Burt’s. Everyone gets in free. Well, the free drinks were estimable. It was quite interesting having to judge bands on their merits regardless of whether I liked the musical style or not. I’d only seen one of these bands before so that will give you a clue to that… Closing the night, Standing Wave blew everyone away and entirely deserved Best Of Show. I think they would attract a lot of the old crowd that liked Apricot Jam but thank Christ were nowhere near as noodle-y and were a bit too young to have been Deadheads (whew! ). They pleased people like me who demand at least a little rock in our rock if you know what I mean. The drummer kept things rather lively although they were quite laid back in that drawstring-pants Santa Fe way (that’s where they’re from). They played mostly acoustic instruments even though the music doesn’t fit that Americana/No Depression mold. The mandolin has a nice sound you don’t hear very often especially in the hands of someone outside of a bluegrass band. As a mandolin picker, however, he was a pretty good guitar player if you get my drift. The Albuquerque Blues Connection were almost a John Lee Hooker tribute band. No freakin’ originality here unless you think pot songs are groundbreaking (nope, guess again! A song called Reefer Man was recorded back in like 1932 or something). But let’s be honest, when was the last time you heard anything original in the blues? It may have been as recent as when lots of southern blacks relocated to Detroit or Chicago, say 1944… And why do they always have to have the word “blues” or the lead guy’s name in the band name? No class if you ask me. The ‘Connection sure knew how to work the crowd though. Of course by this time of night, most people are pretty tanked up anyway. Good thing the judges only got two drink tickets apiece. Felonious Groove Foundation can play well enough but it seems like anyone that tosses some raps into their shit these days is hailed as groundbreaking and original. Headline: even Blondie did it (not very well I admit ) back in 1980 with Rapture. Big deal. Don’t forget, kiddies: even though rap is the big thing these days, its almost half as old as rock and roll. What have you done for me lately? The Jason Daniello Band (oh no! there’s that name-the-band- after-yourself thing again. That’s almost tacky as wearing your own logo on a tee-shirt ). Although I lament the loss of the Argonauts name (who out there knows who the Argonauts were and Ray Harryhausen was? Anyone?), they sounded as good as always but its not the kind of music that wins big in a contest setting. There’s no big crowd-pleasing blow-you-away moments but lots of agreeable smooth tunes. Fast Heart Mart -- Ah! The sacrificial opening band of the opening night that no one heard. A nine PM start time and no one I know even leaves their house before ten o’clock and that’s usually to buy a six-pack to get a head start on their stupor or grab a Frontier burrito before the show. Raga rock isn’t new (its at least as old as Beatle George Harrison’s Love You To [from Revolver 1966] ) but this yogacore band was folkie-smooth and as original as can be expected. The tabla player added some nice rhythms of a sort that have been barely explored since the 60s; and in light of recent 9-11 developments, they probably won’t be any time soon no matter how far Bombay actually is from Kabul. The fact that the tabla player was wearing a ball cap with a US flag on it is no accident. Can’t say I blame the guy as most of us yanks can’t differentiate between anyone whose ancestors came from east of the Euphrates. TNA, Misguided 10/25/01 @ Sprocket’s Misguided start and end with the influence of the likes of Dave Matthews who is equally misguided. What else can ya say? As for TNA, I forgot how raunchy this band actually is. Well, specifically the girls; the guys are actually pretty well-mannered dudes, thank you very much, sir. Midnight Penny & Amy X-Rated talk as much or more about their crotches as fratboys think about their dicks. But they rock like fuck and are as jacked-up and punked-out as you’d ever want to hear without one ounce of punk cliché. This is the only punk I’ve ever heard that doesn’t sound like one of the already well-mined styles. Hats off to the ladies! (I use that term lightly). Human Nail, GoMotorCar, Feels Like Sunday 10/26/01 @ Burt’s Third round of the New Mexico Showcase prelim’s (and no more Judge’s robes for me, yer honor). Feels Like Sunday came off pretty flat except for the last song when they kicked things up quite a bit. I think they forgot that in a three-song contest dealie-o, ya don’t build. Ya jump right into the thick of things with your absolute grab-em-by-the-throat best. They didn’t. GoMotorCar rocked as usual (oops sorry I called Johnny the wrong name last issue. I’m confusing my history) with somewhat unclassifiable indie. Hey, please turn up the keyboards and prove that you didn’t pick the keys guy up just for his ‘fro hair alone! Human Nail were reported to be from Alamogordo but introduced themselves as from Las Cruces; in either case they brought half of southern NM with them to cheer ‘em on. Slick move that, ‘cause its easier to play better to a crowd that’s into you than not, especially to a bunch of jaded big city sophisticates that Albuquerque breeds. Me, I wasn’t into them at all. I don’t like metal even good metal (I’m not sure there is such a thing) and this wasn’t even close. The very first song had that Fred Durst /Limp Dick…ooops…Limp Bizkit crapola going on. Horrid! The rest was garden variety metal for 42 year olds. They took one of the two finalist spots anyway. No accounting for taste or lack thereof. Stoic Frame was coming up. I had to go. The last time I saw them (over a year ago) they had ditched much of their call-to-arms Sandino-rock in favor of hard rap and metalistic wank so you can guess my interest quotient in them. So far, the Showcase seems to be coming off rather well, drawing all kinds of people to Burt’s who probably haven’t left the far Northeast Heights for Downtown in ages if ever at all --and likely drawing the ire of all the regular Burt’s hipsters who are nowhere in sight these nights. When Michael Feferman had the misguided idea to include me as someone who has valuable insights into the “scene” as he first started to pull this lovefest together, I suggested it may well turn out to be another in a line of ignored-by-the-public Battle-of-the-Bands thingies. Well, as I’m fond of saying, What the fuck do I know? Michael pulled in all kinds of sponsors and judges that aren’t part of the normal scenester clique; this somewhat skewed things towards what I think of as more “polished” kinds of bands. Most of the Downtown usual suspects didn’t even make the first cut. I can’t say yet whether this is a good thing or not . But it is good that I couldn’t choose the winners by kingly degree or else the award would go posthumously to bands like the Chinese Love Beads or the Drags. Or, to really stir people up, maybe Fukrot! Alex Maryol Band, the Dolly Ranchers, Ileana, the Saddlesores 10/27/01 @ Burt’s Some great rockin’ twang by the Saddlesores opened the show; a fine set featuring newest member Ben (Expatriates, Back Seat Rockers, ex-Impatients) on guitar leads in the best Keith Richards latter mid-period Stones vein. The band was tight and well-practiced and was probably the closest thing to plain ol’ rock n’ roll in the whole of the New Mexico Showcase and definitely my favorite of the entire competition. As talented as Ileana is, I sure wish she’d take some of her perky (sorry!) energy and rock a little. The songs surely began as bedroom solo strummers as in alt.rock like Belly or even frickin’ Lisa Loeb but surely the backbeat could be rocked-up a little without losing their immediacy and strength. Gil from Oh, Ranger! does a particularly fine turn on the bass. The Dolly Ranchers play some very good dyke-folk. Although the duo-singers vocals are mighty fine, the two Maria’s (one each on bass and that sweet hollowbody Guild) really make the band. The guitar work is especially well-played with the bass only mere inches behind in ability. They all seemed quite comfortable onstage and much more than capable. Being quite unfair to Alex Maryol, I bailed during the first song as I feared the whole would be more of the same, white-boy longhair blues, not to my taste at all. However, they won the top spot that night so as usual, I’m in the minority. the Won Tons, Kabochak, Dead On Point Five 11/1/01 @ Launchpad The new & improved Dead On Point Five with Ben Hathorne on 2nd guitar. A two-guitar sound really filled out the songs without degenerating into wankage like some of the group’s previous axemen. Ben & Dom traded leads and as long as they stayed below like the fifth fret, everything was fine. As soon as guitarists get all the way up the neck for extended leads I lose interest faster than their nimble fingers can move, say about five seconds. DO.5 pulled off just enough crash, distortion and fuzz while keeping on top of the beats (Tim and Jeff are a killer rhythm section) and melodies to make me happy. Quite a contrast then to go to Japan’s Kabochak who mix up some saccharine-sweet blend of J-Pop with that Olympia Washington /K Records sweetie-pie stuff and a bit of Juliana Hatfield’s girlie alt.poprock and a twist of the Chubbies. I know that sounds awful (some of it was) but it generally agreed with me, especially the lyrics-in-Japanese part. Yeah! Why should all those Asian bands have to learn to sing in English anyway? The singer had much more trouble with her pedals than anyone should have especially so far from home. She and the drummer were genuinely pleased and flattered that I later bought some of their merch. They even surprised me by initiating a handshake. That’s something I’ve recently learned not to do with other Japanese bands (Supersnazz) who looked at me with alarm like I was about to paw them with my filthy gaijin hands (neither I nor they meant any offense; that’s just how it is as cultures clash). Finally the Won Tons took the stage and had a cleaner, harder Estrus Records sound with pyrotechnics, not really lots to write home about but definitely worth going out for. And I’m especially happy to report that once again, none of these bands had anything in common musically. Maybe that keeps you philistines away from shows but that’s my bread and butter. Standing Wave 11/3/01 @ Burt’s I had to go check these guys again to make sure they were as good as I first thought. They are in a sprightly way. They don’t rock. They hop. There’s one thing about them though (or maybe its about me..?), they’re just too damn happy. And (excluding crusty punks) therein lies the difference between Albuquerque and Santa Fe bands. We prefer to wallow in our misery here, thank you very much. As soon as they finished the set, the Ramones’ Somebody Put Something in My Drink followed by the Stones’ Dead Flowers came on the juke. I knew that for me, it just couldn’t get any better than that so I had to leave before the next band was up. Slumber Party 11/4/01@ Golden West Saloon submitted by Marvel Girl A small crowd in a fairly large venue lent an air of surreality to the show. I think David put it best when he said, "man, where's David Lynch? ". Despite the eeriness, Slumber Party was amazing. They rocked as if the Velvet Underground married Arthur Lee's psychedelic group Love and had three little girls who grew up taking voice lessons from Nico and smoking opium. They were missing one guitarist, but it didn't detract from their sound in the slightest. That's about it. :) the Pernice Brothers, Bright Carvers 11/5/01 @ Launchpad The Pernices were, as Jeffrey said to me, quite polite. Almost solemn actually. The music that ex- members of Big Tobacco, Chappaquiddick Skyline, Jale, Scud Mountain Boys, Lilys, New Radiant Storm King put together (with Joe Pernice as frontman) reminded of John Lennon at his most sentimental (not a good thing) crossed with the decades-separated Neil Young Harvest /-Moon LPs. The band appeared to pick up towards the end but it was actually the same, just louder, an old trick that crowds always goes for hook, line & sinker. Openers the Bright Carvers are, well, bright; brilliant in fact. Everything is just where it ought to be. That’s not to say that there’s no mistakes or anything (who cares) but the hooks are deftly placed and the timing is exquisite. The Carver’s brightness is balanced with lots of bottom to anchor the tunes that could flow off into fluff but aren’t given the chance, being gently tethered with adroit writing. All four are accomplished musicians that have been around here for close to a dozen years and gigged in easily twice that many bands (it makes my head hurt to recall them all): Jeffrey Richards (guitar; drums) Jason Daniello (guitar), Ryan Martino (drums; guitar) and Johnny I-don’t-know-his-last-name (bass but plays anything he sees, so I hear) plus lots of (yes!) three and four part harmonies. Bravo, gentlemen. |
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| LOCAL
RELEASES |
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Bright Carvers Four Songs [CD-R demo; 2001] I was about to give Jeffrey shit for not recording anything yet when what does he do but hand me this and spoil my fun. A bit more twang than their live set, complete with banjo and some mighty fine stick-in-you-head tunes, exemplars of the best that twangcore can be. I hope its not true what they say about CD-Rs deteriorating at rapid rates but I’m gonna put this’n on tape too just to be safe. Cloud Full Of Clowns Escape From UNM [s/t CD 2000] www.overcastrecords.com As usual, the appeal of avant-sound collages with a groove below and sporadic blips and bleeps escapes me. Guess I’m just too old to appreciate 27 tracks of this sorta stuff that appear to be named for various events lived through by someone named Cloudboy complete with lots of UNM-centric references such as the Frontier, orientation, the SW Film Center and “the kids on Cornell”. Actually the beats aren’t bad; there’s some good funk action here & there but perhaps best of all, its cool in that most grads will only have yearbooks, bad transcripts and STDs to remember their college days by. At least Cloudboy and his buds have a CD diary of sorts. |
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Transmissions #1 “Albuquerque’s All Music Rag” 10/01 8pg, 8½ x 11, monthly; free transmissionsmag@ yahoo.com Who in hell are Ciano, Skitzz, Sixscape, Radio Jet, Salvador, Smile Savers? In my little insulated downtown indie-rock cocoon, I forget about (or is that disregard) the rest of the NM music continuum. Its cool that someone is motivated to be “devoted entirely to New Mexico’s original music”. What’s even cooler is that I had to dig for that quote and pull it out of the indicia (y’know those few tiny lines of text on the bottom of the first page of every real magazine) and that whoever’s behind this mag didn’t feel the need to editorialize on their philosophy, their recent break-ups, their cat or the other useless info that most emo-addled zinesters feel they have to lay out for their readership. Truth be told (look closely!): this zine-- Wig Wam Bam --as I’ve always said, is ultimately more about me than the music. My opinion! Mine, mine, mine!!! The first issue of Transmission loses points for an ugly shade of purple ink on a poorly laid-out cover. Something like that would barely be noticed in the zine world (punks like shit ugly on purpose; don’t ask me why) but I’m willing to bet these guys are dead serious about their publication. Good. Somebody’s got to be serious about local music. |
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| COLONEL AURELIANO |
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| An historic Albuquerque remembrance
by our Boston correspondent, Colonel Aureliano That’s Me In the Corner She was a biter. I mean hard. She loved to bite me hard when she came. I didn’t hate it. Never mind the fact I had no business being there. She was hanging out with a friend of mine when we met at a party. He had told her to bite her own damn self. Wrong answer friend. I knew I was in trouble when she decided to have a party at his house in honor of my visit to Albuquerque, but my feeble attempts to protest were exactly that. So I arrived at the party, against my better judgment of course, but nevertheless I arrived. Now you’re just going to have to believe me when I tell you that I am in no way a sucker for a beautiful girl in an extremely short denim skirt and cowboy boots, that’s right cowboy boots, even if she is long and lean, very lean, with legs up to here. But, when you know she is wearing that outfit just for you, that kind of changes the equation. And when she whispers in your ear that she forgot to wear her panties that night too, well never mind. Tawdry? Where do you sign up. So of course I drove her home from the party when she asked. It was already way too late for Larry. That’s how I lost one of my favorite ties because she had it off me and my white shirt unbuttoned before I had the key in the ignition. Never did find it. Neckties come and go. I woke up some hours later in a very new and very cheap apartment complex which was technically in the Northeast Heights only because it was slightly north of Central. I was kind of bitten up, deep teeth marks in various places, and she was sound asleep in my arms. The curtains were billowing in from the sliding glass doors in a slight uptown breeze while what’s-their- name played softly on the little radio on the floor. As luck would extremely have it, it had only been two days since their breakthrough college radio station hit album had been released, so we hadn’t all heard it a bazillion times yet, and there was nothing really nothing to turn off. I lay there on my back for a good long time, holding her and listening. Rock and roll, brothers and sisters, comes in many strange shapes and forms. I still miss her. |
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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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