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Issue # 59 May 2004 thewigwambam.com |
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| Ignoring Objectivity Since 1998
WIG WAM BAM “Albuquerque zine of music & nepotism” ANOTHER
ONE GONE
This April another long-time 'burque institution, 303 Stanford, has followed in demise such other punk houses as the Nursery and the Iron Haus. After years of neglect, the landlords finally gave the tenants the boot, with rumors like turning it into a parking lot (unlikely since there's already plenty parking for the Farmer's Market next door). The 303 has hosted many a local and touring hardcore or crust band not so much for shows in recent years but as a place to hang, crash, party and/or puke. Gigs, recordings, busts by the FCC, this place has seen it all although by most accounts no one was known to have died or been born there. In spite of the fact that structurally the place has been steadily falling apart, it’s a shame to see it go. From such bands as Bulletrainmafia, Word Salad, Beefcake In Chains and a zillion others, when reached for comment, kickass- guitarist Sonny and long-time 303 resident had this to say: "Fuck." |
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| Zombie Zombie, Karen, the Exquisite
Corpse of Alan George Ledergerber, Black Maria, Bus Driver, the Mindy Set,
the Dirty Novels, Old Man, the Free Range Clones, the Darlington Horns, the
Foxx, Brixton Ex, Gnostic, the Foxx, 10 Seconds To Liftoff Dead On Point
5, Orbit Service, Hey Dandee! |
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| LUDLOW, COLORADO |
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| Back in February on my way home from
the Detroit Cobras show in Denver, I was almost to the New Mexico border
when I spied Exit 27 for Ludlow.... |
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LOCAL
RELEASES
NM bands, any label |
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| Weapons of Mass Destruction Pardovart [CD-R EP 2004] (Pre-Local Release): the M-80s [CD-R 199?] |
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3/5/04 @ Launchpad The Darkness 4/15/04 @ the Marquee, Phoenix, AZ by Marvel Girl Varant Majarian /Abandon All Hope/ the Subjects [split CD, 2004] Abandon All Hope/Frontside [split 7”, 2003] by Dee Snarl |
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the (new) Guild Cinema |
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| LOCAL
SHOWS |
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| Zombie Zombie, Karen, the Exquisite Corpse of Alan George Ledergerber 3/26/04 @ Burt’s From Denver, Zombie Zombie renewed my faith in ‘the kids’ because these under-agers played a noise-rock set but under-laden with melodies and arrangement, which too many noise-punkz ignore altogether. Similarly, the second half of Karen’s set tonight exhibited lots of song structure which is all to the good. And fuck you little shits who are complaining about “sell-out”. Go home to your mommy and cry in your Power Rangers pillowcase while Karen continue to make some of the best and most-challenging music in town. Alan’s opening noise/bass/FX set was over before I knew it. Since I can’t tell what the heck he’s doing most of the time it takes me a while to pick up the thread. Longer next time please. Black Maria, Bus Driver, the Mindy Set 4/2/04 @ Atomic Black Maria unplugged! Well, not quite. The vocals were buried deep like lost pirate treasure with no map but it was noteworthy to hear what amounted to an instrumental set so hot you might call it “aural sex”: skull-kicking rock. Pass the Excedrin but don’t lower the volume, boys. Bus Driver: a turntable guy and rhymer/rapper delivering what appeared to be non-commercial hippin’ and hoppin’ but as a whole the genre is over my head and/or under my radar. The treat of the night: the Classic Mindy Set-up made me cream. Jill Rocks is back on drums (welcome home, darlin’) as well as Mikey’s beautiful-to-tears guitar work. This is the shit that made me sit up and take notice of the Mindies in the first place. Best of all: although the old line-up is back, that don’t mean there’s been no progression. Progress is this band’s middle name. Can’t wait for the new release that’s coming soon and if some industry/label fucks don’t take the bait this time they’re bigger idiots than we ever thought possible. And as this was tat/graphix king Delano’s opening, I’m assuming the man himself picked the line-up. Cheers for auditory diversity on stage! the Dirty Novels, Old Man, the Free Range Clones, the Darlington Horns 4/3/04 @ Atomic I heard this Dirty Novels set differently tonight after listening to a pre-release copy of the CD. Like, for one, I had a clue to what PauliB’s been singing about all this time. I don’t know about the rest of you out there, but I can’t discern lyrics for shit these days. The ol’ ears ain’t what they used to be. In fact I can trace my right ear’s pre-tinnitus to one night at the Dingo pressed up against the stacks during a Drags show about eight years ago. Good thing I got two ears… Anyway being familiar with studio versions makes it easier for a listener to interpret a live set especially at a place like the Atomic where sound quality varies like the mythical Janus himself. Keep this in mind, club sound-dudes: louder is not always better. One of my offbeat local faves, the Old Man rock yer ponies with galloping 4/4 waltz beats as if played by junkie gypsies recording themes for Saturday morning cartoon adventure shows like Jonny Quest all grown-up but no longer battling mad scientists and reanimated dinosaurs, Jonny’s smuggling opium out of Marrakech. Hoo-hah! The Free Range Clones are good at a sort of Descendents-descended punk but with more acumen. A few more personal touches would make it enjoyable to me but plenty people seem to like ‘em the way they are. That’s one of the key differences between crowds and musicians: Difference #1: 99% of musicians have more far-ranging taste in musical styles than 110% of their audience. Which brings us to Difference #2: that can lead musicians to try more stuff than the crowd who “likes them the way they are” usually wants. You know what I say to the crowd? Tough shit, mate. Opening the night was a smokin’ Darlington Horns set with drummer Heath driving ‘em from behind with a knotted whip tonight, drawing blood like a Roman on Jesus. No fancy shit here just bar-room rock and roll for bars that have maybe grapefruit juice as their most exotic mixer. To close my night (until the birds was wakin’ up) I accepted an invite to stately Darlington Manor for wee-hours revelry in the music room with a band 1/2 Horns and 1/4 Sleestaks. A good time was had by all. the Dirty Novels, the Foxx, Brixton Ex 4/10/04 @ Launchpad Brixton Ex are the latest incarnation of Trans 66 which was the transformation from the Telephones who started out as the Brixton Experiment. I like this new name best of all but although the emphasis on electro-beats is what I’ve been pushing for all along, the wholesale trade-in of guitar and drums for keys and turntables is startling. Sorry to be a bitch, guys, but just a little bit of guitar would round things out just all-aces, as well as turning up the ‘tables volume. It’s a good (re)start from a band with more good to come I hope. Thanks to their growing status as well as the promo provided by the Weakly Alibi waking up and smelling the make-up, the joint was packed with people who’ve barely heard or seen the ’burque powerhouse doublebill of the Foxxy Novels. A loud mix always works better at the Launchpad than anyplace else in town and so it was for the Foxx. Isaac’s whip-it-on leads sounded rockstar-bitchin’ in this spacious club. Even Zed’s bass reverberates in your chest cavity like a rocknroll defibrillator, a side-effect of his new ringin' hollowbody bass guitar coupled with the Launchpad's capacity for volume and Z’s increasing confidence. This, the Dirty Novels’ CD release show, was honored by one of the Foxx’s latest, Julie Legend’s Dirty Novels song, as fine a glam trib as can be and a catchy tune to boot. As well, her likewise new Buddy Holly Song --everyone’s freshest favorite--features her pipes in a nice low range between two of my earliest musical heroines: Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane, the Great Society) and the oft-compared Dusty Springfield (see the masterpiece 1969 Atlantic LP Dusty In Memphis which is in the record collection of anyone who knows shit about blue-eyed soul...what’s your excuse?). The Dirty Novels were dressed in their full finery tonight, even drummer Joego, like he was ready for the prom. Bassist Switchblade Carrie looked as if she just stepped off the set of Extreme Rocker- Makeover, larger than life itself. Their set triumphantly strutted and swaggered as if it was classic Willie Dixon slow-stomp, Little Red Rooster, a song that inspired the inspirations of the Novels back in 60s ‘Swinging London’ before it was swinging but blustering with a blues beat, before the Rockers & the Mods called a truce. The Novels calendar is full to capacity this month, playing every few nights and even for coffeebreaks. Free Range Clones, Gnostic @ Burt’s the Foxx, the Dirty Novels, 10 Seconds To Liftoff @ Atomic 4/16/04 I stopped into the Atomic on the way to Burt’s and so missed the Platitudes dammit. I’ve got not too many chances left with the current line-up ‘cause Chris (also the best Launchpad soundguy since Dutch left town) is “going back to Ohio”--cue Chrissie Hynde & the Pretenders My City Was Gone here. However I was rewarded by Las Cruces’ Ten Seconds To Liftoff, a great surprise. A set of drums and three pounding rhythm guitars and no fucking leads is a tasty recipe. As a bonus one of the guitarists was Gawdamn Adam who used to run The Dirt records (R.I.P.), a good little ol’ shop in ‘Cruces, partly ruined by broken beer bottles in the parking lot during in-stores as well as general scene apathy (i.e. poor sales) that seems to doom so many honest attempts. And frontman Bill was spotted at many a decent show around here before he moved down to the Mesilla Valley. Much better than your average punk waste-of-time, I’m counting down until Ten Seconds makes it back here. A slap-on-the-back to the Atomic Cantina’s personnel for keeping up a ‘Cruces/’burque connection, one of our best inter-city exchange programs, second only to the local hardcore punk community who’ve always kept Espanola homies in the loop as well as a nationwide network. Talk all the shit you want about grindcore crusties but they kick indierock ass on holding their community together on a genuine un-hipster level. Back at Burt’s, Gnostic …ummm… well, apologies guys; otherwise occupied, I can’t say I heard anything to a lasting impression though but promise I’ll pay attention next time. The Free Range Clones set was slightly marred by the unexpected downsizing to a trio from a four piece but they carried on with above-average punker rock. If I was more familiar with their catalog, I’d have more to say but I was not unimpressed. Its nice however to hear punk rock with 1) no Mohawks and 2) intelligence. Back at Atomic, I caught the Novels’ Mi Amor es Electrico which just has to be their first video… if they make any. Finally with the volume cranked to ‘maxx’, the Foxx rocked like nobody’s business but the real star of this show was Juliette’s slick slacks, the best pair of pants seen since Don Cornelius retired from ABC-TV’s Soul Train. Dead On Point 5, Orbit Service, Hey Dandee! 4/17/04 @ Atomic Things got off to a slow start tonight ‘cause Romeo Goes To Hell’s drummer was in an auto accident. Nothing too serious I was told but nothing to shrug off lightly either. Here’s to a speedy recovery, Noelan! Closing the show was a way-too short set by the latest incarnation of Dead On Point Five (at about line-up number six by now), featuring none other than the long-lost Ben Hathorne on drums. He told me that inbetween the usual work and existing, he’s been working on & off on some new stuff. I hope it surfaces sooner than later ‘cause its been too long since we’ve heard any of Ben’s wonderful songwriting and always professional (in the best sense of the word) tunes & arrangements. DO.5 sounds back in form (roaring like a motherfucker) after an unsteady regrouping but I wish they’d had more time to really rip it out tonight. Denver’s Orbit Service took so long to set up (confound all that digital equipment!) and presented such a low-key & slow cosmos-rock set that the stage area practically cleared. Too bad because they were good. All dressed in black, I would have expected a metal or hard rock sound from them but with accordion and acoustic guitar among the gear, that didn’t happen (thank god). One gal of the sparse crowd did a little cosmic sort of Deadhead dancing but don’t blame the band. The accordion brings a little nod to Calexico but thankfully minus the indie-hipster factor and no jiveass polka. Accomplished and well-practiced, their quietly sweeping sound deserved more attention than it got. The winners of the night however were Hey Dandee! who at first had a few unfamiliar people in the crowd staring in disbelief but won ‘em over with general silliness throughout a “reverend” set of killer pop songs. That style along with singer Jim’s voice reminds me of Sugar-era Bob Mould fronting a subdued Pixies covering the Lemonheads for mid- 80s indie label Caroline. Lots of hooks that stick in the head like burrs to your socks after a long hike. Guru Chuck sat cross-legged playing catchy blip-bleep-bloop keyboards while bassist Dandee Fleming cavorted around like an oversized Nordic elf. Loose but together and lots of fun. Its about I got my ass out to see the band--oh excuse me--rock group. In the studio soon, watch out for their first release. I am. |
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| LUDLOW, COLORADO |
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It was early springtime and the strike was on Back in February on my way home from the Detorit Cobras show in Denver, I was almost to the New Mexico border when I spied Exit 27 for Ludlow. This is the memory it brought back: eighth grade, bugging my mom to drive me to Harmony House out on Route 1 in New Jersey someplace. I didn't pay attention to where it was but only knew it was the best nearby shop to buy blues, folk and bluegrass records, having renounced bloated rock music. While my classmates were getting down to (gack!) Climax Blues Band and Marshall Tucker, I was collecting discs by Sleepy John Estes, Jim and Jesse & the Virginia Boys and Ramblin' Jack Elliot. It was on the Ramblin' Jack record Talkin' Woody Guthrie that I first heard Ludlow Massacre, Woody's "red" tribute to the striking coal miners of southern Colorado in 1914. Mining companies were the giant corporations of their day, controlling their workers like indentured servants, forcing them to live in company houses, to buy groceries at company stores, to send their kids too young to work to company schools, all enforced by the company militia. Then as now, people uniting for basic human rights were seen as rebellious troublemakers who deserved a heavy hand. That very night you soldiers waited State government sided with the companies because what was good for the companies was good for the economy. National Guard troops were sent to reinforce the company goons and no one paid much attention to what was happening in a young western state. You struck a match and the blaze it started Only one of a series of battles between management and labor, this portion of the Southern Colorado Coalfield War is remembered because of Woody's words and this monument erected in 1918. State soldiers jumped us in a wire fence corner Ludlow will now also be remembered for May 2003 when some dick-for-brains severely vandalized the site which had been free from harm for the past 85 years. These days Unions are out of control along with everyone else but still I was saddened to finally get to the site and see it fucked up. It was a frigid windy day this past February 29 as I stood there at the monument, snapping photos with a disposable that I bought in nearby Trinidad. Then I did something not even any of my friends have seen me do: recalling the song I first heard and loved at age 13, I sang out loud. We took some cement and walled that cave up |
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| LOCAL
RELEASES |
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Weapons of Mass Destruction Pardovart [CD-R EP 2004] wmdmusic.com I got a real surprise when I pulled this out of my mailbox and popped it into the player. Seeing the Melrose (Clovis) NM return address and the band name Weapons of Mass Destruction, I thought I was in for some heavy rock snarling. That because Clovis--like many smaller cities these days --- seems to breed metalheads like smalltown garage rockers in the 60s or punks in the 80s. The surprise was the musically placid demeanor of this three-man outfit’s songs: emotive slow-movers played softly and less softly but without quite falling into that played-out soft-loud-soft-loud emo manner that was driving me fuckin’ nuts not long ago. There’s a few approaches mind you but no full-on jumps into that style. These guys are relocating to Albuquerque come the first of June and could easily get drowned out playing at any of our regular downtown joints but there’s plenty of similar quiet bands they could team with for any crowds that want to actively listen. Extra punk-points for the hand-folded 11x14 piece of paper that acts as the sleeve. A chimp like me could barely get it folded back correctly after I opened it to check out the liner-notes. PRE-LOCAL RELEASES bands featuring NM personnel before they moved here, any label the M-80s [CD-R 199?] Not a release proper but a hand-made custom comp, every song a barn-burner from the M-80s featuring our (ex-)own Johnny Cassidy late of the Shine Cherries, Nitrous Burning Cactus Tractor, Sea Legs, Venus Diablo and I think he did sessionwork for Nancy Sinatra too. That last is a guess but at some time or another this guy's played with just about everyone else you can think of, so… Nastyass rocknroll pre-dating the current vogue of “garage” rockers. Any band who was rockin’ out with barrelroll drum fills, mercurial basslines, clawing piano, lots of guitar riffage and blowin’ harp while everyone else was -- I don’t know-- listening to the Offspring or Better Than Ezra wins my respect. And that in spite of the AC DC-ish vocals. Lyrics like I slit my wrists /when I think of you …how much more rocknroll can you get!? That’s been the underlying theme, really, of rock n’ roll (hell, even of bubblegum music) since the beginning. |
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BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! Somebody besides pompous ass Captain America has something to say. And, check it out, its about the music, not cocky commentary masquerading as witty observation. Yes, its…THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS: Clocklife, Leiahdorus, Random Access Memory 3/5/04 @ Launchpad submitted by Marvel Girl If electronic music can rock, then this does. Clocklife's electronic beats sure can make your pants dance. His talent approaches that of the renowned Squarepusher. Leiahdorus are a girl & boy duo that put live vocals over synth & drum machines. It's kind of neat, actually, almost like the electronic version of the Prids. Random Access Memory put on a very entertaining show. Electronic drums and live vocals performed to electronic tunes. Both the singer and the drummer are very high energy and make for a visually as well as aurally pleasing performance. the DARKNESS 4/15/2004 @the Marquee, Phoenix AZ submitted by Marvel Girl Fuck yeah! Couldn't bear to miss it. There was no way I was going to pass up seeing these up & coming 80's hair metal style rockers in a crowd of only 1,000. So I bought tickets to this sold out show on e-bay. I can't even begin to describe how much fun this show was. The bartender was generous. The crowd, though mostly composed of Phoenix style choads, was having a great time and singing along with the band. Bras and panties were thrown. The band was elated, still high on their newfound fame. Most impressive are the singer's impeccable vocals and his ability to play perfect and complicated guitar solos while riding through the crowd on the shoulders of an audience member. The best part was hearing a couple of new songs that are a little more hard, a little more metal. It gives me hope that the Darkness will ride the dragon of fame away from metal-pop full into the gates of the land of skull crushing heavy metal. Varant Majarian /Abandon All Hope/ the Subjects [split CD, 2004] Chicken-Head Records www.chickenheadrecords.com Abandon All Hope/Frontside [split 7”, 2003] Mondo Man Records www.angelfire.com/jazz/mondomanrecords contributed by Dee Snarl Varant Majarian start this disc off with 13 tracks of fast, snotty hardcore, most of which come in at under a minute. They actually sound a fair bit like NW 90s band Small – especially in the vocals. They have an obnoxious but smart sense of humor that’s very welcome here, with the exception of Old People Suck which is just dumb. The lyrics have an absurd aspect that takes me back to Bedtime For Democracy-era DK’s (high praise). Me gusto! At one point I called Abandon All Hope typical (but good!) metalcore; it’s sounding more and more heavy metal to me these days, especially with the new hesher guitarist who (looks-wise) reminds me a bit of a pre-Kill ‘Em All James Hetfield (and doesn’t appear on these tracks). They’re not some retro-thrash act, but their four songs here are more conducive to headbanging, or maybe moshing, than to kung fu practice. Powerful shit, clearly performed and produced. The Subjects play a brand of street punk that's okay and all, but I can't get past the lyrics: "Some trials might cut us deep enought to scar/but there's no use pretending when we know who we are/We won't give in to less irritate/until you bend your rules and seize (sic) to complicate." Huh? Abandon All Hope have a song from the same session on the 7”, while Frontside play a screechy, frenzied hardcore that scared my cat. I might be more into them in some seedy club, instead of my really quite tame living room. The labels on the record are switched, so the side that says Frontside has the AAH songs and so on. Get the CD unless you’re one of Varant Majarian’s “record collector geek asshole[s].” |
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the (new) GUILD CINEMA 3405 Central NE Albq NM 87106 (505) 255-1848 www.guildcinema.com OK, so this isn't music-related, like everything else in this zine. So what? The new improved Guild rocks like Joey, Dee Dee, Iggy and Johnny Thunders combined. And it really is new & improved; so much so that they could advertise "Now with 80% more intelligence than other moviehouse brands!". Under fresh management, new owners Keif H. (Basement Films, Alphaville, and every other project involving visual art with sprocket-holes in Albuquerque for like the past decade) and Peter (culture-jammin' copyright-bustin' Negativland) bring a pooled knowledge, appreciation and love of cinema to you, dear viewer. The total hours these two have racked up sacrificing their eyesight while sitting in dark rooms with sticky floors is probably equal to half your lifetime. I always felt sorta guilty for not supporting the old Guild, the last bastion of independent film in the 'burque. But geez all those silly French sex-farces and Germanic movies with a capital A for Art, you philistines! just scared me. You know what I mean: a weekend country house full of Gallic twits trading beds in a "comedy of errors" or some heavier-than-Jupiter's-gravity dire cinematic statement. Drastic-ly bad! Why? One: the French aren't funny (well, we can make an exception for Tati's M. Hulot's Holiday) and Two: I'm as nihilistic as the next Germs/Nirvana-informed scenester but gimme a break! In the early 80s there was a killer movie-house here called Don Pancho's; believe it or not, it was housed in that tiny space that was most recently a crummy teriyaki joint on Central next to Newsland. Anyway, the Don's schedule changed usually every few days so you could catch Eisenstein's latter work one night and Bugs Bunny the next. Exploito-trash, Polanski, Bogart/Bacall, Cimino, Ozu--they played it all. Keif remembers and--as far as is commercially possible-- wants to do the same at the new Guild. So far, its been brilliant: rare Kurosawa, early-streetwise Cassavetes, unseen Altman… I've gone out to the movies more in the past three months than I have in three years and I'm not exaggerating. Sure, they'll be a few crowd-pleasing Hong Kong chop-socky epics and another (and another) damn movie with an Elvis impersonator to you get you ignorant mugs into the place but if it keeps the new Guild alive, I'm all for it (just don't expect me to attend any zombie flicks made after about 1957). Sure, the Madstone is ok for what its worth (a self-important moviehouse for self-important grown-ups) and certainly better than the Googolplex across town. But if you wanna see what true cinema means, go to the Guild every time you're even mildly interested in the picture showing: you'll leave smarter than when you went in. |
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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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