Signed Kirby Krackle CDs

Met Kyle Stevens of Kirby Krackle, the band, at Emerald City Comicon 2011.

Picked up some CDs and got them graciously autographed.

Fun music about Superheroes, video games and other geeky subjects.

Been listening to them all day.

Love the music and love that the band is named after Jack Kirby's method of drawing cosmic energy, Kirby Crackle.

Listening to: Plastic Beach

The new Gorillaz album is out, Plastic Beach.
I love the Gorillaz first 2 albums, so I had high hopes for this one.
Especially since they made it sound like they might never do another album.
Well it has been 5 years, and the virtual band of comic characters has done it again.
I don't think Plastic Beach is a catchy as the previous albums, but it is more cohesive.
The Gorillaz combination of post-punk pop music, rap and DJ loop magic isn't as unique as it once was, but these guys are still very, very good at what they do.

Plastic Beach is definitely worth a listen.
I give it 4 out of 5 stars and a big thumbs up.

DEVO Doodle

Alright Spuds! One last DEVO post and then I'll leave it alone (maybe).

Heard Gerry and Bob1 on KEXP. They said the crowd in Seattle was great. When asked how they can get up the energy for a show like that at their ages, Gerry said: "The crowd made it easy. That was a really whacked crowd!"
They also announced that DEVO is back with Warner Brothers again for their new album. "They have our back catalog," said Gerry. "So, the devil you know...It kind of makes sense."
They played two new tracks: "Step Up" and "Watch Us Work It"
The new music sounded pretty good. You can get "Watch Us Work It" on eMusic.com
They also played a song by Die Alten Maschinen, a German band that Gerry did a song with, "To Be or Not"
No word on the name of the new album yet.
--------------------------
The picture is a doodle I did and altered with my iPhone.
I used to have a DEVO turtle neck sleeveless shirt like that in the 80s.
I used to wear it too....

Listening To: DEVO at the Moore

One of my favorite bands from the late 70’s and early 80’s was DEVO.
I especially liked their first 3 albums, Q: Are We Not Men?, Duty Now for the Future, and Freedom of Choice. DEVO had a homemade punk sensibility with a sarcastic sense of humor. And nobody, I mean nobody, sounded like DEVO in those days. I saw them 5 times from 1979 to 1981 and loved every single show.
Then they traded in their guitars for synthesizers and their punk edge for a cartoony cuteness which wasn’t as appealing to me. I missed the old DEVO. (Now don’t get me wrong, I like synthesizers. I just thought DEVO was at their best when the number of guitars on stage balanced the number of keyboards.)

So I was intrigued when I heard that DEVO was touring their Q: Are We Not Men? and Freedom of Choice albums on a limited tour this year. I mean, they guys are all 10 to 14 years older than me, and I’m not sure I could get up on stage and rock like that. But I thought, maybe Marc and Jerry are thinking that they wanted to get out there and rock it one more time before they qualified for Medicare. My wife bought me tickets and my daughter Chani and I trekked down to Seattle to see if DEVO had devolved beyond recognition or whether they still had some gas in the old tank.

Reggie Watts started the show. He is a mad man with a loop machine and stream of consciousness humor. He has to be seen to be believed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs7LSgxoj64&feature=related
Reggie kept asking the crowd, “Who is this Steve O guy, anyway?”

Finally, the Spud boys themselves took to the stage. They had gray and thinning hair. There was a bit of pudge on the bellies. But they came out in the classic yellow radiation suits from the 1970s and 3D glasses, strapped on their guitars and started to rock. They played the entire Q: Are We Not Men? A: We are DEVO album in order. They tore off the yellow suits during Jocko Homo and continued the show in black tees, black shorts and knee pads. For an encore they did Smart Patrol/Mister DNA from Duty Now for the Future and Gates of Steel from Freedom of Choice.

The crowd was mostly over 30, well okay 40. But there was a good percentage of younger fans. And Chani is only 14, so she brought the average age down a bit. There was a guy across the isle from me that looked like Santa with a long gray beard dancing in the isle and singing along with all the lyrics. Everyone was on their feet, dancing and having a great time.

Tonight DEVO is performing the Freedom of Choice album, but I can’t afford two concerts in the same week. Tickets were $55 bucks and T-shirts cost $30 more. It was a bit more than the $10 dollars I spent to see them the first time in L.A. But the show was fun and it brought back a lot of good memories.

On their website, http://www.clubdevo.com/, the band says they are working on a new album for 2010 and a full tour for next year. So if you are a DEVO devotee, check them out if they come to your town.

A: We are DEVO, We really are.

The DEVO show at the Moore on Sunday was great.
I was hoping somebody in the crowd got some good video, and I found this:



Here is a LINK for those who can't see the video above (you know who you are).

I'll post some more later, when I get a few minutes.

Q: Are We Not Men?

A: We Are DEVO.

My wife loves me. She bought me tickets to see DEVO live at the Moore Theater on Sunday, November 8th.

They will be performing the entire Are We Not Men album.

I have not seen the Spud Boys live since the early 80's.

I hope they have aged better than I have.

3 Cheers for Music!!!

Let's hear it for 35,000 years plus of humans making music.

Probably music is our most redeeming quality.

"A bird-bone flute unearthed in a German cave was carved some 35,000 years ago and is the oldest handcrafted musical instrument yet discovered, archaeologists say, offering the latest evidence that early modern humans in Europe had established a complex and creative culture.
A team led by University of Tuebingen archaeologist Nicholas Conard assembled the flute from 12 pieces of griffon vulture bone scattered in a small plot of the Hohle Fels cave in southern Germany.
Together, the pieces comprise a 8.6-inch (22-centimeter) instrument with five holes and a notched end. Conard said the flute was 35,000 years old.

...

Conard's team excavated the flute in September 2008, the same month they recovered six ivory fragments from the Hohle Fels cave that form a female figurine they believe is the oldest known sculpture of the human form.
Together, the flute and the figure _ found in the same layer of sediment _ suggest that modern humans had established an advanced culture in Europe 35,000 years ago, said Wil Roebroeks, an archaeologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands who didn't participate in Conard's study.
Roebroeks said it's difficult to say how cognitively and socially advanced these people were. But the physical trappings of their lives _ including musical instruments, personal decorations and figurative art _ match the objects we associate with modern human behavior, Roebroeks said.
"It shows that from the moment that modern humans enter Europe ... it is as modern in terms of material culture as it can get," Roebroeks told The AP. He agreed with Conard's assertion that the flute appears to be the earliest known musical instrument in the world."

More Here

Sex, God, Rock ‘n Roll!

Stuart Davis has a new TV Show--Sex, God, Rock 'n Roll!--on HDNet, but you can also watch full episodes on his website.

Have not seen any of the episodes yet. But HDNet, the same network that is home to Dan Rather by the way, has the show on late at night, so it promises to be raunchy. But it is not on Showtime, so it won't be too raunchy. The first Episode is on Late Sunday/Early Monday, April 26th/27th depending on what time zone you are in.


Stuart is a fabulous musician and he had the enviable pleasure of having dinner with my lovely wife and me last year.
Good Luck with the new show Stu!!

Listening To: Kula Shaker

If you love rock 'n' roll, you must like these guys.


And a Link for those who can't see the video: Video Link

These Brits are terrific. Just plain groovy. I haven't heard a bad track yet.
Here is their website: http://www.kulashaker.co.uk/

Listening To: Zune

Just to prove I can blog about topics that are not weather related.
I got a new MP3 player from my lovely wife for Christmas, a Zune.
So I have been going through my music collection and loading it up.

Here is a completely random list of artists I have been loving lately:
Kula Shaker- check out Persephone on the Strangefolk album, it sounds like the Beatles.
Stereophonics – You Gotta Go There To Come Back is a great album title, and Maybe Tommorow is a kick ass song.
Dogs Die in Hot Cars – Everything they do sounds like XTC, which is fine by me.
The Weepies – Three solid albums from this husband and wife duo so far. Love em.
God is an Astronaut – Two great favorites taste great together, like peanut butter and chocolate.
The Mountain Goats – Best lyrics honors go to Lovecraft in Brooklyn:

“And then the girl behind the counter asks "How do you feel today?" and I say "I feel like Lovecraft in Brooklyn!"

Rock On, Internetizens.
What have you been listening to?

Heads Will Roll Video

The Thunder Echo Ensemble has been back in the studio.
Good things are brewing and there is talk about a new album although there are no schedules yet. Just good jams.

Here is a sneak peak for my 23 loyal fans.
It's a story about hitting the road and seeing what you might find.
A short video of a poem that made its debut right here on the blog, complete with some TEE magic to add to the atmosphere:


Here is a link for those who can't see the embedded video above: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4EidGRA69U

Remember, you can listen to TEE's previous albums at WhatDoWeKnow.com
As always, let us know what you think.
-----------------------
Credits: Words by Jay Larsen
Music by The Thunder Echo Ensemble
Collages by Jay Larsen

Perilous Parallels

Found this old CAKE video of “Love You Madly” on YouTube.

You have to click on the link to see it. LINK -- Click It or the jokes make no sense
I love the song, in fact I love it madly.
The video strikes me as silly, a short rip off of Iron Chef.
But the panel of judges reminds me of our Presidential Candidates.
I’ll let you figure out who is who. (Although it is spooky that only the female judge is still alive.)
So as we wait for the final Democratic Primaries to wind down.
And as we wait for the super-freaks, I mean super delegates to cast their votes.
And as we wait to see which way the candidates align and powder their Whigs.
I find myself nervously wanting to avoid the creepy old man on the right.

Congrats to the Democrats for making history.
Hilary has nothing to be ashamed of, she nearly won this thing.
But Barak ran a tighter campaign and focused on basic on the ground politics.
He attracted new voters and has a good chance of beating McCain this fall.
My real fear is that despite the hype of the contest, all the cooks are basically serving us the same ingredients.
Cake please!

Listening To: The Decemberists

I've been listening to this fun band from Portland OR for a few years now, and I still love 'em.



Video Link
eMusic.com Link

Listening To: Dogs Die in Hot Cars

Sometimes you can teach an old dog new tricks. And this old dog still likes to discover new music. But as an old dog, I have been around the block enough times to know that you can’t always trust the marketing campaigns of the major record labels. And this old dog does not have deep pockets, so I can’t afford to buy every indi album that has an interesting cover. That would be barking up the wrong tree most of the time.

Have I run the dog thing into the ground yet?

Anyway, my subscription to eMusic.com is an important way that I can discover new music without spending a ton of cash. Many times I discover a new band that is new and energetic and ready to take off. Sometimes I discover mature acts that somehow I never heard before. And I also enjoy finding historical records that I missed out on. All of which is fun and exciting. But sometimes I discover bands that sound great, but have already broken up and then the discovery is kind of bitter sweet.

This is the case with Dogs Die in Hot Cars, a British band that really caught my ear a few months ago. Not only do they have an incredibly strange name, which has the advantage of being technically true but difficult to use as a noun, but they also sound very much like a reincarnation of XTC, one of the greatest quirky bands from the UK ever to make records. And DDIHC (which is hard to abbreviate also) doesn’t just copy XTC, they manage to echo the best of XTC and still sound very much original.

They, the Dogs (who must have gotten into a hot car despite their own warnings), have an EP, Man Bites Man , and an album, Please Describe Yourself. Both of which are worth starting an eMusic.com subscription for. And according to information I have found on the web, the band broke up while working on their second album. It is a shame to get all excited about a fabulous group, just to find out that they have already disbanded. But I will have to keep my eyes open for the names, Craig Macintosh, Gary Smith, Lee Worrall, Ruth Quigley, and Laurence Davey, cross my fingers and hope these talented Brits will get involved in future recording projects. In the meanwhile I will have to console myself with another listen to “I Love You Cause I Have To.” Because I have to, love them that is. And if you are a Brit Pop fan or an XTC fan (that means you Steve-O) then you should love the Dogs who died in their hot car too.

Listening To: Stuart Davis, Something Simple

The Mighty Stu has a new album out on his new record company, Majeski Media.

Something Simple is Stuart's 10th ablbum and includes the song "Already Free" which is the closing track to the Owen Wilson film Drill Bit Taylor. I haven't seen the movie, but the song is great. Hopefully this will get Stuart some extra attention.

The album is a typical Stuart romp through the playground of the soul, with songs about love, religion, fear, addiction and his newest family member.

There is also a remake of his classic Universe Communion complete with string orchestra.

Not as quirky and edgy as some of his earlier albums, but then I think Stuart has been mellowing into family life and fatherhood, and I think he and his record company may have been looking for something more accessible for new listeners. But there is still lots of energy and the twisted mystic lyrics his fans have come to expect.

Check out Stu's new web site and pick up a copy of Something Simple.

Listening To: Saul Williams

Saul Williams has a new album out: The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!

You can download it for $5 bucks at: http://niggytardust.com/saulwilliams/menu

Rock on, Brother!

Corporate Credits

The company I work for created a promotional video. Many other people did most of the work on this, especially Brett Birdsong, but I helped storyboard the idea and provided the music, Thunder Echo style. And I composed the Versatile Audio Logo which plays at the very end of the video. See how I got you to watch the whole thing just to hear four notes played on my Absynth synthesizer.

The whole V-Ball concept was recently showcased at the WWFE Show in Chicago last month. Check it out!

That is enough corporate promotion for now.

It Was 40 Years Ago Today…

It was 40 years ago today Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play.
The Beatles released Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on June 1, 1967. Happy Birthday to one of the world’s great albums. I was 4 years old when the album first came out and I don’t claim to remember hearing it that year. But by the time I was 8 and I was actively soaking in all the pop music AM radio could provide, the Beatles were a huge part of my musical education and diet. It is hard for me to imagine a world without the Beatles and their music in it. I can imagine all the people living life in peace, but I can’t imagine not listening to the Beatles. So thank you Fab Four.

Just a bit of trivia: Jesus and Hitler were originally included in the photos shot for the cover, but for some reason these two figures were edited out of the cover shot.

Sgt Pepper’s has been a big influence on several generations of artists. Here is an album insert photo from Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention’s We’re Only In It For The Money. They were going to use it as the cover, but for some reason they did not.

Listening To: Cloud Cult, The Meaning of 8

Video: Chemicals Collide from The Meaning of 8 by Cloud Cult


Cloud Cult is the brain child of Craig Minowa or should I say "heart child".

Every new Cloud Cult album is like finding the secret diary of a friend who is making a valiant effort to get through a hard time. You feel almost guilty as you listen to the sweet, naive, outpouring of emotion that Craig puts into his albums. It is almost too personal to listen to. It makes you uncomfortable. But you are drawn to it, at first with morbid curiosity, but later with a grateful empathy as you begin to be amazed that your friend is able to express such intimate thoughts so openly. Of course this album is not a diary. And Craig wants us to hear it. But listening to this haunting, personal, soulful music is still an intimate experience. A rare thing in this age of mass production/mass consumption music where artists are always striking larger than life poses. This is music on a more personal scale.

If you like groups like Mercury Rev, Grandaddy and The Flaming Lips, give Cloud Cult's new album, The Meaning of 8, a try.

Hold on tight during the first listen. Power through it. Let it sit for a day or two. Then go back and revisit. I guarantee the second time through will be a different experience. Your hair will have stop standing up on the back or your neck, and you will be able to relax into Craig's emotional space and find some things you might recognise and resonate with.

Cloud Cult is not party music. But for quiet times and a pair of headphones, it can be an interesting journey.

And in an interesting note: the band tours with two full time artists Scott West and Connie Minowa who create paintings on stage during each of the Cloud Cult's shows. You gotta love that! Well, you don't, but as a painter/musician in all seriousness, I gotta say I love it.

They have a website: http://www.cloudcult.com/

Listening To: Tinariwen

I don’t know much about this group of musicians; they are from Saharan Africa and are Touaregs. I don’t know what they are singing or even what language they are singing in. But I do know that the music is fantastic.

Think Chicago Bluesmen, Led Zeppelin and African musicians all sitting in tents in the desert drinking tea, smoking a water pipe and making delicious rhythmic jams until the sun slowly comes up again. This music is like taking a vacation in an exotic foreign land and finding that they like Jimi Hendrix and Muddy Waters and incorporate the best of bluesy American music into their traditional tribal chants, drones and polyrhythms. Bollywood could make musicals to this. Hippies and Dead Heads could dance all night to this stuff. Dervishes could whirl their way to Allah to this music.
Wow. This is fun, funky, trippy stuff. Unwind, tap your feet, sway those hips, and enjoy Tinariwen.

You can download tracks at eMusic.com: http://www.emusic.com/artist/11608/11608380.html
And the band has a website: http://tinariwen.com/