Billy Meltdown's blog

Just took a break for a while. Getting back on track now. I've got three CDs to post about that I've been listening to (thanks for sending them in, people!), reviews soon.

Last night I went to yet another nifty gallery in the area, they've been open about 6 months, the Lex Leonard gallery at 143 Chris. Columbus in Jersey City. Some neat work on the walls, I believe all Lex's stuff.

There were a couple of folks there from 58, the dudes we share a rehearsal space with, so familiar faces and new ones.

Newark and Jersey City, where it's at. There's RedSaw, 58, Lex Leonard, Aljira (I could have the spelling wrong there), and another one who's name escapes me opening in JC (I saw it listed on the docket the other day).

There's lots to do around here, people vibing off each other. No one creates in a vacuum.

I have to get ready for my own gig tonight down in Trenton so for now I'll leave you with this: The Advantage performing Mega Man 2 Flashman theme. Fuck yes.

It looks like 8 Park Underground in Montclair has sprung back to life, and I've seen the people hanging outside on the Jazz Jam night smokin' butts. I need to check that out soon. Figures something like this comes up just as I'm leaving town (I'm moving to the Ironbound tomorrow). Has anybody been to a show there yet?

Screaming Females report that their second record is near done and have set a release date of June 22nd. Go to their MySpace and listen to "Boyfriend" right now. Seriously. It totally kills.

Last weekend The Meltdowns and I got to share the stage with Up The Empire and Jupiter One. We broke in the crowd early on with a lot of dancing, and a lot more of it went down for Up The Empire who played a riveting set of fast crunchy power pop while rather inebriated. I couldn't believe how tight they were, and how freaking loud their drummer was, what a monster! Jupiter One were amazing, an American band that seems to have subsumed the notion of what it is to be a Japanese Pop Idol with a Big Show. Their single Count Down really should make them a lot of money. Their whole stage presence really sealed the deal on a great night down at 58 Gallery. Both of those bands really have quite a bit of potential, I'm sure we'll be hearing from them again.

There's an excellent indie film opening over at Redsaw Gallery in Newark this Saturday night, called Filmideo.

Tris McCall with the smack-down!

They’re on the wrong side of history now, they always have been, and I’ve got no problem naming them the worst cultural institution in town.

In other local Jersey blog news, Tris and Jim Testa have presented some really differing views of the new Luna Lounge out in Brooklyn, and now I'm very curious to go hear things for myself (as usual). It's pretty awesome to have this kind of discourse going on.

Me, I haven't been writing lately. I know. We did get sent one CD, although a few folks said they were sending them and didn't. I'm sorry to that guy who's CD I didn't review. I will do it soon.

We do have folks who want to write reviews, and if you send us music and I think it's worth writing about, it's definitely getting written about, DEFINITELY (even if we are slow), so don't write us off, please send us your stuff. E-mail sceneless@gmail.com, please. We prefer to write about independent artists here, anyway. I know from personal experience how hard it is to get your CD reviewed by any music blog when all of them only pay attention to "indie" ad agencies pitching the newest Brooklyn swag.

I haven't been writing much because I have my own rock band that I'm trying to put more time into, and I'm very excited that we're playing 58 Gallery in Jersey City this Saturday. Mostly because I've been spending some time at the place, I really like the art and the artists I've been seeing, and I'm excited to show off. You should come, it's all ages. I would say there is a solid community of artists and musicians revolving around this place as a hub, and it's worth your attention. Is the word "scene" appropriate? I think so, and I think it's this guy's fault! Details on Saturday night are over here.

That's enough whore-baggery from me. Soon there will be reviews up here of the new LCD Soundsystem and !!! releases, oh yus.

I'm sick of the new Modest Mouse single already and I'm still in love with "Good News For People Who Love Bad News." I live in the past. I've been listening to old Metric a lot.

But there's this new band called Blood Red Shoes that played out with !!! in London, and they are bomb-funk good. Check out "You Bring Me Down" on their MySpace page (Thanks to Jamie McKelvie for the tip)

WFMU is arguably one of the coolest radio station's ever. Their free-form format is absolutely fucking crazy and has exposed me to many a great new and old thing. So check it out. Right now as part of their pledge-drive (the two week fundraising marathon they do every year) you can win a Bucket of Smut!

I filled in for a friend Saturday night answer phones at FMU down in Jersey City and it was awesome to take those phone calls where people eagerly and quite generously contribute. Many people send in $10, $350, or even $1000 over the internet because they listen on line. We even got a donation from Norway, and there's this regular from Paris, too.

Anyway, it was really neat to be inside the station and to meet some of the staff. Just as you'd expect, everyone is a little off beat and quite awesome. Got to meet Tom Sharpling, who is a character and a half. I love his show (called "The Best Show").

Check it

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Billy Meltdown

I just noticed, by way of WFMU's excellent Beware of the Blog, that today marks Charlie Bukowski's passing, and they've got this really nifty mp3 up there mixing some of his readings with some ambient beats. Very neat and weird to listen to, I never imagined his voice to sound like that. Such a strange and sour fellow, but kinda enjoyable to listen to speak publicly. Humorous humour-lessness. I'm about near done with Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame, which a friend gave me for Christmas. It's a trip and a half. I think I could use some more uplifting things to read. Not necessarily peachy, but honestly I'm a little done with the mega depressing stuff for a little while.

On a total tangent, there's an opening reception tonight at Red Saw gallery in Newark, NJ for a show called Shame, which I'll be hitting up. More info here. Go see some new art.

Many thanks for Jim Testa for finding this gem and putting it in the recent Jersey Beat Podcast; WWIII delivers a swift kick in the nuts to the hipster crowd with some of the funniest comedy-metal I've heard in a while (comedy is the True Calling of Metal):

Check out WWIII's myspace over here, where he describes himself as "METAL POO GENIUS RETARD ROCK PANTS" and where you can also listen to the excellent "Emo Days."

Jim Testa's recent JerseyBeat Podcast from yesterday is really good. Check it out over here where you can see the track listing and subscribe, or just download the mp3.

Tonight the Screaming Females are kicking it in Montclair, blocks from where I live. So I'll be going to that. You should, too. The Screamales have some fascinating posts on their blog about their recent tour outing, check it from their website's links section.

I've been a busy guy, probably won't be writing many reviews this next month, but I'll be posting info on shows, whenever someone puts out something and tells me, etc. I'm still here for you. Send us your music, it will get reviewed by someone if not me. Tell us about your shows, we want to go!

Electronic-mail us here: Sceneless@Gmail.com

First off, I know I'm a slacker, I'll put that out there. I'm also sick as a dog, which is why I'm on the internet on such a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

What follows is my attempt at doing the look back at last year list type thing. I've seriously had my head up my ass this year - I've been involved in my own things, or checking out my friends' bands, I haven't been listening to the radio or reading indie music sites or anything.

I'd like to get out to more shows this year. Way more shows.

Anyway, here we go:

Top Ten Songs 2006

I don't have ten. I've had my head up my ass. So here's five:

5. Beck - "Que Onda Guero" ... This one song is why I hate the rest of Guero. It's hot as all fuck. There's really no denying that his lyrical run on there verses of this track are among his most impressive in years. But really, it's all about the beat, and he knows it. I have no idea what that swirling sound is that makes that basic hip-hop beat such a struttin thing, but when he tries he's still got it. Rip this track and toss the rest of Guero in the dustbin.

4. Channels - "Little Empires" ... I can't remember the last time I heard such RIPPING guitar, such intense and artful bass and drum kit, when a band rocked me like this, spoke to the storms swirling in my head. Beginning with a seeming innoccuous verse, pleasantly singing about the cooling breeze and the coming freeze, a direct warning to the current Junta in the white house that "little empires rise and fall" and then RIIIIIIIIIIIIIP "UNDER THE WEIGHT!!!!!" One of the hottest and dizzying, hardest and mesmerizing, and fucking CATCHIEST choruses to ever come out of that DC / Dischord / Post-punk scene. Wow. I don't think J. Robbins has written anything this goddamn catchy since "Breathe" back in the days of Jawbox. Onward to the future!

3. NAS - "Hip-Hop Is Dead" ... This fucking DEADLY song is amazing. It's the very essence of hip-hop, using a classic rock hit like Iron Butterfly's "Inna Godda Davita" to drop a smashing rap tune. Sick. Perfect. Put's the rest of the trash the labels are pedaling at this point to shame, and that includes Rocafella and Def-Jam. Tris McCall nails it in this year's Pop Music Abstract (which is a hysterical and thorough read if you're into end-of-year lists and pop music).

2. Cansei de Ser Sexy - "Let's Make Love While Listening to Death From Above" ... You just have to hear it. You HAVE TO. This Brazilian group (fronted by a half Japanese half Brazilian woman) is just absolutely tearing: "Kiss me I'm drunk, don't worry it's true!" It's a rocking dancing sick tune with THERAMIN!!!! The band's name means "tired of being sexy" and I can't blame them, this is the sexiest song I've heard in a long damn time.

1. Belle and Sebastian - "Dress Up In You" ... This tune off their new record The Life Pursuit seems to come from the band's older sound and records, a beautiful and lilting ballad, a one-way dialogue that seems to be from a woman's point of view, I reckon it's Stuart Murdoch artfully putting himself in someone else's shoes (dressing up?) and it has a disarming sweetness, a beautiful melancholy when you get to the line "they are hypocrites, so fuck them, too!" sung so sweetly with a high harmony by Sarah and then that beautiful trumpet line follows... "I'd hate to see on the pile of nearly made its ... you're a star now, I am fixing people's nails, I'm knitting jumpers, I'm working after hours, I've got a boyfriend, I've got a feeling that he's seeing someone else, he always had a thing for you as well." It makes me hurt and it feels very good.

Top Ten Records 2006 (not numbered, slacker!)

Channels - Waiting For The Next End Of The World ... This is my favorite record of the year. Absolutely. It speaks to me, it touches me. I wrote a glowing review about it earlier in the year. "Little Empires" is one of the best songs that J. Robbins has put together. His new band, with his wife on bass, is fucking amazing. Not all DC punk rockers lose their edge when they get older. This treo has a depth that most five-person acts can't hope to pull off, beautiful and deadly.

Tokyo Police Club - A Lesson In Crime ... There's something so wonderful about this totally absurd electro rock outfit singing science fiction tunes that make me want to shake it and also practice my instrument more. It's a short EP, maybe not even 20 minutes long, and I'm completely enamored with their song writing, with how the garage-like drums and bass underpin such pretty keyboard parts, and then totally ripping guitar riffs and some beautifully sung stories from a harrowing future that sounds exactly like now. This record sounds like now.

Beirut - Gulag Orkestar ... Only just recently started really listening to this amazing record. it's so foreign sounding... i mean that with no irony... it's SO out there, I could listen to it all day long about the house.

The Dresden Dolls - Yes, Virginia... ... One of the best records I've heard all damn year long. And one of the best I'll hear for a while. Amanda Palmer and her trusty side-kick, drummer Brian Viglione have put together a massive sophomore effort that has totally stolen the limelight from their intense debut record (self-titled the Dresden Dolls). The stuff I'm really drawn to this year, the stuff that I've been exposed to that I loved so much seems to all involve song-writing that makes my hair stand on end, I find it difficult to comprehend.

Man Man - Six Demon Bag ... Holy SHIT this band is amazing. Go here and listen to their mp3s. Six Demon Bag is a WILD ride from Philadelphia that reminds me very strongly of Need New Body in that way that weird art rock bands from Philadelphia do.

Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock and Roll ... wait, wasn't this on last year's list? Yeah, but only released in the U.S. in the beginning of 2006. It rocked me all year long. "I'VE SEEN HER NAKED! TWIIIIIICE!"

Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit ... what a sweet, beautiful, sassy and sad record. Stuart Murdoch and crew have reached a new height, I believe, as much as I like the old If You're Feeling Sinister. I'm not in school anymore, and neither is B&S.

Top Ten Old Things (again, not ten)

Adam, suspecting that neither of us had much to say about the (admittedly tons of amazing) music that came out this year, we should definitely write a little bit about stuff we discovered this year. I don't have ten of those either, but here we go:

Incubus - S.C.I.E.N.C.E. ... Holy fucking shit, I didn't know that back in the day before Make Yourself that Incubus was a massively kick-ass band with a sound that must have just driven 311 crazy because they just couldn't pull it off like SCIENCE. I've never really been able to get into Incubus, but I love this record. Love it. Vitamin, New Skin, A Certain Shade of Green, fuck every goddamn track on this record is amazing and really broke new ground in mixing acid jazz with blistering metal, hip-hop beats and brain-damaging funk. I mean, just listen to Glass. Fuck this record is amazing. Quoth a sample: "Until the 20th century, reality was everything humans could touch, smell, see, and hear. Since the inital publication of the charged electromagnetic spectrum, humans learned that what they can touch, smell, see, and hear...is less than one millionth of reality."

Fela Kuti - "Expensive Shit" ... I cannot get enough of Fela and his determined building beats, his whacky horn and his thick accent as he recounts his harrowing tale of escaping a death sentence from a government determined to silence him; In short and to wit: they made him swallow drugs in jail, so that when he pooped them out they could arrest him for trafficking and kill him. So while in jail he swapped shit with another inmate. Few things have influenced my own band this year like Fela and his Afro-beat.

Okkervil River - "Black" ... What an amazing tune. I kinda turned my nose up at this band for a little while, and then slowly started warming up to Black Sheep Boy this year, and when I listened to "Black" on one long drive, I was heart-broken and totally hooked. "Ill call up some black men, I'd fuck up his new life, where they don't know what he did, tell his new wife and second kid," those are DEVASTATING lyrics, "you should wreck his life the way he wrecked yours!" Pop music can save your soul.

Massive Attack - Mezzanine ... Yeah, I'm a late comer to their Trip-Hop. I fucking love this stuff.

NoFX - Pump Up The Valuum ... Wow I love this fucking record. Exposed to it by my girlfriend on our cross-country road trip in December. It's real punk rock. Fast as they could make it, with guitar theatrics and songs about how much it sucks when your parents do more drugs than you do, and then start hanging out with your friends, and how you really need even more drugs.

McLusky - Mcluskyism: A Sides ... I realize this was released this year, but it's a compilation of their songs over some years. I didn't buy the three CD box set. But my sweet jesus was this band amazing. "whoyouknow", "Lightsaber Cocksucking Blues", "To Hell With Good Intentions"... those are just amazing songs. Noisey art rock with intense and infectious hooks that make me want to sit down and learn each of their songs.

LCD Soundsystem - self-titled ... James Murphy, you are my hero. There was nothing quite like driving up to Virginia from NC with Ben Jones while hollering along with "DAFT PUNK IS PLAYIN AT MAH HOUSE, MAH HOUSE-UHHHHH!"

Tom Waits - Mule Variations ... well I've really dug into his whole catalogue this year. The guy is just fucking amazing. Amazing. The old joke about how his songs are all brawlers or bawlers? Well he's in on it. I can't wait to hear the new box set. "Pony" is one of those songs that just punches you in the gut, and I didn't know it at all until Jo Stewart of Charlottesville, VA told me it was her favorite. Off of Bone Machine, "Who Are You" is another that makes me weepy nearly without fail. I can't get enough of the stark existential humour of Frank's Wild Years.

Talking Heads - Remain In Light ... This record is stellar and mind-blowing. I can't get over the amazing intertwined vocal parts of "The Great Curve", or the constant driving rhythms of "Crosseyed and Painless" that never get old because of the intense and constantly changing melodies and vocals hanging out on top. Ah, David Byrne, you and your tricks.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "The High Party" ... This song totally rules. Ted doesn't suck. I already took it back a couple of weeks ago. I love this song.

Metric - Live It Out ... Though it's a record from last year, it's been constanly in my ears, all year long. I love this band, I love their songs. Touching stuff.

Total Disappointments

The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics ... I tried to like this record. I really did. I spent more than one hour long drive listening to the whole thing start to finish. It was so hard not to hit the SKIP button over and over again. It really just bored me to tears, painful repetition ad nauseum, lame hooks ... what happened to my Lips? Did that tour with Beck take the fight out of them? It really just seems like they aren't trying hard enough.

Beck - Guero ... Would the real Beck Hanson please stand up? Or was he just fooling us all the way up to Midnight Vultures? Dear lord is this record boring as all hell.

Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade ... I know, I know, it's not a new record, but I picked it up and gave it another shot for Jarrett D., and god damn, I still totally hate listening to Bob Mould's barking. Totally. I can't get past it even a little bit. On top of that, I find little in the music that really grabs my ear, allows me to look past it for things I never considered before, new sounds, etc. I reckon this was pretty new and intense back in 1985, but it really doesn't do anything for me.

Matisyahu - Youth ... I don't care what my drummer says, this yahoo is not a genius and his music makes me want to kill. I remember when Lloyd first played me a track in his car, he was so excited to show me, and it was pretty hot. But in the end all the tracks tend to blur together and sound the same to me and his philosophical (theosophical) observations grate on my nerves.

Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere ... With the exception of the hit tune "Crazy," I find this record pretty damn boring. And I've definitely heard "Crazy" enough for this lifetime. I was really expecting a whole lot more from Cee-lo with such a strong single. Damn.

Total Trash

James Blunt - Back To Bedlam ... Okay, so most of you already knew better. But I could have sworn that recently someone recommended some pretty awesome white-boy funk to me, and there I was buying some records and saw this one and thought that's what I remembered. Nope, wrong artist altogether. Dear lord, this is total radio trash. Total. It's basically the same fucking song over and over and over with a really annoying Jason Mraz kinda voice being effected. I can't wait to go out into the street and smash this thing to pieces.

Oasis - Stop The Clocks ... would this band just go away already?

Biggest Hopes for 2007

- A second Screaming Females record, one that captures their live sound: the thick grooves and the vicious attack riding on top.
- The new Zelda Pinwheel - For Safekeeping Warm. The performances by this band of their material over the course of the year are foreshadowing an intense record, one that departs from their more ambient sound to something that is just drop-dead rocking in a way that only an ambient noise band can pull of. Their genre bending shows have me salivating.
- My label (Tank Crash!) has two releases scheduled, and I hope people dig 'em and pick them up. One is the spoken word/slam artist Twig, and the other is the ambient electronica outfit Theory Anesthetic.
- I should be putting out a demo with my band The Meltdowns very soon. We changed line-up in September of 2006, and we're getting back on our feet; we just brought on a new musician, and I'm looking forward to showing off our new sound and playing for you, my friends!

To a great new year! FORWARD!

Tomorrow night my favorite local band Screaming Females is kicking it live at The Parlor, a rocking basement venue in New Brunswick where they host the coolest and weirdest and funnest bands around, and have the best local DIY thing going in the whole damn state. There. Needed to get that out there. Full details on their MySpace.

If you like the Screamales' record Baby Teeth or if you're becoming an otaku, you might be interesting to know this little tidbit that Jarrett posted on their blog recently, a promo to get you out, since it's their third show in about a month down in New Bruns:

So how are we going to get you to all three shows? Well we have a plan. The vinyl release of Baby Teeth should be available in the near future but until then we are going to be giving away 3 super limited edition hand decorated test pressings of the album; one at each show. Test pressings are what the factory sends you to give final approval before they print it up for real. There are only 5 in existence. They have only blank labels and no jacket but Marissa is going to be drawing all over them and making custom jackets. Misfits test pressings sell for thousands of dollars and thats only The Misfits, this is freaking Screaming Females!!! At each show there will be a competition to win the album.

A good pitch, if I've ever heard one.

Also, I saw this on MySpace earlier today and I must repost it:

We Are The Seahorses are, as Adam said, Porno Clash, and their Christmas Spectacular is likely to be no let down on that score. It will be sweaty and dancing and half naked and glittering and loud enough to rival NoFX. I've seen singer Dale Seahorse perform with Titti! a few times over the last few months, and I think he's really starting to get that balance of inanity and entertainment and good pop dance music down to a working equation with his live antics, and I'm looking forward to catching his main act, We Are The Seahorses, soon.

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On a totally different note, I've just returned from a breath taking and near death cross country trip. So, hello. I should be posting more regularly soon. As ever, send us your music, your shows, your unwashed masses: sceneless@gmail.com. Many thanks to Adam for moving us over to the new server without nary a blip!

Dave Walsh, a friend of mine from Greenpeace who runs the fantastic site blather.net has recently opined about one of his favorite bands from Back In The Day (post 80s) over on Sweeping The Nation that is an absolutely fascinating read:

Whatever this was on the radio, it wasn't fucking Duran Duran. The genius behind this fantastic racket was furious, that was for sure. But why was he so worked up about Nicolae Ceausescu, Romania's communist dictator, who had been executed, along with his wife, while singing the fourth word of the communist song L'Internationale on Christmas Day 1989? I had no idea. I was a smart enough kid, but was only lurching towards an understanding of international politics. Fanning's voice came on, and told it was a guy called Cathal Coughlan and the band was the Fatima
Mansions. The song was called Blues For Ceausescu.
[snip]
That's 16 years ago, and I'm still thinking over what Cathal Coughlan was singing about. I've met the man, but never asked him about it. Sometimes I think he's musing on the return of Ceausescu, Messiah-like, or as an anti-Christ, but this time as the King of England. Other times I think it's not really about Ceausescu at all, but the whole fucked up state of the UK at the time... and, for that matter, Ireland. Maybe it's a fusion of all these - a goodbye and good riddance to Ceausescu, with an observation that the late dictator would have felt right at home in Thatcher's Britain.

Click here to read the full article. It's an engrossing exploration of a song and a place in search of meaning both for the original artist, and the listener. A bang up job, Walshy.