Just wanted to hip you to a really lovely performance by Earth Wind & Fire from an equally splendid TV show from the early 70’s called Soul. Maurice White is so cool he named his production company after my favorite instrument. In addition my B’day is in a line from one of their tunes, just another reason to love. Click away for sweet goodness.
-G
I was just cruising around the internet this morning when I stumbled up a live video of The Jesus Lizard at the Pitchfork Fest from this year. The Jesus Lizard are one of my favorite all time live bands. The first time I saw them was 2 days before my 21st birthday and they were playing a 21+ show so I couldn’t get in but I went down anyhow to try. Long story short, they wouldn’t let me in the club and I was really bummed but I went around back and hung out by the backstage door so at least I could listen to the show. As I was hanging out in back the guys from the band showed up (except for David Yow who had been at the bar drinking since before the show started). I started talking to them and explained my situation and they let me stand on the side of the stage for the whole show. I couldn’t believe it. San Diego legends Clickatat Ikatowi opened the show and ruled, then The Jesus Lizard went on and completely destroyed. To this day it is one of the top 5 shows I’ve ever seen. It was one of the best Birthday presents I ever got. After that show I probably saw 4 or 5 more Jesus Lizard shows on the west coast. Above is a video of them playing Wheelchair Epidemic which is a cover of a song by another great band called The Dicks.
We djed in Omaha at a party called Goo which is thrown by the guys from the Faint. We’ve known them for about 10 years and it was great to hang again. The gang throwing the party did a bang up job, the other DJs where great, and to top it off the theme was the Apocalypse. Think Apocalypto meets Holy Mountain. A really solid party with folks dancing on stage shaking the turntables and a lovely bartender who filled Gabe’s glass to the brim with whiskey. We also did a Q & A session for Red Bull MusIc Academy Radio and they recorded our set from that night which is on the player above.
ON
Vito, Luke and I were just sitting in our studio’s lovely cement backyard discussing our love for Ian Svenonious’ seriously unserious line of questioning on his TV show Soft Focus. The Ian on Ian interview is just one example. Simply we love the guy. Ian, can we have a chat some day over some Vace’s?
This past Sunday I had the good fortune of seeing some very nice friends play some wonderful music. Jean on Jean, AKA Molly Schnick, organized a nice show and BBQ. Molly performed with the ever so talented Rafael Cohen on synth and percussion in this latest incarnation of Jean and Jean. A thoroughly enjoyable sound indeed. As well as Jean on Jean I got to see two solo performers who I have never had the benefit of seeing previously. Both David Lerner and Olivia Mori each performed wonderfully with voice and guitar. Ms. Mori’s music left me with a similar feeling that I get from listening to Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerard’s “The One I Love Has Gone”. I really amazing tune in and of itself. All in all a splendid evening. I’m not sure where one can check out more from David or Olivia but you can follow Jean on Jean’s blog.
Hey friends, Just writing to share Thom Yorke’s version of a song a man wrote, who just lost his wife and is left with two kids to raise by himself. Such a nice idea, I can’t imagine raising my little Vincent all by myself. I like the cover of this album too, like a nice personal snapshot. Kinda breaks your heart…
Love and Peace,
Luke
Dear Fans and friends,
I’ve been meaning to catch you up on what’ s been going on in Rapture world. First off, I’m sad to say that at the begining of April our buddy Mattie Safer decided to leave the band. We are sad to see him go but it seems it is the best for all of us. Since then Luke, Vito and I have been on a creative tear. We’ve been working out of our little Brooklyn make shift studio, writing, demoing and jamming. I’m pretty damn excited to share the fruits of our labor with you. But its still gonna be a minute before we hit the studio for real. On the other hand, I am very pleased to announce that the people of the great continent of Australia will be some of the first to hear some of our new material live, when we arrive late September for Parklife festival. In the meantime, keep an eye on this blog and another on your neighborhood dance party, who knows maybe we’ll be spinnin’.
Lotsa Love,
The Rapture
I used to work at a great record store called Rocks in Your Head. It was in Soho and had been there since the 70’s but unfortunately like many record stores it is no longer around. It was a pretty amazing place to work and I got turned on to a ton of new music there. This little basement store was literally so packed full of music records, tapes, cds, books, movies, posters, stickers, magazines etc, that if they ever took all of the stuff out it seemed like the building would collapse. There were some real musical treasures to be found in Rocks, a lot of which, were behind the counter and not even available to the public. One of my greatest finds there was a bunch of old VHS tapes stuffed in a cubby hole behind the counter. I started watching the tapes and found out that they were bootlegs of some amazing concerts. My favorite one out of the bunch was a James Brown concert. I must have watched this concert 30 or 40 times, it was the best live show I had ever seen. I never knew the context of the concert other than what I was able to discern from watching it so many times. Last year a documentary came out called The Night James Brown Saved Boston and I realized magnitude of this concert I had watched dozens of times. Here is a brief description of the DVD, “The night after Martin Luther King was assassinated in April 1968, James Brown, self-proclaimed Godfather of Soul, performed a legendary concert in Boston. While more than a hundred other cities around America burned, in a nationwide outpouring of rage among the black community, Boston was spared a similar fate, thanks to Brown’s performance, a symbolic ambassadorship for calm.” Above is a video of the whole concert.
I can’t stop listening to this song! You can get it here.
I went to a Jay Retard show a few days back. They had played on the same shows we DJed in South America last month and I really liked them. Anyhow I went early and saw a band called The Screaming Females who were pretty awesome. I really liked the singer, she had an amazing stage presence, was a great singer and shredded on guitar. Above is a mini documentary on them. Enjoy. V
