Following our return from Nashville and Memphis and soaking up some honky-tonk and country sounds, we trucked down to our local haunt the Funhouse in Seattle last night to dig into the power-pop stylings of our pals The Cheap Cassettes along with Dany Laj and The Looks and The Scheme.
Memphis and Nashville resided on our bucket list for a long time, and we finally checked 'em off during the last week. Twas a stellar road trip with good friends -- a formidable dirty dozen -- one of whom was celebrating her 50th birthday, so you know how that's gonna go down, right?
Tunes, drinks, tours and BBQ galore. Plenty of laughs and wrecked bodies from walking and rocking all over these damn fine towns. (From closing down the bars every night, of course.)
A smattering of our musical journey included a visit to Sun Studio, which has an excellent tour guide dude, by the way; Elvis' Graceland; The Grand Ole Opry; Grimey's Too records; and a shitload of music at every bar -- some three stories high, like Tootsie's -- up and down Broadway in Nashville and Beale Street in Memphis. Gotta give a shout out to Lonnie's Western Room in Nashville, where we tore the place down with our karaoke (more like, scary-oke) stylings.
Shawn Mayer, back and front.
One of the musical highlights was checking out Shawn Mayer at the Whiskey Bent Saloon in Nashville.
The first thing Andy noticed were the words, "Be Nice, You Fucker," scrawled on the jacket wrapped around her waist as he strolled through the doors.
Yep, this was clearly the place to be. Three hours' worth of stellar, hard-edged country/rock originals and choice covers.
We especially grasped on to her own heartrending tunes that had you stumbling along life's rickety ride with her. There are threads of hope within her songs, and her soaring and searing vocals and demeanor can surely help plow through whatever stands in one's way. It was a cathartic experience to the hilt -- punk rock-type stuff.
Here's some more pics to document the trek. If you ever get the chance, give it a shot, for sure.
Gotta love an Arsenal/punk spot in Nashville: Fleet Street Pub.
Don Rockwell's Hendrix. (All Rockwell art in this entry)
By Andy
Muralist Don Rockwell is a big Jimi Hendrix fan, and his painting of the legendary lefty axeman at Silver Platters in Seattle is a stunner.
The Hendrix portrait is just one element among copious Rockwell pieces of Pacific Northwest musicians that are emblazoned on a large inside wall of the music and movies store's SoDo location. The musicians span many decades and we at There's Something Hard in There were especially drawn to the likes of The Sonics, Hendrix, Heart, The Fartz, The Gits, Fastbacks, Wipers, Soundgarden and more.
Silver Platters owner Mike Batt provided the layout for Rockwell and he worked on the one-year project throughout 2013. Rockwell, who said he wasn't familiar with many of the artists (for instance, The Fartz), delivered big time by bringing their essence and band logos to life.
"I'm proud of a lot of it," he said over the phone today. "But I'm never satisfied with my own work," noting that some shadows weren't deep enough in spots.
Rockwell said that's just how artists operate and laughed.
The 59-year-old Shoreline resident began his career in the sign trade in 1974 and has been painting murals since 2005. The hand lettering, carving, gold leaf and cartooning in the sign biz paved the way for his mural work.
"I was very excited whenever I discovered something new about color, light and shadow. It's a lifelong lesson and I put my heart and soul into every opportunity I get to paint," he said in his bio.
Bob Mould with his band in Seattle in 2014. (Cat Rose photo)
Bob Mould is flying solo electric lately and he'll continue along that path for at least a little while longer on his Patch the Sky Spring 2017 jaunt. He tore through career-spanning sets Feb. 9-10 at the City Winery in New York.
He'll next appear at the Wire Drill festival, which will take place March 30-April 2 at The Echo and Echoplex in Los Angeles.
Then in April time, Mould will add some gigs, including a hat trick at the Turf Club in Saint Paul, MN. Two of the dates are sold out:
APR 15
The Oriental Theater
Denver, CO
APR 17
Turf Club
Saint Paul, MN
APR 18
Turf Club
Saint Paul, MN
**Sold out
APR 19
Turf Club
Saint Paul, MN
**Sold out
APR 21
Thalia Hall
Chicago, IL
APR 22
The Opera House
Toronto, ON, Canada
APR 23
Music Box Supper Club
Cleveland, OH
APR 25
3TEN Austin City Limits Live
Austin, TX
To get you primed, here's Mould's setlists from the recent New York gigs, courtesy of the Husker Du Database:
** Feb. 9 ---
Hoover Dam
Your Favorite Thing
I Apologize
See A Little Light
The End Of Things
The War
The Descent
You Say You
Up In The Air
Circles
Voices In My Head
Moving Trucks
Hold On
If I Can't Change Your Mind
Hardly Getting Over It
Too Far Down
Pray For Rain
Lucifer And God
Brasilia Crossed With Trenton
Daddy's Favorite
Black Confetti
Love Is All Around
Makes No Sense At All
** Feb. 10 ---
Hoover Dam
Your Favorite Thing
The End Of Things
See A Little Light
I Apologize
The War
The Descent
You Say You
Up In The Air
Voices In My Head
Hold On
If I Can't Change Your Mind
Hey Mr. Grey
Hardly Getting Over It
Too Far Down
Pray For Rain
Tomorrow Morning
Chartered Trips
In A Free Land
Daddy's Favorite
Black Confetti
The Descendents have unveiled their “Hypercaffium Spazzinate” 2017 tour dates.
Get on it, folks.
Here’s a choice quote from drummer/songwriter Bill Stevenson from our blog interview last year:
--- What inspires you musically to keep doing this for 38 years?
Ha, ha! You know what's funny is the really base-level, crude answer is one time I asked Keith (Morris) the exact same question, and he just goes, 'Well, Billy, what the fuck else am I gonna do?' (in a spot-on Morris impersonation). And I thought it was so genius, because was being very honest: this is all that I know, this is my life. With me, I definitely wouldn't phrase it that way, but it's kind of like I have a triple Ph.D. in music, if you will, and so it seems it has proven to be the thing that I excel at and so, as long as I remain enthused, which I very much am, then I have no reason to stop or to question how long I've been doing it. As long as I wake up and wanna hear those Marshall (amps) in my face, which I totally do, as long as that's happening, I can still play in the Descendents. But maybe I'll wake up one day and it'll be like, 'Hey, man, I'm gonna play drums with brushes and I'm gonna be in a little jazz band and play at the fancy restaurant here in town on Friday.' Who knows?
FEB 26
The Republik
Honolulu, HI
APR 6
The Catalyst Club
Santa Cruz, CA
APR 21
The Fillmore Detroit
Detroit, MI
APR 22
The Rave / Eagles Club
Milwaukee, WI
MAY 3
Union Hall
Edmonton, AB, Canada
MAY 6
MacEwan Hall
Calgary, AB, Canada
JUN 4
O2 Academy Brixton
London, United Kingdom
JUN 5
Melkweg Indie
Amsterdam, Netherlands
JUN 6
Schlachthof Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden, Germany
JUN 8
ARENA WIEN
Vienna, Austria
JUL 21
The Complex
Salt Lake City, UT
JUL 22
The Fillmore Auditorium
Denver, CO
AUG 4
The Fillmore Charlotte
Charlotte, NC
AUG 5
The NorVA
Norfolk, VA
AUG 24
The Commodore Ballroom
Vancouver, BC, Canada
As a KISS fanatic in 1978, I was faced with a serious conundrum. I know I wasn't the only KISS Army card-carrying member who was in this predicament, but it seemed liked the weight of the world was on my scrawny 11-year-old shoulders.
While staring at the rows of new releases on Sept. 18 at Music Plus in Hermosa Beach, CA, I had a brutal choice on my rock n' roll plate: Ace, Gene, Paul or Peter? As in which solo album would I purchase with my allowance cash from mowing the family lawn, taking out the trash, etc. I could only afford one of those albums at the time... goddammit, which one would travel home with me?
I scratched my head and went with Ace since he was my favorite band member because he seemed like the most wacky and original of the bunch, plus his riveting guitaristry blew my mind each time I cranked my albums. While walking toward the cashier, an older friend of mine from the baseball diamond spied my Ace album and asked why I didn't grab Gene's. C'mon man, you're making this even harder for me now! But I went with Ace's and it would soon be spinning on my turntable as I grabbed my tennis racket to play some stunning guitar along with my favorite tune "Rip it Out" and the other gems. (I never got the other solo albums, but I did grab Gene's "Radioactive" single, which is awesome.)
I heard from a school pal whose family had the subscription ON TV that he saw a KISS concert on there and was mesmerized by Ace's smoking guitar. I'd seen photos but never caught a clip of the action. Another buddy had actually seen KISS and showed me his photos from the nosebleed seats since I needed proof. I was fucking jealous, of course.
Although I never caught KISS in their heyday, Cat and I along with our friends Linda and Kevin witnessed the original quartet at a glorious concert in San Jose on their reunion tour in 1996. We were a few sections up from the floor on Ace's side of the stage and I was stoked beyond belief to see my main man, The Spaceman, display his guitar wizardry in the flesh.
So, where does this all take me now?
Well, last night Cat and I along with our KISS aficionado friends Gregg, Andrea and Mark who roadtripped it to Seattle from Portland entered Ace land at the Neptune Theatre. Mr. Frehley and his band wailed through my old fave "Rip it Out," plus ragers like "Shock Me," "Rocket Ride," "Parasite," "Cold Gin," "Love Gun," "Deuce," "Detroit Rock City" and much more. Pearl Jam's Mike McCready joined the fray onstage to supply some axework to "Cold Gin" (video clip below).
And yes, there was some smoking guitar action -- right in my face -- as witnessed in the video in this entry. There was flashing guitar as well during "New York Groove" and blistering leads galore, of course.
Ace can still bring it hard, man, and yeah, that solo album still holds up after all these years.
