Can't stop won't stop...

Double barreled festival news from Pitchfork:

First of all, last week ArthurFest added a few new acts, and I'm impressed. Merzbow, Sonic Youth, Sleater-Kinney, The Juan Mclean, Sunn 0))), & Earth not enough? How about Brad Laner of Electric Company and Medicine "fame"? No, well how about Yoko F'in Ono?!? That's what I'm talking about. A festival with both Merzbow & Yoko. Damn, just damn.

So, Looking at the last entry I made about this fest. I realized I went on and on about Masonna, when in fact it's Merzbow playing at Arthurfest. I knew that, but something must have short circuited when I wrote that post. It's Merzbow, dammit!

Earth is also playing a bit closer to home, though. This September, The Empty Bottle and The Wire Magazine will be playing host to the Adventures in Modern Music Festival. It looks like another solid group of performers. My favorites among them are spread out among all the evenings, making my attendance mandatory for the whole weekend. Who am I most looking forward to? Isolee, Khanate, Earth, Four Tet, and Acid Mother's Temple, plus the rest looks damn intriguing as well. Go Chicago!

OOH! And checking the Empty Bottle's calendar for Sept. I noticed something else amazing. Merzbow is playing the Open End Gallery on 9/7. I guess I don't have to go to Arthurfest afterall. Am I really going to see Merzbow the same year as I saw the Boredoms? Damn.

Keep on rockin' in the cornfield!

For the Dekalb people...

I see there'll be a cool show at The House tomorrow night. I'm not familiar with the headliners, Fear Before the March of Flames, but they apparently just came off the Sounds of the Underground tour with Clutch, Opeth, High on Fire, and a ton of other cool bands (also , you can and should download Clutch's new video for Burning Beard at the SOTU site). If you can judge a band by the company they keep, well these guys will prolly rock your sox off, bub. At any rate, the name that caught my eye on this bill was Bear vs. Shark. After reading about them recently, on Pitchfork most likely, I decided to check out their album Terrorhawk. There's definitely a few things about the album that rub me the wrong way, for example, I'm not completely sold on the singer when he's in "tormented screaming" mode, but these guys definitely rock. I don't think I'll be able to make it out to the cornfields, although I may have to try. Who'd have imagined a day that I'd be driving from Chicago to DeKalb to see a show? When did the House start booking crazy RAWK shows?

America's Next Top Motto

It's strange the things you stumble across while Googling the phrase "Show them my motto", but I found an interesting article that went in a direction I wasn't expecting after the Dazed & Confused shout-out in the intro (and I love how he mentions McDonald's new catchphrase, "we're loving it!").

Don't you think you need a motto? I haven't decided what my motto is yet (make them pay?), but I'll certainly update you when I figure it out. In the meantime, what's your motto? Leave me a comment and give the world your fighting words of wisdom, you could have America's Next Top Motto!

Sub Sonic Massage

That was weird. I don't know where the text for this post went off to...
Here's take 2:

Bog has a website. It ain't pretty to look at, but there's MP3s of their CD, as well as two live shows. The show from two weeks back doesn't features just Alex and T-bone with no Van, but still rocks quite hard. If you love your rock with extra bass, check 'em out.

For some reason Blooger doesn't like the link and keeps giving me trouble. Let's try it this way: http://www.tbc.net/~bog

How to:

From Make:
Modify electronics
Cold press coffee
Save nearly any multimedia to your hard drive

From Lifehacker:
Make Pizza (Finally, someone else that's anti-pizza stone!)
Start using Bit Torrent
Be a more productive blogger
Get rich slow

And from Chicagoist:
How to make Baklava

Don't blame me, I voted for Judge Judy.

I've been very disappointed with the current term of the Supreme Court. In the past few months, they've decided that police need neither a warrant nor probable cause to let a dog sniff you or your vehicle, that eminent domain can be exercised if a private company wants to develop an area that could be used to boost tax revenue, that medical marijuana is illegal (regardless of the fact that until recently, this court has been extremely outspoken about protecting states' rights) and they kicked the Grokster case back into a lower court.

Once they headed out for the fun & sun of their summer recess, Sandra Day O'Connor resigned, and Chief Justice William Rehnquist is expected to resign at any moment. This isn't going to be an easy road for the President as the Christian right does not approve of his prime candidate, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as he might not be onboard to overturn Roe V. Wade.

The most interesting analysis I've read so far comes from Richard Cohen of the Washington Post who wrote a column advocating the nomination of Judge Judy. Yesterday, Kurt Vonnegut came out to lend his support to Judge Judy as well(second item). I have to agree.

Back when I was working in Master Control, I had to watch Judge Judy everyday, and I grew to respect her. I don't always agree with her, and sometimes I think she's a little quick to condemn some of the more harmless litigants in her courtroom, but I respect her, her heart is in the right place, and I think her straightforward, no nonsense attitude is just what we need on the Supreme Court. Judge Judy has my vote.

Son of the Attack of the Music Festivals

I actually got a phone call last night when I was typing the last entry and it totally derailed my train of thought. I caught you up and filled you in on the events that are right on the horizon, but I didn't really touch on anything outside of July. Of course, the music festivals don't stop just because the summer starts to fade.

Case in point, The Voodoo Music Festival in New Orleans. Happening over the last weekend in October, this year's lineup features Nine Inch Nails, The Flaming Lips, Queens of the Stone Age, LCD Soundsystem, The Handsome Boy Modeling School (AND individual sets from both Prince Paul and The Automator), plus oh so many more. Tickets go on sale tomorrow and are $50 for the weekend. That's a freakin' steal! They're also offering camping facilities for (apparently) the first time, and I'm a bit intrigued by that option as well. Anyone else up for Halloween in the Nolia?

Then there's the Arthur Fest. Really this is just another music fest with a cool lineup of bands taking place somewhere I don't live (L.A.). I wouldn't even give it a second thought if not for the fact that Masonna is performing there. He's definitely the godfather of a certain subset of extreme Japanese noise sonics, and the thought of seeing a Masonna show live is enough to moisten my pantaloons. Throw in some Sonic Youth, Earth, Sunn O))), and the rest and we're talking crotchpot cooking! I probably won't hit this one, but if you're in LA, bootleg it for me, bitches!

Attack of the music festivals

Wow. I took a breath to recover from my whirlwind June and all of the sudden I've realized July is booked solid as well. Holy crap. But first, the old news...

First of all, I should mention that my wonderful girlfriend got tickets for us to go see Modest Mouse at the new Northerly Island Pavilion (formerly Meigs Field). It was such a great show, the band was on, it was a beautiful night and the venue is really quite amazing. Look to the right of the Isaac's face on the Jumbotron, there's the Sears Tower.

It was really quite similar to seeing a show at Summerfest in Milwaukee. There's seating around the edges bleacher style, and the center is left open for the general admission folk to mill around. Really, there wasn't a bad view in the house from what I could tell, and the sound was great too. I might have to go hit the beach outside and drink a 40 when Kelly Clarkson comes to town.

So I got my rock on with Modest Mouse, I went to Summerfest this past weekend and got some rock action from The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and Pat McCurdy, not to mention stunts (!) performed at different times during the day by BMXers, and strange men on watercraft. Good times. And looking ahead on my calendar the hits just keep coming!

This weekend is The Old Town School's Folk & Roots Fest in Welles Park. This one's always a good time. Lots of great music from around the world, dance lessons, and all the assorted food on a stick found at such festivals. Every year I've seen fantastic music and this year they have a lineup that got me pretty excited.

On Saturday, there's a ton of good music including Otis Clay and Alejandro Escovedo but it's Sunday's lineup that has me breaking out the sunscreen. First of all you got your Tinariwen, for your African desert blues rock from the real desert, Sahara style. I saw these guys play at the Cultural Center this winter and they were great. They also screened Festival in the Desert which was a fantastic look at the music festival they have in the middle of the desert every year. Everyone shows up with their camels and their generators and sets up in the desert for a weekend to rock out. That's the real Desert Sessions.

After Tinariwen plays, Ozomatli step up and throw down. They're such a good live band. They just plain rock. Picture Los Lobos, with a horn section, tabla player, DJ and MC. They're better than that makes them sound for sure.. They played Chicago about a month back for some Columbia festival and I had to miss them, so I'm glad they're rolling through again.

The following weekend is Intonation, and on Monday we decided that Trent's gonna have a party the last weekend in July. You hear that Trent!?! We're coming for your cattle!

Yeah, yeah...

I know I haven't been posting. Sorry. I still have to work this whole thing into my daily routine. I have a few things to post if I make myself some time, but until then let me give a mini Mega Mall update. It looks like work is being done. Signs are up all over that they will be reopening soon. Hopefully they're getting their act together. Now, not knowing if the Mega Mall was going to be demolished, developed, or destroyed, I went out and took a few pics, just in case...