mrfuriousrecords.com – Dharmic *DUBS* out now!!

Month: December 2005

  • Mr. Furious' XMAS Compilation Released

    What is the holiday season, if not the particular time of year when people spend weeks trying not to stick forks in their own eyes because of the incessant sound of the same twenty Christmas “favorites” being played over and over?

    With today’s release of Mr. Furious Records’ XMAS compilation, you can put down the silverware and listen to four original works of holiday music. From bright to blue, sweet to sad, Beach-Puppy, echoes, and howie&scott will lead you through the Christmas season in a fresh way. Fresh, like Doug E, you know! Get. Your. Download. On. at the XMAS post page.

    XMAS marks the return of founding Furious band howie&scott, who contribute ScoMo’s composition/improvisation “At its Rising” and howie’s uber-poppy “Merry Christmas” to the effort. You can read all about the pieces on the MFR [blog] this week. www.howieandscott.com has also been updated with the news. And if that weren’t enough, a preview of h&s’ track for next year, “O Come Thou Dayspring,” is playing via Furious Instance (over to your left – click the big, round PLAY! button!).

    We’ll be back in January with echoes’ brand-new Be A Ska Rat, the launch of MR|signal (our new streaming radio broadcast transmission jukebox), and more music. Keep up with our greater-than-weekly MFR [blog] posts, too. Merry Christmas,

    -Mr. Furious

    h

  • JASON LeVASSEUR and ECHOES at the ROCK ROOM, KC MO, 5 DEC 05

    I walked into Rockhurst’s Rock Room (a room specifically designated for rock!) at 9:00 sharp, happy that I wouldn’t miss any of Jason’s songs. Gave him a hug and said hello, and the third thing out of his mouth was “Do you want to open up?”

    Why not? Unpracticed, unprepared, with new equipment and a room full of new faces… it was a grand idea. I introduced myself and whipped through “I Don’t Even Know How Right This Sounds” and “J. Cougar Mellensong” from Be A Ska Rat (out next month!), then “Open Columns” and “America Votes 2032” from nickel. It was a bit rough, but the kids were nice about it. Counting two events at WCC last year and the MFR BL/R-OCK party, it was the fourth and largest echoes show ever. I mentioned the website and ended my gig as Jason’s “opening guy.”

    After song and a half, Katy, Tim, and Jill arrived, and we listened and joked through Jason’s whole set from the front row. I have some short thoughts about it, but no narrative; I was pretty lost in the moment, which was intentional. With some music, if you simply open up to an experience, it will suck you in with its own strength. Pete Townshend calls it “getting out of your head.”

    New and old songs sat well together side-by-side. Cuts from Driver is the DJ mixed with several requests from a friendly audience: “Big Sky,” “Captain,” the cowboy-fiddler drinking song whose title I can’t remember, “Those Were The Times.” Jason’s shows have great stage banter, delivered with a sheepish grin. He knows how to dance the edge between poignancy and comedy, and steps in a way that enhances both. Snatches of cover songs made their way into his originals: we heard pieces of Paula Abdul, OutKast, and Britney.

    Many [blog] readers already know Jason, but next time he’s in your town, you might take some friends to the show.

    And if your town is close to KC, I might see you there. Come early for a little echoes. -h

    h

  • HEIRUSPECS at the BOTTLENECK, LAWRENCE KS, 30 NOV 05

    “If you just missed that, it was fucking awesome”

    said Felix to the kids playing pool after emcee Muad’Dib and drummer Peter Leggitt traded solos, about four songs into Heiruspecs’ set Wednesday night. He could have said it about the whole show.

    It started long before St. Paul’s sons took the stage, with Felix and I sitting at the bar watching The Simpsons (I was a little early). Mellow offstage, Heiruspecs’ primary voice is a bouncy stage presence, like a 8-year-old, giddy at the sound of a beat.

    A Tiger Dancing is one of my absolute favorite Twin Cities records; forget it, just one of my favorite albums. I never caught the band all last year though. They tour, and my goings-out never matched their local shows. So I couldn’t pass the opportunity to see them here. Providence.

    I can’t explain how tight and loose Heiruspecs is live; the band is stellar, Felix and Muad’Dib can freestyle like mad (tight, tight) but the songs and arrangements are improvised on the spot (loose). These cats read each other’s minds. I was lost in it.

    The icing is that both A Tiger Dancing and Small Steps sound even better now that I have a vastly deeper sense of who these guys are.

    h

  • h's OTHER LIFE & MR|SIGNAL TEST

    Here are a couple of links, one of which I will kill when the test is complete.

    The first is to a newspaper interview about my other job;
    http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/13260074.htm

    The other is a test of copy & paste code for the upcoming MR|signal;

    (test failed; Blogger doesn’t allow JavaScript. Will try elsewhere)

    h