DOSH and KID DAKOTA at the UPTOWN BAR & CAFE, MPLS, 21 MAY 05

Openers Harp and Finial were a collision of country bar-rock, angular post-punk, and less-than-half ironic shredding and associated guitar histronics. Made me happy music started an hour late, and I caught the first act. Closer Kid Dakota was sparse and moving, with Darren unexpectedly precise on guitar; fantastic, as expected. I said hello after the show, picking up a ten-bone copy of So Pretty (which is always about $17 at Cheapo) and giving him a MFR button.

But it’s Dosh that has become a Twin Cities favorite of mine. Sometime during my first week in Minneapolis, I caught a morning-drive interview with Martin Dosh on Radio K; it didn’t include any actual music, but hearing people talk about Dosh’s music made me need to hear it.

Which didn’t happen until January, and Radio K’s “Local Music Day.” At home I recorded Olympic Hopefuls’ live in-studio performance, along with some others throughout the afternoon, and Dosh was one of them. To hear the sounds he could make, and know it was just one guy, was a beautiful mystery, a magic trick that made me feel eight years old in a good way. Dosh’s live songs start with little, click-y loops over which he layers electric piano and drums in imaginative, jazzy, hip-hoppy, childish ways. The tracks I’ve downloaded from his studio albums are good, and seeing his show Saturday night was very good, but it’s those radio performances that I love best (Dosh has an EP available of his set for KLAX in Los Angeles). Knowing it’s only him making sound from moment to moment, but being unable to see what’s coming next; something wonderful without a name happens in that space.

SEXY CHOCOLATE at JITTERS, MPLS, 19 MAY 05

My first real karaoke experience began at “KJ” Sexy Chocolate fired up the Godfather of Soul and proceeded to shake and spin better than he sang; apparently, he felt good (ba-da ba-da ba-da bap – he knew that he would). Chester rocked New Jersey-style (“Wanted Dead or Alive”), we couldn’t talk CJ or Sarah & Natalie into anything, and I alternately killed Boyz II Men’s “On Bended Knee” (melismas + Nebraska boy = noooo!) and gave a straight, if inspired, take on “Say It Ain’t So.”

But the evening’s gems were the potential social research master’s theses just lying around the club, waiting for someone to pick them up and run:

“Achieving Status and a Reputation for Humility Simultaneously Through Human Spectacle” – What is the nature of the dual attraction we universally feel towards live microphones, and its associated nervous fear obeserved when possession of a mic is obtained?

“Towards a Unified Model of the Repression of Awareness of Irony” – In the subgroup of people who take karaoke seriously, how is this inherently unstable worldview maintained? (It would seem to collapse either into postmodern detachment and amusement, or the realization that karaoke is not a credible venue for serious, non-ironic artists – yet the phenomena of taking karaoke seriously endures in some individuals).

“Juxtaposition of Culturally-Defined Opposites as a Source of Meaning” – Combining sociology with aesthetics, how does the re-introduction of humanness (imperfection) into the object of pop music contribute to the value of a karaoke performance? Case studies: Young bartender barking Alanis Morrisette’s “You Oughta Know” as a passable hardcore song. Asian woman covering “Hotel California” respectably. First-year seminary student absorbing crowd with a performance of “Immigrant Song.”

Credit to Tina for the better half of these. If you actually write the paper, promise to send us a link!

TRAVELLING MUSIC – MAY EDITION

13 May: Deephaven, MN –> Crete, NE

Foo Fighters / The Colour and The Shape
Blame the Game / EP and Acoustic at the Solid Ground (both unreleased)
Cursive / The Ugly Organ
John Vanderslice / Cellar Door
Melodious Owl* / Transition EP
Dosh* / Live on KALX
Heiruspecs* / A Tiger Dancing
Astronaut Wife* / Flying Saucer

16 May: Crete, NE –> Wayzata, MN

The Plastic Constellations* / Mazatlan
Olympic Hopefuls* / Radio Sessions (recorded at home from The Current and Radio K)
Idlewild / 100 Broken Windows
Poison The Well / You Come Before You
Halloween, Alaska* / Halloween, Alaska
Dave Matthews Band / Listeners Supported
Rage Against The Machine / Rage Against The Machine

Trending towards: Self-titled albums, Twin Cities bands (*), music I got into in high school (Dave Matthews Band, Rage Against The Machine, Foo Fighters).
Album I Was Most Into: Cellar Door.
Song That Stuck In My Head The Stickiest: (tie) Cursive, “A Gentleman Caller” and Halloween, Alaska, “Des Moines.”

Gilmo's "Points of Parallax" Released

Mr. Furious Records is proud to present Points of Parallax, the first-ever recording by free-jazz duo GILMO. Scott Morris (howie&scott) and Allen Gilbert (“Gilby”) have done themselves, and us, proud with naught but a saxophone, drums, and the spur of the moment. Entirely improvised, Points of Parallax brings a new sound to MFR and, after many trips through the music, we like it more and more.

In the process of updating mrfuriousrecords.com for GILMO, some of the artwork changed. Who knew? Enjoy.

In related news, today marks the re-launch of www.howieandscott.com. The site compiles stories, images, and info about h&s shows and recordings. The collaboration/brotherhood is resting at the present, with howie in Minnesota being echoes and Scott in Nebraska being GILMO; you can hear, however, from nickel and Points of Parallax that the musical journey continues – the future is rich with possibilities.

BURNING UP THE BANDWIDTH

April brought mrfuriousrecords.com to new height for bandwidth use; 700 megabytes of music transmitted out into the world.

Notably, the record was set in a month where only one new song was released; echoes’ live cut of “I Don’t Even Know How Right This Sounds” on Furious Instance #3, on the 25th of the month. Which tells us that new listeners continue to discover Mr. Furious Records and releases by Beach-Puppy, Bike, and echoes. The Furious Instance regularly generates traffic beyond anyone’s expectations; I, for one, anticipated that those tracks would generally interest hardcore MFR listeners. Maybe it’s the pink links? Whatever the reasons, we love it.

The numbers:
700.91 mb of .m4a data (songs only – total bandwidth use was nearly 1 Gb)
Average song file size = 3.4 mb
700.91 / 3.4 = 206.15

Meaning that roughly 206 songs were downloaded directly from mrfuriousrecords.com in April. This breaks previous high of 592 mb in Dec 04 (Bike’s How Is That Possible was released that month). As always, we have no way to track burning (our own and yours) and file sharing/trading, which we encourage wholeheartedly. Thanks for giving us a great month. We thought it was worth a pause to celebrate, before we get back to giving you music; GILMO’s new Points of Parallax EP released today!

MRFURIOUSRECORDS.COM HOT 5 – April

“Title” / Artist / Album / # of hits

1. “Rose Colored Glasses” / Beach-Puppy / Creepy Eepy / 29

2. “Was I In Bon Jovi For A Second?” / howie&scott / Furious Instance / 21

3. “I Don’t Even Know How Right This Sounds (live)” / echoes / Furious Instance / 20*

4. “Lunch By Yourself” / Gilby / Furious Instance / 18

5. “Taking A Break” / Beach-Puppy / Creepy Eepy / 16
-. “Save Your Breath” / Beach-Puppy / Creepy Eepy / 16

* posted April 25

echoes ACOUSTIC CASE STICKERS

Blacklight Sunshine, Math and Science, “Examined by Ghana Customs”, Baltimore Orioles, Weezer (Blue Album), Weezer (Green Album), Weezer (Maladroit), North Mississippi Allstars, “(Proud to) Be A (Nebra)Ska (Democ)Rat”, votenader.org, “Amandala!” album, Blackalicious, Fiction Plane, Music For The Last Day Of Your Life, Airwalk, Doug Martsch “Now You Know”, 101.9 The Edge (defunct Lincoln alt-rock station), Sonic Youth, NERD, The Mediums, Moth, Atmosphere, Tricky “Blowback”, Jimmy Eat World “Bleed American”, Simon Says, Life In General “Flowers”, various custom-painted jet fighters, Nullset, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Reel Big Fish, Kidney Thieves, Ozomatli, Rustic Overtones, Apple, lower case i, rocker-guy with moustache & broken guitar (Zwan), Black Eyed Peas, My Hotel Year, “CH” European driving decal, “Sock It To Me!” (with a sock), Jackson Hole Wyoming (moose), Before Braille, WoVen, Life In General “lig”, 36 Crazyfists, Sugarcult, a smirking pumpkin, The Music, Ben Harper (live), Dilated Peoples, I (heart) NY, “Fragile” Ghana Airways, Starsailor, Wayne, Bryan Farrish Radio Promotion “Air-Play!”, tiger paw, Hot 96.3 FM WHHHoosier, “Music Making Means Unity, Healing, & Strength” flag, Doane College, Tiger Country 101 FM KIXC, “WOW!”, Monster Magnet, purple fight-breast-cancer ribbon, 89.7 The River, Chemical Brothers.

A EUREKA MOMENT?

JT sent this message earlier this week. As I thought about a reply, I realized that I wanted to write about these things already but wasn’t sure there was any interest beyond my own self. But when a question is voiced, often other people have the same question, and haven’t vocalized it yet. So JT’s letter raises some things, and my long comment is an initial reply.

“h&s” = howie&scott

From: JT Hills
To: mfr@mrfuriousrecords.com
Subject: A eureka moment?
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
——————————————-
H-man-

I was perusing my music library a few minutes ago and stumbled up some
Dave Matthews Band. Now, I know it seems unlikely one can just forget
music one has in a music library on a computer, where iTunes has it all
nicely organized for one, but when one has nearly 4500 songs in said
music library, one can forget about certain tunes listened to less often
than other tunes.

Anyway, I discovered I had a live version of “All Along the Watchtower”
by Dave and his guys, which was an interesting coincidence because I was
just thinking earlier today about how I’d like to hear Jimi Hendrix’s
version of that song. But it also got me to thinking about some
old-school h&s days. I recall when I first met you (and thus, h&s), you
hadn’t yet embarked upon the adventure of original music, and instead
relied on a set of regular covers and then a set of Dave covers for your
shows. It was a rockin’ good time, but unable to equal the days ahead
of new songs and electric guitars. I like listening to h&s not only
because it’s good music, but also because it reminds me of those times
when the songs were live and raw.

I remember when I first heard “Mable” escape your stage, and I was
jarringly introduced to Goldfinger. I remember watching you (with Becca
and Mel along) struggle for words of the cover songs you played the
night you premiered original h&s tunes in Lincoln (nervous, perhaps?).
I remember a long drive to Omaha as the official h&s roadie of the
evening (because I couldn’t find anyone else to take me), and longer
drives to Hastings for dual shows with Rob and his cronies. I remember
seeing another night show in a Lincoln coffeehouse when, two songs
before the end of the set, multiple strings broke on your acoustic
guitar, so you brought out the electric to finish with perhaps the most
powerful h&s moment I ever saw. I remember a few CD release parties,
and I remember hearing “Blues or Astroblue?” live for the first time
with the electric and the drum kit and the looping saxophone over
looping saxophone, and I (with David Morris) couldn’t contain the pure
excitement passed down and handed out throughout the crowd, feasted upon
by those of us groovin’ in the back of the room.

Of course, there are other memories too, but they don’t stick with me as
well as those do. These were the memories that all had a common factor:
the h&s live show. Then this idea came across my eyes almost as if it
were projected from another place: what if there was h&s live tunes to
take home with us? I realize that there are already many (a la Blades
of Vengeance), but that’s not all of h&s. I know you guys first as a
cover band, where everyone gets involved, then as a folk rock band with
songs to think to, and then as a rock band to groove to. Each live
instance of h&s has its own flavor, and I think you captured the
folk-rock h&s well with Blades of Vengeance. But where is the live rock
h&s? Where is the live cover h&s?

The live h&s shows weren’t just musical performances, they were
something to experience, and I miss that experience. I long to hear
your versions of “Mable,” “All Along the Watchtower,” “Ants Marching,”
“Creep,” and the always fun “Birdhouse in Your Soul.” I yearn to lose
myself in the raw flavor of rock “Blues or Astroblue?,” “After the
Countdown,” “Houston,” “Thanks For Visiting Me on The Radio” or “Stop
Walking.”

Is it possible for this to happen? Is there any plausibility to it? Or
am I living in a dream world?

Just a few friendly thoughts down Colorado way…

-JT

P.S. In a somewhat related (but not really) note, what’s the deal with
the h&s web site? Re-launching?

First Blog in a Long Time

I want to take this opportunity to introduce a possible new MFR artist, even if we don’t release anything for another year.  We don’t have a definite name yet, or a commited drummer (although we know a guy who said he would do it, so as soon as he e-mails me back…).  We have ten songs, and by ten “songs,” I mean three or four that are roughly finished, and about 6 or 7 that are still just kind of ideas. 

We have a guitarist (John), a bassist (Tucci), a keyboardist who’s never technically played keyboards before (Tucci’s sister, Gina), and then me (Cory).  I think I’ll be focusing mostly on vocals, because this is going to be a very atypical project, by which I mean I’ll probably be singing a lot louder and wackier than I ever did in Shacker. 

Before when I was in bands, the point of the band was to create something original, exciting, and beautiful.  Not so much so with this band.  While we definitely want to do something “new” as in “not trite,” we’re not looking to break any ground here.  We’re looking to be a party rock band (kind of like The Remnants, but even more so).  The music is fast and loud, the guitars are distorted and aggressive, and there is literally a kick-ass, thumping, hardcore drum breakdown in almost every song (theoretically).  Before, in my musical efforts, songs were mostly chord-based.  Now, we’re focusing on riffs and accents to make the party get started.

This band’s purpose is to rock.  We, the band, want to flipping blast people’s heads clean off, and get people jumping around and singing along to the chorus.  We want to slack on the overall progression of music, and beef up on the sheer fun-factor.  We want the audience to have a blast, even if they don’t necessarily remember any of the songs we just played, after it’s all said and done.

Yes, we want to have a rowdy rock band, and we want to blow the doors off of any party or club we play.  We count our influences as Modest Mouse, The Faint, Queens of the Stone Age, NIN, and others.  But I’ll be the one doing the singing, so I promise at least some of it will be simple-stupid catchy.

Cory Alan