Monday, May 06, 2002
last night's musical experience was , well , interesting. The setting was dirty old Mojo's. This time it smelled like a septic tank,but luckily the (illegal) bonfire outside gave the whole place a smokey feel. SO think of a septic tank on fire. I sat down with my friend Jennifer, as we tried to sit out our buzz that $1.50 domestic bottles can do to you. I'm sorry Brandon, i did have that budweiser swill, when its that cheap, I can't pass it up.. Sorry, brandon is my best friend and beer expert. visit his site, links to the right..
anyways.. after watching sound check, and eating some veggie subway, the rock started:
After seeing the local band Pussy Controls's brand of riot grrlish punk rock, complete with a cover of "then he kissed me", I found out it was their very first show. Not bad for a first show. I enjoyed them, especially their enthuiasm and ability to smile at mistakes.
Next up, was a guy who's name I did not catch. This was strange. This guy was about 6"2 and dressed like howdy doody (red checkered cowboy shirt, long tight blue jeans, red kercheif) who played a ukelele and sang songs "cowboy" style. This was strange although his lyrics were quite cool ranging from cautionary love "are you chocolates or are you cigarretes?" to murder "I threw her down the cellar steps". All in all, this guy set me up for one of the most bizzare "bands" in my time.
The main act/performer/all around strange group was "Quintron and Ms. Pussycat". They opened up with a puppet show, complete with a play house and trippy music to complement this very drug influenced puppet show. Needless to say, I was very entertained. Next up, they actually got out of the playhouse and played their instruments. It is very hard to describe the music. Think of Jerry Lee Lewis, talking heads, devo, and iggy pop. Except they didn't use the most traditional instrumetns. While Ms.Pussycat played maraccas with puppet heads and sang backup, Quintron, a very skinny, and odd fellow (looked like ed wood to me) played a strange rotary organ, a drum machine triggered by a morse code tapper, a sequencer, a synth, a pair of Hi-hats, and a very nifty set of "light powered" sound generator thingys. Let me explain that more.. the whole machine is fueled by a lightbulb. the light is sensed by a few photoelectric type light sensors. depending on certain knobs and buttons, the constant stream of light is sensed by the sensors and translated into sound. If you disrupt one of those sensors, the sound becomes altered. To make it even more confusing, there is a turntable like platform where you can put a coffeee can with holes around the lightbult to further change the sounds, you can even "scratch" the can to make even stranger sounds. Let me telll you guys, Its real hard to explain this shit. You really have to catch a show. the music sounded like a gospel/new wave/rockabilly/carnival music with all those artist influences above... I'm stil at a loss for words to totally describe it. hell, the beats would make dr.dre proud!
Even stranger than "quintron and ms.pussycat" was the audience's reaction (including myself). These typical indie rock white boys/girls busted out in some strange proto-pseudo-50's style dancing.. Throw up a few seemingly gospel induced "shaking hands" and floor splits with constant stomping and clapping and shaking and you get my picture. I must say, I took part in a bit of the dancing, and we must have looked extremely strange to the rest of the crownd behind us.
I need to get a few cd's of this "quintron and ms.pussycat" and definately see another show. If you really want your musical world stretched and perhaps be scared a bit, go see "Quintron and Ms.Pussycat" you'll regeret if you miss it.
These guys do have some clout though, they did open up for The John Spencer Blues Explosion , Yeah!..
Until the next strange musical moment,
Alex
¶ 5/06/2002 06:03:00 AM
anyways.. after watching sound check, and eating some veggie subway, the rock started:
After seeing the local band Pussy Controls's brand of riot grrlish punk rock, complete with a cover of "then he kissed me", I found out it was their very first show. Not bad for a first show. I enjoyed them, especially their enthuiasm and ability to smile at mistakes.
Next up, was a guy who's name I did not catch. This was strange. This guy was about 6"2 and dressed like howdy doody (red checkered cowboy shirt, long tight blue jeans, red kercheif) who played a ukelele and sang songs "cowboy" style. This was strange although his lyrics were quite cool ranging from cautionary love "are you chocolates or are you cigarretes?" to murder "I threw her down the cellar steps". All in all, this guy set me up for one of the most bizzare "bands" in my time.
The main act/performer/all around strange group was "Quintron and Ms. Pussycat". They opened up with a puppet show, complete with a play house and trippy music to complement this very drug influenced puppet show. Needless to say, I was very entertained. Next up, they actually got out of the playhouse and played their instruments. It is very hard to describe the music. Think of Jerry Lee Lewis, talking heads, devo, and iggy pop. Except they didn't use the most traditional instrumetns. While Ms.Pussycat played maraccas with puppet heads and sang backup, Quintron, a very skinny, and odd fellow (looked like ed wood to me) played a strange rotary organ, a drum machine triggered by a morse code tapper, a sequencer, a synth, a pair of Hi-hats, and a very nifty set of "light powered" sound generator thingys. Let me explain that more.. the whole machine is fueled by a lightbulb. the light is sensed by a few photoelectric type light sensors. depending on certain knobs and buttons, the constant stream of light is sensed by the sensors and translated into sound. If you disrupt one of those sensors, the sound becomes altered. To make it even more confusing, there is a turntable like platform where you can put a coffeee can with holes around the lightbult to further change the sounds, you can even "scratch" the can to make even stranger sounds. Let me telll you guys, Its real hard to explain this shit. You really have to catch a show. the music sounded like a gospel/new wave/rockabilly/carnival music with all those artist influences above... I'm stil at a loss for words to totally describe it. hell, the beats would make dr.dre proud!
Even stranger than "quintron and ms.pussycat" was the audience's reaction (including myself). These typical indie rock white boys/girls busted out in some strange proto-pseudo-50's style dancing.. Throw up a few seemingly gospel induced "shaking hands" and floor splits with constant stomping and clapping and shaking and you get my picture. I must say, I took part in a bit of the dancing, and we must have looked extremely strange to the rest of the crownd behind us.
I need to get a few cd's of this "quintron and ms.pussycat" and definately see another show. If you really want your musical world stretched and perhaps be scared a bit, go see "Quintron and Ms.Pussycat" you'll regeret if you miss it.
These guys do have some clout though, they did open up for The John Spencer Blues Explosion , Yeah!..
Until the next strange musical moment,
Alex
¶ 5/06/2002 06:03:00 AM
