June 2008

vol.5 no.8 june ’08
your new orleans music and culture alternative
ALSO: GOOD GUYS I BALLZACK AND BIFF ROSE
ROBIN BOUDREAUX I GLORYBEE’S NANCY ’KANG
WORN AGAIN I JOE ADRAGNA TALKS TO SLOAN
www.antigravitymagazine.com
In this picture, Row 1: DJ Soul Sister (Mar. ‘08), Row 2: Lil’ Doogie (Apr. ‘08), THE
Reverend Spooky LeStrange and Clockwork Elvis’ DC Harbold (Dec. ‘07), Row 3:
One Man Machine (Mar. ‘07), Row 4: The Bally Who (May ‘07), GloryBee (June
‘04), The Gray Ghost (Nov. ‘07) Back: AG Editor Leo McGovern, Caesar Meadows.
FREE!
PHOTO BY MANTARAY PHOTOGRAPHY
your new orleans music and culture alternative
SCORE ONE FOR
THE GOOD GUYS
page 12
ON THE COVER:
FEATURE REVIEW:
AG’s 4-Year Anniversary
Sloan Plays in our Junior League_page 19
FEATURES:
REVIEWS:
Ballzack Smells Biff Rose_page 14
Comics_page 25
(Gray) Ghosts from covers past take part in the celebration.
A controversial New Orleans figure gets his brain picked
by the West Bank rapper.
Robin Boudreaux_page 16
Some bittersweet Symphonics.
The Junior League’s Joe Adragna talks to Sloan about
their new album, Parallel Play.
Bringing down the Warhammer.
Music_page 22
Albums by: Boris, The Dresden Dolls, Fernando Braxton & The Earthmovers, Fuck Buttons, Gravy, The National, Nine Inch Nails and No Age.
COLUMNS:
EVENTS:
ANTI-News_page 4
Listings_page 26
Some of the news that’s fit to print.
The Rock & Roll Confessional_page 5
Step into the Confessional one last time.
Live New Orleans_page 6
Previews of Lil’ Doogie, Mudhoney, The Roots, A Living Soundtrack and a film show brought to you by DJ
Soul Sister.
Songe remembers the heyday of Weezer.
COMICS:
Burn the Scene_page 7
Illustrations_page 31
AuraLee’s not happy with Japanther.
Saint Nick_page 8
Why wasn’t Chris Paul the NBA MVP?
Guidance Counseling_page 9
Guest advice-giver Nancy Kang sets you straight.
Sound Advice_page 10
Legalese from AG.
The Goods_page 11
Miss Malaprop wears the Worn Again fashion show.
Again.
Qomix, How To Be Happy, The K Chronicles, The
Perry Bible Fellowship, Load.
NEXT MONTH:
Part 2 of Ballzack/Biff Rose, Studio In The Country,
and more...
STAFF
PUBLISHER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:
Leo McGovern
[email protected]
ASSOCIATE EDITORS:
Dan Fox
[email protected]
Marty Garner
[email protected]
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:
Andrew Bizer
[email protected]
Bryan Funck
[email protected]
Dan Mitchell
[email protected]
AuraLee Petzko
[email protected]
Sara Pic
[email protected]
Mike Rodgers
[email protected]
Nicholas Simmons
[email protected]
Jason Songe
[email protected]
J.W. Spitalny
[email protected]
Mallory Whitfield
[email protected]
Alex Woodward
[email protected]
AD SALES:
[email protected]
504-881-7508
INTERNS:
Caroline DeBruhl
[email protected]
Christopher Woods
[email protected]
Cover art by Caesar Meadows
We like stuff! Send it to:
111 South Alexander St.
New Orleans, La. 70119
Have listings? Send them to:
events@antigravity
magazine.com
ANTIGRAVITY is a publication of
ANTIGRAVITY, INC.
RESOURCES:
Homepage:
www.antigravitymagazine.com
MySpace:
www.myspace.com/
antigravitymagazine
INTROLETTER FROM YOUR EDITOR
Q
uite often in this space I find myself saying, “It’s hard to believe” whatever
event’s happening that month, particularly when it’s an anniversary month, like
now. It was hard to believe time flew by so fast between our debut in June 2004
and our second year, and time flew by (though it certainly seemed to drag on sometimes)
between June 2005 and June 2006. I can barely remember what we were doing in June
2007 (a quick check shows it was covering DJ Jubilee), and in 2008 we’re still rolling
on. In some ways it’s business as usual—we’ve got interviews with local artists Good
Guys and Robin Boudreaux, as well as special artist-on-artist talks between Ballzack
and the controversial Biff Rose and The Junior League’s Joe Adragna and Sloan’s Jay
Ferguson—but in some ways it feels like we just graduated high school, and it’s not just
because we’ll have wrapped up our fourth year by the time you get this. College and high
school graduations will have been over for a week or two by the time you get to read
these words, and even now as I’m typing them one of our own is on a voyage to the next
part of his life. AG Associate Editor Marty Garner’s driving to Los Angeles to become an intern at Infectious Publicity’s (the same Infectious
that once booked The Howlin’ Wolf and TwiRoPa, and now helps book Republic) L.A. office, and he’s going to become a freelance writer
and work his way into doing what he wants: writing for people like me and you. When you think about, Marty’s the first full graduate of the
school of AG. We have former AGers in high places now, but Noah Bonaparte, Patrick Strange and Miles Britton (all editors, at Gambit, Filter
and Magnet, respectively) were all exceptional writers when they joined this rag—we just gave them a place to steadily vent their thoughts for a
while. Marty, as he details in this month’s last installation of his Rock & Roll Confessional column, joined up as a young guy writing blog-style
reviews of live shows and over the past three years or so we’ve seen his voice age into a solid, passionate and respectable writer. So in a way
it’s fitting that on this four-year anniversary we see our first young protégé leave us for the greener pastures of California. Like I say of all those
guys before him, I’m proud to say I had something to do with Marty’s ascent, and it makes me remember that I’m proud of these first four years,
because when things like this come around it makes me feel like we’ve done something, you know? We’re not just cranking out reviews, toeing
the line and meeting the minimum. When things like this come around, I feel like we’re making a difference, and I have to say that it feels pretty
damned good. Thanks for all the good work, Marty, and the same goes for everyone else who is or has been involved with this magazine over
the past four years. It’s been a fun ride, and we’re not stopping any time soon. —Leo McGovern, Publisher/Editor In Chief
NOTE: Wondering how this could be our 4-year anniversary when this issue is vol.5 no.8? When we returned post-K, we restarted with vol.3 no.1 in Nov. ‘05.
COLUMNANTI-NEWS AND REVIEWS
VOODOO ADDS, SUBTRACTS ARTISTS
Last month we announced the headliners of Voodoo Music
Experience ‘08: Stone Temple Pilots, Nine Inch Nails and R.E.M.,
along with The Neville Brothers. Since then The Neville Brothers
have dropped out of the three-day festival, and according to Pollstar.
com, STP will headline the Friday edition while R.E.M. will help
close out the weekend by performing on Sunday. Added to the Friday
lineup is Reverend Horton Heat and Supersuckers.
ZYDEPUNKS READY NEW ALBUM
Local Cajun-Irish-Breton-Klezmer-Slavic-Zydeco band The
Zydepunks announced on their website that their new album,
the follow-up to 2007’s Exile Waltz, will have a release party on
September 5th at One Eyed Jacks. Said the band on May 16th: “We
finished mixing at Piety Street earlier this week and are mastering…
next week. Included on this CD will be all the songs y’all have been
hearing for a good year now + some newer stuff.” Find out more
about The Zydepunks at zydepunks.com.
A.D.: NEW ORLEANS AFTER THE DELUGE
PICKED UP BY PANTHEON BOOKS, SET FOR
SUMMER ‘09 RELEASE
A.D.: New Orleans After The Deluge, the webcomic by Brooklyn artist
Josh Neufeld (American Splendor, The Vagabonds) that features the
Katrina stories of six New Orleanians, including ANTIGRAVITY
Editor Leo McGovern, secured a book deal with Random House
affiliate Pantheon Books and will be released in an extended format
during the summer of 2009.
A.D. joins a Pantheon roster of award-winning graphic novels that
deal with social commentary, such as Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis
and Art Spiegelman’s Maus and In The Shadow of No Towers, as well
as stalwarts like Charles Burns’ Black Hole, Jessica Abel’s La Perdida
and Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth.
You can find the original run of A.D., currently on Chapter 11, at
smithmag.net/afterthedeluge.
THE LAST PERRY BIBLE FELLOWSHIP WE’LL
RUN (THIS TIME, IT’S PERSONAL)
A few months ago, we announced that we’d run our last Perry Bible
Fellowship comic strip, since PBF creator Nick Gurewitch decided
to take an extended break and focus on other projects. We meant to
find a new strip to take its place, but we’ll admit it: we were lazy, so
we ran a few months worth of classic PBFs. However, that’ll change
in July when we debut a new strip that features a character named
Firesquito, a hot sauce-powered superhero borne in a mutagen-
4_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
infested Louisiana swamp. It’s written by AG Editor Leo McGovern
with art by Qomix’ Caesar Meadows. Will it be good? We can’t say.
Will it be funny? Also can’t say. Will it be in the July issue? That, we
can say: “Yes.”
NOLA RISING VS. THE GRAY GHOST: FINALLY OVER
We’ve noted over and over the case of Michael “Rex” Dingler,
founder and artist behind NOLA Rising and the fight brought to
him by Fred Radtke, a.k.a. The Gray Ghost. A quick recap: Radtke
had Dingler charged with 1,100 counts of unlawfully posting NOLA
Rising art/signs on public property. Dingler faced $50,000 in fines
while Radtke, who this magazine believes to also be a lawbreaker for
painting over public and private property, remains uncharged. On
May 22nd, Dingler had his day in court and wound up essentially
face-to-face with Radtke. Dingler walked away fined $200 for one
count of unlawful sign-posting and his record expunged if he refrains
from posting any signs for six months.
On May 23rd, Dingler made a post on the NOLA Rising blog,
nolarising.blogspot.com, detailing the court proceedings. Here are
some excerpts that have to do with ANTIGRAVITY (which we’ll
address later in this column) and the aftermath:
“Radtke was seen reading aloud to Assistant District Attorney
Joseph B. Landry the publication ANTIGRAVITY. He pointed out
section after section of the ANTIGRAVITY [article] written by our
beloved Sara Pic. After putting on his outdated pa-pa glasses, Mr.
Radtke read the sections of the article where I likened him to a graffiti
artist and he stated his personal offense at the things I said in the
article.
Radtke appeared in court carrying a five-foot NoLA Rising sign
from his personal collection. Attempting to show Judge Early what
sort of “mayhem” we conduct, Radtke lumbered into the courtroom
with a sign he’s held on to since ANTIGRAVITY’s [February]
Alternative Media Expo at the Contemporary Art Center, hosted by
our friend Leo McGovern. The sign, though, was zip-tied to a private
chain link fence...over which Radtke must’ve claimed his special
brand of jurisdiction and had not actually been “posted” in regards
to the citation.”
Radtke cried to the judge that if he didn’t punish me severely, signs
would appear overnight all across New Orleans. [Dingler’s Attorney]
Mr. Spell pointed out that if ReX were punished severely, even more
signs would appear across the city. In keeping with the spirit of
NoLA Rising, ReX will be looking to give away signs to people who
will do responsible things with them . If you are outraged that Radtke
could even get this minimal amount of punishment levied against
ReX, ReX encourages you to act in a manner befitting to the spirit
of New Orleans
Continued on Page 29...
COLUMNCOMMENTARY
THE LAST ROCK &
ROLL CONFESSIONAL
“ALL OF A SUDDEN, I MISS
EVERYONE”
by marty garner
[email protected]
I
’ve never lived anywhere but Louisiana. I grew up in Lafayette, spent two
and a half years in New Orleans, and have lived in Baton Rouge for almost
three years now. For a while I considered all of this, my heritage and the fact
that I’m so tied to one part of the world, to be to my detriment, and I longed to
get out like I was some character in a Springsteen song. But part of growing up
is realizing the importance of having a place to call home, even if that place only
serves as a launching pad. We may never physically return, but we never truly
leave; we can’t, even if we want. We have been crafted by our homes, reared in
the rainwater from Kenner to the West Bank and beyond, and we will always
have that with us. Our heads will always be on our pillows, no matter where we
fall asleep.
What I’m getting at is this: this is my last month with ANTIGRAVITY. I’ll be
following that old beaten path out west to Los Angeles before these words even
show up on the stacks in Rue de la Course, the bench at Octavia Books, and in
the trash cans outside of One Eyed Jacks, which is where I saw what will be my
last New Orleans live show for quite a while. I don’t know, I guess I’m that age
where I have to see what else is out there and what else is worth taking, and I’m
certainly ready for a change. But right now I know where my head rests each
night, and I hope I don’t forget it.
I’ve been with AG for over three years, and while that’s probably not that long
in the outside world, it aches like ages for me. The first piece I ever wrote for Leo
was a one-hundred word blurb on Earlimart, who had the misfortune of playing
TwiRoPa the same night that Arcade Fire blasted through town on their Funeral
march. One of those bands is now the biggest group in indie rock; the other is
about as active as the old Twine Rope and Paper factory itself (it rests in pieces
now spread around the Warehouse District; its memories escaped with the flow
of the nearby Mississippi).
I wrote for ANTIGRAVITY through my half-life as a NOLA scenester, trying
my best to build whatever cred I could. I wrote for ANTIGRAVITY through the
jagged turnover of Katrina and the somehow equally rocky aftermath of my own
spiritual upheavals. New Orleans, you and I are still dealing with our changes.
I wrote for ANTIGRAVITY as a lover of the city crowbarred away from its
embrace; I tried my best to sing you songs like a good lover and prayed that you
were wooed. I wanted nothing more than to be a part of all of this, to somehow
lend my voice to the sound that prickles ears when they hear the words “New
Orleans.”
I always thought of home as a place, something that’s only physical and
pocket-sized, something no bigger than my room in my dad’s house. But home
is bigger. It’s physical, sure, but hands and spirits created it. Hearts shaped our
cast iron, stole our street signs, and pulled our neighborhoods together. Home
is Abita on a front porch, but never alone. Home is sweating outside of JacquesImo’s and nudging past the tourists and smiling with the humidity glaze on your
teeth. Home is all of us, together with the Being that has stitched the human
heart with such care. Look around you; this is big and this is real. As a good
friend of mine used to sing, “There’s much more to this; we’re not just holes in
the choir.”
I don’t know what to say other than all of this. I told you last September when
I started this column that I was the self-righteous and preachy geek, and I’m sure
that my words have lived up to that, though I’ve tried to be as honest as I can
bear to be. It’s hard to be a good man, though, when you look out at what you
used to think of as mud and realize that it’s only a mirror.
Anyway, it’s been nothing short of a privilege and a blessing to help carve a
corner of this place, to write to and for this city and to try my best to understand.
If you are reading this (which you are), remember that you are the whirled sugar
that America’s cotton candy is made of (but you already know that). But you’re
the ink in its pages, too, even if they don’t realize it, and no measure of plastic
beads and girls going wild is going to change any of that. New Orleans, when
people dare peek into your corner, and all they see is mud and sugarfloss, don’t
forget that you, too, are human, and that somewhere in the choke of tobacco
and gunfire haze is the velvet hand that we’ve all been waiting to hold.
Thank you for letting me call you home. I’ll always be proud.
5
antigravitymagazine.com_
COLUMNLOCAL MUSIC
LIVE NEW ORLEANS
SONGE REMEMBERS WEEZER
by jason songe
[email protected]
“In our darkest hour
Weak and overpowered
Faith gone thick and sour
If no one swoops down
May our hearts sing louder
Where’s the snake charmer who can heal a venomous heart?”
—“Song for a Snake Charmer,” by The Physics of Meaning
M
y Dad got re-married a few weeks ago, and it was a difficult time for me. Thanks
to support from friends, God, and music, I escaped relatively unscathed. The
lyrics above come from the second verse of “Song for a Snake Charmer,” a song I
repeated over and over again that week to get strength and so I could vent. I think the song’s
actually about Dick Cheney, but that doesn’t change what it could do for me.
Music can entertain, but it can also frame our lives, being a consoler (like above), motivator,
or lubricator. It’s a great way to find the different characters inside of you. Recently, I was
thinking of the albums most important to me, and sure enough, I can remember the time or
event each album helped me through or just provided a glorious, victorious soundtrack for.
I thought of Weezer first. When “The Sweater Song” was popular, they came through
New Orleans but I was too young to see them (same thing happened with Crash Test
Dummies—I fell asleep listening to their popular album for a couple weeks). Why do I think
they played at Cooter Brown’s? Probably because that’s how I thought of Uptown at that
point. It’s more probable that they played at Jimmy’s. I think of jamming on “Say It Ain’t
So” with my friends at my parents’ house and realizing how restrained drummer Pat Wilson
actually is in the song. He could have thrown in a lot more crashes, but it’s probably better
he didn’t. Then there’s “Holiday,” the song I picked for a long time to represent Weezer on
mix tapes. So rockin’, such candy for the ears, so free, so bohemian while also being able to
be emotionally anchored.
It seems weird now, but I had no idea Pinkerton was even out until I found it at Wal-Mart.
Needless to say, they didn’t really promote that album. I loved putting “Getchoo” on mix
tapes—it’s like getting thrown into a wind tunnel, in a good way. “El Scorcho” was an
awesome video.
The third album came out the same day as Tool’s Lateralus and REM’s Reveal. I took those
three albums and basically put them on repeat during my trip to France and Italy. Over and
over again I listened to that “Green” album on the train. What was it, thirty minutes long?
Maladroit came out just as I was desperately trying to finish college in May instead of
July. My girlfriend at the time told me I couldn’t get the album until I finished my exams.
I probably agreed, but I do remember getting it early. Was Weezer why I graduated in the
summer? Probably not, but Maladroit certainly didn’t help me focus. It’s a “break outta those
chains” kind of album.
I took a little vacation from all the post-K stress by driving to Houston for Foo Fighters
and Weezer, who were on their Make Believe tour. How great is “We Are All on Drugs?”
LOREN MURRELL
Loren Murrell is a gifted local singer-songwriter who seemed to just jump out of nowhere,
just in time to leave the city, maybe for good. What a voice. He’s got this smoky, jazz-meetsJeff Buckley-meets-Bob Dylan thing going on. You can check him out every Monday at the
Balcony Music Club or at the Circle Bar on June 19th.
KIP CAIRO
Kip Cairo is a local poet whose inspirational, humor-tinged pleas for change turn the
darkness of our city into light. His book Squatter’s Writes is out now.
SUMMER
I’ve got to admit I’m a little discouraged by the low turnout at recent rock shows. Get
curious, people. WAKE UP! There are a lot of cool shows happening this summer. Seek it
out.
THERESA ANDERSSON AT THE CIRCLE BAR, APRIL 28TH
I’ve never been to such an enjoyable Circle Bar show. I’ve been to better shows, but
everything felt right that night. There was a great, positive, laid back, sensual vibe in the
room. There were just the right amount of people there, and all could see Theresa Andersson
comfortably. It seemed like everyone there was in it for the music, and they all were in the
same mood. The atmosphere of The Circle Bar didn’t hurt, either.
Andersson’s poppy yet introspective and touching music was well suited for the intimacy
of the bar. I’ve never enjoyed Andersson’s music more than I did that night. Her new material
is beautiful and such a step up, at least for my taste, from her older stuff.
Continued on Page 29...
6_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
COLUMNLOCAL MUSIC
BURN THE SCENE
CRANKY BANDS MAKE BAD
DECISIONS
by auralee petzko
[email protected]
A
s I’m writing this it is storming so badly outside that my power has gone out twice
in the last twenty minutes. There’s a power transformer right outside my apartment
and every so often I hear it hum and buzz in a way that reminds me of every movie
I’ve ever seen with a mad scientist in it. My window panes rattle in their frames every time
there’s a thunderclap; and even though it is the middle of the afternoon, it’s pitch black
outside. Which, you know, makes a lot of sense, considering that half an hour ago there
wasn’t a cloud in the sky. When I moved here someone jokingly told me that if I didn’t like
the weather to wait fifteen minutes. I’ve always thought it was kind of a dumb saying but
good lord, they weren’t kidding.
UPDATES SINCE LAST MONTH
I am already sick of all the jam I made from the strawberries I got at the Pontchatoula
Strawberry Fest. I take that back. I am already sick of strawberries as a food. This happens
every year; I spend all of April enjoying the deliciousness that is strawberry bread, sorbet,
shortcake, pie, jam, lemonade, etc. Then I spend all of May feeling nauseous every time I
so much as think about strawberries. If I never ate another berry ever again it would be fine,
just fine; but I expect that to change by the next festival.
The Japanther show at the Big Top promised to be one of the best shows the New
Orleans DIY scene has had in a while but turned out to be kind of a bust. There were a
ton of people there, way more than are normally at punk shows here (I guess “hip” bands
bring kids out of the woodwork?). Local darlings Rougarou played first, and then everyone
waited. And waited. And then stood around and waited some more. The touring bands
finally rolled up to the venue, three hours late and with varying explanations as to why
(One of the vans broke down? One of the vans caught on fire? Their phones were dead and
they couldn’t get in touch with anyone? Who knows?). Despite all of this, The Pharmacy
set up and played fairly soon upon arriving. I made it about one and a half songs into their
set before I had to go outside. I tried to like them, but it just didn’t work out. Weird, poppy
stuff with a keyboard. No thanks, not really my thing.
The Japanther dudes stood around for close to an hour after The Pharmacy had finished
before they even set up, which is a dick thing to do, especially after you’re already super-late,
but I forgave them as I was so excited to see them again. Dancy punk really isn’t my thing
either, but every time I’ve ever seen that band it’s been a super-fun and positive experience.
None of that was present at this show. They didn’t play any of their best songs in the twenty
or thirty minutes that they did play, there seemed to be bad attitudes all around and after
someone accidentally got pushed into the drum set during a song, the drummer flipped out
and started throwing pieces of his set around. He threw his pedals onto the stage, which
ended up breaking a rather large mirror that was hanging there. That effectively ended their
set and also the show. Adding insult to injury, Japanther lectured the audience, making the
interesting point that tardiness is punk rock and all of us Katrina survivors should be used to
it. What a disappointment. It was even more disappointing because the very next night I was
in Austin, TX for the Chaos In Tejas fest (I hate fests, but that’s another column entirely,
maybe next month) and Japanther was playing down the street from the club where I was at.
And during a break between bands I heard them play three of my favorite songs by them right
in a row. Come on! They couldn’t have done that the night before?!
RANDOM THOUGHTS
I was driving past the High Ground in Metairie on my way home from work a week or
two ago and there was a pretty decent number of kids queued up outside the venue, waiting
to get in. I didn’t think much of it at the time but it occurred to me later on that evening
that I had never seen a single one of those kids at a show anywhere else. Why is that?
The High Ground, conveniently located near that center for teenage social life—Lakeside
Mall—puts on all-ages shows but tends to only book out of town bands that are more
“established,” i.e. use booking agents and have guarantees. Decidedly not DIY. Still, the
kind of bands that play there really aren’t all that different than the bands that play in the
city. Maybe they have a few more breakdowns and mosh parts than NOLA bands, but it’s
still all independent, “underground” music. There’s no reason for this exclusivity.
Thou is going on tour for the majority of the summer, and as the drummer of my band
claims dual citizenship between the bands, it essentially means no musical output for me for
the next couple of months. So I’ve decided to start something new (a side project, if you will,
that seems to be the cool term for stuff like this) because you can never really be too busy.
It’s more of an experiment than anything else. In almost ten years of playing music this will
be my first non-punk-related band ever, and the idea of actually singing into a microphone
instead of yelling my face off into it is a strange one indeed. My partner in crime for this
project is currently residing in New York City, so it’s not like we can get together and practice
whenever. This sort of distance issue seemed to work out quite well for Postal Service, so
we’ll see how this works out. At the very least, I’ll have something else to do that isn’t trying
out a new strawberry-related recipe or giving my cats avant-garde haircuts. Not that I’m
saying that’s what I do any other time there’s a lull in music-making...
Check noladiy.org for shows, nopunks.blogspot.com for news, and stay away from the
forums on either site, because message boards will rot your brain.
7
antigravitymagazine.com_
COLUMNSPORTS
SAINT NICK
WHY CHRIS PAUL WAS THE MVP
by nicholas simmons
[email protected]
I
t’s June and any NFL roster moves that haven’t already been made probably won’t
happen until August, and nothing of any real importance is going on except waiting on
rookies to sign their contracts and maybe a mini-camp or two. Next month’s column
will deal with the Saints’ impending training camp and notable battles for starting spots.
This month we’ll take advantage of the slow time and talk [Gasp] NBA and some other
NFL topics.
CHRIS PAUL AND THE RIDICULOUSNESS OF MVP VOTING
One of the overlooked aspects of post-Katrina sports culture in New Orleans is the fact
that we’ve been blessed with two legitimate MVP candidates in two different sports: Saints
QB Drew Brees in 2006 and Hornets point guard Chris Paul in 2008. Brees lost the award
to San Diego RB LaDainian Tomlinson and Paul lost this year’s award to Los Angeles
Lakers scoring guard Kobe Bryant. Of course, New Orleans fans believed our players to be
worthy, if the “MVP” chants that enveloped both Brees and Paul mean anything.
In my opinion, it’s ridiculous that both players lost out. I can forgive the Tomlinson over
Brees decision a bit more, but the Bryant over Paul verdict is patently unforgivable, and
I’ll tell you why.
This might seem rudimentary to you and me, but “MVP” stands for “Most Valuable
Player.” Not “best player,” “player who scored the most points,” “player with the most
endorsement contracts,” or “great player who’s been around for a long time and hasn’t
gotten an award yet.” To me, (and this goes for any team sport) an MVP is someone whose
mere presence elevates their team, someone who, if they were to be hurt, would be so
missed that the fortunes of their team would be completely turned around. Also, an MVP is
someone who totally changes the attitude of a team to the point where, as a fan, you can’t
fathom the team without that player.
One of the layman’s methods for choosing an MVP is imagining a team with other
players in their spot. This often is done to figure out how good the rest of the team is, as
having a bunch of All-Pros surrounding you generally hurts your chances of getting an
MVP award. Would the 2006 Saints have been as successful with, say, Bears QB Rex
Grossman instead of Brees? You can’t use super-successful players like Peyton Manning or
Tom Brady, because they’re MVPs themselves and obviously would make any team better.
So the answer’s “no,” right? Grossman (and yes, it’s ironic that I’m using the enigmatic QB
of the 2006 Super Bowl NFC representative who also dashed the Saints’ Super Bowl hopes,
but it’s amazing to me that the guy’s still even in the league) would have brought the Saints’
offensive to a grinding halt, with his imprecise passes and zero leadership ability. Brees’
presence on the team gave the Saints their first legitimate QB since Jim Everett (except
Jake Delhomme, but he barely started successive games for us and I’d rather not think
about that, thank you) and he (this is important) made everyone around him better. If you
replace Tomlinson with his own backup from that year, Michael Turner, you’re going to
get a pretty close approximation of production. But even if you replaced Tomlinson with a
top-10 RB like the Bengals’ Rudi Johnson, you’re not going to get quite the same impact,
so while an argument could certainly be made for Brees, the Tomlinson selection wasn’t
such a far stretch.
Now, on to Chris Paul. Paul energized an entire city that up until now has pretty much
been football-only, and pretty much saved the Hornets franchise by leading it to the second
round of the playoffs. Without Paul as their main draw, the Hornets wouldn’t have met
their own attendance demands and, regardless of record, would’ve been on their way out
of New Orleans. Instead, they wrapped the season having met those demands with an
impressive string of sellouts at the Arena. Without Paul, David West isn’t an All-Star.
Quite frankly, without Paul, the Hornets don’t get to .500 much less make the playoffs. All
we’ve heard this year is how the ’07/’08 season is one of the best in the NBA’s history and
how a big part of that is the resurgence of the point guard position with Paul, the Jazz’s
Deron Williams, the Suns’ Steve Nash continuing to dominate, the emergence of the
Celtics’ Rajon Rondo, etc..., yet replace Paul with either Williams (the closest player to
Paul’s caliber other than Nash) or Rondo and the team’s chemistry, one of the things that
makes the Hornets so enjoyable to watch, is thrown off. Williams and Nash (a two-time
MVP himself) wasn’t even in the MVP discussion and Rondo didn’t come around until
Boston made the high-profile acquisitions of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.
Bryant, on the other hand, has always been a great scorer yet was overshadowed by
Shaquille O’Neal in his four championship seasons, was so down on the team’s rebuilding
process that he threw his coach, teammates and general manager under the bus before the
season by demanding a trade and didn’t get his team into 1st seed-caliber position until
after the Lakers made the one-sided trade for Grizzlies C Pau Gasol, after which it was
widely reported that the switch flipped for Bryant when he realized he could win with
the guys around him. I’m supposed to buy this guy as MVP? Is he the best scorer in the
NBA? Sure, but he’s far from the best guy and definitely not the best teammate. Granted,
if you take Bryant off the Lakers and replace him with a scrub, that scrub’s not going to get
many 50-point games, but give them a mid-range player like Vince Carter or even Tracy
McGrady and they’d still be great.
If anybody deserved to win the MVP over Paul it’d be Garnett, who propelled the Celtics
to the 1st seed in the Eastern Conference with the greatest one-season turnaround in NBA
history.
8_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
COLUMNADVICE
GUIDANCE
COUNSELING
WHO’S GOT PROBLEMS?
this month’s counselor: nancy ’kang
Y
ou
might
remember Dr.
‘Kang from her
days in Glorybee, one
of the most memorable
bands in recent New
Orleans history. Their
exotic, 9th Ward-style
blend of soul, R&B,
pop, hip-hop and rock
opera never failed
to entertain eager
crowds. Just before
Katrina, after a hiatus,
they reformed and
added a live drummer
but lost long-time cohort Lord Hoffa. After a couple years of laying low, Glorybee is
popping up again, this time as the Leo Davis Quintet (or some other such “secret” name),
a nod to the son she recently had with husband Brad Davis, Glorybee’s wizard behind the
curtain. Her PhD, admiration for 2 Live Crew and serious bass chops make Dr. ‘Kang a
very skilled and apt therapist for this month’s readers.
Ever since I was a little boy, I’ve had an infatuation with older women. Now that I’m in my mid-20s
and looked back on my childhood, I think it has something to do with my mom being a total MILF.
Yeah, it’s kind of creepy, but she was really hot. As I’ve gotten older, the older the women are that I
find attractive. Right now the hottest “chicks” to me are in their 50s. It’s difficult to get someone that
old (if I even meet one that’s single) to believe I’m into them. Any tips?
Although you might be hot for teacher now, your current older love interest will be in
her 70s, collecting social security when you are merely 40. As women age, their anatomy
changes. Some older broads use a “pessary,” which is a plastic sling that is inserted down
below to hold up the bladder and uterus. Otherwise, things might dangle out. Next time
you are hitting on teacher, consider making this statement in a few years: “Darling, remove
your pessary and let’s get it on!”
I’m a guy with a bit of a, uh, personal problem. To be delicate, my nether realm smells. I wash it
(and my ass) every day and I’ve been tested for STDs and everything’s come back negative. I use baby
powder and other stuff to try and mask the smell, but when I take my pants off, boy does it reek. I’m
out of options, unless I meet a girl that digs the smell of cheese. What do I do?
White people smell like cheese. Indian people smell like curries. The truth comes out,
eventually. That’s what my mamma told me. Koreans smell like kimchee. Get over it. We
already know you smell like cheese (assuming you are white).
This old lady walks her dog right by my apartment every day, which has a little strip of grass in front.
And like clockwork, the dog shits right in front of where I step to get to my car. I’ve had multiple
conversations with her, including one incident where we CSI’d one particular shit (she denied her dog
did it but I showed her how warm and steamy it still was). What the fuck can I do to get her to pick
up her dog’s shit? It’s driving me crazy! I hate pet shit!
POO POO PLATTER THAT SHIT!
Place poo poo on a platter. Decorate with American flag toothpicks. Serve to her as she
walks by. Drool. Cover self in chocolate sauce. Place stained toilet paper on your shoe.
Place stained toilet paper on her shoe. Fall in love with her. Scream “I love you poo poo
provider!”
I play in a band here in New Orleans, and the problem we’re having right now is that the most
talented band member is also the most fucked up. He’s always on something and is frequently flaking
out on us. Problem is, of course, he totally smokes on his particular instrument (Sorry to be so vague,
but you know how this town is...). What should we do with him? We really want to kick him out but
don’t want to lose that special something he brings to the music.
Let us assume the drug of choice is alcohol. Go to your friendly family doctor, tell her you
are having malodorous foamy grey discharge, and ask for the antibiotic Flagyl
Continued on Page 29...
NEED SOME ADVICE? SEND YOUR PROBLEMS TO:
[email protected]
9
antigravitymagazine.com_
COLUMNLEGALESE
SOUND ADVICE
MUSICIANS: GET YOUR TAX REBATE
by andrew bizer
[email protected]
Dear Andrew,
I know that Louisiana has a special tax incentive for companies who make movies
here. Is there some kind of incentive for people who make music in Louisiana?
Thanks,
Glenn G.
Glenn,
Yes. In 2007, the Louisiana Senate passed an Act allowing for a sound recording
production tax credit. And like any governmental program, there’s a bunch of rules
and regulations as to how you can get the tax credit.
A 25% tax credit is available to anyone who incurs at least $15,000 in expenditures
in a year with respect to sound recordings. You don’t have to spend the entire
$15,000 in one shot on one album. Rather, you can spend the money over a series
of productions occurring over the course of a twelve-month period. The $15,000
must be spent on anything directly related to the sound recording. This includes,
but is not limited to, expenditures such as studio time, digital and analogue tape,
engineers, producers, arrangers, travel, instrument and gear rentals, lodging, and
even catering. However, an “expenditure” does not include artwork, CD and LP
manufacturing, promotion, or costs related to a CD release party, like flyers and
free beer.
Of course, there is a slight catch: before you spend a nickel, you need to give the
state of Louisiana advance notice that you intend to use the tax credit by spending
more than $15,000 in Louisiana. Fortunately, the state has made it pretty easy
to give them advance notice. If you’ve managed to get together fifteen grand to
make a record, you should have no problems giving advance notice. All you need
to do is fill out the sound recording tax credit application, which can be found at
louisianamusic.gov. It is only one page long and does not require you to itemize
every dollar you intend to spend.
Just send in the application and start working on your record. You should
receive a certification letter from the state within 180 days from the date of your
application. It doesn’t matter if you started working on the record before receiving
the certification letter. After you apply, all money spent in Louisiana that is directly
related to sound recording counts as expenditure for the purposes of the tax credit
if you are eventually approved.
The 25% tax credit is a refundable tax credit similar to a direct rebate in that
the total amount of tax credits earned is paid by the state as a rebate to qualifying
applicants. Unlike the film tax credit, the credit cannot be bought and sold on
the open market. This means that only the qualifying applicant can use the tax
credits.
The whole process is pretty simple, but if you have any questions, you should feel
free to contact the nice people at the Louisiana Economic Development Office at
1-800-450-8115. It is their job to encourage economic development in Louisiana.
They want to help you spend your money in Louisiana and will answer your
questions. I even called them when I wrote this column. I found them to be very
helpful and knowledgeable.
Andrew Bizer, Esq. is an attorney admitted to practice in Louisiana and
New York. He is the founding member of the Bizer Law Firm, L.L.C. He
previously served as the Manager of Legal and Business Affairs at EMI Music
Publishing and has worked in the legal department at both Matador and
Universal/Motown Records. This column is to be used as a reference tool. The
answers given to these questions are short and are not intended to constitute
full and complete legal advice. The answers given here do not constitute
an attorney/client relationship. Mr. Bizer is not your attorney. But if you
want him to be your attorney, feel free to contact him at andrew@bizerlaw.
com. Or, just e-mail him a question and he’ll answer it in next month’s
ANTIGRAVITY.
NEED SOME SOUND ADVICE? SEND YOUR
QUESTIONS TO: [email protected]
10_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
COLUMNFASHION
THE GOODS
WORN AGAIN, AGAIN
by miss malaprop
[email protected]
T
he DIY event of the season takes place on Friday, June 27th at Republic (828 S. Peters
Street). You guessed it, it’s the second edition of the Worn Again fashion show, an
edgy, arty fundraiser that brings together artists of varying backgrounds from all over
the city in order to raise money for Recycle for the Arts (R4A). Last year’s event took place at
The Green Project’s Bywater warehouse (2831 Marais Street), which also plays host to various
R4A projects and classes in addition to offering low-cost recycled building materials. This year’s
event is shaping up to be even bigger and better, and as a participant in last year’s show I can
promise you that this is an event not to be missed. I recently caught up with Worn Again
organizer Garyt Shiflett to find out more.
Miss Malaprop: How did you first get started doing
the Worn Again shows?
Garyt Shiflett: Eons ago, when I was in art school in
Virginia and about five years before Heidi Klum ever
told anyone they were “In” or “Out,” I was taking
an art direction class and our first major assignment
was to conceive a fundraiser for an international nonprofit. I was doing a lot of research on anti-sweatshop
campaigns at the time, so I chose that as my focus.
Worn Again was basically born from that project.
I eventually ended up dropping that class but always felt that Worn Again had the potential
to be a successful show. I didn’t have any experience actually organizing an event in real life,
so I was’t sure how to begin. About three years later I finally brought the idea up to my friend
Anna Virginia. She was responsible for many local events so I knew that she was the perfect
person to ask for help. Anna was instantly interested and we started right away, thus Team
Worn Again was born.
Our first Worn Again show attracted fifty designers from varying creative backgrounds and
two hundred and fifty attendees. The proceeds were split between the Virginia Breast Cancer
Foundation and a local non-profit radio station, WRIR.
Worn Again 2: “The Rerunway” attracted sixty-two designers and over four hundred guests,
benefiting The VBCF and a local non-profit museum and gallery, Gallery5.
Then, Anna and I ended up here in the Big Easy and decided we could make it happen, or
at least try to. Through volunteering we were introduced to Recycle For The Arts. The show
seemed to be a great fit with R4A’s ideals.
MM: What kinds of projects at Recycle for the Arts does this fundraiser help support?
GS: We have many new ideas and programs on deck for R4A. The best answer would be that
we are planning to use the funds to give more to our local arts community. Our goal is to not
only offer artists a more complete resource for recycled media but affordable art classes and
endless opportunities to showcase their talents through recycled creativity.
MM: Describe your experience of last year’s show. Do you consider the event a success?
GS: At first the idea of organizing an event in a new town was completely exciting, then
intimidating, then overwhelming but then back to exciting. We were fortunate that New
Orleans has so many talented and enthusiastic artists and designers. Throw some hard work
into the mix and I can confidently say that the show was a success. In fact, it turned out to be
R4A’s single most successful fundraiser to date.
The only negative that I can think of is that Team Worn Again’s identity was a bit lost in
the promotion. I am still hearing about the fashion show that the “Green Project organized.”
The Green Project was generous to donate their facilities, but that was where their involvement
ended. Worn Again NOLA was the result of hard working New Orleanian artists and Team
Worn Again.
MM: How will this year’s event be different?
GS: We have four different events underway for the 27th, and at times I wonder what we were
thinking. This year I am organizing the event with Karen Kempf, program director of R4A and
newest member of Team Worn Again, with generous support from the Green Project.
So far things are going smoothly and we are hoping to have a great turnout. I think the variety
of events and new venue will attract a larger and more varied audience, setting Worn Again
NOLA up for future success as well. I am sure The Recycled Dance competition alone will be
worth the ticket. The more guests we can attract the more opportunities we have to spread the
word about the importance of recycling and the arts. We owe many thanks to the REPUBLIC
for generously donating their venue to our event.
****************
I am also excited about the debut of Worn Again Jr. and proud of the opportunity that
Recycle for the Arts has helped provide these young designers. I cannot wait to see the results
of their hard work.
To find out more about Worn Again or Recycle for the Arts, visit their website at
wornagainevents.com.
For more info on Worn Again NOLA II, read AG writer Alex Woodward’s post on
antigravitymagazine.com/blog.
FOR MORE MISS MALAPROP, GO TO:
11
antigravitymagazine.com_
FEATUREMUSIC
WHEN A VILLAIN TAKES OVER
YOUR SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT,
YOUR ONLY HOPE IS THE
GOOD GUYS
by jason songe
W
hen I saw David Lynch’s Lost
Highway for the first time, I
drove myself nuts trying to
understand the film’s every
twist and turn. I instead should’ve sat back and
absorbed the experience, waiting till later to ask
the whys and the whos and the “why did that
house just implode?”
It’s best to use the same approach for local
rock group Good Guys and their new first full
length, The Social Engagement. Like Lynch, they
specialize in dark, strange, abstract and schizophrenic works of art that
don’t ask the consumer to entirely understand their madness. One second
its doo-wop, the next Tropicália, the next Mike Patton-inspired avantmetal, and the next a lullaby. Fans of film scores and classical music,
Good Guys thankfully always come back to a recognizable common
ground in their songs, similar to how Tool has approached their last two
albums.
Formed in 2004, Good Guys are led by vocalist, melodica and
theremin player Jeremy Johnson and vocalist, guitarist and pianist Tom
McLaughlin and rounded out by synthesizer player and trumpeter Greg
Beaman, drummer Kyle Sharimataro and bassist Greg Smith.
The Social Engagement is more mature and thought-out than the band’s
previous two EPs. Simply, it sounds like they killed themselves working
out the absolute best arrangements. Produced by Mike Napolitano and
augmented by Mike Dillon and Skerik, the album becomes better the more
you listen to it. It’s a hard-worked triumph, to be sure. ANTIGRAVITY
sat down with Johnson and McLaughlin at Mojo Coffehouse, just as a
cop was about to mow over a pedestrian at Race and Magazine, to talk
about Ennio Morricone, Kathleen Turner and, of course, their music.
12_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
FEATUREMUSIC
Jeremy Johnson: I got a jaywalking ticket in L.A. for
walking halfway through a “don’t walk” sign, and that guy
just walked in front of a cop.
ANTIGRAVITY: It was funny how the cop got all
aggressive.
JJ: I guess they’d rather do that than write you a ticket.
[Laughs]
AG: [Laughs] Where do we begin? On the song “Halt,”
you’re going in many different directions within the span
of one song, like you have a lot of different ideas—that
there are smaller songs within the bigger one.
JJ: Totally, especially the second half, I guess, where songs
just cut and go into something else.
AG: Do you ever feel that there’s some kind of ADD
thing going on in the band?
Tom McLaughlin: Sure, I think on a lot of songs there
are different parts where we felt that a style or aesthetic or
direction would be great, so we exploit different aesthetics
or styles because we felt it would work within just one
section of the song. Sometimes we’ll take a theme, melody
or a section that’s written a certain way and explore other
ways we can represent the same idea.
JJ: A lot of times reason it feel broken up is there’s a heavier
part that goes into a softer part. The difference isn’t even
so much that it’s that drastic from the other part—it’s just
heavier or softer. A lot of times we’re dealing with the
same melodies within
the heaviness, but it’s
such a drastic thing
you feel like you’re in
a completely different
space.
AG: I like when artists
do that—they’ll go off
on a tangent, but not in
a bad way, and then they’ll come back to the chorus and
you go, “Oh, I get it.”
JJ: I think with this album especially, I don’t know if we
consciously tried to do that but we definitely got a kick out
of the, “Oh, we’re still in this song?” idea.
TM: There are a few songs like that.
JJ: Like there’s something that comes back and triggers,
“Whoah, I’m still here.”
TM: This is something I feel that, with a lot of live
performances as well, when you get into improvised
music—not that that’s what we are—but the same thing
applies to improvised music, if you’re doing something
that’s a tangent, as long as you can come back to those
beacons, whether it’s a chorus, and that’s the function of
a chorus a lot of times, that there’s credibility. The listener
gives you more credibility because they can recognize it, so
it’s not just a jam fest.
AG: “In The Dark”? Some of these lyrics have to be
tongue in cheek.
TM: [Laughs]
JJ: Totally, definitely.
AG: “Panties tight, pubic hair,” and then when you
say—I can’t even say it without laughing—“I get my hand
up on that ass…” Oh, my God, I mean...
TM: [Laughs]
JJ: In that particular instance, it was making you feel like
a rhyme was coming and then throwing the “ass” in there.
Sometimes we do quirky things with the lyrics to try and
catch you off guard. Yeah, I do kind of go for this overt
sexuality in the lyrics, and a lot of it is tongue in cheek. I’m
not trying to get all metaphorical, but at the same time a lot
of the songs have to do with themes, and even though a lot
of it may be tongue in cheek you can find a central theme in
it. With a song like “In The Dark,” it’s about a wet dream.
There are a lot of songs about conflicts and battles, for some
reason.
AG: It can be kind of lecherous, huh?
JJ: Yeah.
AG: I like the classical guitar and the Tropicália feel on
“Social Engagement.” The music itself, and I’m talking
about the album as a whole, can be manic, but its many
moods suggest a lack of control and insanity.
TM: Yeah, sure. On a song like “Social Engagement,” it’s a
natural expression—none of that’s really forced. Musically,
I don’t think many artists think, or express inwardly, like
a linear song. I think most people have many more moods
than what they’re actually letting off, and they usually
reduce that into one song.
AG: Maybe to censor themselves, so the listener can take
it in more easily?
TM: Yeah, sure, but we like to give the listener more credit.
They can understand more spastic things because people
have really spastic thoughts sometimes. Even if someone
seems a little more even, underneath it there’s still this
spastic thought and that’s what we’re trying to represent
with songs that go all over the place.
JJ: Having said that, I think we still have a certain amount
of control over it. Maybe when you initially get into it, it
feels like it’s spewed out, but after you listen to the songs a
couple times even a person who’s not into that sort of thing
can see the organization as a whole, that it’s not just spastic
and thrown out there.
TM: The main point is there’s a direction to all of it. Even
with a lot of avant-garde compositions or music we listen to,
sometimes it can be forced.
AG: Tom, did you do all the programming, the beat
stuff?
TM: Yeah.
AG: It fits in—it’s seamless. Did Mike Napolitano have
anything to do with that, or was that pretty much you?
we felt he could do something no one else could, and not
for any other reason. We felt it would suit the song better.
I think there’s a stigma associated with his name where
people are trying to use him for whatever other reason, but
we felt that with the operation he runs with all of his gear
and the style he plays with, he would serve the music best.
JJ: If you listen to the song he’s on, I don’t know if you can
tell but all the stuff in the beginning that sounds like a guitar
lead is a saxophone.
AG: That’s great. That’s what he does.
JJ: All the distortion and effects pedals, then he drops down
and plays the sexiest solo imaginable. He’s perfect for it
because we go all these places, he goes all these places—he
can tap into any style we have in a song.
AG: Where did your instrumental curiosity start? Was
it years ago, or did being in the studio afford you that
freedom or inspire you to branch out more?
JJ: I think all this has come from a combination of a lot of
things over a lot of years. Tom has been a musician for a
long time, while some of us got into this at an older age.
I wasn’t even a musician until we started this band, so I
had years of just thinking about things I wanted to do, as
opposed to people who start playing earlier and mimic a
lot—which I also did to a certain degree—but I think there
was more there to start with.
TM: Classical music has a lot to do with it, for me.
That might be an
oversimplification, but
I love classical music,
I love instrumental
styles of musicians
and I also love when
there’s depth on a rock
album, as far as taking
it down a bit so that
some songs stand out and there’s an instrumental thing
going on as well. It all stems from the fact that we’re trying
to create the music we want and either aren’t hearing or
wish we heard more on rock albums.
JJ: Film scores are a big influence on Tom and me. They do
a better job at creating a mood music-wise than anything else
because they’re designed to create the mood of a character,
where maybe the acting fell short. Or the really hilarious
scenes in movies are funnier because of the music played
behind it. We’re trying to create more of those moods,
where people feel like that with our individual songs.
TM: I think at its best, film score is the marriage of two of
the greatest mediums in the world. Just taking the music
aside from the films—on their own, I’d put up some of my
favorite film scores against some of the greatest music ever
written.
AG: Who are some of your favorite composers?
TM: I think I can speak for both of us: Ennio Morricone,
who’s responsible for creating the sound for the Italian
westerns that we love.
AG: “Ecstasy of Gold (from The Good, The Bad And The
Ugly).”
TM: Yeah, all that stuff. We did a version of one of his
songs, and certainly people like Bernard Herman, Nino
Rhoda, and Fellini’s music.
JJ: My personal favorite, which isn’t the most in-depth by
any means, is John Berry, who’s responsible for the majority
of the James Bond scores. I think it’s easy for people to write
off the James Bond scores, like, “Oh, that’s the James Bond
score,” but I actually have every individual Bond movie
soundtrack. He’s done a lot of other things, like Walkabout
and Out of Africa. You would definitely know his stuff if you
heard it. The Body Heat soundtrack is really awesome. I
don’t know if you’ve seen that movie.
AG: I’ve seen it, but I’ve never listened closely enough.
JJ: That’s the beauty of film score, sometimes it’s there
and in your face and other times it’s just behind the scenes
creating moods you don’t even realize. Hopefully some of
our stuff goes in the subconscious also.
“We’re trying to create the music
we either aren’t hearing or wish
we heard more on rock albums.”
TM: Initially all the beats were sequenced by me but, for
instance, take a song like “Da Da Do”—he took a beat with
three different instruments, and I gave him separate tracks
of those and I wanted it a certain way—there was a way it
was supposed to sound and he completely changed it up,
but in a great way, and made it even better.
JJ: He was responsible for giving the beat construction its
place in every song. Going in, a lot of it was sparse—not
that it wasn’t good—and we got in the studio the songs took
on different tones and textures and went to places where
some of those things needed to be brought. He took a lot
of these songs on and helped make them what they are, for
sure. He was a huge part of getting this record to sound like
it does.
AG: So, he was a real producer—he was offering insight.
JJ: Definitely. At first, he didn’t really know what was going
on because I think we’re different from what he’s used to
working with, but he totally embraced it and assured us he’d
get there eventually. I think that once most of the parts of
the songs were intact, he started to hear it and was able to
do things that he knew. On the little hip-hop intro for “For
Murder, With Love,” he actually pulled that out with the
real drums and the guitar line that was embedded in the song
because you couldn’t hear it once everything was covered
up, and he really brought that out and reconstructed the
entire intro. Quirky little things like that can only happen
when someone else is dealing with you.
AG: That must’ve been great, to work with someone
trying to figure out ways to make the music better.
TM: Absolutely. I feel if we had even more time with the
project he could’ve done more things like that. It could’ve
been endless, but we had to call uncle some time. With the
limited time he was given he did a great job of wrapping his
head around certain ideas enough to help them stand out.
AG: How did the inclusion of Skerik and Mike Dillon
come about?
JJ: That came along as process of, “We need a percussionist.”
“Well, hey, Mike Dillon’s coming over tonight. Why don’t
we have him play some timpani?”
AG: [Laughs] That’s awesome.
JJ: We’re like, “Absolutely.” Skerik was in town for JazzFest
and it was kind of the same thing. We sent him the track and
he thought it was cool.
TM: We went with Skerik as a saxophone player because
Good Guys release The Social Engagement on Saturday,
June 14th at One Eyed Jacks with guests Mike Dillon and
Metronome The City. Find out more about Good Guys at
myspace.com/goodguys.
13
antigravitymagazine.com_
FEATUREMUSIC
BALLZACK
TRADES E-MAILS
WITH NEW ORLEANS
CULT ARTIST AND
PROVOCATEUR
BIFF
ROSE
PART 1
interview by ballzack
intro by leo mcgovern
W
hen Rami Sharkey, a.k.a. Ballzack, asked me if he could
interview Biff Rose, I wondered what shenanigans
could’ve led him to discover someone with the name
“Biff Rose.” In retrospect, it’s embarrassing that I didn’t
already know the enigmatic nature of Rose, who was born in New
Orleans and is attached to some of the biggest names in show business.
The singer-songwriter got his start as a standup comedian in the early
‘60s (a road Ballzack would travel down over thirty years later) and
wrote sketch comedy with the all-time-great comedian George Carlin.
David Bowie recorded “Fill Your Heart,” a song Rose co-wrote with
Paul Williams, on 1971’s Hunky Dory, after the song had already been
released by another star of the day, Tiny Tim. Rose’s contributions to
big-time musicians didn’t stop there (Pat Boone and John Denver both
covered Rose-written songs) and he not only performed on Johnny
Carson’s Tonight Show but the classic Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
and American Bandstand.
After Rose recorded Roast Beef in 1978, little was heard from him
publicly until his work was re-released in 2005, though he kept busy,
creating several websites and multimedia work.
Rose’s website and current work is, to put it lightly, controversial.
He’s incorporated spoken word and rap into his music and
uses to racial stereotypes in his art. One of his websites,
jewmanity.com, is but one of his projects that plays with
words to make a point. Some have labeled him an antiSemite and/or racist. Rose denies that, but that’s the
paradox of Biff Rose.
After agreeing to chat with Sharkey via e-mail,
Rose suggested that we start the print version right
then an there, so we’re going to bring you the entire
conversation from start to finish and in a different
format that our interviews are normally in. The
bolded parts are Sharkey’s e-mails to Biff, the
non-bolded Rose’s replies. It’s sparsely edited
to keep intact Rose’s unique blend of stream
of consciousness thinking and metaphorical
speaking, so there are misspellings, jabs
at other New Orleans publications and
Rose’s frank anecdotes of New Orleans,
New York and celebrity.
14_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
Hi,
I live in New Orleans and I would like to interview you for Antigravity Magazine.
Do you think we can make that happen?
best,
Rami Sharkey
Dear Rami Sharkey...please tell me your name isn’t really Rami Sharkey...If you put
your name at the top of the Interview people will like YOU better than ME cuz YOU
sound like a killer...whereas I am a gentle flower child Mothuhphuckuh...Antigravity is
my favorite “underground” magazine...I wanted Gambit to be..but they’ve squared up
so I think that’s the reason I’ve switched to smoking Antigravity.
I think we should start the INterview RIGHT here RIGHT now and you should
consider printing all that we say here with your new name, Betty Boop so that I can
salvage something of my wannahave-uh carear...without sticking my head somewhere
and cafronting my carear.
...and another thing...were you THERE during the storm?...my neighbor’s roof blew
off his house into MY yard around the corner from the Bridge House a block from
Popeyes on St.Charles and I got a FEMA check in Oakland where I was hiding inside a
relationship with a woman named ROCKY taking all my friends out for a mighty good
time...buying bootleg whiskey including Chris Champagne and a Krewe of Wan...keep
those question comin’, Betty...and we’ll have us an Interview fer dern tootin’...also go
see John Swenson at OFFBEAT and tell that Deadbeat he HAD his chance now he has
to marry his brother Ed and stop living in sin......cerely...Biff
Yeah! Well, I won’t go in any specific order, I’ll just keep asking questions as they
occur to me. So, what neighborhood in New Orleans did you grow up in? Tell me a
little about growing up in New Orleans back then. When did you leave to pursue your
career (in standup)? I’ve got a lot more questions on the way.
-Ram...umm...Betty
Dear Ram..uh..Betty...hmm...that sounds dirty...I was born in Hotel Dieu in 1937 before
it was called University Hospital. They changed the name cuz everybody thot it was a
hotel and that everyone in new orleans was born in kind of a whore house. “We” were
“The Four Roses”, mother Po, sister Poola, Father P.C. and SonBiff... we lived on Prieur
St. downtown by St.Roch Park. I made my professional debut at age four singing Hut Sut
Ralston and Maizy Doats at a Roller Derby in New Orleans.. made two dollars.. Mother
kept the money.... I went to Gayarre Grammar School on Franklin Av. before it was
changed to Whitney Houston Frederick Douglas Sammy Davis Junior Harry Belafonte
High....... ya’ll.....
My mother said, “We’re moving uptown, kid, and I’m sending you to speech school
cuz I don’t want you growing up talkin’mushmouth boogalie”. But I remember 1943 and
Miss Glass in Kindergarten.
We used to salute the Am. flag like Heil Hitler till one day Miss Glass said, “Now
children, we’re not going to raise our hands in the air anymore, we’re going to place
them over our hearts....I pledge allegiance...” Uptown was Wilson Grammar School on
Tonti St off Napolean Ave. there I fell in love with Miss Sutton my fourth grade teacher
who taught me those big things that spurt up in Yellowstone are called “Geysers” and
how cypress trees had “Knees”. I’d ride the Napoleon streetcar once a week for piano
lessons (Fur Elisa) from Lawrence Oden. We were poor and I’ve wondered in recent
years how my mother paid for those lessons...she just loved classical music....
Miss Sutton drove a ‘46 beige Oldsmobile with the fender reaching almost to the back...
Buick’s reached all the way to the back. I really loved Helen St.Pierre who
was nine and had a slight mustache. I understand from my old fraternity
brothers (SAK, Loyola, 55-59) Helen’s still alive but fat. I used to listen
to WNOE radio every Saturday morning and model with clay...little
Spanish galleons for Douglas Fairbanks,Jr. in Sinbad the Sailor...go to
the Tivoli on Saturday afternoons...nine cents serials..fifteen chapters...
Zorro..black and white..on Sunday there were “technicolor” movies...
Betty Grable, Betty Hutton Dan Duryea... Billy Rose’s Diamond
Horseshoe with S.Z. “Cuddles” Zakall.
I’d listen to Sky King and Buster Brown on radio. (That’s my dog
Tighe..he lives in a shoe..I’m Buster Brown. Look for me in there,
too!) I’d turn off the blues cuz it was the forties and I was nine and
white but it (they) sank in anyway..osmosis..ah s’poses....and
it began to tell when I worked Greenwich Village in the early
sixties playing five string banjo and the owner of the Gaslight
Clarence Hood brought up all these Delta blues singers he
knew from back home...Mississippi John Hurt, Son House,
Skip James.. I’d open for those guys and all the little white
jewish boys, Eric Weissman, Dick Weisberg,Tom Simon,
Jerry Garfunkel would come down from Washington Hgts
(fifteen cents on the subway) and gape at REAL black coal
blue gum nigguhz instead of always them slick high yaller
Harlem Rennaissancers..I’d tell’em..” Aw we used to
turn that schitt off when I was kid and listen to Mister
Keen Tracer of Lost Persons (Someday I’ll find you)
FEATUREMUSIC
and Oxydol’s Own Ma Perkins or Stella Dallas (the soaps)...
Lorenzo Jones and his wife,Belle...Backstage Wife...
I left New Orleans after graduating from Loyola in
59... they had taken the segregation signs off the buses
and streetcars in 58 and I always sat next to the fattest
blackest ladies I could find. It helped reading Ayn Rand’s
Atlas Shrugged...the smell of blue electricity rising from
the rails..the jogging sideways rubbing Spring wet bodies. I
learned how to dance sitting down..plus reading The Holy
Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton helped..All about the Beats..
smoking mari-potta in the Village.. black people playing sax
and reading poetry in North Beach, San Francisco, sex out
of wetlock everywhere..to a white Catholic boy from the
South in the fifties whose girlfriends all were zipped this was
manna and womanna from heaven.
I have never quite recovered...I dated Louise Marcello
once...Carlos’s bambina..in 1957..I swear my ‘46 two tined
blue Chevrolet was followed by six black Cadillacs all the
way to the Airline drive-in...she had an aquiline neck...it
drove me mad..I wrote music..poetry..
David Bowie recorded two of my songs in ‘72 and sends
me a royalty check twice a year..I’m in touch with Royalty
..check it out...
So, tell me about the days writing with George Carlin.
How did you and David Geffen meet? When did you come
back to New Orleans?
George Carlin and I were hired to write comedy for the John
Davidson Show the summer replacement for Dean Martin.
1966. We’d get stoned in our office at Paramount Studios
on Melrose and think up stuff that was
one year ahead of its time ..meaning
one year later Rowan and Martin
used a bit we had thot up in a smoky
haze’n’hokey smaze the year before....
neither of us ever exhaled...there was
this rope in this one bit...and people
held part of it as it wound through
several rooms at a party..nobody let
go..or tugged..it just kinda found its
way into each pocket of conversation
or grouping.....people might ask.. “What’s this rope?...why
are we holding this rope which seems to go nowhere?”....
and Goldie Hawn or Mel Gibson..or..wait...it wasn’t Mel..
it was..what was that guy’s name...? not Don Gibson..
HENRY Gibson..tht’s it..maybe at one end there would be
a guy lighting up one end of the rope to smoke it....George
and I would pitch such a bit and Bob Banner the Producer
would just stare at us...so I was fired because George had
schtick...one liners and characters like Biff Barf Sportscaster
or the hippie dippie weatherman (“High today...wow....”)
while they hired me to be John Davidson’s sidekick like a
Don Knotts to an Andy Griffith only I couldn’t abide John’s
eternally sunny boy disposition and just wanted to say “God
dam, man, will you stop that schitt eating grinning all the
time?” so I was fired but not before writing the theme song for
the show. Musical Director was Jimmy Haskell and he went
on to arrange that Bobby Gentry hit about throwing a baby
off the Talahatchee Bridge...I made twelve hundred dollars
a week in 1966 for six weeks, bought a house in the Valley
owned by Glen Randall who raised Trigger in the backyard
and sat in a half lotus posture cuz it almost broke my legs to
try a full lotus and started meditating with nothing better to
do but a house to do it in when songs started to be born that
were of a more serious nature than the comedy ditties I was
writing in Greenwich Village in the early sixties with my
long neck Pete Seeger model banjo...topical comedy songs
like “Kruschchev was my kinda guy”....and “I’m so worried
about oh so concerned about the Sino-Soviet Split...”..now
more tender ballads conceived on the piano with more than
three chords started to flow and I met Paul Williams the
Evil Dwarf while writing for the Mort Sahl Show on KTTV
in L.A. and asked him out to the house cuz he was writing
songs too.....I played him this song I was writing.,.and the
first four lines.. “Fill your Heart with love today don’t play
the game of time”..and asked him to finish putting a lyric to
it....He did..then ripped off the song but Bowie saved the day
by putting (Biff) in parentheses when he recorded it for his
third album Hunky Dory.....Carlin and I met
again in Aug.1985 at Durty Nellie’s Comedy
Club in Palestine a suburb of Chicago...he
recalled the time I rode him home on my
Honda ninety....on the Hollywood Freeway
and the bike was so light..we had to exit..
it was almost flying...it broke down on
Melrose and George said, “...and you just
left it there and took the bus home.” I don’t
remember that but I didn’t want to call him
a liar right there in front of all those fans...
I just don’t remember abandoning the bike..
but I think he was right...I was paying on it
at the time and at eighteen percent interest I
soon owed thirty six thousand dollars on an
abandoned bike.....Roy stuffed Trigger out
in Paradise Valley so I went into the tack
room and started writing love ballads. Paul
Williams apologized to Sport Murphy Head
of my Sport group for ripping me off. He
said he had “regrets” and “remorse” about
ripping off Biff Rose. I call him the Missing
Link between Man and the Planet of the
Apes....he helped salve his conscience by
playing Swann Head of Death Records in
Brian DiPalma’s Phantom of the Paradise.
In it Paul sells his soul to the devil for a star on Hollywood
Blvd by ripping off “Beef” and is finally consumed in the
flames that burn down the theatre and now in the electricity
of the Internet as I feature him with the Beast of 666 on
my website at Biffrose.biz...Carlin took me on tour for four
the divorce..I hated that crook worse than I didn’t like being
married...he helped hold my marriage together another two
years...he said he’d charge me two fifty for the divorce but I
dropped it after two minutes...but he sent me a bill for seven
fifty including advice on “opening a bar !!!!” ...I wouldn’t
pay that crook...and when I went
to sell my house...the one where I
wrote all those songs in Trigger’s
tack room....Geffen got it hung up
in the courts and stole it...I left L.A.
to go live in the woods......
but I did return to my native New
Orleans after all these adventures on
the road...I sold ice cream outside
the cathedral in July 1986....luring
the children to “come stick your
heads in my cool ice cream cart ice box....nutty buddies,
fruit bars, pop cycles, sandwiches...”...the kids would pull
at their parents’ hands but their parents would force them
into the dour mausoleum like St. Louis Cathedral.....” I
started doing plays at Borsodi’s theatre coffeehouse on
Freret uptown but got kicked out one Poetry Night. Seems
Heather a 17 year old Senior at Holy Angels Academy was
hanging out in the theatre at nite and got knocked up by
one of the actors..her mother, Lorraine was in the crowd
wondering where her daughter was nights..I was pitching my
religious art Festival “And the High Reign reigns in the Low
Reign”...Sarabeth Wildflower the waitress from Natchez
said with her Natchez accent, “He said Low-reign..he said
Low-reign...he made Low-reign cry...” To her Lorraine and
Low Reign were the same.....so I stayed in the Bridge House
thanks to my old fraternity brother at Loyola Buzzy Gainnie
who sells cars (Don’t trade it....donate it)....he’s like the fat
white Frankie and Johnnie guy who used to say, “Let’er
HAVE it !”.....Buzzy introduced me to the drunks. I did a
concert. “And now I’d like to introduce Biff Rose..we went
to Loyola together and Biff was the songleader and my
family owned Colonial Buick..and we’d sing..drink beer..
drink beer...oh come drink beer with me..cuz I don’t give
a dam about any old man who won’t drink beer with me...
and I turned into an alcoholic and lost everything and now
I run this Halfway House for alcoholics and would like to
introduce Biff Rose...!
hey rami...is your real name Walter? and do you play
God sometimes?
“I tell people the general
truth that New Orleans
is different. Other places
have things called “laws.”
dates in Oct.’85..I opened for him...I sang “Sometimes I feel
like the Mother of Hitler..he was already out of hand by the
time he was two.....he was like a baby bird with his mouth
open wide...just shoving his brothers and sisters aside..”
His crowd just stared at me...they were waiting for jokes....
that’s what they paid for..and Carlin never lets ‘em down
by George.....
David Geffen used to hang out with us back in Greenwich
Village, 64-65.....By ‘US” I mean Herb Gart who wanted
to “manage” me...Herb went on to manage Don McLean
and sell Bye Bye Miss American Pie to everybody....Jack
Soloman who managed Lisa Kindred who is still singing the
blues up at the Saloon on Grant Street in San Francisco…
Marty Litke who was already an agent at William Morris
and David Geffen who wanted to be an agent and was
working in the mail room at the time....Herb took me up to
Abe Lastvogel’s office, the President of Wm.Morris where I
signed a contract and David Geffen was assigned to me for
this upcoming gig I had at the Hungry I in San Francisco
opening for Glen Yarbrough who had this one big hit, ‘Baby
the Rain must Fall” by Rod McKuen.....First thing Geffen
asks me in my apartment in SF..I let him stay with me to
save money...he asked, “How do you smoke pot?...I wanna
learn how to smoke pot...teach me how to smoke pot..
please..” “Just suck David...suck in...that’s it....” ...David
sucked in and I take full responsibility for starting him out
being gay....I taught a course in GLOWbalization in Berlin
last January and made Geffen Head of BLOWbalization
because he said in this bio about him “The Rise and Rise
of David Geffen” page 23 “Biff rose was my first musical
signing in Hollywood..”
I never signed anything with David...I never even saw
him in Hollywood....we spoke once on the phone...he told
me his brother Mitch Geffen could handle this divorce I
was going through but Mitch Geffen turned out to be such
a crook..meaning “The meter was running” from the time
I stepped in his car...we rode around the block..I dropped
Biff Rose is Biff Rose. Find out more about Biff at biffrose.
com, biffrose.biz and biffrose.net. Ballzack is prepping his
third album, Yeah, Indeed, for release in late June. Find out
more about Ballzack at ballzack.com.
Next month, we’ll have Part 2 of Ballzack’s conversation
with Biff Rose, where Rose alks about getting hit with a Zulu
coconut, painting faces at Saints games and his “vyfe.”
15
antigravitymagazine.com_
FEATUREMUSIC
FROM THIS WORLD TO THE NEXT:
ROBIN BOUDREAUX’S
NEW SYMPHONICS FOR JEREMY
SHOWS THE WAY
interview and photo by dan fox
N
ew Orleans is crazy. There’s
so much talent and creativity
happening in this city and it hits
us from every direction, from the
sewer drains and the cracks in the sidewalk to
the low-flying clouds above; from your kid’s
music teacher to the Al Green doppelganger
on the Moonwalk. It’s everywhere around
us, happening right now—we just have to
keep our ears peeled. Even an unsuspecting
CraigsList transaction can introduce you to a
new dimension of the city, which is exactly
how I came across New Symphonics For
Jeremy, an album of jazz-based experimental
jams and sounds that would’ve stayed far
from my radar had it not been for a little bit
of internet-aided community commerce. The
idea for this album springs from the mind of
Robin Boudreaux, a saxophonist and pianist
who has been playing music since his early
childhood in Franklin, Louisiana. Fresh out
of high school, Boudreaux was scooped up by
Alvin Batiste, who encouraged him to study
in Batiste’s program at Southern University
in Baton Rouge. From there, Robin studied
further with Ellis Marsalis and company in
UNO’s jazz program. Robin’s exploration
of jazz and musical expression led him to
find like-minded souls in drummer Quin
Kirchner and bassist Matthew Golombisky,
who together formed the band QMR+. For
this album, Robin also relied on The Other
Planets’ Anthony Cuccia on sampler and
percussion and Matthew McClimon on
vibraphone, as well as Triple Delight’s David
Hyman, who joined in on guitar.
The music on Jeremy is interesting enough,
but it took on a whole new level of meaning
when I read that the Jeremy from the title
was actually Robin’s younger brother,
who was tragically murdered while in the
confines of the Louisiana prison system.
ANTIGRAVITY sat down with Robin on
one of those days when summer puts its first
foot down. Seeking the last refuges of shade
on his porch uptown, we talked about his
brother, the boundaries of jazz and an album
that practically created itself.
16_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
FEATUREMUSIC
ANTIGRAVITY: What were you doing as a musician
before this album?
Robin Boudreaux: Before Katrina, me and a few guys got
together and started to work really hard, almost every day,
on original and improvised music—just writing but also
transcribing things. I got a lot of work done during that
period, trying and get out some of the things I was thinking
about at the time; get through them on my instrument.
AG: Like what?
RB: With the saxophone, having control of how wild an
instrument it could be. Exploring the parameters and saying,
“If it can do this, I should know it.” Things that would be
wild and crazy but also really controlled things, subtleties.
With QMR+ we would write songs that had these extreme
things in them that I would have to practice, like this one
multiphonic that the horn would naturally do if you made
a mistake in your fingering. I would learn those and write
them down and practice them. One thing Alvin Batiste did
is he demanded that you practice your overtone series on
every fundamental pitch. It’s extremely painful to listen to
and to do.
AG: What does that mean, exactly?
RB: It’s sort of like feedback on a guitar. If you pluck your
lowest string and you have a really hot signal, you’re going
to get that note but you can also hear some of the higher
partials of that string. If you accidentally bumped the string
you’d potentially bring one of those partials out by stopping
the string slightly. Well, the saxophone reed operates the
same way; it has that fundamental but it also has a higher
overtone spectrum emanating from it. Using your throat
and your ear, you can learn to break the partials on a reed
the way you do on a string, and
get that octave overtone to jump
out. What Alvin would talk about
was actually using that so you’re
controlling it more. It gives you
a bigger, more complex sound.
Those were some of the things
we were working on in the preKatrina bands. I was really lucky
to be able to play so often, so hard
and have that kind of freedom.
AG: How did you find the
musicians that you play with on
this album?
RB: Each of us has a different
story. The first meeting I remember
was hearing them separately on different occasions, and I
thought individually each of them struck me as someone I
wanted to play with or meet. I remember making a phone
call to another friend who’s a guitar player and asking him
if he knew these guys and their phone numbers. And the
day I called they all happen to be at his house rehearsing.
Everybody was flipping out!
AG: Was Symphonics For Jeremy really recorded in one
day?
RB: We went in around 10am, set up and got rolling, and
then took a few breaks. I think we stopped about 5 or 6pm.
It was digitally recorded, so I told the engineer to just let it
roll.
AG: Did you do any overdubs or was it all simultaneously
recorded live?
RB: No overdubs. It’s easy to go into a big, long-winded
discussion of it. You have a few different schools of thought.
There’s jam band style, which is like, “We’re going to start a
groove and that’s going to be thirty minutes.” Then you have
completely free improvisation, where events separated by five
seconds could have completely different tonal and textural
characteristics. I’ve been observing another school, which is
easier said as spontaneous compositions. They’re free in that
there’s no predetermined structure, but everyone involved
is aware that you’re going to structure a composition. My
hopes would be that it would come off sounding composed,
but not by any one person. I like to think of it as allowing it
to self-order. It starts with an idea and a movement, and that
continues to develop freely and everyone rides that wave; so
we’re all on the rapids riding together in the same raft. And
even if someone introduces something completely out of left
field, that may be the solution to the problem of where we
are and where we’re going. This whole album is that way.
There was nothing predetermined: no rehearsals, no second
takes, no overdubs.
One thing I had learned from doing that for several years
is you can manipulate the outcome by starting everyone in
a different way. There were some times where I didn’t say
anything, but there were pieces where I had a certain mood
or rhythm in mind, so I would whisper to the bass player
[Matthew Golombisky], “Do this kind of thing... but not
really.” Then I’d go to the vibes player [Matthew McClimon]
and say “Matt’s going to play something on the bass. Totally
ignore whatever he’s playing. Start building this rebuttal and
see where it goes because it’s going to get busier.” So there
were little hints like that, just to guide the beginning textures
and moods so we weren’t starting everything the exact same
way. And I also had the freedom of the piano player not
showing up, so the piano was available and I could run to it
and guide it as well.
AG: So you were running between saxophone and piano
while the song’s going?
RB: I had a friend, Will Thompson, who was going to come
but he wound up not being able to. None of us were living
here at the time; we had all been flooded out. We were all
able to be in town that day which is why we did it. When I
realized Will wouldn’t be there, I asked the engineer to set
it up so I could run back and forth. There was like twenty to
thirty feet of space I had to cover silently while the band was
recording, so I couldn’t just jump instantly to either.
AG: Listening to the CD, I swear I hear saxophone and
piano together.
RB: No, never. David Hyman, the guitarist, who is also
the guitarist in Triple Delight—that’s one thing that can
clearly that it’s a sacred thing and that they’re participating
in prolonging the life of a sacred art form. I do as well, but
I also feel that you can’t allow fear of the unknown to stop
your participation in the sacred. That’s what I see in this
environment. Some things are seen as so sacrosanct that
they’re not to be touched. There’s a fear of losing identity,
a fear of not knowing. To me, all jazz musicians from the
beginning—and all great musicians, composers—they all
seemed to have the propensity to be somewhat different
and out of the establishment and abrasive, but still pique the
curiosity of people.
AG: The emotional core of your album goes pretty deep.
Would you mind breaking down for me exactly what
happened to your brother?
RB: My brother was 21 years old and was one of my greatest
supporters in my involvement with music. As I was thinking
about putting this together, I wanted to have this session with
my best friends and put together some jams and some pieces
he would like. That motivation led to what you hear, in the
different styles that it goes through. He was killed about
a month before [the recording]. It was maybe six months
after Katrina. He was in jail, serving time for something he
should not have been serving time for—he’d gotten busted
at a traffic stop with a roach in his ashtray or under his seat.
For that reason he was put on a probationary period where
he had to report to his officer. I guess he wasn’t really getting
along with the guy, so after a while he said he’d rather go
and serve six months than deal with this one guy, who was
intimidating him. So he went to do that, basically to serve
six months for violating a probation for half of a roach.
It’s still under investigation, so I can’t talk much about the
period from then until his
death. But he was killed;
someone on the premises
did it, we’re not sure who.
Whoever was responsible,
my brother was beaten
and didn’t survive. When
he showed up to the
hospital he was dead on
arrival. That’s pretty much
the worst-case scenario
for a sibling, not only to
have a violent death, but
to happen in that place
and that way. A big point
of putting this physical
product out, it’s just to be a bug in people’s ears. We can’t
forget that things are not right in that part of the world.
AG: Was making the album cathartic?
RB: When we went in there, I didn’t know what would be
done with it, if any of it would be any good. During the
session, I just felt like I was shooting it out to the universe,
playing with no ulterior motives. He’s in the room with us;
we’re in the room with us; we just all like playing this for
us.
AG: Did the other band members know your brother?
RB: A couple of them had met him once. But we had all
been through such an emotional period. I know when they
got the news they were all equally hurt. We were very glad
to all be back here. That was another thing—to feel that
power of We were washed out, we survived, we got back to the
city, we’re making music on this day, in this city.
AG: You sure had a lot of fuel.
RB: Yes, we did.
AG: So then this recording sat for almost two years. What
was it like coming back to such driven material after so
long?
RB: The first time I heard it again, it was a roller coaster.
Some of the things really brought tears to my eyes and I
had to stop it a lot, because I would remember how I felt
in certain moments—because there were tears shed in the
studio. It brought me completely back. At the same time, it
was two years old and we were all very different.
AG: So you think your brother would like the album?
RB: I think he’d love it.
“[Alvin Batiste] began as a
composer, so he didn’t really
see an obstacle or a line or
a border between traditional
tools or modern tools. I see it
the same way.”
really fool you with him. He uses a computer and a digital
effects unit to really cross the border between straight up
guitar playing and using all of these other digital sounds.
Sometimes it might sound like a keyboard or a pad, but it’ll
be him.
AG: You’re all obviously well trained and skilled, usually
by someone impressive. How does the music on this CD
fit in to the overall jazz spectrum? One way to put it might
be: what would Alvin Batiste think of this sound?
RB: Those are things that perplex me every day. As far as
Alvin Batiste goes, this is nothing out of the ordinary. I
would refer everyone to find a copy of Musique D’Afrique
Nouvelle Orleans. In that album he not only had a guitarist
and a band, but he was one of the first jazz musicians that
I know about (at least the first New Orleans jazz musician)
to incorporate a computer completely into his band. And on
that album, there’s a fifteen-minute-or-so piece that has a
computer with an early form of MIDI, and he’d programmed
this ancient Macintosh to play along with a live jazz group.
And it wasn’t for the weak of heart; it wasn’t just an ostinato
or a repetitive figure, it was a fully composed fifteen minutes
of a computer ticking off all this music. He was kind of a
door to the 21st century for me. He began as a composer, so
he didn’t really see an obstacle or a line or a border between
traditional tools or modern tools. I see it the same way.
AG: Is that a welcome thing in the jazz community
overall?
RB: I don’t find that it’s very welcome here. But there’s
a worldwide movement in which everything is accepted
because your palette has to be freely chosen. Traditional
jazz in New Orleans really does have a religious social
context. Or, if not religious, very sacred. People who
identify closely with it and protect it, they all feel very
Robin Boudreaux plays The Dragon’s Den on Friday, June
13th at 8pm with WATIV. For more info on Robin Boudreaux,
go to myspace.com/ninodorado.
17
antigravitymagazine.com_
FEATURE REVIEWMUSIC
IN AN ARTIST-ON-ARTIST
CHAT, THE JUNIOR LEAGUE’S
JOE ADRAGNA TALKS TO
SLOAN’S JAY FERGUSON.
SLOAN
PARALLEL PLAY
(YEP ROC)
I
will not pretend to be
non-partisan when it
comes to Sloan. They
are, to my mind, one of the
best bands ever and one of
the few bands that, since their
inception in 1991, have consistently created strong albums
and have avoided the usually-inevitable weak one. The
Toronto-based four piece, fresh off my favorite record of
2006 (that would be thirty-track epic Never Hear The End Of
It), are back with Parallel Play, the latest release in a career
that’s flown under the radar of the U.S. mainstream.
The group has four distinct songwriters and multiinstrumentalists: Jay Ferguson, Chris Murphy, Patrick
Pentland, and Andrew Scott. Each member contributes
at least three songs to Parallel Play (Scott clocks in with
four), and their individual songwriting styles are well
represented. The great thing about Sloan’s White Album
approach is that it’s kind of like getting four different
flavors of ice cream—it’s all tasty, and you don’t have to
decide between cherry vanilla and rocky road. Ferguson,
the band’s resident pop confectioner, delivers one of the
album’s high points with the melancholic (but bouncy)
“Cheap Champagne;” Murphy’s clever lyrics and gifted
melodic sense shines on “All I Am is All You’re Not;”
Pentland brings his brand of the rock with the catchy leadoff track, “Believe;” and Scott blasts through the garagelike “Emergency 911.”
Of course, I could go on about really geeky production
points or fantastic parts on Parallel Play—like the great
chorus of “Living The Dream,” with its fantastic ascending
bass line; or maybe the “You Keep Me Hanging On” guitar
part on “If I Could Change Your Mind;” perhaps I could
discuss the echoy, Moby Grape-ish shuffle of “Down in the
Basement;” or I could go on about the fabulous harmonies
on the chorus of “Believe.”
Instead I’m just going to tell you to go get Parallel Play
and enjoy the latest release from a band that will earn an
honored place on your turntable/CD player/MP3 player.
ANTIGRAVITY: Hey, what’s going on?
Jay Ferguson: We just filmed a couple of videos in our
practice space the other day. We have a really nice camera,
and a friend of ours has another really nice camera, and
so we just did these videos against a black background,
and they’re just really simple with really stark lighting, but
they look really nice. I was just at Chris’s working on the
editing with him.
AG: What songs did you do them for?
JF: We’re just doing them just for the singles. It looks like
the single in Canada is “Believe In Me” and the single in the
states, the Yep Roc single, is “I’m Not A Kid Anymore.”
AG: Are you going to put the singles out?
JF: I think it’s just mainly radio. I think when they say
single these days, they mean the song they’re servicing to
radio as opposed to a separate CD single or 7” or something
like that.
AG: I was thinking about that the other day, actually—
I mean, we both remember buying Smiths 12” singles
when they would come out. [Laughs] Nowadays it’s just,
“Oh, I guess I’ll just download it off iTunes. Maybe they
have an iTunes exclusive version or something...”
JF: I know! It’s hard. I’m happy that our band still makes
vinyl, and I would love to be able to do more vinyl, but I
think…I don’t know, maybe we could do a 7” and it would
probably pay for itself. Mostly we could sell it offstage, you
know? But I totally know what you mean.
AG: You guys have your own label, Murder Records,
and have worked with a couple of labels in the past—if
you were just starting out, or had started out in the last
two years or something, do you
think you would’ve done anything
differently? Would you have
bothered with the other labels?
JF: That’s hard to say. It depends on
how much money there is, or what
the label could offer you, because
nowadays the main thing record
labels can offer you is money. They
can promote you and everything, but
you can only do so much promotion
on your own. Things like MySpace
are great, and if you build up a fan
base then MySpace is excellent. But
if you’re a band that hasn’t played
many shows and you’re in the middle
of nowhere, then that’s kind of hard
because so many bands are trying to
do the same thing. So a record label
sort of can give you some exposure
and advertising. A lot of that is
money. Sometimes you get guidance,
but if you have your band and if you
have your whole act together, then
you almost don’t need it. I know that
most of the deals that are being given
these days are called 360 deals. Have you heard of those
before?
AG: Yeah, when the record label takes a cut of everything,
like merchandising, which bands used to make their
living on because they weren’t making anything off the
records.
JF: Exactly. So what they do is they offer you a bit more
money, but they get a piece of everything: a piece of
touring, a piece of merchandise, they get a piece of your
publishing, a piece of synch license, anything like that.
They’re basically sinking in quicksand, and they’re trying
to grab anything they can in order to survive. If for some
reason a label came along and gave a band two million
dollars, maybe it would be worth it for that band to bank
that money based on future sales. I think if we were
offered one of those, it would have to depend on the label
[whether we’d take it]. It seems that there are a lot of great
opportunities for doing things for yourself. But, here I am
saying that and our band has a record label, and we’re
signing bands. [Laughs]
AG: You’ve got Parallel Play coming out on Murder/Yep
Roc, and I think I told you this before, but I originally
thought that it was like the streamlined cousin of (2006
release) Never Hear The End Of It. The more I listen to it,
though, it really takes on a life of its own. I think it’s,
I don’t know, not dark, but not necessarily happy-golucky. Am I way off the mark there, or—
JF: I don’t think so, I think you’re pretty on there. I see it
as a little bit, I don’t know about “dark” or anything like
that, but a lot of elements to it are a little more melancholy.
Even the songs that are a little more, ah, bubbly. [Laughs]
Not bubbly, necessarily. Even songs that are a little more
cheery have a melancholic side to them, like whether it’s
“Living The Dream” or “Cheap Champagne,” it’s not
complete positive rainbow songs. I think you’re right,
there is a bit of a melancholy element to it.
AG: You guys write separately more often than
together…
JF: Yeah, I think there may have been more collaboration
on the Never Hear only because there was a bit more time
to do it. We started recording and when things got pushed
back we just kept recording. But sometimes we’d be in
the studio trying things, like all of us playing together and
recording into stereo—we would call it the mash, where
we we’d have a mic on the guitar, a mic on the organ,
and three or four mics on the drums, and we’d have all of
them going into just two channels. We’d put them into the
computer and compress them, but later you can’t really fool
with the balance. You can’t say later, “Oh, the snare isn’t
loud enough,” because it’s already a stereo picture—you
could turn up just the right or the left. That was something
we were trying on the last album, so we’d need three or
four people playing together to get that “live” sound.
AG: Kind of like “I Can’t Sleep?”
JF: “I Can’t Sleep,” “Golden Eyes,”—there were seven
done in one night. They were short songs, so we thought,
“Oh, this will be easy to learn.” They’re often gotten on firsttake or second-take and we’d add vocals on top of it later,
or one extra instrument. So, it was a bit more collaborative
on the last record from the recording aspect, but this time
around, because we had more of a deadline, it was more
like every man for himself. But there’s always a little bit
of collaboration. I find that Chris always comes up with
great bass lines, and he did so for all of my songs. I think
each of the things he added…if you take my song “Witch’s
Wand,” at the end there’s a different melody introduced
and Chris came up with that and I thought it was a great
little outro. And then the other song of mine, “If I Could
Change Your Mind,” Chris came up with the bass part,
which I thought was a riff in itself. Andrew played some
piano and guitar on Chris’s songs. He’s always great with
that. Andrew works great off the cuff. He’s never really a
studier, you know like, “What can I do?” He just plays the
song. “Okay, yeah, I know what I’m gonna do,” and then
knocks it out and goes home. [Laughs] So there are little
bits of collaboration here and there.
AG: So when you are getting ready to tour, do the
songs get reinvented because everyone is adding in their
playing, like “Oh, you’re going to do that!” I’ve seen
you live numerous times and know that the songs take
on a new life.
JF: Yeah, totally. I think Patrick thinks that way. I think
he likes that, and to add his own thing. Because everyone
doesn’t necessarily play on the song, something new gets
added. When we start rehearsing, we sort of try to make
it sound like the record and as we’ve been playing, it sort
of changes a little bit, so by the time we’re in New Orleans
or Atlanta the songs sound totally different than they were
when we started in rehearsals. [Laughs]
AG: The last time you were here in New Orleans was
2004….
JF: That was my very first time in New Orleans, and I
wasn’t sure what to expect. What area where we walking
around in?
AG: The French Quarter.
JF: I remember we went to your friends’ house, and we
went to the record store, and then we went and had the
donuts—
AG: Beignets.
JF: Beignets! I loved that area. I mean, maybe it’s
considered touristy, but I loved that. It’s obviously very
European in a way, that area. Yeah, I loved it. I had a great
time. That was such a nice, almost small town feeling to
that area. That was the only area I got to see, and I really
enjoyed it. And the beignets are really delicious!
Sloan releases Parallel Play on June 10th through Yep Roc
Records. Find out more about Sloan at sloanmusic.com. Joe
Adragna’s band is The Junior League, and you can find more
info at myspace.com/juniorleague.
19
antigravitymagazine.com_
REVIEWSFILM
STEVEN SPIELBERG
INDIANA JONES AND
THE KINGDOM OF
THE CRYSTAL SKULL
(PARAMOUNT/LUCASFILM)
A
fter
almost
twenty years, it’s
understandable
that
reactions to the return of a
well-loved franchise might
be mixed. Your opinion
of Indiana Jones and the
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will be colored by how
you view the earlier entries in the series. Did you, like
me, view them as superior examples of popcorn flicks
or did you, like some critics, assign more intellectual
or heartfelt attributes to the films? The reality is that
the fourth Indy movie is head and shoulders above
the majority of summer spectacle films. Spielberg has
shown that he’s more than capable of crafting a movie
that can delight crowds while retaining shreds of
humor, heart and intelligence and George Lucas has
always been a much better idea man than director.
Rising star Shia LeBoeuf is slightly miscast as a tough
guy greaser, but his natural charisma and chemistry
with Harrison Ford more than make up for it. And
then there’s Ford himself; at 60-plus, many wondered
if he would be believable as the two-fisted adventurer.
Suffice it to say, I wish I could look as fit now as Ford
does at 66. There’s a little gray around his edges, but
he still throws punches, runs down ancient ruins and
plays the hero triumphantly. Crystal Skull finds Indy
battling communists from Nevada all the way to the
steamy Amazon jungles, meeting up with companions
both old and new, surviving giant ant swarms and
atomic explosions, all the while chasing a Macguffin
that’s a little more science fiction than the historical
relics of sequels past. It’s here that the dichotomy of the
film will divide viewers; this is the same old Indiana
Jones, but with more modern elements thrown into
the mix. Harrison Ford’s Jones is still the same hero,
smirking in the face of danger and seemingly able to
escape any situation though hardly ever unscathed,
yet some people may find the increased magnitude
of his travails unbelievable (forgetting the inflatable
raft scene from Temple of Doom are we?). The film
still largely relies upon physical effects for its stunt
work, but CGI does rear its head throughout the film.
Sometimes it’s simply to enhance the practical effects,
other times it’s used exclusively (the preponderance
of computer-generated animals is distracting, and
don’t get me started on the “Tarzan” sequence).
These small changes in the series’ methodology don’t
drastically alter the soul of the series—we still have
Jones traversing the globe, brutally cartoonish fist
fights, chase sequences and moments of near disaster
that thrill as often as they make us laugh. Nitpickers
may scoff at the intrusion of new elements into their
hallowed series, but Indiana Jones and the Kingdom
of the Crystal Skull is an enjoyable film that doesn’t
take itself nearly as seriously as critics may. —Mike
Rodgers
20_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
REVIEWSCOMICS
DAN ABNETT,
IAN EDGINTON,
RAHSAN EKEDAL
WARHAMMER:
CONDEMNED BY FIRE #1
(BOOM!)
J
ust as Dan Abnett and
Andy Lanning have carved
out a niche for themselves in
the galactic side of the Marvel
Universe, Abnett has teamed
with Ian Edginton to create
a place within the Boom!
Studios publishing house. That place? The war-torn, grim
universes of Warhammer, both fantasy and sci-fi flavored.
Condemned by Fire is the former, a Man With No Namemeets-Solomon Kane-style adventure of a witch hunter
who roams the land, using blade and black powder pistol on
chaos cultists and the undead while scaring the crap out of
even those he’s sworn to protect. The story here is familiar,
a “plays by his own rules” loner whose dogged pursuit of a
fugitive leads him into a much bigger danger, but it features
note perfect execution, great moment-to-moment writing
and strong artwork.
A familiarity with the Warhammer universe is not required
to enjoy Condemned by Fire, though fans of the setting may get
a warm glow from the use of judgmental god of good Sigmar
or chaos daemon Slaanesh. The basics are easy to pick up
from context, and you don’t need to know the specifics
of the gods to figure out what’s going on. As I noted, the
story beats are familiar, from the lone rider coming to town
to a deeper threat that he’s warned against (and of course
ignores) to the style of confrontation between our protagonist
and that deeper evil. It’s a welcoming, accessible book in
the medieval fantasy genre that, Devil’s Due’s Dungeons &
Dragons books and Conan aside, is rarely touched in modern
comics. I’m certainly glad that, unlike Devil’s Due’s D&D
offerings, Boom! isn’t merely recreating Warhammer novels
as comics but allowing those with experience crafting those
novels to create new stories just for the comics.
Condemned By Fire is set up as a continuing story but, like
Forge of War before it, this appears to be a series of standalone issues that form a larger picture. There’s a complete
story in this one, a satisfying setup through to conclusion.
Rather than rely on a cliffhanger to get the readers back for
issue two, Condemned By Fire relies on being a damn good
read. Elements of this story may return in later issues, or
they may not, but a casual reader could definitely pick up
this story and get a satisfying and complete tale of Magnus
Gault, Templar of Sigmar, chasing down his quarry, the
cultist Szymon Magister and dealing with a town full of
nasties as a result.
While Condemned by Fire looks and acts like a pulp
fantasy story a la Robert E. Howard, it also has elements
of a western. The protagonist’s use of a black powder pistol
makes for some stirring visual moments courtesy of artist
Rahsan Ekedal, and the lone man riding into town definitely
calls to mind the classic western heroes more so than the
knights and mercenaries of fantasy fiction. The book has
a great look overall, with moody, dour color by Fellipe
Martins and clear, clean storytelling by Ekedal. In the past,
despite my general happiness with them, I’ve occasionally
had gripes with the clarity of Boom!’s Warhammer comics,
but there’s no problem with that here. Visually, this is easily
the best of the Warhammer comics so far.
Condemned by Fire is a fast-paced action/horror story with
an interesting dark fantasy setting and a well-crafted antihero in the lead role. It doesn’t have a lot of deep things
to say about the moral quandaries of witch-hunting or the
oppressive theocratic nature of the Warhammer world, but
it’s an engaging read with strong writing and artwork. Those
with a fondness for Robert E. Howard, Frank Frazetta and
other pulp fantasy will definitely want to check this one out.
—Randy Lander
21
antigravitymagazine.com_
REVIEWSMUSIC
THE NATIONAL
PORTISHEAD
A SKIN, A NIGHT (DVD)
VIRGINIA (EP)
THIRD
(MERCURY)
(BEGGARS BANQUET)
I
T
hroughout A Skin, A
Night, the new film about
the making of The National’s
Boxer by Vincent Moon (of La
Blogotheque’s Take-Away Shows), we are treated to various
takes of Boxer tracks over shaky digital footage of children
throwing a paper airplane, the clack of subway cars in the
band’s native Brooklyn, and one particularly jarring close-up of
drummer Bryan Devendorf’s glasses that unrolls while Berninger
can be heard talking about his struggle to keep one of his songs’
characters from coming across as a stalker. Viewers expecting
a portrait of one of America’s most interesting bands will be
disappointed to find instead what amounts to a fingerpainting—
high on color, low on story.
What we do find, though, is an accurate and honest portrait
of a working band. There’s very little drinking, very little smiling,
and a great deal of thinking while staring into space throughout A
Skin, A Night. The National are dedicated workers, having taken
over six months to complete what would become a masterpiece
in Boxer, and it was not for lack of struggle. Moon’s wallflower
techniques allow us to listen to singer Matt Berninger struggle to
piece together the lyric and melody for “Green Gloves” over the
course of the entire film, and we watch as the band spends hours
on a version of “Slow Show” that ends up being completely
overhauled by the time Boxer was released.
It is this slow realization from concept to product that Moon is
trying to capture, and he does a fine job of recreating the dreariness
and seemingly-random shots of inspiration that accompany any
long-term artistic act; it’s a movie about commitment more
than anything else. The problem is it doesn’t make for terribly
interesting film. A Skin, A Night lacks the inspired spontaneity of
the Take-Away Shows as well as the elegance of Boxer, leaving
the viewer waiting for a money shot that never appears.
As for the band themselves, the accompanying Virginia EP
is an interesting (if bloated) collection of live versions, B-sides
and demos from the Boxer sessions and tours. While the tracks
are individually strong, they lack the precision and cohesion
of Boxer; there is plenty of loose space here, particularly on an
overambitious version of “Slow Show” whose glorious failure
serves to justify the group’s tendency to continually revise; not
for nothing is the Boxer version of “Slow Show,” one of the best
tracks of last year. Virginia is worth at least one spin, though,
to hear the group’s take on Bruce Springsteen’s “Mansion on
the Hill” as well as “About Today,” a sprawling track that
finds Berninger abandoning his usually florid imagery and
allowing the band to fill in the details.
Both The National and Moon seem to understand the importance
of gritty work in the artistic process. Doubt, ambiguity, boredom, and
rejection haunt both A Skin, A Night and Virginia. But The National,
unlike their documentarian, are experts at finding the heart in the
details, never content with keeping their audience in the dredges of
nihilistic grindstoning. There is glory here. —Marty Garner
t would be both unfair and
incredibly foolish of me
to expect a group to return
after a decade of silence and
sound exactly like the band I
loved before, so it was with
reservations that I approached the return of Portishead. But,
once past the initial curve of their new sound, Third opens
into a masterful comeback. Never a warm band, Portishead
now sounds even more bloodless, a spare icy sound based on
fewer crackling record loops than before—instead brooding
guitar strums and stings coupled with less than organic but
not quite digital drum pops control the music. First single
“Machine Gun” was a sign of worry for some longtime fans;
an interesting and bold choice for a ten-year reappearance,
“Machine Gun” is perhaps the biggest departure from
Portishead’s classic style. Its spare, machine-like percussion
rat-a-tats in lockstep with Beth Gibbon’s sweeping voice is
a frigid and stripped style that’s as far removed as it can be
from the jazzy loops of older records while still retaining the
spirit of the band. And what a voice it is that leads these
songs. Still Portishead’s most valuable asset, Gibbons
sounds as remorseful, brooding and sweetly sad as ever on
Third. Her cold vocals carry the soul through tracks like “We
Carry On” and its muffled, marching band cacophony, and
in “The Rip,” with its bare acoustic guitar and fuzzy, analog
denouement. Look at the state of most early ‘90s electro
groups and you see a litany of missteps, water treading or
complete irrelevance—that Portishead were willing to drop
the trip-hop albatross (a label they never fully embraced
even though the group helped define it’s style), and craft a
record that held onto what made them interesting while still
sounding fresh is a testament to their strength. Few records
are as haunted with beauty and a skeletal, drowned sorrow
as Third, a fulfilling and entirely successful comeback for
Portishead and an easy candidate for album of the year.
—Mike Rodgers
NO AGE
NOUNS
(SUB POP)
N
o Age began their career
releasing EPs, all on
different labels, before Fat
Cat Records put the tracks
together and released them
last year as Weirdo Rippers, a
superb collection of washed out, psychedelic wanderings.
Sub Pop subsequently picked up the L.A. duo for their first
full-length offering, Nouns, which streamlines the group’s
previous explorations into a more concerted effort. This
new album is hardly a departure from the past—on the
contrary, fans of No Age’s first EPs who’re longing for
more maundering will be hard-pressed to find error; Nouns
brilliantly weds the melodic rock and fuzzed out, effectsdriven roamings of previous songs, whose sporadic cohesion
coalesce on the new record to give the duo a more complete
sound. It’s a sound that unfurls itself over the album as a
whole, slightly altering the hue of the vast sonic canvas with
each listen and found sound, resulting in a rewarding album
that could remain on repeat for weeks on end (damn, if I
could get this record out of the player). The opening line
of the third track, “Teen Creeps”—“Wash away what we
create”—may as well be the band’s moniker, with each
track successfully engulfing the former, giving the record an
organic feel previously championed by contemporaries like
Animal Collective and Deerhunter. The songs pass through
so many genres and sounds that it becomes futile trying to
pinpoint influences or even instruments, and herein lies the
appeal—simply sit back and enjoy the music as it washes
over you. This album is so strong and diverse throughout
that it is hard to identify which tracks are the real standouts.
Pop numbers like “Eraser,” “Sleeper Hold” and the brilliant
“Here Should Be My Home” are certainly candidates, while
the ambient adventures such as “Impossible Bouquet” and
“Keechie” succeed in their vastness as well. Favorites aside,
there is not a weak track to be found on Nouns, a record that
shows No Age capable of producing practically flawless,
hazed-out, humidity-drenched, abandon-rock, coming just
in time for our New Orleans brand of torridity in these
coming summer months. —Dan Mitchell
NINE INCH NAILS
GHOSTS I-IV
THE SLIP
(RED)
N
IN’s Ghosts I-IV and
The Slip are, together, a
project expansive in its scale,
sound and presentation.
The usually reclusive and
perfectionist Trent Reznor
has been busy as of late,
following up his last fulllength album in less than
a year with this surprise
release of four volumes
of
instrumentals.
Both
the unexpected nature of
Ghosts and its experimental
distribution model merit applause. The digital debut and
subsequent physical release should be the new model for
established acts in getting their music to the masses. Much
has been made about Reznor’s derogatory comments about
Radiohead’s In Rainbows” model, but he’s right. It was a
kind of bait-and-switch. From day one Ghosts was available
as a lossless digital download that also supplied a physical
copy for collectors. No leaked tracks, no record company
feet-dragging or price inflation, just new music available
MUSIC REVIEWS SPONSORED BY THE OFFICIAL RECORD STORE OF ANTIGRAVITY
22_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
REVIEWSMUSIC
at a tremendous value. Even more so is the subsequent
free release of The Slip, a full on NIN album. This kind of
immediate audience gratification should set the stage for
how established artists release work in the digital age. But,
beyond the release, how’s the music? Reznor’s traditionally
at his best when his considerable id and ego make nice
together, which these releases seem to separately embody.
Unlike Year Zero’s bleeping, squealing cacophony, Ghosts
I-IV is a mixed bag of improvisational pieces ranging
from plaintive to epic to menacing. It’s nigh impossible to
categorize the tone of the album—clocking in at just under
two hours, there’s plenty of room to roam from sound to
sound, but the music generally follows one of three paths:
gentle, dreamy melody, droning, fuzz breakdowns, or
odd, rhythmic jams. “3 Ghosts I” is all plastic percussion
chugging forward, powered by mechanical cracks and
distorted bass riffs, and “14 Ghosts II” sounds like broken
toy guitars strumming beside a muffled laptop speaker. “4
Ghosts I” owes more than a little to the heavy shoegaze
sound of My Bloody Valentine, while “23 Ghosts III”
is a doppelganger of the blues, a 12-bar break, ground
through as much distortion as a studio can offer, until
its beat sounds like the rasp of dead machines. With so
much playtime on plastic, Ghosts is all over the place, but
oddly its main flaw is repetition. The quieter moments
spliced between their more forceful cousins all tend to
blend together during marathon listens—if you’ve heard
six chiming piano melodies you’ve heard the next ten, and
while each one has its merits their similarity does lessen
their weight. While not perfect, Ghosts I-IV holds enough
musical creativity that its bloated mass doesn’t feel like
dead weight. Where Ghosts meanders, The Slip charges
ahead; the majority of its run time is devoted to rock
songs, vocals, choruses and a lot of aggressive, computer
manipulated guitar work. “Discipline” is as close to the
‘80s industrial dance rock of Pretty Hate Machine as NIN is
likely to return to, with its hooky buzzing synthesizers and
disco-fied beat. “Letting You” is Reznor-by-way-of-‘90s
hardcore dance, BPMs barreling out of control beneath a
wall of noise. The final half of the record does slow down,
though the understated piano of “Lights in the Sky” and
the studied beauty of “The Four of Us Are Dying” provide
a stopgap for the record’s momentum. The Slip is classic
Nine Inch Nails, and a refreshingly straightforward slice
of rock after Ghosts I-IV. —Mike Rodgers
FUCK BUTTONS
STREET HORRRSING
(ATP)
N
oise versus music—it’s
the question as old as
sound. What I call a song,
someone’s grandfather calls
sonic garbage. The question of
taste is always in the forefront,
and in the case of Fuck Buttons it’s truly the only question.
Beginning as a strictly noise-based band, their sound has
evolved into a mischievously hard to describe hybrid-grating
noise in the service of sweeping beauty and mood. In most
respects, Street Horrrsing is successful to my ears. Scraping
electronic sounds stutter along, backed by analog squeals
or swelling processed strings, all of it adding up to a sense
of rising tide in each track. Bit by bit the disparate scraps
coalesce into a droning squall of sweet sound. Repetition
does set in after a while, but it’s difficult to expect an album
based on drone and noisy haze to avoid that misstep. Even
with its faults, Street Horrrsing combines the harsh with the
jubilant in ways most music never even tries. Nowhere is this
more evident than on album opener “Sweet Love for Planet
Earth”—this charmed bit of sonic alchemy begins as subdued
chimes floating in a vacuum, only to have the dead space
filled with a machine-fed bass hum and eventually stuttering
throbs and witch-like howls. If none of that sounds pleasant,
then maybe Fuck Buttons isn’t your cup of tea, but for those
inclined towards sounds that are sometimes challenging,
Street Horrrsing is a dream. —Mike Rodgers
FERNANDO
BRAXTON AND THE
EARTHMOVERS
GRAVY
SAID AND DONE
(BLUE-EYED DOG)
SELF-TITLED
(INDEPENDENT)
A
s anyone who pays
any attention to the
little name attached to my
ANTIGRAVITY
reviews
knows, this style of music is out of my normal range. The
closest I usually get to the blues is Clutch, and my version
of New Orleans music is Down, but if there’s one thing
anyone can recognize it’s energy. If nothing else were true,
the inescapable fact is that Fernando Braxton and The
Earthmovers have that musical energy, the power to jam a
groove into your ears as easily as they lay down soul. From
the opening bars of the bluesy “Closest Star,” the band
sounds larger than its three pieces might seem, with the
riff-crunching off the spine of the backbeat while Braxton’s
soulful voice glides over the music until the spacey climax
brings down the proceedings. The smooth rhythm and
blues of “Break 6” glides like silk and the mellowed riffing
of “Echoes” calls to mind Ben Harper at his more somber
moments. Live, the playful “Pinky Ring” is even more of a
mover, but even on CD its wah-wah scratching, thick bass
lines and jazzy fills lead to foot stomping, especially in its
ever-so-funky breakdown. That a band so recently assembled
can mesh so perfectly is a testament to their individual
musicianship and the conviction behind their sound. The
New Orleans music scene is clogged to the gills with bluesy
acts and it takes a spark to set one apart from the next. Sure,
it’s not a great musical leap or a reinvention of the wheel, but
with their jumping live performances and the promise shown
in the grooves of their debut EP, Fernando Braxton and The
Earthmovers seems poised to make a mark on the NOLA
landscape. —Mike Rodgers
BORIS
SMILE
(SOUTHERN LORD)
L
et me begin this by saying
that Boris is one of my
favorite bands. From low
end-heavy drone rumbling
to shoegaze psychedelia to
pure rock bliss, no one band
combines these elements as well as Boris does. Unfortunately,
while their new record Smile does combine all of these
elements into one rock collage, and though there are many
highpoints, the schizophrenic nature of the record keeps it
from orgiastic perfection. Rejecting the “cool rock” pose
of their last full-length, Pink, Boris has returned to a more
experimental mindset, setting their heavier moments against
some strange bedfellows. Sometimes this juxtaposition
works, as there are moments of rock perfection that warrant
a perfect score on their own—both “Buzz In” and single
“Statement” are as straightforward as high tempo sludge
rock gets, complete with howling guitars, cowbell and an
overall audio assault that borders on deafening when played
at reasonable volumes. The record’s crown jewel is the
complete oddball “My Neighbor Satan.” Best described as
a plaintive ballad sung over the severely down-mixed buzz
of a screaming rock track, the song erupts into a tsunami of
psych-rock, squealing guitars and howling Marshall Stacks.
It’s this dichotomy that works so well that holds Smile back
from a higher score. The final half of the record meanders
through extended freak-outs, (“Ka Re Ha Te Ta Sa Ki—
No Ones Grieve”) ‘60s acid jams (“You Were Holding an
Umbrella”) and the fifteen-minute excess of its closing drone
track. While each of these pieces make for exciting music on
their own terms, their jumbled placement on Smile disrupts
the flow of what could have been a heavy rock masterpiece.
—Mike Rodgers
I
nfused with rock riffs
and a funky bend of the
wah-pedal, Gravy can easily
be considered both a rock
band and funk band. Since
the quartet formed in 2003,
they’ve grown bigger and bigger along the Gulf Coast by
entertaining at bars and clubs. With an eponymous EP in
2005, the band continued to get people dancing with their
originals and covers, but on their new album, Said And Done,
they blend and cross funk and rock genres while perfectly
harmonizing every instrument together, creating the “funkinfused progressive rock” they call their music. Ian Stahl’s
organ and keyboard sets up Steve Kelly’s bustling guitar solos
throughout, creating a distinct up-beat pace that is delightfully
broken by “Walk on By,” with an almost Blue Eyed Soul feel
that will surely slow you and your dance partner down. The
pace is immediately picked back up with Mark Lighthiser’s
jazzy drums and Marcus Burrell’s digressing bass intro of
“Cool With That,” which couldn’t help but progress into a
funky guitar phrase with complimenting organ chords and
capped off with the entire band chanting the lyrics, “I’m cool
with that.” The album finishes with the title track, a song
ending with a three-minute instrumental buildup to Steve
Kelley’s lyrics about being, and also sending the listener, on
his merry way. —Christopher Woods
THE DRESDEN
DOLLS
NO, VIRGINIA
(ROADRUNNER)
T
he
Dresden
Dolls,
made up of Amanda
Palmer on piano and
vocals with Brian Viglione
on the drums, are leaders
in a kitsch genre they call “punk cabaret”—imagine
Black Flag with Liza Minelli singing as they played
a 1930s-era German cabaret. After two records (their
2004 self-titled album, which was pure, Brechtian
punk cabaret, and 2006’s Yes, Virginia, their tight,
polished and commercially playable release), if you’ve
wondered how they got from points A to B, then pick
up the auxiliary No, Virginia, because it’s a map. The
compilation is a patchwork of songs collected from
studio sessions over the past few years, and while with
some songs it’s obvious why they didn’t make Yes,
Virgina’s cut, others are wonderful, dark gems. “Dear
Jenny” barely gives the listener time to breathe before it
launches into Palmer’s cynical, sexual lyrics and hard,
piano driven rock, with Brian on the drums rat-a-tattating away. The follow-up, the more polished “Night
Reconnaissance,” is a catchier song about adolescence.
Other gems include “Sheep Song,” an eerie track whose
beginning sounds like a gothic child’s lullaby (toy piano
included) with bursts of angry intensity, and “The
Kill,” which is reminiscent of the Dolls’ early work.
However, No, Virginia is tempered with songs like “The
Mouse and the Model” and “Gardner,” which are by no
means bad but break away from the Dolls’ traditional
sound with distorted guitars and bass that exhibit a midnineties, riot grrrl feel. In the middle is a bubblegummy
cover of “Pretty in Pink,” which isn’t different enough
to thoroughly confuse any Psychedelic Furs fans. The
album’s winner is “Lonesome Organist Rapes Pageturner,” a fast-paced song that showcases Palmer’s
darkly entertaining lyrics, eccentric piano playing and
Viglione’s energetic, part punk, part jazz drumming.
While No, Virginia won’t be The Dolls’ most notable
release, it’s still a charming listen put forth by one of
America’s unique bands. —Caroline DeBruhl
23
antigravitymagazine.com_
EVENT LISTINGS
NEW ORLEANS VENUES
NEW ORLEANS (Cont.)
45 Tchoup, 4529 Tchoupitoulas (504) 891-9066
Neutral Ground Coffee House, 5110 Danneel St.,
(504) 891-3381, www.neutralground.org
Barrister’s Art Gallery, 2331 St. Claude Ave.
The Big Top, 1638 Clio St., (504) 569-2700,
www.3ringcircusproductions.com
Nowe Miasto, 223 Jane Pl., (504) 821-6721
The Blue Nile, 534 Frenchmen St., (504) 948-2583
One Eyed Jacks, 615 Toulouse St., (504) 5698361, www.oneeyedjacks.net
Broadmoor House, 4127 Walmsley, (504) 8212434
Cafe Brasil, 2100 Chartres St., (504) 947-9386
Carrollton Station, 8140 Willow St., (504) 8659190, www.carrolltonstation.com
Checkpoint Charlie’s, 501 Esplanade Ave.,
(504) 947-0979
Chickie Wah Wah, 2828 Canal Street (504)
304-4714, www.chickiewahwah.com
Circle Bar, 1032 St. Charles Ave., (504) 5882616, www.circlebar.net
Club 300, 300 Decatur Street, www.
neworleansjazzbistro.com
Coach’s Haus, 616 N. Solomon
Ogden Museum, 925 Camp St., (504) 539-9600
Outer Banks, 2401 Palmyra (at S. Tonti),
(504) 628-5976, www.myspace.com/
outerbanksmidcity
Republic, 828 S. Peters St., (504) 528-8282,
www.republicnola.com
Southport Hall, 200 Monticello Ave., (504) 8352903, www.newsouthport.com
WEDNESDAY 6/4
d.b.a., 618 Frenchmen St., (504) 942-373, www.
drinkgoodstuff.com/no
St. Roch Taverne, 1200 St. Roch Ave., (504)
945-0194
Der Rathskeller (Tulane’s Campus), McAlister
Dr., http://wtul.fm
Tarantula Arms, 209 Decatur Street (504) 5255525, www.myspace.com/tarantulaarms
Dragon’s Den, 435 Esplanade Ave., http://
myspace.com/dragonsdennola
Tipitina’s, (Uptown) 501 Napoleon Ave., (504)
895-8477 (Downtown) 233 N. Peters, www.
tipitinas.com
Fair Grinds Coffee House, 3133 Ponce de
Leon, (504) 913-9072, www.fairgrinds.com
Fuel Coffee House, 4807 Magazine St. (504)
895-5757
Goldmine Saloon, 701 Dauphine St., (504) 5860745, www.goldminesaloon.net
The Green Space, 2831 Marais Street (504) 9450240, www.thegreenproject.org
The Zeitgeist, 2940 Canal St., (504) 827-5858,
www.zeitgeistinc.net
METAIRIE VENUES
Airline Lion’s Home, 3110 Division St.
Badabing’s, 3515 Hessmer, (504) 454-1120
The Bar, 3224 Edenborn
Hammerhead’s, 1300 N Causeway Blvd, (504)
834-6474
Handsome Willy’s, 218 S. Robertson St., (504)
525-0377, http://handsomewillys.com
The High Ground, 3612 Hessmer
Ave., Metairie, (504) 525-0377, www.
thehighgroundvenue.com
Hi-Ho Lounge, 2239 St. Claude Ave. (504) 9454446, www.myspace.com/hiholounge
Keystone’s Lounge, 3408 28th Street, www.
myspace.com/keystoneslounge
Hot Iron Press Plant, 1420 Kentucky Ave.,
[email protected]
Stitches, 3941 Houma Blvd., www.myspace.
com/stitchesbar
House Of Blues / The Parish, 225 Decatur,
(504)310-4999, www.hob.com/neworleans
BATON ROUGE VENUES
The Howlin’ Wolf, 907 S. Peters, (504) 522WOLF, www.thehowlinwolf.com
The Caterie, 3617 Perkins Rd., www.thecaterie.com
Kajun’s Pub, 2256 St. Claude Avenue (504) 9473735, www.myspace.com/kajunspub
Kim’s 940, 940 Elysian Fields, (504) 844-4888
The Kingpin, 1307 Lyons St., (504) 891-2373
Le Bon Temps Roule, 4801 Magazine St., (504)
895-8117
Le Chat Noir, 715 St. Charles Ave., (504) 5815812, www.cabaretlechatnoir.com
Lyceum Central, 618 City Park Ave., (410) 5234182, http://lyceumproject.com
Lyon’s Club, 2920 Arlington St.
Mama’s Blues, 616 N. Rampart St., (504) 453-9290
TUESDAY 6/3
Side Arm Gallery, 1122 St. Roch Ave., (504)
218-8379, www.sidearmgallery.org
Saturn Bar, 3067 St. Claude Ave., www.
myspace.com/saturnbar
The Spellcaster Lodge, 3052 St. Claude
Avenue, www.quintonandmisspussycat.com/
tourdates.html
Ernie K-Doe’s Mother-in-Law Lounge, 1500
N. Claiborne Ave.
Andrew Duhon, Circle Bar
ATM, Know One, Swell, Private Pile,
Dragon’s Den (Downstairs), 10pm
Augustana, Paddy Casey, Wild Street Orange,
The Parish @ House Of Blues
Blue Grass & Red Beans, Hi-Ho Lounge, 8pm
Ben Steadman, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 8pm
Mad Mike, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 10pm
Chris Scheurich, Circle Bar
Felix, My Graveyard Jaw, Dragon’s Den
(Upstairs), 10pm
Johnny Vidacovich, d.b.a., 10pm
OneRepublic plus Matt Wertz also plus Dave
Barns, House of Blues, 6pm, $25
The Pets, Hi-Ho Lounge, 10pm
Rusty Nail, 1100 Constance Street (504) 5255515, www.therustynail.org/
The Country Club, 634 Louisa St., (504) 9450742, www.countryclubneworleans.com
Eldon’s House, 3055 Royal Street,
[email protected]
MONDAY 6/2
The Broken Letters, Black Belt, Circle Bar
Sweetness, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 8pm
Swervedriver, Terra Diablo, One Eyed Jacks, 9pm
Kenny Holladay, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 10pm
Walter Wolfman Washington, d.b.a., 10pm, $5
FRIDAY 6/6
The Darkroom, 10450 Florida Blvd., (225) 2741111, www.darkroombatonrouge.com
North Gate Tavern, 136 W. Chimes St.
(225)346-6784, www.northgatetavern.com
Red Star Bar, 222 Laurel St., (225) 346-8454,
www.redstarbar.com
Maple Leaf, 8316 Oak St., (504) 866-9359
Rotolos, 1125 Bob Pettit Blvd. (225) 761-1999,
www.myspace.com/rotolosallages
Marlene’s Place, 3715 Tchoupitoulas, (504)
897-3415, www.myspace.com/marlenesplace
The Spanish Moon, 1109 Highland Rd., (225)
383-MOON, www.thespanishmoon.com
McKeown’s Books, 4737 Tchoupitoulas, (504)
895-1954, http://mckeownsbooks.net
The Varsity, 3353 Highland Rd., (225)383-7018,
www.varsitytheatre.com
Melvin’s, 2112 St. Claude Ave.
MVC, 9800 Westbank Expressway, (504) 2342331, www.themvc.net
24_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
SATURDAY 6/7
Attic Ted, Ratty Scurvics Singularity, Hi-Ho
Lounge, 10pm
Benefit for OneLovEvolution, Dragon’s Den
(Upstairs), 10pm
Delta Spirit, Matt Costa, The Weather
Underground, The Parish @House Of Blues,
8pm, $16.50
The Dimestore Troubadours, Circle Bar
Flow Tribe f/ MynameisJohnMichael,
Tipitina’s, 10pm, $10
Old Crow Medicine Show, House of Blues, 8pm, $20
Robert Walter Trio, d.b.a., 11pm, $5
Dragonfly’s, 124 West Chimes
Junkyard House, 3299 Ivanhoe St.
A Living Soundtrack, Chef Menteur, John
Cohrs, Rat Bastard, Douglas Fairbanks,
Dragon’s Den (Upstairs), 10pm
Centerpunch, Edge Set Mary, The Bar, 9pm
Defend New Orleans Presents: Action Action
ReAction Indie Dance Party, Circle Bar
DJ Brice Nice Presents: Soul Movement,
Dragon’s Den (Downstairs), 8:30pm
Standby Red 5, Dragon’s Den (Downstairs), 10pm
Gravity A, Zoogma, Hi-Ho Lounge, 10pm
Grayson Capps, d.b.a., 10pm, $5
Jak Locke & Lazarus Project, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 8pm
THURSDAY 6/5
Chelsea’s Café, 2857 Perkins Rd., (225) 3873679, www.chelseascafe.com
Government St., 3864 Government St., www.
myspace.com/rcpzine
has just enough pop to draw in different
types of people and rocks hard enough to
keep everyone engrossed for the entire set.
But, make no mistake; he isn’t a pop-punk
wonder. He plays really good, old fashion,
rock and roll, filled with riffs and hooks in
all their glory. His songs are glorious little
gems that will keep you humming for days
to follow, so don’t miss the former One Eyed
Jacks soundman on a rare return to New
Orleans. —Caroline DeBruhl
Settly, Sunday Afternoon, The Public, Luca,
One Eyed Jacks, 10pm; settly.com. Settly has
been all over the music business. He’s been
in bands like Raw Youth, Multiple Places
and ZOOM. He was the house recording
engineer at NYC’s Tin Pan Alley Studio
(where he worked on the Beastie Boy’s Ill
Communications He also recorded and coCommunications).
produced Railroad Jerk’s One Track Mind
and The Third Rail. All that considered, the
most notable thing about Settly may be his
solo music. When I say he went solo, I mean
he went solo—
solo—he mixed, recorded, produced,
wrote the lyrics and music to all the songs, all
on his own. Now that’s independent music!
However, as he can’t play every instrument
by himself live, his backup band is either his
old buddies ZOOM or The Disappointments.
While Settly kicks ass on the record, his
live shows are where it’s at—his music
Lil’ Doogie Meet-And-Greet, Color Bar Salon
(2039 Magazine St.), 8pm, FREE; lildoogie.
com. From a string of laugh-inducing, reallife videos (like meeting Endymion parade
goers and talking to local ABC affiliate
Channel 26, taking his first trip to the East
Bank and throwing television antennas
around the room after arguing with his
roommate) to a Dirty Coast t-shirt featuring
his likeness to the release of the fledgling
rapper’s first EP and his appearance on this
magazine’s cover (April ’08), Lil’ Doogie
has confounded online philosophers with
the only question worth asking: “Brah, I’m
real?” Philosophize further at Color Bar
Salon, where Doogie celebrates the release
of Thoughts From My Mind and his first
music video, for Thoughts track “Lil’ One.”
You’ll have a chance to make a film with
Doogie (not of the porno kind, unless that’s
what you’re into) and take photos like you
did at your Senior Prom. —
—Leo McGovern
Bonerama, Tipitina’s (Uptown)
The Blessed, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 10pm
Blower Motor, Sick of Silence, Black Snow,
Hi-Ho Lounge, 10pm
The Carrots, King Louie One Man Band, The
Microshards, Circle Bar
Corey Smith, House Of Blues
Demuredin, Invoke the Nightmare, Grayskull,
Blackwater Burial, Howlin’ Wolf
Little Freddie King, d.b.a., 11pm, $5
Quadrolithic, Checkpoint Charlie, 11pm
Rosie Ledet, One Eyed Jacks
Ross Hallen and the Hellbenders, Checkpoint
Charlie’s, 7pm
Superhero Party, Dragon’s Den (Upstairs), 10pm
EVENT LISTINGS
SUNDAY 6/8
SATURDAY 6/14
Datarock, Ladytron, House Of Blues
The Fens, Circle Bar
Linnzi Zaorski, d.b.a., 6pm
New Bloods, Rougarou, Hi-Ho Lounge, 10pm
Poi Dog Pondering, The Parish @ House Of
Blues
Andrew Duhon and Robin Kinchen, The
Parish @ House of Blues, 9pm, $10
Black Snow, Jak Locke, Tarantula Arms, 9pm
Bustout Burlesque, House of Blues, 7pm; 9:30pm,
$20
Bustout Burlesque Afterparty, Tarantula Arms,
12am
Cheater Pipe, Snake Oiler, Dead End Lake,
Checkpoint Charlie’s, 8pm
Damon Fowler Group, House Of Blues
Free Jazz, Brah, Dragon’s Den (Upstairs), 10pm
Good Guys CD Release Party w/ Mike
Dillon plus Metronome The City, One Eyed
Jacks, 9pm
John Boutte, d.b.a., 7pm
Lux, Taco Cat, Forever Is Now, Circle Bar
Marisol, Best Left Unsaid, Howlin’ Wolf
One Man Machine, Dragon’s Den (Downstairs),
10pm
Otra, d.b.a., 11pm, $5
Seguenon Kone From The Ivory Coast, Hi-Ho
Lounge, 10pm
Sinkhole, The Bar, 9pm
MONDAY 6/9
Animal Hospital, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 9pm
Blue Grass Pickin’ Party, Hi-Ho Lounge, 8pm
Jealous Monk, Dragon’s Den (Upstairs), 10pm
Microphone Co-Rivalry, Dragon’s Den
(Downstairs), 10pm
Rick Trolsen & Gringo do Choro, d.b.a.,
10pm
Wazozo, Circle Bar
TUESDAY 6/10
Doomsday Device, Dragon’s Den (Downstairs),
10pm
The Self-Help Tapes, Circle Bar
Anthony Hamilton, House of Blues, 7pm,
$38.50
WEDNESDAY 6/11
Brass Bed, Circle Bar
Carolyn Wonderland, Maple Leaf
I Am Israel, Further Reasoning; Pianos
Become Teeth, Hi-Ho Lounge, 10pm
Sex Slaves w/ Rik Slave and The Phantoms,
One Eyed Jacks, 9pm
Walter Wolfman Washington, d.b.a., 10pm,
$5
Zappa Plays Zappa, House Of Blues
SUNDAY 6/15
The Fens, Circle Bar
Quintron Presents: Melted Men
Georgia, Hi-Ho Lounge, 10pm
Dominic, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 7pm
Linnzi Zaorski, d.b.a., 6pm
From
MONDAY 6/16
THURSDAY 6/12
Dead Legends, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 10pm
Eric Hutchinson, Justin Nozuka, Marie
Digby, The Parish @ House Of Blues
The Fens, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 7pm
Glen David Andrews & The Lazy Six, d.b.a.,
11pm, $5
I Kill Cars, The Koreans, Circle Bar
Mario Abney Trio, Dragon’s Den (Upstairs),
10pm
Natasha Bedingfield, The Veronicas, Kate
Voegele, House of Blues, 7pm, $25
FRIDAY 6/13
Brotherhood of Groove, Dragon’s Den
(Upstairs), 7pm
Cedric Burnside, Juke Joint Duo, Lightnin’
Malcolm, d.b.a., 10pm, $5
Damon Fowler Group, House Of Blues
DJ 4renZic, Alex Kidd, Ryoga, Accomplice,
AML, Howlin’ Wolf
Dominic, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 7pm
Extra Golden plus The Hot 8 Brass Band, One
Eyed Jacks, 9 pm
Felix, Circle Bar
Firewater, The Parish @ House Of Blues
Gov’t Majik, Hi-Ho Lounge, 10pm
Groundation, House of Blues, 8pm
Ingrid Lucia, d.b.a., 6pm
Jealous Monk, Dragon’s Den (Downstairs),
10pm, $5
Menagerie, Floodstage, Targeting Aorta, The
Bar, 9pm
Rising Sun, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 10:30pm
Vision Winged Party Cult, Checkpoint Charlie’s,
9pm
Wativ’s Baghdad Music Journal, Dragon’s
Den (Upstairs), 10pm
Mudhoney, Birds of Avalon, One Eyed Jacks,
10pm, $18; myspace.com/mudhoney. Any
elitist worth his/her flannel will most likely
have something to say about pioneer grunge
band Mudhoney’s new album, The Lucky
Ones. These Seattle natives were the ones
that Kurt Cobain cited as an inspiration
but then they totally, like, sold out in 1992
when they went to Reprise Records. They
went back to Sub Pop in 2002 but released
Since We’ve Become Translucent, which
was so commercial and had nowhere near
the raw power of Every Good Boy Deserves
Fudge. Under A Billion Suns came out four
years later and had a more progressive rock
sound. Some critics applaud Mudhoney for
growing, others say the band has simply
sold out and is washed up. Whatever their
opinions are of Mudhoney’s recorded
music, skeptic and elitist alike are still
itching for the show. What would it be like?
Will they stick to their new, prog rock-style
stuff? Will they play “Touch Me, I’m Sick?”
Whether you’re praying for disappointment
so you could tell everybody that you called
it or secretly hoping the show will make you
feel like you’re sixteen again, this show is
worth checking out because, you know, it’s,
like, Mudhoney! —Caroline DeBruhl
DeBruhl; Photo by
Shawn Brackbill, courtesy subpop.com.
Amanda Walker, Dragon’s Den (Downstairs),
10pm
Ben Steadman, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 7pm
25
antigravitymagazine.com_
EVENT LISTINGS
Blue Grass Pickin’ Party, Hi-Ho Lounge, 8pm
Mad Mike, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 10pm
Magnetic Ear, d.b.a., 10pm
TUESDAY 6/17
Downtown Brown w/ Secret Special Guests,
Dragon’s Den (Upstairs), 10pm
Grisley, Dragon’s Den (Downstairs), 10pm
Johnny Vidacovich, d.b.a., 10pm
Rehab, The Parish @ House of Blues, 8pm, $1012.50
Schatzy, Circle Bar
Morning 40 Federation 10th Anniversary
Celebration w/ special guests, One Eyed Jacks,
9pm
The Pallbearers, The Dusk Rapist, The Bar,
9pm
The Public, Tarantula Arms, 10pm
Retard-O-Bot, High Ground
Shadow Gallery, Dragon’s Den (Upstairs),
10pm
Slewfoot Blues Band, Checkpoint Charlie’s,
11pm
SATURDAY 6/21
WEDNESDAY 6/18
Roosevelt Noise, Circle Bar
Shinedown, 12 Stones, Rev Theory, House of
Blues, 6:30pm, $23.50
Walter Wolfman Washington, d.b.a., 10pm,
$5
THURSDAY 6/19
The Roots, House of Blues; theroots.com. In the
fifteen years The Roots have been around,
they’ve been Grammy winners for the past
nine, and they were critical darlings in the
‘90s for their merging of jazz influences
with funk beats and their creativity (Illadelph
Halflife was completely sample free). The
Roots have also been known to bring out the
best in their guest performers—“You Got
Me” featuring Erykah Badu and Eve won
a Grammy and hip-hop deity Jay-Z jumps
into their live shows whenever he gets the
chance. While they have lost some of their
critical steam with their last few albums, it
hasn’t stopped them from kicking ass on a
massive tour. In fact, what the Roots are
most noted for is their performing ability.
Whether it’s ?uestlove’s drumming or
Black Thought’s precise lyrics and persona
(which is refreshingly hubris-free), there is
something about a Roots show that reminds
people of how much they love them. —
Caroline DeBruhl
Damn Hippies, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 9pm
Dimestore Troubadours, My Graveyard Jaw,
Hi-Ho Lounge, 10pm
Dough Stackin’ Up All-Stars, Dragon’s Den
(Upstairs), 10pm
The Fens, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 10:30pm
Loren Murrell, Circle Bar
Reckless Kelly, Tipitina’s (Uptown)
FRIDAY 6/20
Amanda Walker, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 7pm
Black Rose Band, Circle Bar
Cohen & The Ghost, Les Poisson Rouges,
Dragon’s Den (Downstairs), 10pm
Felix, Steve Eck, Half A Million Strangers,
Hi-Ho Lounge, 10pm
Hot Club of New Orleans, d.b.a., 6pm
26_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
Zydepunks, d.b.a., 10pm, $5; zydepunks.
com. The Zydepunks are blowing up. With
a positive mention is USA Today, glowing
reviews coming from across the sea, and
a growing gypsy-punk scene nestling into
major American cities, it’s easy to believe
that this multi genre, multilingual band will
become the next big thing in the alternative
scene. Already the darlings of underground
and foreign press, The Zydepunks have
gained much deserved notice within the past
year due to their album Exile Waltz and their
intense and stellar live performances during
their American and European tours. Unlike
other well-reviewed underground bands,
The Zydepunks seem to have the potential
to move beyond the kitschy, college-radiobased scene and into something more
memorable and lasting. (Suck it, Vampire
Weekend.) With a diverse fan base that spans
from the gutter punks of Washington square
to twenty-something hipsters who dig Slavic
sounds to the middle aged locals and natives
who know a good Cajun waltz when they
hear it, The Zydepunks are genre, gender,
and generation-defying. Catch them in their
homeland before they ship out on tour this
summer and perhaps leave us for good. —
Caroline DeBruhl
ANTIGRAVITY’s 4-Year Anniversary
Party, Handsome Willy’s, 7pm
Captain Charles’ White Linen Party, Howlin’
Wolf
Chris Rico, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 11pm
DJ Whizard, Dragon’s Den (Upstairs), 10pm
Gal Holiday & the Honky Tonk Revue, Circle Bar
John Boutte, d.b.a., 7pm
Rebirth Brass Band, Tipitina’s, 10pm, $10
Ross Hallen and The Hellbenders, Checkpoint
Charlie’s, 7pm
Southdown, Echofall, The Bar, 9pm
Stephie & The Whitesox, Old, Hi-Ho Lounge, 10pm
Tommy Emmanuel, House Of Blues, 7pm, $25
SUNDAY 6/22
Birds and Batteries, Circle Bar
Johnny Vidocovich; Larry Sieberth, Tim
Green, Hi-Ho Lounge, 10pm
MONDAY 6/23
Blue Grass Pickin Party, Hi-Ho Lounge, 8pm
Earl Can Bird, Circle Bar
Washboard Chaz Blues Trio, d.b.a., 10pm
EVENT LISTINGS
TUESDAY 6/24
Carrie Underwood, Jason Michael Carroll,
Lakefront Arena
Great White Jenkins, Dragon’s Den (Upstairs),
10pm
Joe Krown Organ Combo, d.b.a., 10pm
WEDNESDAY 6/25
The Geraniums, Circle Bar
Walter Wolfman Washington, d.b.a., 10pm,
$5
THURSDAY 6/26
Ben Steadman, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 7pm
Country Fried, Circle Bar
The Fens, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 10:30pm
Happy Talk Band, d.b.a., 11pm, $5
Peace of Mind Orchestra, The Blue Hit,
Dragon’s Den (Upstairs), 10pm
Sasquatch & The Sick A Billies, Clockwork
Elvis, Reverend Spooky LeStrange & Her
Billion Dollar Baby Dolls, Goddam Gallows,
Hi-Ho Lounge, 10pm
FRIDAY 6/27
Sisera, The Bar, 9pm
Silent Cinema, Good Guys, Circle Bar
Soul Rebels, Dragon’s Den (Upstairs), 10pm
SATURDAY 6/28
Black Snow, Endoras Mask, Innermost,
Checkpoint Charlie’s, 8pm
The Chee Weez, House of Blues, 8pm, $13
Dax Riggs, One Eyed Jacks
Elke Robitaille, Melissa On The Rocks,
Dragon’s Den (Downstairs), 10pm
Juice, d.b.a., 11pm, $5
Kommunity FK, Ex-Voto, The Public, Hi-Ho
Lounge, 10pm
Machine Made Slave, The Bar, 9pm
The Places, Lady Baby Miss, Dragon’s Den
(Upstairs), 10pm
Truth Universal, Dragon’s Den (Downstairs),
7:30pm
Johnny Vidacovich, Robert Walter, Tipitina’s,
10pm, $10
SUNDAY 6/29
Derrick Freeman, d.b.a., 10pm
Dominic, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 8pm
The Fens, Circle Bar
Linnzi Zaorski, d.b.a., 6pm
Locksley, Rooney, Teddy Geiger, The
Bridges, House Of Blues
London After Midnight, Howlin’ Wolf
True Vibes Entertainment Presents A
Night of Poetry and Hip-Hop, Dragon’s Den
(Downstairs), 10pm
MONDAY 6/30
A Living Soundtrack, Black Belt, Meadow
Flow, Dragon’s Den (Downstairs), 9pm, $5;
myspace.com/alivingsoundtrack. A Living
Soundtrack live show is a little unearthly,
an experience unto itself. The band, fairly
new to the scene, has just a handful of live
shows and one EP under its belt but, boy,
are they something else. There’s something
hypnotic about their music that draws
people in, regardless of their music taste.
The otherworldly sound is partially created
though the layering of different sounds on
top of each other. But A Living Soundtrack
is much more then the sum of its parts.
Their music sounds like the score to a
trippy, European sci-fi film but rocks hard
enough to exile kitsch while luring people
in like some ethereal call to prayer. Some of
their songs are darker with a dystopian feel.
Then, they pull a one-eighty and juxtapose
the 2001: A Space Odyssey atmosphere with
disorientating light airy sounds, electronic
beats and eerie vocal loops. Be careful when
you see A Living Soundtrack live—you can
get completely lost in the sound. —Caroline
DeBruhl
American Disaster Party, Hi-Ho Lounge, 10pm
Blessed be the Wretched, Checkpoint Charlie’s,
8pm
Frightened Rabbit, Oxford Collapse, One Eyed
Jacks
Ingrid Lucia, d.b.a., 6pm
Penny Dreadful, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 11pm
Rabadash Records presents Big Daddy O,
Waylon Thibodeaux, Jeff Spence, John
Autin, Howlin’ Wolf
Roddie Romero and The Hub City All-Stars,
d.b.a., 10pm, $10
Blue Grass Pickin’ Party, Hi-Ho Lounge, 8pm
The Brothers Unconnected: A Tribute to Sun
City Girls and Charles Gocher, One Eyed
Jacks, 9pm
Johnny Woodstock & The Cosmic Oasis,
Dragon’s Den (Downstairs), 10pm
Miss Tess and The Bon Temps Parade, Circle
Bar
St. Louis Slim, d.b.a., 10pm
Tom Jones, House of Blues, 7pm, $60
DANCE NIGHTS/WEEKLIES
Note: One-off parties have been moved into the
general music listings.
MONDAYS
Beans and Blue Grass, Hi-Ho Lounge, 8pm
Dick Darby’s Import Night, Dragon’s Den
(Upstairs), 10pm
Musicians’ Open Mic, Tarantula Arms, 9pm
Open Turntables w/ DJ Proppa Bear, Dragon’s
Den (Downstairs), 10pm
Service Industry Night, Dragon’s Den
TUESDAYS
Acoustic Open Mic w/ Jim Smith, Checkpoint
Charlie’s, 10pm
Funk n a Movie, Tarantula Arms, 10pm
Ivan’s Open Mic, Rusty Nail, 8pm
WEDNESDAYS
DJ T-Roy Presents: Dancehall Classics,
Dragon’s Den, $5
Kenny Holiday and the Rolling Blackouts,
Checkpoint Charlie’s, 9pm
Tequila Wednesday w/ Mike Darby,
Tarantula Arms, 10pm
27
antigravitymagazine.com_
EVENT LISTINGS
THURSDAYS
THURSDAY 6/19
The Bombshelter w/ DJ Bomshell Boogie,
Dragon’s Den (Upstairs)
DJ Kemistry, Republic, 11pm
DJ Proppa Bear Presents: Bassbin Safari,
Dragon’s Den (Downstairs)
Fast Times ‘80s Dance Night, One Eyed Jacks
Punk Night, Tarantula Arms 10pm
Velcro Indie Dance Party, Spanish Moon
FRIDAYS
Electro-City w/ DJ Izzy Ezzo, Tarantula
Arms, 1am
Friday Night Music Camp, The Big Top, 5pm
N.O.madic Belly Dancers, Dragon’s Den
(Upstairs), 9pm
Soul Movement w/ Brice Nice, Dragon’s Den
(Downstairs), 10pm
Throwback, Republic, 11pm
Tipitina’s Foundation Free Friday!, Tipitina’s,
10pm, 6/6: Paul Sanchez & The Rolling Road
Band, 6/13: The New Orleans Bingo! Show,
6/20: Walter “Wolfman” Washington and The
Roadmasters, 6/27: Good Enough for Good Times
f/ Rob Mercurio, Jeff Raines, Brian Coogan, and
Simon Lott
SATURDAYS
DJ Damion Yancy, Republic, 11pm
DJ Rock-A-Dread, Tarantula Arms, 11:45pm
SUNDAYS
Cajun Fais Do Do f/ Bruce Danigerpoint,
Tipitina’s, 5:30pm, $7
DJ Lingerie, Circle Bar
The Other Planets, Dragon’s Den (Upstairs)
Reggae Sunday w/ DJ Real, Tarantula Arms
Music Workshop Series, Tipitina’s, 12:30pm,
6/8: Jo “cool” Davis, 6/15: Sequenon Kone,
6/22: TBA, 6/29: TBA
COMEDY
THEATRE/SPOKEN WORD
THURSDAY 6/12
WEDNESDAY 6/25
Young Comedians of N.O. II, Hi-Ho Lounge, 9pm
A staged reading of “Money in the Garter,” a
play by Sally Asher, One Eyed Jacks, 7pm
SUNDAY 6/29
Comedy Night, Hi-Ho Lounge, 10pm
TUESDAYS
Open Mic Comedy Night, Howlin’ Wolf, 7pm, $5
THURSDAYS
Make Ovis, Not War, La Nuit Theater, 9:30pm, $5
FRIDAYS
God’s Been Drinking: Cutting Edge Improv,
La Nuit Theatre, 8:30pm, $10
Open Mic Stand-Up, La Nuit Theatre, 10pm, $5
SATURDAYS
ComedySportz: All-Ages Comedy Show, La
Nuit Theatre, 7pm, $10
Improv Jam, La Nuit Theatre, 10pm, $5
FILM SCREENINGS
28_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
An Evening Of Soul On Film, The Big Top,
7pm; myspace.com/djsoulsis. DJ Soul Sister
screens two of her favorite documentaries
in “An Evening of Soul on Film” to raise
money for The New Orleans Women’s
Health Clinic. The first documentary is
Wattstax, directed by Mel Stewart. Wattstax,
sponsored by southern soul record company
Stax, has long been known as the “Black
Woodstock,” and in 1972 they the “blackis-beautiful” outlook of African-American
culture was captured. This film features
such greats as Isaac Hayes, Rufus and
Carla Thomas, and even acts by Richard
Prior. To celebrate the 14th anniversary
of Ghana’s independence, the second film
of this series, Soul to Soul, brings pop stars
from all around the United States to Africa
to play a fourteen-hour concert, where
over 100,000 Ghanaians attended. Carlos
Santana, Roberta Flack, Wilson Pickett,
and many Ghanaian faces light up the
screen in this documentary. —Christopher
Woods; Photo by Dan Fox
Woods
WEDNESDAY 6/25
Henry Rollins: “Provoked: an evening
of quintessential American opinionated
Editorializing and Storytelling,” Tipitina’s, 8pm
FRIDAY 6/27
Southern Voices: Dance Out Loud;
Contemporary Arts Center, 8pm (June 27th29th); dproject.us. If you’re interested
in dance, the theater, video art, or just
any nifty avant-garde performance, you
want to make it down to the CAC to see
Southern Voices: Dance Out Loud. Voices,
presented by D’Project, is made up of six
New Orleans dance companies that come
together for a show that combines ballet,
flamenco, second line, modern dance, live
music, and video projection. One should not
neglect what might be this summer’s only
multi-media, multi-dance extravaganza.
—Caroline DeBruhl
EVENT LISTINGS / CONT...
NOTABLE UPCOMING SHOWS
7/05: King Khan, the Shrines, One Eyed Jacks
7/12: Edwin McCain Band, House Of Blues
7/18: Club of the Sons, Circle Bar
7/19: Tilly And The Wall, One Eyed Jacks
7/26: Huey Lewis and The News, Spanish
Plaza
8/05: Valient Thorr plus Saviours plus
Early Man
10/25, 10/26: Voodoo Music Experience,
City Park
11/17: Trans Am, New Orleans Arena
11/18: The Black Crowes, House Of Blues
Live New Orleans, Continued from page 6...
She played by herself this night, surrounded
by drums, instruments, pedals and two mics.
Andersson created the songs by layering
“parts” on top of each other with the help of
her pedals. This required incredible precision,
and I was pretty impressed that she didn’t
miss any cues.
One great song was “Na Na Na Empty
Heart,” which she started by playing this
pretty awesome drumbeat and fill. I get mad
at her, because I’m a drummer and I don’t
think I have the feel she does. I think she’s
been getting lessons from her husband and
drummer, Arthur Mintz. So, there was a point
in the song, after she created the children-ina-schoolyard-like “na na na” chant after the
second verse, where her voice flew away. She
used it to its full potential, using it wide and
taking it high for some angelic tones. What a
range and more importantly, endurance.
Another cool one was the snuggly love
song, “Hi Low.” So relaxing, it was. Like
candy for the ears—effortless.
The new music is, if anything, pretty. The
instrumentation is very well thought out.
Like when you listen to it, it doesn’t even feel
like someone could have created it. It feels
more like the music was there all along AND
someone just had to listen the right way for it.
Kudos to Andersson for that.
ANTI-News & Views (AG’s Statement on
NOLA Rising Vs. The Gray Ghost), Continued
from page 4...
Radtke made the statement, “this guy is
relentless,” and that is the only true thing
he said. NoLA Rising will not stop, but we
will change our tactics in hopes that we can
continue to benefit the people of the new
New Orleans they way we did in the months
immediately after the storm. There is no shame
in loving New Orleans and all of Her unique
people and ways...just because Mr. Radtke
wants to gray out our culture doesn’t mean we
have to let him. And I repeat my last and only
comment to Mr. Radtke yesterday...”Have
a nice day, Mr. Radtke.” You’ll need it for
what is to be a negative backlash against you
from the City Counsel to the hallways of your
former corporate sponsors, to the streets of
New Orleans that are not yours to control.”
ANTIGRAVITY’S STATEMENT ON
NOLA RISING VS. THE GRAY GHOST
From AG Publisher/Editor In Chief
Leo McGovern, as originally posted on
antigravitymagazine.com/blog:
“RAdTke produced from his grocery ba[g]
of cheap tricks the ANTIGRAVITY articles
that first called into question his tactics,
which has since become an issue that has cost
RAdTke funding.”
I thought this would be a good time to
clarify our stance on The Gray Ghost, so we
blogged parts 1 and 2 of our late-’07 story
on Radtke, and I’m going to talk about it in
general.
Neither ANTIGRAVITY as a whole nor
I as a citizen condone graffiti or defacing
public and especially private property. I don’t
know how much clearer I can say it—illegal
graffiti is wrong, and so is any changing of
property that doesn’t belong to the person
doing the changing. You may wonder why
I’m repeating myself, so I’ll tell you why:
there seem to be people who believe that our
piece on The Gray Ghost and our support of
NOLA Rising means that AG is in favor of
illegal graffiti and similar illegal acts. While
distributing AG one month in the Marigny, I
was verbally assaulted by a man who thought
that our articles “invited graffiti artists” to
hit Coffea and other businesses in the area,
which is the farthest thing from the truth and
not what our point was. We were specific in
calling graffiti an “art-crime,” which is what
painting on someone else’s property without
the owner’s permission is. The point of our
article wasn’t to praise graffiti artists, it was
to call attention to Radtke because we believe
that his actions are just as illegal as those of
the graffiti artists.
It would be a simple matter of opinion
if Radtke were simply covering up graffiti
in public places, but he’s also covered up
private art that was legally bought and paid
for by owners of buildings and also painted
on buildings despite the true legal owners
specifically asking him not to. Because of
these actions plus reactions from the citizens
it represents, the Vieux Carre Commission has
a problem with him, as noted in our articles.
Yes, it’s true that his actions are technically
approved by the city of New Orleans, but
it’s been pointed to again and again that it’s
sometimes by omission—the city doesn’t
have the resources to take care of the graffiti
problem the right way, so by default it lets
Radtke run rampant. If our article caused a
couple of Radtke’s “sponsors” to think twice
about give him funding and/or materials,
well, to put it quite frankly, more power to
us.
Radtke accused Dingler of unlawfully
putting art in public places, and the judge
essentially found him guilty—Dingler is no
longer allowed to post NOLA Rising artwork
in public places. I’ll be as clear as I can:
Neither I nor ANTIGRAVITY condones
Dingler, Radtke or anyone else painting
or placing materials on property owned by
someone who doesn’t want it. It’s that easy.
We do support people who want to have
artwork on their own property and their right
to not have it painted over by someone who
deems himself judge, jury and executioner.
Guidance Counseling, Continued from page 9...
(metronidazole). Either spike his drink, or
present it to him as a “recreational” drug.
When mixed with alcohol, this particular
antibiotic causes horrible intense hang-over
symptoms in about twenty minutes. Continue
to surreptitiously supply the medicine when
you know he is getting his drunky on. Then
bring up the possibility that over time, his body
has actually become allergic to alcohol. This
may work, as it has worked for me. Although
speaking from experience, when the alcoholic
gives it up, he may move on to harder drugs,
OD, and pass on to the great bourbon bottle/
track mark tent city in the sky.
29
antigravitymagazine.com_
COMICS
30_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative