photo by: Jonathan Lawson

Gathered under a tent on an unseasonably hot afternoon in Woodburn, OR— volunteers and organizers with Prometheus Radio and PCUN are enjoying dinner together on their second day of building a new community-based radio station. Long-haired radio freaks, longtime media activists, spiky-haired wanna-be DJ’s, and all sorts are amassed for the “barnraising” of KPCN-LP 96.3 FM (in Oregon, naturally), taking part in the construction of the physical and social infrastructure neccessary for success. Workshops ranging from Audio Production to FCC regulations and Community Organizing have taken up the day alongside putting up drywall, soldering cables, and painting the future studio. In an attempt to democratize media across the country, Prometheus Radio has already built 10 other low-power FM radio stations in partnership with organizations like PCUN.

The goal of PCUN, Pineros Y Campesinos Unidos Del Noroeste (the Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United) is to “empower farmworkers to understand and take action against systematic exploitation and all of its effects.” To that end, the new radio station aims to be a tool to help organize and give voice to the large Latino community at the center of Oregon’s agricultural industry. With that constituency in mind, every workshop and event this weekend has been delivered bi-lingually via Spanish translators and in some instances via hand-held radios transmitters in the workshops!

Nearing sunset with a handful of children running around the site, the mood is jovial as participants from all over the U.S., Latin America and Europe anticipate tomorrow evening’s inaugural broadcast of the grassroots radio station.

More photos from the event are online at flickr.com/groups/pcunbarnraising

The Vera Project is dead! Long live the The Vera!

Tonight the venue without a venue will be hosting Japanther, This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, and Underground Railroad to Candyland at the Downtown YMCA’s Fusion Cafe. The Pharmacy are scheduled to play as well, but I hear their keyboard player got in a nasty bike wreck and might be temporarily out of commission.

Japanther are seriously one of my favorite live bands ever. They make me believe in punk rock every time I see them. Fuck The Shins, these guys will change your life.

This Bike is a Pipe Bomb are also a fantastic live band, not to mention the record holders for “most broken strings” ever at the Punkin House.

Doors are at 7:30, the show is all-ages (duh), and it will blow your dome. Do not sleep!

I got the best piece of junk mail ever yesterday… from Yoko Ono!

Inside?

DOLLAR PIECE

Select an amount of dollar.
Imagine all the things that
you can buy with that amount. (a)
Imagine all the things that
you cannot buy with that amount. (b)
Write it on a pice of paper.

1963 spring

And then a six-word pitch to pledge support to Printed Matter, plus a mechanized signature.

Last week I left a comment on Kurt’s post saying that I found the Paris Hilton single “Stars are Blind” surprisingly catchy. Since then I’ve managed to “accidentally acquire” a copy of the album, and as much as I’d like to pull the elitist card and say it’s total trash, I have to say I can’t do it. I can’t stand Paris Hilton, think she’s indicative of all that’s wrong with celebrity worship, and for the most part ignore the goings-on of the pop music world, but I don’t hate this album.

What’s there to say about the album? It’s radio pop at its radio poppiest (highlights being the aforementioned “Stars are Blind” and the Britney Spears mimicking “Turn it Up.” The cover of “Do You Think I’m Sexy” is laughable, but the source is hardly a pillar of quality, so that can be forgiven. Fat Joe’s appearance on “Fightin’ Over Me” is certainly a low point in his career (he needs to “lean back” to when he was relevant). “Heartbeat” evokes Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time,” but isn’t nearly as memorable.

With those critiques, you’d think I could just move on and mark this as not for me. You’d be wrong. Despite its flaws, the album works. Yes, it’s shiny and over-produced. Yes, it’s derivative and aural junk food, and Paris Hilton doesn’t sing so much as inflect breathily with help from the best pitch controlling technology on the planet. But so what? It’s pop music. Sometimes you just have to take music at face value, and this album doesn’t aspire to be more than what it is. It’s an empty, superficial, disposable recording with nothing all that redeeming to make it stand out. But it’s fun. The musical equivalent of a one night stand. In short, it’s the perfect album for Paris Hilton to have made. And despite my usual love for the esoteric, I think I like it (a statement made entirely without irony).

Mastodon

Swift justice was brought to a British music journalist who leaked to the internet Mastodon’s forthcoming album, Blood Mountain, well before its Sept. 12 release date.
mtv.com has some of the details, but, oddly, neither the journalist’s name nor his/her publication.

I’m surprised I haven’t heard about more such busts. Gotta keep close tabs on those slimy music journalists, you know?

Honestly, we’re not trying to inflame our dear readers, we’re just seriously slammed today. There’s this little festival called Bumbershoot that requires us to write up nine zillion different bands…and today is deadline day. Everyone’s eating at their desk, Segal keeps reaching for more aspirin, and Megan and I are swearing even more than usual. So please forgive us, and if you can’t, then at least enjoy this ridiculous video of Kelly Clarkson on stage with a metal band, acting like the trashy rock slut I always hoped she was:

The above video is another one from Spain, this one during producer/DJ/spoken word artist Rich Medina’s set. After the madness of the prior night (and not sleeping until around 10am), I wasn’t sure I was going to make it to Sonar Day at all, but I did, and Medina’s set is a large reason why I’m glad I did so. For most of the day I walked around feeling lethargic and not really getting into a lot of what was playing. It was fun and most of it was new, but I was too tired to feel inspiration. I walked over to the tent where Rich Medina was playing expecting my energy conservation to continue. I was wrong. It turned out that Medina and his partners where in full party mode, a stark departure from the more experimental fare. It was packed, people were dancing and smiling, and it was all about fun with the mix of funk, soul, broken beat, downtempo and party jams. My mood immediately perked up a bit as I stood off to the side to take it all in. I eventually took off my backpack and started to dance, inspiring the permagrin I wore for the rest of the day and night.

Turns out I’m not the only one with that kind of Rich Medina story. J-Justice of SunTzu Sound tells a similar tale from his encounter in Miami, where Medina rocked a daytime party so hard that it spilled into the streets and warranted a visit from the boys in blue. Here’s a link to video from that party. J-Justice considers it easily the best party he’s ever attended.

So why all the stories about Rich Medina? Far from intending to descend (further?) into solipsism, it’s to let you know that Rich Medina is a DJ that is worthy of your attention/time/money. For this month’s edition of Safari, SunTzu Sound is bringing in Rich to headline tomorrow at the Baltic Room. His Jump N Funk parties have grown to legendary status, celebrating its five year anniversary next week, neither of with is surprising considering the crowd response he elicits. If even a little of that party’s spirit comes with him, Seattle should consider itself lucky.

Here’s what you should do tonight:

Rama (aka Krnl.Panic) and his girlfriend are making their way to NYC, and after closing out the monthly Bashment a few weeks ago, now it’s time for a proper farewell shindig. It’s also his birthday celebration. I’ve got to give it to him, the man knows how to throw a party, and the DJs lined up tonight (Alibi, Recess, J-Justice and AC Lewis) can all throw down as well. Those locals would be enough to make Lo-fi the place to be tonight, but Rama went ahead and booked Philly’s Emynd & Bo Bliz. They’re part of that whole Hollertronix school of beat providers with their own White T’s & White Belts party, so the whole Rag$ to Riche$ vibe should be in full effect (but better - no offense, but I’m more into the R2R concept than the execution). I caught wind of Emynd and Bo Bliz because of their contribution to the Lemon Red Mix Series, which featured great monthly installments of fresh beats while it lasted. Most of the participants in the series have already rolled through town to packed audiences, so tonight should keep that trend alive with some Baltimore club, Electro, and ghettotech in the mix. If you’re looking for a balls-out good time (a different kind of “balls-out” than at Hot Mess), Lo-Fi is where you’ll want to be this Friday evening - well, after seeing Snakes on a Plane of course.

Is this the best you can do on a Friday? Is there NO live music to talk about today? Come on guys! WHAT is up? Line Out SUCKS! Look back at the posts made this week. WEAK at best. Why even have a blog?

It’s not live music, but Hot Mess, Seattle’s second best queer club night, goes down tonight at War Room with Resident DJs LA Kendall, Julie Herrera, & Colby B, plus this month’s special guests Jackie Beat & Barbeau of Dirty Sanchez.

It’s a lot of fun if you can get you’re not hung up on the spectacle/spectator relationship of the live music show and actually participate in the party.

Plus, they get bonus points for the graphic nod to Hump 2: Electric Boogaloo, The Stranger’s 2nd Annual Amateur Porn Contest (all submissions due at The Stranger offices by Monday at 5pm).

From Popbitch, the recognized leader in sexually explicit news about British pop stars, footballers, reality stars and otters:

Q. How many roadies does it take to change a light bulb?

Continue reading "Clunker Joke of the Morning" »

I’ve been rocking “All Over Your Face” by Cazwell on my iPod for months now, and its raunchy rhymes still amuse me. I admit, I was initially taken aback by the notion of toying with a classic Arthur Russell production (Caz’s track heavily samples the 1980 underground disco jam “Is It All Over Your Face” by Loose Joints), but then I remembered that Russell showed an appreciation for sex and humor in his own work, and a love of subversive pop—so I climbed down off my high horse.

The song’s video is now making the rounds on YouTube, and its pretty entertaining in a vintage downtown NYC style. I was bummed the openly gay artist didn’t feature more hot boy-on-boy action, but any clip with Amanda LePore channeling Dietrich still merits a viewing or two. (And no, that’s not Amanda singing at the opening—she’s lip syncing along to the hook from the Loose Joints original.)

As Generation X reaches their peak child-rearing and impulse-buying age, Baby Rock Records is serving the market with lullaby renditions of artists like The Cure, Nirvana, Radiohead, and Bjork (?!?).

They must be serious, since they have Enter Sandman and Wave of Mutilation but not Rape Me or Killing an Arab.

It’s a cute idea, but I’m not a parent so I can’t pass judgment. Have any Line Out readers traded their bongs for Baby Bjorns? Would you buy this for your kids, or would you expose them to the real thing? Is Rock-a-Bye Bjork a cute way to nurture good taste in the little ones, or a cue to call DSHS? What do your kids listen to, anyway?

Discuss.

Gays in metal: Like rainbows in the dark.

The Warped tour: Hemorrhaging briskly.

Pop Montreal Festival: Announcing its preliminary line-up.

Original Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan: Coming to the Crocodile. If you haven’t listened to In Rock in a while, I strongly suggest revisiting this masterpiece from 1970 immediately.

Practical healthcare advice for musicians: Now available online, thanks to the consistently excellent (and tireless) work of the Future of Music Coalition.

Interpol: Leaving Matador for Capitol.

Air travel: Challenging for classical musicians.

Country singer Johnny Duncan: Dead at 67.

Keane: The latest victims of “exhaustion.”

I had a most unusual conversation last night with rising Seattle techno artist Jon McMillion at Baltic Room while Mat Anderson played a storming live house set. The talk covered topics like the under-reported story of American troops freaking out and committing suicide in large numbers in Iraq; Jon’s love for 50 Cent, Rick Ross, and Burt Bacharach; Jon’s new recordings (an EP’s due out on Orac later this year, I think); and his immersion in the Grateful Dead’s Dick’s Picks series of live CDs.

I must say, it’s rather unusual for an African-American techno producer to rave about the Dead’s endless stream of concert documents, but Jon is nothing if not unpredictable, and that’s one reason why I love the dude. I asked him where I should start with Dick’s Picks, as the sheer magnitude of it all had prevented me from taking the plunge. He recommended the first one and those in the early teens of the set. Duly noted. But I’d also like to pick other Deadheads’ brains for suggestions; always good to get second (and third, etc.) opinions.

Let me state that I’m not fanatical about the Dead, but I do very much enjoy albums like Anthem of the Sun, Aoxomoxoa, Blues for Allah, and Live/Dead, and I consider “Dark Star”� to be the group’s peak. In other words, I prefer the Dead at their most exploratory and psychedelic. With all that in mind, what Dick’s Picks volumes should I investigate? And how the hell do you pronounce Aoxomoxoa?

Walking to the Matt & Kim show, I passed a tennis court of kids playing dodge ball to a boombox blasting some golden-age Neptunes. At Neumos, Matt & Kim’s crazy, frenetic love-fest had one dude was dancing like he was gonna have a seizure. God bless you, kid.

Down at Baltic Room, Scientific American started his set with what sounded like a Slint sample before dropping the inevitable hip hop acappella and huge, crunchy snare.

Up at Sing Sing,Havana’s weekly Tuesday night dance party, Flosstradamus was just getting started on their crowd-pleasing set of hip hop, club jams, 80s hooks, and deft turntablism. The highlight, of course, was the dirty dancing competition (to the tune of “dance, too much booty in the pants,”� natch). In a startling upset, the three finalists were robbed by a dance floor usurper clad in only a bikini. God bless you, American Apparel.

The boys of Floss were in the crowd dancing and clapping along to Matt & Kim, just like Matt & Kim were getting down at Havana later. It was a beautiful thing, rockists and popists all getting down togehter. Where was the beef?

Meet Clell Tickle, indie marketing guru and the Suge Knight of indie rock (thanks Ma’Chell!).

Is it just my stupid browser or has Pitchfork been out of commission for a couple of days?

Much like Meatloaf comebacks, some things simply defy explanation. Enjoy.

Coming Oct. 31.

I’d been wondering when the live set would make inroads into the house music world, and it seems as if at least locally that’s starting to happen with some of the more adventurous producers. Lineout’s own Matt Corwine (Mister Leisure) has been laying down beats with his handy laptop for a while now, the Jacob London duo are preparing their live set for a Decibel debut, and tonight Mat Anderson (one of my local favorites) is giving the Baltic Room’s Oscillate audience a first taste of what he can do. The flyer he’s been handing out describes tonight as “shit + fans,” while he’s been promising a dirty sleazy time. Mat’s told me some of what it’s going to sound like, and I’m not sure even my ghettotech-acclimated ears are ready for the nastiness he ‘s prepared. With sets from both ndCv and Scientific American (continuing the mass.dstrction series), tonight’s entire bill is worthy of your attention, but Mat Anderson is the one I consider as a can’t miss.

In part two of our series, “Crusties, The Law, and You”, Lineout brings you this news from the beleaguered SS Marie Antoinette:

A band called IMPENDING DOOM lit off a series of M80 style fireworks in the parking lot of the Restaurant across the street of the SSMA 8/14/06 this caused the arrival of Police and cause for alarm for the whole neighborhood. Bringing considerable scrutiny upon the show and the space. The show was cancelled and all future shows are in question. Our main concern is not being evicted, all ages shows must come second. Please repost contact here for all questions. Acts of miopic violence do nothing to further any community bent on change, blowing up pretend munitions in a parking lot full of expensive cars is a pretend statement that only cripples the oppressed community you pretend to support. I of course only aim that at Impending doom and shortsited [sic] punks like them. malaki, capt. SSMA

Ugh. Come on, kids. This is almost as bad as when Jasen Samford of Speaker Speaker got the Olympia’s Arrow Space busted.

UPDATE: Jasen Samford is a GOD! The only thing he ever busted was moves, man, wicked moves.

Photo: Philadelphia Metro

This past weekend Philadelphia’s Pointless Fest got shut down after a confrontation between some “train-hopping” punks and the police. Internet messageboards carried rumors and wild eye-witness accounts of the events in the days following the announcement of Pointless Fest’s premature cancellation. Some of the bands scheduled to play the festival included: No Hope For The Kids, Severed Head Of State, World Burns To Death, 1905, Rambo, Paint It Black, Kylesa, and World Inferno Friendship Society.

The Philly Indy Media Center reported:

The annual Pointless Fest four day punk show in Center City Philadelphia was shut down last night by a police action that began, according to widely varying eyewitness accounts, with some combination of overzealous security guards, confrontational punk kids, and violent, angry police. The police action culminated in lines of police clearing Chestnut Street of confused concert goers as a police helicopter hovered overhead. At least two people were taken away in ambulances, and at least one was arrested without serious bodily injury. It is unclear how many people were arrested in total, as multiple incidents were apparently occuring over a several block radius. The remaining two days of the festival have been cancelled.

Now there are plenty of fingers that can be pointed and assumptions made about this incident— whether your particular ideological predisposition leads you to blame the fascist pigs or the junky punks (who really have no business owning dogs) or security thugs or that hardcore sucks now anyways or Iran or Intelligent Design or all of the above. To me it really doesn’t matter who’s to blame as an event like the death of Pointless Fest ‘06 takes on its own strange life thanks to the internet and hyperbole taking hold of the details and twisting them beyond absurdity. I read a few ridiculous and simultaneously entertaining accounts of the incident online but unfortunately the truth had to rear its less amusing head and the R5 Productions Blog put an end to those more colorful stories and my favorite rumor, which is at the bottom of the list.

THE FOLLOWING RUMORS ARE 100% FALSE :
- The First Unitarian Church has been shut down
- R5 Productions has been forced out of business
- Festival organizer Tony “pointless”� was arrested
- R5 Productions staff members called the police to remove “traveler kids”�
- A takeout beer store was “held up”� by traveler kids
- L&I is not forcing us to hire professional security (we already have security anyways)
- A punk “�threatened”� to rape an officer (this one we are baffled by?)
- Sean did not try to break up the melee in a bathrobe

Links to more detailed (and not so absurd) reports of the Pointless Fest fiasco after the jump.

Continue reading "Surprise: Cops + Crusties = Canceled Fest" »

Photo by Jenny Jimenez

The evening began with playful Sub Pop punks the Thermals delivering a short, sharp set that although adequately executed, felt more like a nervous, place-holding moment than a warm-up to Sleater-Kinney’s swan song. They were followed by a solo appearance from Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, a longtime friend and supporter of the band who offered up a handful of hushed, folksy ballads and a respectful eulogy of S-K. “You know how you wish you could have seen the Beatles or Jimi Hendrix or the Who with Keith Moon? Well, I am very fortunate and extremely grateful to live in a time when I can see Sleater-Kinney play live,” he declared. “Truly there is no place else I’d rather be on the planet than here.”

Continue reading "The Last Waltz" »

Tomorrow sees the official release of Paul Burch’s sixth studio album, the magnificent East to West. Burch is, as they say, a musician’s musician and if you haven’t heard of him yet consider yourself lucky - you’ve got six terrific albums to catch up on.

Think traditional Americana honkytonk, country as it was meant to do without all the, you know, glitter twang that afflicts so much of what we think of as country these days. Burch has worked with Lambchop, Bobby Bare Jr., Ryan Adams, Vic Chesnutt, and others, but he shines most brightly on his own recordings with his able band, the WPA Ballclub.

Mark Knopfler and grizzled eminence Ralph Stanley join Burch on East to West, which was recorded live in London (at Knopfler’s studio) and Nashville.

So if you’ve got a hankering (and who doesn’t?) for flat-out solid country music that takes you on a lazy swing from southern Georgia’s swamps through the Mississippi Delta and out through Texas’s sprawling plains, pick up a copy of East to West tomorrow, grab a fifth of your favorite bourbon, and kick your damn feet up already.

And if you don’t believe me, you can sample a track here.

In his chapter on Pere Ubu and Devo in Rip It Up and Start Again, Simon Reynolds writes: “Rather than a keyboard, Devo treated the synth as a noise generator.” He goes on to quote band member Mark Mothersbaugh: “The more technology you have, the more primitive you can be. You can express guttural sounds, bird noises, brain waves, blood flow.”

This perceptive observation reminds me of a line from Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel White Noise: “The greater the scientific advance, the more primitive the fear.”

You could find worse ways to spend an afternoon than by reading White Noise while listening to Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!

His name is Cole Marcus. Uh, The kid is 4.

Warning: You will see Lance Bass and Danny Bonaduce. Please do not let that distract. Nothing against Lance, and I love 8 Is Enough, but this kid is 4.

Mister Leisure brainstorms

Out: Funckarma
In: Line Out’s own Mister Leisure and Mr. Projectile (Rumor has it Mr. Mister had a scheduling conflict and will not be performing.)

Decibel is a festival of electronic music performance, arts and new media that takes place September 14-17 in various venues in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.