so we wrapped up the show at Mr Ts Bowl last night, show number nine in the history of Monolidic. our first time at Mr Ts, the place was cool, i dug it, it's got atmosphere. it's in Highland Park, in the 1970s sometime, and i guess it used to be an old bowling alley because the now-abandoned lanes and vintage equipment are still there, hidden behind a partition of curtains. we met some of the friendly guys from the Dumps, a band on tour from Georgia that played that night, before we started setting up.
we were the openers and kicked things off about fifteen minutes earlier than planned since there were three other bands on the bill. a few stragglers in the audience, mostly members from the other bands. started a little shakey -- i still cant get over the initial anxiety as soon as i get on the stage. maybe it's nerves, maybe it's getting old and infirm. we had our first (or was it second?) false start -- the awkward moment at the start of a song when someone isnt ready or plays the wrong note and the performance crashes one beat in and everyone freezes and spins around and looks at each other sheepishly. it's never an auspicious beginning.
ouch. we took some other knocks, my confidence was a little shaken, but soldiered through the rest of the set. later, a couple of people said it didnt sound too terrible from the audience... so theres some consolation. of course, it's not all traumatic as long as you learn something -- placement is key. make sure the drumset is firmly anchored to the floor and isnt slipping around. dont stick the guitar amp in front of the kick drum and crank it up. make sure the bass amp puts out enough thump. youd think a lot of this stuff would be self-evident but it's like playing with fire: you dont really appreciate how bad it is until youve suffered third-degree burns over seventy percent of your body. but thats cool, no problem, slap on some aloe-vera and throw yourself back in.
thanks to everyone who came out, thanks to the nice guys at Mr Ts Bowl for the opportunity to play, and thanks to the other bands: Million Kids, The Dumps, and Antigone. good luck on the road back home.
in any case, it's back to practice! Monolidic marches on. venceremos.
most likely at some point in your Internet life youve seen the Youtube clip of a metallized cover of Pachelbels "Canon in D" by That Asian Dude in the Cap:
apparently, the clip attained enough popular critical mass to warrant a write-up in the Los Angeles Times: "He's no rock star, but a video 'god.'" the shredder extraordinaire is soft-spoken 23-year-old Lim Jeonghyun from South Korea. as of this post, the clip was close to 40,000,000 views on Youtube, which i believe qualifies it as a candidate for beatification according to Rome.the kids crazy. and ill be honest -- i personally have never been swayed over to the Metal Side -- but hes got chops.in the end though, my all-time favorite musical appropriation of the "Canon in D" goes to Spiritualized for "Ladies and Gentlemen We're Floating in Space." i realize that i still have my friend Steves copy -- and have had it for the last couple of years. i lost my own CD of the album years ago when my car stereo (and collection of indie crap) was jacked while we were drinking around Chapman Plaza. i gotta get that album back to you.
in the meantime, heres a fan-created music video of the Spiritualized song, courtesy of Youtube, cultural barometer of the times:
... set to random arthouse flicks from the 1990s. remember Les Amants Du Pont Neuf? i saw it in college. i dont remember the movie, but i do remember the theatre. smelled like ass.
greetings from San Francisco. took the usual drive up the I-5 from Los Angeles to San Francisco last night. saw the usual panorama of redneck towns and slaughterhouses. smelled the usual fragrance of cow manure. a starving musician’s salary affords me not airfare.
the bay area music scene has matured vastly since i’ve last lived here (union city, born and raised). when i lived here last, electronic music was the name of the game here, as it had been for a good decade. bad house and acid jazz seemed to be the only music coming out of san Francisco. things have changed. the number of good rock bands are ol’ plenty, as bands like Rogue Wave, Two Gallants, Birdmonster, BRMC, and Film School (there are many more) carry the banner for bay area rock and roll. there are also many solid Asian-American fronted bands like The Morning Benders, Scrabel, From Monument to Masses, and Mike Park who continue to produce good work.
Monolidic is looking to rock the bay soon. stay tuned.
you may have heard that we have a show at Mr T’s next Wednesday. you have no excuses not to show your face, even if it does lie on a mean street. the Gold Line takes you right there. the show is free. you can bowl afterwards (i think?). cheap drinks. i’ll even offer a free hand job to the first person that can explain the mathematical proof of Fermat’s last theorem in less than three minutes. don’t let the ghetto birds scare you. ignore that massive spotlight from the sky aimed at your car. and there’s always a chance that that constant stream of “bullets” you hear are just some neighborhood rascals playing with firecrackers from the adjacent Chinatown. don’t let The Avenues scare you, even if Jackson Browne was right about these streets. and if our confused brand of post-punk meets freak-folk indie rock isn’t enough to entice you, there’s a California Burrito joint just down the street.
here's an interesting New York Times take on the neighborhood in which mr. t's finds its home. don't believe the hype. i live here. the car in front of my window was recently tagged with bullet spray. duck and cover.
no paparazzi, no fanfare, no crowd control. welcome to the soft opening of the new Monolidic website. we're still cleaning up pieces of code as we fill out the rest of the site. right now im looking for a place i can slap this baby up:
im also still looking for the classic rotating skull and/or the animated fire GIFs. so world wide web, circa mid-1990s CE.
in any case, we have an upcoming gig at Mr T's Bowl in Highland Park next week. our third show of the year. and it's FREE.
pic was taken in some lonely little town outside of Cairo last December. i dont think i ever got the name. the driver just stopped the van and walked into a rundown restaurant to eat kushari by himself while everyone just sat around and waited for him to finish.
