D.C.-BASED SOCIOLOGIST -by-training Frank Hallam Day's new work turns the familiar into the menacing. Night photographs of primordial landscapes and of Thanksgiving parade floats seem to have nothing in common at first, but the common thread is the fear factor.
» Addison/Ripley Fine Art, 1670 Wisconsin Ave. NW, through Oct. 11; 202-338-5180.
Photo Courtesy of Addison/Ripley Fine Art
This post was originally published Sept. 24.
IN THE PAST, it was hard to know how to react to a Growing concert. Were you supposed to stand up or sit down?
Up until recently the Olympia, Wash., turned Brooklyn, N.Y., drummerless duo performed music so soothing and tranquil that the natural impulse was to lie down on the ground, close your eyes and think deeply about episodes of "Planet Earth." But the places Growing used to play — art spaces, lofts, rock-clubs — were not particularly conducive to such meditation, unless you wanted to be doing lotus pose in a puddle of stale beer and cold cigarette ashes.
But with "All the Way" (The Social Registry), Growing has finally embraced rhythm, or at least made rhythm a more overt force within its pleasantly droney compositions.
At the very least, the driving pulses, abstract beats, and minimalist momentum will give you a reason to stay on your feet when the band performs with Hot Chip on Oct. 8 at the 9:30 Club.
Guitarist Kevin Doria recently spoke with Express about Growing's newfound not-quite-dance-ability, not knowing anything about "intelligent dance music" (IDM) and hecklers.
POSSIBLY THE ONLY notable thing about the 2008 Emmy broadcast was the utter dominance of "30 Rock." The show won best comedy series, Tina Fey won for both her writing and lead actress performance and Alec Baldwin scored as well.
One person who went unacknowledged was Tracy Morgan, despite the fact that his television alter ego, the infantile star Tracy Jordan, has racked up such notable achievements as Source Awards nominee, NAACP Image Awards presenter and Academy Awards watcher.
In the hopes of inspiring next year's Emmy voters to "live every week like it's Shark Week," let's revisit Tracy Jordan's Top 5 most outrageous schemes from season two, out Oct. 7 on DVD.
Continue Reading "Tracy Jordan's Top 5 Most Outrageous Schemes on '30 Rock'" »
YOUNG PEOPLE ARE barraged with media influences — some good and some very, very bad.
The following characters from the fall television lineup may be entertaining, but teen viewers should keep in mind that doesn't make them worthy of emulation.
With that in mind, here are the Top 5 bad influences from the new schedule. Consider it Express' very own PSA. After all, the more you know ....
» Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) , "Gossip Girl" (The CW)
From his dandyish attire to his casual drug use to his equally casual date-rape attempts, Chuck Bass has taken "Don't try this at home" to a level beyond even the "Jackass" fools. Although a recent episode revealed some of the family history behind Chuck's amorality, he's showing no signs of redemption yet.
His breakfast seems to consist of a joint and a glass of scotch, he has been known to fly-in high-priced prostitutes from halfway across to the world to his penthouse apartment, and he only seems to show up at school to make undermining insinuations to his classmates and show off his scarf collection.
Although Chuck as a character is delightfully debauched, impressionable teens should be advised that the excuse "I'm Chuck Bass" can't be expected to work for anyone who isn't Chuck Bass.
Continue Reading "The More You Know: Top 5 Bad Influences From Fall TV" »
THE GENERAL CONSENSUS is that Oasis lost the plot with its third record, 1997's "Be Here Now." Even the band dismisses the CD as overbloated — and who am I to argue?
But there was no redemption for the Gallagher Bros. with Oasis' fourth record, 2000's "Standing on the Shoulder of Giants." Not only did the CD include a typo in its title, confirming the Gallaghers' status as entertaining dullards, it was a mediocre rock record dipped in neo-psychedelic effects to cover for its lack of catchy songs.
The title of Oasis' seventh album, "Dig Out Your Soul," has all the words spelled correctly, but it won't make anybody forget "Definitely Maybe" (1994) or "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" (1995). In fact, after hearing the wholly uninspired "Dig Out Your Soul," you may not even reach for Oasis' first two records again, fearing you might have misjudged them back in the day. (Don't worry: They're still great Brit-pop albums.)
WHEN IT COMES to punk cred, Hungarian-born Tomas Erdelyi — better known as Tommy Ramone — has almost everyone beat.
As the original drummer of The Ramones, he invented their breakneck, to-the-point skin-slamming style. As the producer of the first four Ramones albums, he pioneered the hard-edged, back-to-basics sound with which punk would forever be identified. And as the primary writer of the first song on the first Ramones album, "Blitzkrieg Bop," he gave punk (and punk-pop) its first and one of its best anthems.
So what does the guy do for an encore? How about old time bluegrass?
For the past three years, the only surviving founding Ramone has kept his musical surname but changed up his style. He now plays banjo, mandolin and dobro and sings lead vocals as half of the Americana duo Uncle Monk. Together with former Simplistics singer-guitarist Claudia Tienan, Ramone has attempted to put a modern twist on old time music. So far, the duo has released one album, a self-titled 2006 effort that's filled with crack playing and catchy tunes. It all seems a long way from "Blitzkrieg Bop" to bluegrass, but it's really all connected if you listen closely, says Ramone.
Express caught up with Tommy Ramone by telephone while Uncle Monk was playing a live showcase for the "Bronzewound Radio Show," a bluegrass program that's heard on WERU-FM out of Maine.
Continue Reading "Blitzkrieg Bluegrass: Tommy Ramone on Uncle Monk" »
"DONNIE WAHLBERG, Donnie Wahlberg?" said a man hawking tickets on the corner of F and 7th Streets, adapting his usual "Got tickets, got tickets?" catch phrase for the hordes of twenty- and thirtysomething women pouring into the Verizon Center last night.
To a non-New Kids on the Block fan, this fella wouldn't make a lot of sense. But if you asked, say, a 27-year-old girl whose parents didn't let her go to a NKOTB show when she was eight-years-old ... uh ... for instance ... she'd know this living Stub Hub was referring to the New Kid responsible for getting the guys together for this reunion tour.
A chance for unclaimed childhood nostalgia — and this time with beer!
Thanks but no thanks we told the guy; we had our tickets — the cheapest seats, which set us back $52 each to sit in the nosebleeds. Riding the Verizon Center escalator to the 400 level, the excitement was palpable. But at 9:15 p.m. the show had already started, with "You've Got It (The Right Stuff)" reverberating throughout the now empty stadium hallways.
"We're missing it!"
"First let's get beer!"
Continue Reading "Hangin' Tough Hangover: New Kids on the Block" »
THE BRAVO-SANCTIONED title of this episode was "Nature Calls" — a perfect metaphor for a piss-poor season with particularly excremental judging in this episode.
All I want — all any of want — and have wanted for weeks is for That Bitch Kenley to get off our screen. Not only would fans of the show breather easier, but her fellow contestants would enjoy a more convivial workroom experience, the judges would not have to endure her grimacing, sassing and eye-rolling performance on the runway, and poor Tim Gunn would not have his perfect ears pinned back by the ravings of this shrew. Add to that, Miss Thing herself would know failure, something to which she should get comfortably accustomed. Every time she ekes through with some unwearable abomination in a print that looks as if the entire Natchez Garden Tour threw up on it, she is reassured that she's an "edgy" super-genius and everything she touches turns to Chanel. And this, pigeons, this is not true.
So, of course this posting is going to be all about her, which is as she wants it and as the episode shaped this segment of the season. We begin with Kenley whining that Leanne sabotaged her by posing poorly in her insane Consuela-goes-to-the-mall "hip-hop" look the week before. This girl! Her resistance to accepting that she might every be the source of her own failure is mind-boggling.
The Small Press Expo runs Saturday and Sunday, and Scott A. Rosenberg has compiled a quick guide to recommended books that are really new or debuting at the show, as well as some top picks among the panel discussions and a hat tip to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
CAN'T MISS NEW OR RECENT BOOKS:
» "Essex County Volume 3: The Country Nurse" by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
» "Burma Chronicles" by Guy Delisle (Drawn and Quarterly)
» "Local" by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly (Oni Press)
» "Crogan's Vengeance" by Chris Schweizer (Oni Press)
» "Sulk Vol. 1: Bighead and Friends" by Jeffrey Brown (Top Shelf)
» "Labor Days" by Phil Gelatt and Rick Lacy (Oni Press)
» "Uncle Slam Fights Back" by TJ Kirsch (Oni Press)
» "Too Cool to be Forgotten" by Alex Robinson (Top Shelf)
» "The Lagoon" by Lille Carre (Fantagraphics)
» "Fuzz & Pluck: Splitsville" by Ted Stearn (Fantagraphics)
» "Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert" by Bill Schelly (Fantagraphics)
» "Petey & Pussy" by John Kerschbaum (Fantagraphics)
» "American Presidents" by David Levine (Fantagraphics)
» "Popeye Volume 3" by E.C. Segar (Fantagraphics)
» "Godspeed, President Meal Ticket: Some Guy With a Website's Final Chance to Cash In On the Bush Administration" by August J. Pollack (self-published)
» "Lil' Bluey" by Chris Pitzer and Sam Millen (AdHouse Books)
» "Spadefoot" by Matt Dembicki and Andrew Cohen (Three Crows Press)
» "Swallow Me Whole" by Nate Powell (Top Shelf)
» "The Night of Your Life" by Jesse Reklaw (Dark Horse Comics)
» "Against Pain" by Ron Rege Jr. (Drawn and Quarterly)
» "Fight or Run" by Kevin Huizenga (Buenaventura Press)
MATMOS IS KNOWN for glitch-pop albums that are heavy on concept and loaded with musique concrete samples of real-world things: cut hair, body fat, a cow's uterus.
The electronica duo's latest record is called "Supreme Balloon" (Matador) so you might guess the entire work is made up of inflatable-rubber samples and chopped up Diana Ross LPs. Nope. It's a lovely all-synthesizer record, with the only other restriction being that the duo couldn't use microphones.
"It's such a dumb, simple concept that we tried to avoid calling it conceptual, though I suppose technically it is," said Martin Schmidt from the Baltimore home he shares with his musical and romantic partner, Drew Daniel.
The twosome takes turns shepherding its albums, and this one was Schmidt's li'l lamb.
Addison Road