Excerpts from Electric Degeneration, Degenerate Press' semi-weekly e-zine, free and ad-free. A full episode contains sections for music reviews, upcoming events, blasphemy, classifieds, and anything else we feel like saying. If you'd like to subscribe just contact us.
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2/16/2003
EAR PLUGS
Got this from degenerate GS regarding Nashville Pussy:
I asked Blaine backstage that night if the rumor was
true about Nashville Pussy breaking up. He said "Hell
NO!! Where the hell did you hear that?!"
So there ya go.
Friday we headed to Echo Lounge for the big Valentine's Day show.
Things kicked off with Bill Taft doing a little number about falling
in love and long distance relationships with a little twist at the
end that got giggles from the crowd. I won't share it, in part so it
won't ruin it for you should he perform it again but mostly just
'cause I can't remember exactly how it went.
Next up was Blue Valentine, a collection of talented folks doing a
performance of the Tom Waits album from which they took their name.
The percussionist brought a kitchen cabinet for a drum kit, opened
the drawers and pulled out whatever was in it. A couple of metal
bowls, a bit of chain, a cookie tin, and proceeded to play them and
the cabinet itself. A guy stepped up to the mike and did a fine
gravely Tom Waits voice and in general I was enjoying the show. Then
he gave the mike over to a girl with a smile so broad I thought she
could unhinge her jaw like a snake, an image further ingrained in the
way she slithered around then hiss and growled out the lyrics to the
next song - fantastic. Someone in the crowd yelled out "I love you,
scary girl!" She smiled and said "I'm not that scary." Her giggle
takes the edge off but her eyes mesmerize and her voice spits like a
cobra. Excellent stuff.
Kingsized followed with their usual. Mike's voice towers above all
others in town, and not just because of his height. Several around me
said "He should be on American Idol." Yeah, but then they'd find out
about the porn he was in...
No, actually they'd find out he actually has talent, not just a
pretty face, and vote him off the island. Or is it kick him out of
the house when he stops pretending and starts being real? Or is it
when they find out he's not really a millionaire? Ah, whatever, the
point is you'll never see anything this good on TV as far as music is
concerned. This is something you have to see in person, live, with
the sweaty details and the subtle intonations you just won't get on
your "home theater." This isn't reality TV, this is reality. Go
experience some of it.
If you'd rather not, continue living vicariously through TV, or
better yet check out our photo gallery from the weekend and past
nights:
http://www.degeneratepress.com/earplugs/gallery/
Look for Blue Valentine and Kingsized pictures for some interesting
photos of the above shows. We've just about given up film entirely
and moved to digital yet I still hate using a flash so things may
lack the detail you'd prefer, but I think they suit the mood of the
show perfectly.
Saturday degenerates SW and LH went off to see How To Lose A Guy In
10 Days. (I can cut it to one - just drag him to see that movie.)
Other degenerates, such as myself, headed down to the Star Bar for
the Joe Strummer/Clash tribute night. Apparently there was some
confusion in booking because The Rent Boys, advertised to appear,
never showed. Tim, the downstairs bartender, pointed out how very
punk that was in between bits of the Swedish Road Rally on TV where
drivers were hauling ass across frozen roads dodging obstacles that
included snow drifts and the occasional moose.
Upstairs, Joel Burkhart kicked things off by reading the lyrics to
This Is Radio Clash as if it were a political poem, words that rang
true at this moment in history. But he followed that with a rambling
song about the time he saw The Clash in concert and how sucky
Strummer became around the time of their Cut the Crap album. Sort of
an anti-Clash song, really, but then Joel isn't one to tow the party
line...
Then a girl got up on stage and said Joe had come to her in a dream
and told her what songs to perform, all non-Clash numbers. Then she
proceeded to butcher a Beatles tune, chasing us and half the room
downstairs for more Swedish Road Rally mixed in with some Yacht
racing and conversation.
Back upstairs, members of The Young Antiques did a few tunes
including a pleasant surprise, Straight To Hell, sort of a mellow
beginning for the night.
After a break, The Pencil Dix came on stage, appearing together for
the first time in 11 years. They probably broke up about the time I
started going to shows in Atlanta and I never caught them back in the
day, but they did a fine set of Clash covers with the only surprise
being the impressive skill level. A missed lyric here and a missed
note there, but 95% pure. They tossed in a few other punky tunes for
flavor then wrapped it up a little earlier than I'd hoped.
On the bright side, rumor has it both Pretty Vacant and The Plastics
have reformed to resurrect some punk spirit and will be performing at
the Star Bar in March so keep your ears peeled.
In other news of days gone by, WREK has begun archiving past live
shows on their web site at
http://stonehenge.tn.gatech.edu/~live/archive_law.html
BLASPHEMY
"Screw what the former governor of Illinois or anyone else has to say about
the death penalty, I'm still for it!" you say?
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- In the latest bizarre turn in a nearly
25-year-old death row case, a federal appeals court ruled that a mentally
ill inmate can be put to death even though he would be too insane to qualify
for execution without his medication.
A sharply divided 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a stay of
execution Monday for Charles Singleton, saying his medically induced sanity
makes him eligible for the death penalty.
Singleton's defense argued that the Arkansas inmate was in a precarious
situation: taking anti-psychotic medication was in his interest -- but not
if the resulting sanity puts him on the path to the death chamber.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/02/11/execution.insanity.ap/index.html
In news that's just as funny in a LITTLE less dark shade of black,
you MUST read this article on salon.com. It's a terrifyingly real
look into the business world of late. (For additional humor value
note that in order to read an article about being jobless and
interviewing post-.com-bubble, you must sit through an
add for an Infiniti SUV...)
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/02/12/chicken_show/index.html
And now, for something completely different:
http://www.geocities.com/thestuntaz/
No, I don't know if it's a joke or not either, but either way I'm laughing...
Take me to Degenerate Press' home page!
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