Camera Phone Show Review #4: The Slits, Dmonstrations, Mika Miko
The Troubadour
11/17/06
I can see the future. There will be a giant, swirling disc of death from deep space, and the only human beings that'll be spared are the cool ones. Coolness is such an enigmatic, elusive thing, that 99% of the human race will be dust in mere seconds.
Some say coolness is all relative. Unfortunately, the mutant aliens from Sector 'Z' know that it's actually universal and completely static. I recently hit my thirtieth birthday, and my older brother assured me that concerns with coolness will begin to wane as my twenties begin to fade. He was, in a way, proving my point to the fullest, because the main component to being cool is not caring about being cool. So in effect, my older brother is very cool, because he is no longer concerned about it. Although, a bratty kid in spikes and leopard print pants may not recognize him as such. Also contrary to popular belief is the idea that "old" equals "uncool." Look at Iggy Pop. He's almost 60 years old, and he's cool as shit!
Mika Miko
Being cool may save you from alien death rays, but it doesn't always make for good music. Example: Sid's version of "My Way". Fortunately for Mika Miko, they're really cool and make really great music. Part of me wants to finish off that gush of a sentence with a snarky comment, but I'm too cool to be jealous of a young band quickly rising to popularity (recently signed to Kill Rock Stars).
Vivian had seen them open up for the Gossip and described them as being like a slumber party on stage. I asked if she meant the male fantasy kind, and she replied that no, it was, in fact, like a real slumber party. No pillow fights or lingerie, thank god.
Basically, Mika Miko don't give a fuck. They're not concerned about being "hawt" or wearing cool clothes. They just want to rock, and they own the stage as well as the crowd that's watching them. That means they're safe from the vaporizing lasers from outer space.
I bet they don't buy magazines like Cosmopolitan or Seventeen. I'm pretty sure they might even get really annoyed by those kinds of publications. The Go Go's started out as a punk rock band. Maybe if they write some catchy pop songs, they'll become known world-wide. Is that something they're looking for somewhere down the road? I doubt it. Either way, they'll still be cool and rightfully unafraid of death by galactic energy rays.
Dmonstrations
I don't know how, but the Dmonstrations must've gotten word that the flying saucers were invading soon. These guys are trying hard not to get zapped, and the facade is probably pretty convincing to the normal bystander. I, however, have a device that beeps and flashes red and green lights, thereby measuring the coolness of whomever I point it at. The aliens have a similar mechanism called a Zorbium Analyzer. Suffice to say, these guys missed the last train to cool, and they were huffin' it all the way down the station ramp in hot pursuit. The music sounded like they were just fucking around on some new riffs they just made up. The singer was yipping and yowling in falsetto tones, much like the sound of a hyena in heat. Sound cool? It wasn't. It’s like my friend Dave Didonato once said, "Don't try not to try. Just don't try."
Zorbium Analyzer reading:
Coolness = Red
Music = Red
Conclusion = Disintegration Imminent
I later looked at their myspace profile, and honestly the recordings are not as annoying as their live sound. Regardless of whether or not they were trying to be cool, you should check them out and decide for yourself. It’s the cool thing to do.
The Slits
The future invaders of the Earth may have a bit of a conundrum on their hands when it comes to The Slits. I was very excited to see what I consider to be a legendary punk band perform live at The Troubadour. To be honest, I've never been all that familiar with their catalog, other than "Typical Girls" and some tracks from their Peel Sessions. As a result, I wasn't expecting a set that was mostly reggae. They performed the tunes relatively well, with the strong points being the bass and drums, but it still sounded painfully like a punk band trying to play reggae music. Didn't we learn anything from Bad Brains' brief foray into the genre? One thing I've determined over the years is this: Do what you're best at. As soon as they broke into a fast snotty song (about 45 minutes into the set), Vivian and I looked at each other and traded mimed gestures of excitement and relief. For a few tunes, The Slits really rocked the house.
You may be wondering what effect The Slits' return to the world of music will have on their fate when the flying saucers of doom arrive. It's hard to say. They were so cool when they first hit the scene that it's still lasting to this day (and got me to pay the fifteen bucks or whatever it was to get in). On the other hand, some of the aspects of their newly reformed act are a bit suspect.
Between songs, Ari Up (vocals) kept referring to how The Slits were innovators of the punk/reggae genre and how revolutionary they were/are. This struck me as strange because if you were at the show, chances are you had already formed your opinion one way or the other. The other thing that had me guessing was the fact that one of the young girls on stage was apparently the daughter of someone in the Sex Pistols, and her contribution to the show consisted of backing vocals, some tambourine, and sporadic jumping around. It's like they just put her in the band so people would think they were cool, which is not something a band would do unless they were worried about it.
In conclusion, they'd survive the attack, but only just. Perhaps they'd start a resistance army of the marginally cool. Maybe they'd start playing shows to gather support and spread the word against the alien oppressors. In order to unite the rebels more effectively, there probably shouldn't be any reggae in their sets.
Post Script:
There have been a handful of bands on my radar lately of young women making very agro and fun music such as hey girl!, kill kill the nurse, and Finally Punk (in addition to Mika Miko) that are getting support from some of the older women that inspired them to start bands. I think its exciting and a welcome change from the bands boys in their age bracket are doing right now. I'm sure there are a lot of contributing factors to this burgeoning scene of pissed off girl punks, but the recent flare up might be a reaction to all the Panic! At the Disco and My Chemical Romance punk boy bands that are dominating the major rock radio stations and the mainstream at the moment. What a shame the aliens won't show up in time to wipe those lame ass boys off the face of the earth.
11/17/06
I can see the future. There will be a giant, swirling disc of death from deep space, and the only human beings that'll be spared are the cool ones. Coolness is such an enigmatic, elusive thing, that 99% of the human race will be dust in mere seconds.
Some say coolness is all relative. Unfortunately, the mutant aliens from Sector 'Z' know that it's actually universal and completely static. I recently hit my thirtieth birthday, and my older brother assured me that concerns with coolness will begin to wane as my twenties begin to fade. He was, in a way, proving my point to the fullest, because the main component to being cool is not caring about being cool. So in effect, my older brother is very cool, because he is no longer concerned about it. Although, a bratty kid in spikes and leopard print pants may not recognize him as such. Also contrary to popular belief is the idea that "old" equals "uncool." Look at Iggy Pop. He's almost 60 years old, and he's cool as shit!
Mika Miko
Being cool may save you from alien death rays, but it doesn't always make for good music. Example: Sid's version of "My Way". Fortunately for Mika Miko, they're really cool and make really great music. Part of me wants to finish off that gush of a sentence with a snarky comment, but I'm too cool to be jealous of a young band quickly rising to popularity (recently signed to Kill Rock Stars).
Vivian had seen them open up for the Gossip and described them as being like a slumber party on stage. I asked if she meant the male fantasy kind, and she replied that no, it was, in fact, like a real slumber party. No pillow fights or lingerie, thank god.
Basically, Mika Miko don't give a fuck. They're not concerned about being "hawt" or wearing cool clothes. They just want to rock, and they own the stage as well as the crowd that's watching them. That means they're safe from the vaporizing lasers from outer space.
I bet they don't buy magazines like Cosmopolitan or Seventeen. I'm pretty sure they might even get really annoyed by those kinds of publications. The Go Go's started out as a punk rock band. Maybe if they write some catchy pop songs, they'll become known world-wide. Is that something they're looking for somewhere down the road? I doubt it. Either way, they'll still be cool and rightfully unafraid of death by galactic energy rays.
Dmonstrations
I don't know how, but the Dmonstrations must've gotten word that the flying saucers were invading soon. These guys are trying hard not to get zapped, and the facade is probably pretty convincing to the normal bystander. I, however, have a device that beeps and flashes red and green lights, thereby measuring the coolness of whomever I point it at. The aliens have a similar mechanism called a Zorbium Analyzer. Suffice to say, these guys missed the last train to cool, and they were huffin' it all the way down the station ramp in hot pursuit. The music sounded like they were just fucking around on some new riffs they just made up. The singer was yipping and yowling in falsetto tones, much like the sound of a hyena in heat. Sound cool? It wasn't. It’s like my friend Dave Didonato once said, "Don't try not to try. Just don't try."
Zorbium Analyzer reading:
Coolness = Red
Music = Red
Conclusion = Disintegration Imminent
I later looked at their myspace profile, and honestly the recordings are not as annoying as their live sound. Regardless of whether or not they were trying to be cool, you should check them out and decide for yourself. It’s the cool thing to do.
The Slits
The future invaders of the Earth may have a bit of a conundrum on their hands when it comes to The Slits. I was very excited to see what I consider to be a legendary punk band perform live at The Troubadour. To be honest, I've never been all that familiar with their catalog, other than "Typical Girls" and some tracks from their Peel Sessions. As a result, I wasn't expecting a set that was mostly reggae. They performed the tunes relatively well, with the strong points being the bass and drums, but it still sounded painfully like a punk band trying to play reggae music. Didn't we learn anything from Bad Brains' brief foray into the genre? One thing I've determined over the years is this: Do what you're best at. As soon as they broke into a fast snotty song (about 45 minutes into the set), Vivian and I looked at each other and traded mimed gestures of excitement and relief. For a few tunes, The Slits really rocked the house.
You may be wondering what effect The Slits' return to the world of music will have on their fate when the flying saucers of doom arrive. It's hard to say. They were so cool when they first hit the scene that it's still lasting to this day (and got me to pay the fifteen bucks or whatever it was to get in). On the other hand, some of the aspects of their newly reformed act are a bit suspect.
Between songs, Ari Up (vocals) kept referring to how The Slits were innovators of the punk/reggae genre and how revolutionary they were/are. This struck me as strange because if you were at the show, chances are you had already formed your opinion one way or the other. The other thing that had me guessing was the fact that one of the young girls on stage was apparently the daughter of someone in the Sex Pistols, and her contribution to the show consisted of backing vocals, some tambourine, and sporadic jumping around. It's like they just put her in the band so people would think they were cool, which is not something a band would do unless they were worried about it.
In conclusion, they'd survive the attack, but only just. Perhaps they'd start a resistance army of the marginally cool. Maybe they'd start playing shows to gather support and spread the word against the alien oppressors. In order to unite the rebels more effectively, there probably shouldn't be any reggae in their sets.
Post Script:
There have been a handful of bands on my radar lately of young women making very agro and fun music such as hey girl!, kill kill the nurse, and Finally Punk (in addition to Mika Miko) that are getting support from some of the older women that inspired them to start bands. I think its exciting and a welcome change from the bands boys in their age bracket are doing right now. I'm sure there are a lot of contributing factors to this burgeoning scene of pissed off girl punks, but the recent flare up might be a reaction to all the Panic! At the Disco and My Chemical Romance punk boy bands that are dominating the major rock radio stations and the mainstream at the moment. What a shame the aliens won't show up in time to wipe those lame ass boys off the face of the earth.
posted by Dan at 10:54 PM
1 Comments:
Man, zorbium analyzers. Those are almost as hard to come across as cylon detectors.
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