Buju Banton Takes the Hit for Tampa's Now Negligent "Kandi Kid" Scene

Buku Banton is being tried in Tampa courts for the "alleged" "conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine and aiding two others in possessing a firearm during the course of cocaine distribution".

This charge seems slightly random in the grand scheme of drug-busts, especially since Buju -- a most excellent reggae singer in his prime - 'Til Shiloh anyone?!? -- is somewhat of a faded star. But then again so is Tamps, so the rationale may not be so bizarre.

What is Tampa known for now-a-days? Similar to Buju, the city of Tamps peaked in the mid-nineties, when the south decided to take it's own approach to the club kid scene through "raves."

Tampa was integral in the development of what became known as the "Kandi Kid" raver;

The central Florida Kandi Kid is a modestly white-trash twenty-something, who makes overt attempts to mimic the style tendencies of a child -- however this individual is most often NOT a child.  Also, most Kandi Kids liked their drugs, and this in turn caused an internal combustion of the Tampa rave scene, and the scattering of Kandi Kids to "clean-up" and confront the "real world."

But what is it about the disappearance of Kandi Kids that has led this southern Rastafarian, Buju Banton, to take the (drug) heat for SoFla ravers?

Sadly the prevalence of syringes and overdoses on the streets of Tampa's dance-party main vein -- Y'Bor City -- caused some form of crack down (no pun intended) and the children of the night were forced into exile.  Dramatic in the tone - yes slightly, but it is true.  Kandi Kids were no longer openly "blowing up"in Tampa clubs and bars, this the period-based PoPo had to find a different target.  The ravers fled -- mostly to Orlando, Miami, and New York, or slowly died from copious drug use -- so the cops were bored.  They needed new prey.




And in the good ol' conservative FLA - what seems better than a peaceful, pot-smokin',  black man?  I mean, according to the good ol' boys in Tampon, that is the supreme jackpot - it's like killing three birds with one ginormous fascist stone.

Buju was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and the Tampax P.D. was hungry for something more than a donut.  Maybe that particular evening, they felt like getting off of their fat, lazy, fascist asses and doing some work.. Perhaps the idea of catching a "pseudo-star" seemed like a way to bring Tampa back into the spotlight? 
Maybe Warren Sapp's departure from the Tampa Bay Bucs left them feeling animosity towards "the valck man."
Who knows the real reason behind it all.  But I can say this with confidence -- although Buju may not rock Kik-Wears and tote around an illegal "cracker" from Starbucks that should dispense whipped cream and not mind numbing nitrous bombs, he;s just a dude -- most likely trying to find a little "pick-me-up' after smoking so much dank. Who can blame the guy?  Really?
And so his compadre was toting a gun -- well, Johnny Law, I believe you can be filed under the same offense.

Ravers live by the manta PLUR -- standing for peace, love, unity and respect.  Rastafarian's preach "the brotherhood of mankind" -- although some extremist Rasta's practice a reverse-racism -- the overall credo of the culture is of peace and equality.
Thus Ravers and Rastas are not all that different in their general outlook on life.  Buju and his rasta compatiroits may not declare the PLUR acroym, but the overall rationale is the same.

Aren't we all just a bunch of dudes who want ot have a good time, and if we need a little substance to assist - who really gives a shit?
Raves are about love and peace, and reggae preaches essentially he same tenets, so i am led to believe that the Tampa police department is in an all-out war against happiness, peace and love.
I mean why else would they be targeting some of the most lackadaisically inclined, Dionysian individuals in their city.

FREE BUJU !

Jesse is Alive!!

Growing up on the east coast, one's teenage punk cred was certainly accentuated by knowledge of left coast bands - you know that whole "the more unfamilar, or obscure, the better" thing.  And it's a really, really big deal when you're a fifteen year old girl, attending private school, running away from home and pretending to be homeless (yes, I did this).
I wanted to be a gutter punk when I was fifteen and Gilman Street in San Francisco seemed like the place to be - ten year earlier.  Nonetheless, I voraciously read about the Bay Area punk rock scene that existed ten years my senior - as if my knowledge of Gilman Street and Operation Ivy would transport me back in time to actually partake in the scene I idolized so fervently.  I listened to their album Energy ad nauseum, and developed an invented a sense of nostalgia for the scene - a nostalgia punctuated with heart bubbles for lead singer Jesse Michaels.

In 1998, most girls my age pined over glossy centerfolds of Justin from N'Sync; I was drooling over a wrinkled black and white printout 
of Jesse from Op Ivy. Sure it was a bit strange that I was on a mission to find a man that I really knew nothing about, but that made the fantasy even better - reality wasn't much of a factor.
When it came to my attention that Jesse was MIA (perusal of punk zines and very analog websites led me to this conclusion when my AOL search for Jesse Op Ivy rendered nada), I made it my mission to FIND JESSE.
My scrupulous search efforts, which consisted of going to local punk rock shows and talking about my mission to find Jesse, were short lived - two weeks in, I think I turned sixteen and got a car.....

In the ten years since, I my love for Op Ivy has remained strong, but I passed Jesse off as dead and gone, forgetting about that tiny time in my life when he meant so much.  UNTIL, I came across the book Gimme Something Better, which chronicles the Bay Area Scene in its heyday and interviews all the heavy lifters.  A book on the bay area punk rock scene is enough to make me feel super special inside, but when I saw that the introduction was penned by JESSE MICHAELS I almost hit the floor.

To make sure that I wasn't hallucinating, or that the authors were stealing quips from 1987, I googled Jesse Michaels, and right before my eyes expounded a plethora of links about him.  He wasn't dead, he was clearly alive and well - moonlighting in bands, creating artwork, being interviewed - I couldn't believe it.  There is a wikipedia page solely about Jesse Michaels and his influence on the punk-ska movement. 

I'm still in shock about all of this - it's like uncovering a secret that you have spent the past fifteen years (not) wondering about.  I'm sure most of you don't share my feelings of discovery and excitement about Jesse being alive, but you can get super pumped on the spectacular music that he, Tim Armstrong, Matt Freeman and Dave Mello created through Operation Ivy.  The band was only together for two years, but their influence will be felt for a lifetime. 
ahhhh memories.


Operation Ivy - Bad Town
Operation Ivy - Here We Go Again
Operation Ivy - Sound System

D-Floor Magic = Yes Giantess

Once upon a time, around 1983/1984, Michael Jackson (circa Thriller) and Prince (circa Purple Rain) had a torrid love affair and birthed a glorious synth-pop miracle child and it's name was Giantess.

Little Giantess was kept hidden in a secret music lab called Neon Gold, and fed a steady diet of John Hughes movies, Whitney Houston, Kajagoogoo and bits of Bowie, and through this miraculous concoction of eighties magic, Giantess morphed into a foursome of strapping young lads with a penchant for pop music.

Fast forward - 2010 and Giantess is now YES Giantess - clearly because the response to their dance floor driven jamz was an emphatic "YES" - and they are rapidly tearing up D-Floors across the country with their supersonic synths and infectious hooks.

Tuff N Stuff, the standout track off their 2009 EP You Were Young (produced by Passion Pit's Ayad Al-Adhamy), is grade A electro and it's catchy chorus is impossible to dislike. My low-fi loving friend over at Gnarly Sauce Music even admitted to feeling bubbly and filled with neon love after listening to Tuff N Stuff!

I recently caught Yes Giantess live at Santos Party House and they were AWE-SOMEEEE! Singer/keyboardist Jan Rosenfeld was all smiles as he sang and bopped around the stage with the same energy as Duckie from Pretty in Pink.
Surprisingly, the place was pretty empty, which is why I feel the need to share the awesomeness that is Yes Giantess, because in my world, they are totally radical and most excellent!

Sweet Jams -

Yes Giantess - Tuff N Stuff
Yes Giantess - The Ruins






New Video for "The Ruins"





Photos from the show at Santos:

Casual Man in Casual Heels

This month's Do's and Don't on Vice are written by NYC local mensch The Fat Jew -
and while all of his commentary on the usual crop of awesomeness and atrocity is hilarious -
this one takes the cake:

"It’s one thing to parade around in a beehive wig and stilettos 
looking like a character in a Broadway show about transvestites—those guys are abominable. But a man in Barnes & Noble scouting for his next great read in a pair of sensible heels? 
Now that’s awesome."

Hello Mother Leopard, I Have Your Cub

At the Drive In - one of the best bands ever
Relationship of Command, released in 2000, is one of the best albums of this decade. Cedric Bixler is a maniac on stage and its phenomenal to watch.

My two favorite songs -

One Armed Scissor



Enfilade

At the Drive In - one armed scissor

At the Drive In - Enfilade

Flying lotus- i got this shit woooo

The Dude Abides

Like every other individual on the planet, I have an unhealthy obsession with the movie The Big Lebowski; i find any reason I can to use stolen quips in general parlance.  People ask what the fuck I am talking about when I say "yes, the dude abides" and I look at them with sadness and disgust, because clearly they have failed to taste this integral slice of cultural pie.  My response to these situations is typical, I say "shut the fuck up Donnie, you're out of your element," and "am i wrong? am i wrong?"  At which point the conversation goes severely south, and I elect to dabble in a bit of pacifist ideology and drop the whole thing, writing the individual off as a nihilist.


The Big Lebowski is like Rocky Horror Picture Show for my generation - some may call it a cult classic - I call it "the shit."  It's influence reaches far beyond the mere film, it affects the daily lives of many a dudeividiaul, as evidenced above.  So when I found an entire website dedicated to the mentality of "the dude," otherwise known as "Dudeism," I knew that I had found the holy grail of culture.
Naturally, I immediately made myself a white russian and dove into the grand poo-bah of all things dude - and I came across this article - brilliantly written by "Rev." Ed Churchman, an ordained reverend of dudeism (finally a religion I can actually identify with.  Churchman philosophizes on the potential of his "special lady," who is studying to become an accountant, to be a productive member of society, yet still be a dude - being that the stylistic tropes of "the dude" are far from number crunching.  Through a perfectly dude-centric narrative and analysis,  he concludes:
I mean, what I’m trying to say here is that you don’t need to be THE Dude to be a Dude. If my special lady wants to become an accountant, they hell yeah, that can only be a good thing. We need more Dudes out there in the world, in all corners, spreading the good word indeed. The more Dudes that disseminate among the un-chilled masses the better, I say.  A Dudeciple can do a world of good from where he is, but he’s not everywhere. He can touch the hearts of all men, over time, but he’s not, like, omnipresent or anything. Chances are you’ll meet him in the supermarket, or at a bowling alley, but if there’s a Dude in your office every day, that’d make things fucking interesting, man.

This dudette definitely abides.

Check out the full article here:

http://dudespaper.com/dudeciples-and-the-pan-dudeian-nation.html/

And a classic scene from the film:

Blasé, Blasé...

photo by l-train

nikon fm, nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens, ilford delta 400 film

The Postelles - White Night EP

It's The Strokes, mixed with a bit of du-wop, peppered with Ska, and smoothed out with some Motown vibes, and it's damn good. New York City based band, The Postelles announced the release of their debut EP White Night, due out March 2nd through Astralwerks. Interestingly enough, the EP was produced by "Stroke" Albert Hammond, Jr. at Electric Lady Studios in NYC - the resemblance is clear. But these guys are much more than just a new take on "the strokes," and their spin on the whole resurgence of fifties du-wop is unique and layered.

The quartet are launching a tour to promote the EP, and it begins with a few stops at Bowery Electric on February 10th and February 17th, before heading out on the road with Hockey (another great band from the left coast). The Postelles, whose name is reminiscent of the sound their tunage brings, will be making an appearance at SXSW in March and I expect they are a band we'll be hearing a lot more from in the coming year.

White Night consists of three tracks:
01. White Night
02. Sleep On The Dance Floor
03. Looking Glass

Here's an awesome older song -

The Postelles - 123 Stop

Cherry Bomb - The Runaways Rock Hollywood

So, it seems that one of my ALL time favorite bands is getting a little hollywood glitz thrown on them - The Runaways, one of the first all-female rock bands, have a movie about them, perfectly titled "The Runaways".

I watched the fifty second trailer, which shows twilight belle du jour Kristen Stewart kicking ass as guitarist Joan Jett, and Dakota Fanning skanking it up as lead singer Cherie Currie - and from the little that I saw, I liked it.
Although, I did read that the movie has Joan Jett singing lead on Cherry Bomb, which kind of pisses me off because movie-goers will now think the original Cherry Bomb was sung by Joan Jett - but I suppose that's how Hollywood does history.

Jett fully stands behind the film, and does agree that there are some embellishments, but maintains that the core story is really there.  She stated in an interview with website Hitflix that the film accurately portrayed the resentment that was felt by men towards female rockers:
"Men object to women playing rock and roll because it’s threatening to see women in so overtly sexual a position - 'Pop music sort of presents itself as, ‘Here I am and you can do what you want with me.’ Rock and roll says, ‘this is what I’m gonna do with you'"


Right on to that! The Runaways definitely told the world what they were going to do with it, and their talent and avant garde gave a well deserved middle finger.

The film opens March 19th, but in the meantime, here are two awesome Runaways songs:

The Runaways Queens of Noise

the runaways - cherry bomb

And the original Runaways preforming Cherry Bomb in Japan
(they were sixteen years old!!  jonas brothers can only dream of being this badass)



And the ladies show their soft side in my favorite (mega-cheezy, but ax-tastic) song - Heartbeat:

The Decline of Western Civilization

Today I revisited an old favorite documentary - The Decline of Western Civilization Part II - The Metal Years - yes, kids, I love rock docs, and I especially love rock docs about that magical time of music when hair, androgyny, cheese-laden power ballads, and sex, drugs, and rock and roll ruled the sunset strip.  I was not alive to witness the debauchery that came with the unhinging of the left coast metal scene, but I can't get enough of the retrospective flash and trash.
Penelope Spheeris, the director of both "Decline of Western Civ" documentaries is one of my idols because she always captured "the scene" in a way that everyone else outside of "the scene" didn't quite grasp.

 
Although, I could go on forever about Spheeris' cinema-graphic achievements - I will cut to the chase - that being the way that music, rock, "the scene" (used as a wide reaching euphemism for any music scene), the fans, the ideology, the raison d'etre behind it all - at least in my small world, and my small scene - is so different than that of the once rock-tastic sunset strip..
The eighties rock and metal scene was the epitome of sex, drugs and rock and roll - and shit, besides the OD's and STD's it looked like a damn good time - and the excess and reckless abandon that the sunset strip exuded is awe inspiring -

Yet as i look at the scenes that i have subscribed to, especially the scene that I currently subscribe to - where brooklyn is the new los angeles and bedford avenue is the new sunset strip - except instead of aqua-net and strippers, there's PBR and hipsters - it seems that the (idiotic and) innocent insanity has been replaced with a sense of (jaded and) ironic apathy. and it really makes me wonder - has music lost it's wild side?

With the dwindling need for the big wigs at the labels in hollywood to back the albums, these artists in brooklyn (and elsewhere) have assumed responsibility for the rights to their music, and with that added (and deserved entitlement) the hi-jinks have seemingly faded.

Paul Stanley of KISS, in the first ten minutes of The Decline of Western Civ Part II (while flanked by four ladies in lingerie)
says that, "rock and roll is made by people who were thinking with their crotches" and I wonder if that is the case anymore. Maybe the indie scene can't be filed under the "rock and roll" tab - perhaps it is more like punk scene, or grunge - where the fuel to rock was less about partying hard and banging a bevy of ho's and more about, um.........
 well, shit, i can't really speak to that right now - but it's something i definitely will think about
in the meanwhile - if you haven't watched the (in)famous Decline of Western Civ II - The Metal Years, I highly recommend you tease your hair, mix a stiff drink, and indulge in the awesomeness and idiocy of it all....

The Decline of Western Civilization Part II - The Metal Years

Also, some choice hair metal songs:
Poison Unskinny Bop

Alice Cooper - Poison

Motley Crue - Kickstart My Heart

Vixen Edge of a Broken Heart

Oh No Ono - Oh YES YES YES!!!

 
Denmark breeds them well, I'll definitely say that. Oh No Ono is the newest batch of Danish broods to get hyped in the states and it's certainly understandable why. Besides being quite easy on the eyes, the psych-pop quintet delivers majestically synthesized rock, complete with the quintessential androgynous vocal (made popular by fellow Danes - Mew, amongst others), and juxtaposed instrumentals that blend airy flutes and bells with deep orchestral violins and drums.
Their fourth and latest effort, Eggs is a splendid smorgasbord of those styles -

Lucky for us, Oh No Ono is currently on tour in the US, and will be playing a set of shows this week in Manhattan and Brooklyn - WOOOOHOOOO!!!
Tomorrow, Tuesday January 26, 2009 Oh No Ono is playing a FREE SHOW at Sound Fix Records in W-burg at 7:00 pm.

Sadly, their Wednesday show at Mercury Lounge with Bear in Heaven is sold out - which I would have totally shelled out the whopping $10 to attend (had I formerly anticipated that the show would actually sell out) - Bear in Heaven is another psych-pop outfit from Brooklyn, with a different, yet equally awesome stylistic approach
Bear in Heaven - Deafening Love is a sweet track off their album Beast Rest Forth Mouth!

Anyway, the dapper Danes are playing a third show at Union Hall in the BK, on Thursday and tickets for that are still available.

I am most excited to see the band live - hopefully they will live up to all my hopes, dreams and naughty expectations....

In the meantime, here are some of my favorite Oh No Ono tracks from Eggs:
Oh No Ono - Helplessly Young
Oh No Ono - Internet Warrior
Oh No Ono - Swim

Goo in your Hand - Sonic Youth get "Fucked Up"

Cross-continental band brawls always cause for a bit of excitement and whether completely serious or not, inject a little humor into the wide world of genre music - last year it was low-fi favorites Wavves that took a proverbial beating from the oh so colourful Psychedelic Horseshit, by way of a hilariously candid interview with The Washington Post. Even though I have head frontman Matt Whitehurst's commentary on Wavves and the whole low-fi movement trillions of times, it never gets old. Granted, I think Wavves pretty much blows musically, and the whole low-fi movement (in my opinion) is drab and over-hyped - but that's all yesterdays news.

It's 2010 now and we have a new batch of band beef to giggle at (thank god it's sans low-fi......)

This time it's Canadian punk/hardcore band Fucked Up taking a stab at label mates Sonic Youth - all orchestrated by Brit photog and raucous rouser Ben Rayner. Rayner has some history with Wavves as well - he succeeded in breaking up the band on stage last year at Primavera - too bad Whiteburst wasn't there to assist him with insults....






Rayner


This is this low-down on the haps:
Vbs.tv interviewed Sonic Youth for their program Soft Focus during the My Bloody Valentine ATP festival across the pond.
In some question/answer hodgepodge, Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore ended up stating that Fucked Up's musical style should be called "dude-core" -
which Fucked Up thought was pretty fucked up and in response to being branded as bros, Fucked Up and Rayner recorded an EP bashing Sonic Youth.




The title track in the EP is "Cranking to Sonic Youth," which according to Rayner (and brit-speak), cranking means "crying and wanking simultaneously," while listening to Sonic Youth - which really sounds like a sad state of affairs.



Rayner, in an interview with Vice, detailed the lyrics to the song:
The verse: "Cranking to Sonic Youth/ Goo in your hand/ Goo in your hand"
The chorus: "You love Thurston and you love Kim/ You love art and you are thin"

Sonic Youth has yet to make a retort to the collabo - but here's hoping something awesome or equally spooge-tastic will come out of it.
You can check out the "Goo in your hand" track on Vice.

Foreskin Fashion: Etnies and Whale Cock(s)

Etnies recently paired up with Dave Carnie of Whale Cock Skateboards to create one of the most awesomely creative, and perfectly controversial ads that I have ever seen, displayed in Vice Magazine's 2009 Fiction Issue. The fictional ad boasts a new skate shoe made from the "softest material on earth," otherwise known as "the skin of a whales penis," and create the Aborted Baby Whale, Whale Cock Shoe. That shit must be madd comfortable! Anyway, the picture in the ad is indeed great, but the accompanying story of how the baby whale-cock skin is acquired is kooky genius. The story is so bizarre, it gets away with poking lighthearted humor at serious issues, and it works brilliantly.
Take a gander...

"As everyone knows, the skin of a whale's penis is the softest material on earth. Aristotle Onassis covered the barstools on his yacht with whale cock foreskin. Everyone who sat in them thought they were the softest barstools they had ever sat upon. Can you imagine, then, how supple the skin of a baby whale's virgin penis must feel? It is the softest material on earth. How much more softer can you get? The answer is none. None more softer. So ETNIES and WHALE COCK have contracted a number of Japanese whaling fleets (equipped with offshore abortion clinics)to acquire only the finest and most pregnant whales in the ocean. The Japanese abortion doctors carefully extricate the baby whales from the mothers' vaginas, and harvest their tiny baby penises. After the skins have been processed and brought to shore, the nimble fingers of tiny foreign orphan children fashion the smooth, malleable material into skateboard shoes. It requires at least 19 baby whale penises to make each shoe, but it's the softest, most comfortable skateboard shoe you will ever wear. Thanks to the tiny cocks of aborted baby whales" (Etnies, 2009)