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.