Corndogs

In anticipation of the DVD version of the new Minutemen documentary We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen I googled and came across this brilliant site which has video and audio downloads of plenty of unseen and unheard Minutemen materlial. Since the only other visuals I have of this great band is from the Best of Flipside Video, vol. 2, and since i do not have a VHS player to play it, the vidoe clips on the corndogs site was like a revelation. Although the quality of the visuals are a bit dodgy, I had a ton of fun anyway. But I'm still waiting for that DVD.

No money? No problem.

So lack of money made me miss a host of possibly good gigs during the past week. Atomic celebrated their release of the live anthology The Bikini Tapes with a gig at Blå in Oslo.

This was also the week of Oslo Jazz Festival. As usual, there weren't many interesting gigs, but I did look forward to Peter Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet, which also played at Blå. But, alas, I had no money. Reports said it was a good gig, although I failed in my efforts to find a link of the review i read. I'm not a big follower of the European improvisational scene that Brötzmann is regarded to be a part of, and I often have problems getting through his classic Machine Gun, but I just as often find it enjoyable. Still, I'd gladly pay to see him live.

One of the few other interesting artists at Oslo Jazz was Lee Konitz, whose Motion from 1961 ,with Elvin Jones on drums and the lesser known Sonny Dallas on bass, I love. In connection with his visit, my old nemesis Ole Martin Ihle wrote a pretty good article on cool jazz versus bebop and hard bop in the Norwegian daily Klassekampen (I have no link to the actual article. Try the site's search engine). He points to the apolitical and detached style of cooljazz, as opposed to the engaged and political, or at least social, implications of be bop and hard bop. His reasoning is good, as is his writing, but I can't help to argue that to label Lee Konitz as merely a cool jazz player, is to overlook large parts of his oeuvre.

So there you go. Three concerts in a weeks time, and I attended none of 'em. Damn those delayed student loans.

Beep beep (/mi mi/)?

Mr. Matos reckons Crazy Frog's "Axel F" is ace. He is SO wrong. You'd think it could've been catchy/annoying like, say, "The Ketchup Song". No freaking way. He's got quite a few other good points, though.

Not so Extraordinary?

The New York Times reports that Fiona Apple has rerecorded the songs on the internet leaked album Extraordiary Machine (or Fuck Sony as it was also called). As you may know, the initial album was shelved by Sony (for six years now), which spurred fans to leak the album online. I dowloaded a version myself, and thought it was pretty good. She's still bitter (clenched teeth-image) but funnier, and the music is a bit quirkier than her previous two albums. I have my doubts about the rerecording, though. Time will show, but hopefully not six more years.

The party's over...

Oya is over for this year, which basically makes it feel like the summer is over, too.

Friday 08. 12. 2005:

Went over to see The Thing at the start of Friday, and they played a very good set. They bashed through barely recognizable cover versions of garage rock "hits" by mixing the riffage of that genre with the elasticity of free jazz and keeping the energy of both. Ingebrigt Haaker Flaten on double bass was particularly impressive, stretching and hammering his strings and creating grooves behind Gusatffson's hollering. I don't get the Ayler comparisons at all. Ayler had a knack for simple melodies to set off his wailing; Gusatffson is more of a power player akin to David S. Ware. Riffs more than melodies. But he can wail, too. Nilssen-Love was strangely subdued at the start of the set. Perhaps it was the sun. Thurston Moore was not only in the audience, but decided to join them for a jam. As fun as it was to see him on stage, he drained some of the intensity away from the group. His guitar was a bit too loud, and with him on board, the guys seemed less interested in throwing in a riff or two to shake things up.

Then I had to f**k off to work.

I came back just in time for Sonic Youth who were scheduled on stage at 21.30. Their set comprised largely of song from Sonic Nurse, which were performed exquisitely, and just a hatful of classics; "Bull in the Heather", "Catholic Block" and the closing "Expressway to Yr Skull". Mats Gustaffson added some horn on the closer, but "Catholic Block" made me punch the air. Some may have lamented the lack of "hits", but for me, omitting them made it feel more like a proper concert. Good on them. I still have a few problems with Jim O'Rourke, though.

Apparently, Saul Williams' set was pretty good.

Went home and slept.

Saturday started with more work for me, which made me miss even more music. No big deal, though, as I most likely would have sat around drinking beer and slagging off the artists anyway. Arrived around Animal Alpha's set. They are truly horrible. An energetic female singer does not make an average nu-metal band better, especially since nu-metal is pretty awful to begin with.

Nick Sylvester reckons Datarock had a good gig. I didn't get to see them.

Sons & Daughters were this year's post-punk alibi. Better than your average, if only because they remind me of the Au-Pairs, a band which none of the other post-punkers have copied yet.

Franz Ferdinand's set was slightly enjoyable. They started off with my favorite song of theirs, "Michael", and slowly went downhill from there. Their good-natured aura takes them a long way, but the new songs were very anonymous (were there any?).

Robert Post is this year's Julian Berntzen, complete with terrible English and naive song writing skills. Norwegian critics love that shit.

Roots Manuva's set was far better. I was getting drunk by that time and started to dance almost immediately. I seem to remember wanting the bass to be heavier and the vocals to be louder, but still fun.

The Subs, from China!, ended this years Oya (at least at the festival site). Rock'n'roll like only East-Asians know how to play. Part novelty and part fun.

Beers and the mandatory nachspiel ("after party" for you non-Norwegians/Germans) with my chums from Trondheim meant I only got up just in time to watch Arsenal get a win, and that there were no funds left for me to go and see the mighty Atomic at Blå on Monday.

Øya 2005

So, this years Oya festival, the most rockist festival of the lot, has just started rolling. Small club gigs on Wednesday set the thing off, with my chums in Accidents Never Happen being the sole band I bothered to go and see, while Eirik is raving about The Cocktail Slippers. I obviously missed out on something.

Yesterday (Thursday) was the opening day at the festival site. With rain and a gawdawful line-up setting the mood. I was charmed by the young girls in Mary Me Young; their bubble gum-punk is not original, but it is good humored, and I can't say "no" to a song proclaiming the love for chocolate. The bar was raised considerably when the old dudes in Dinosaur Jr. entereded the stage, and rescued the day from oblivion. Their energy was contagiousus and I was left feeling sixteen again, and I wished I had a joint, ...or something. Needless to say, it was a better reunion than the Pixies one, and they also reaffirmed my love for (power-) trios.

Speaking of trios, I'm off to see the amazing Thing, the Nilssen-Love/Haaker Flaten/Gustafsson combo. Expecting powerful stuff, and possibly Thurston Moore as a member of the audience.