Very excited for tonight’s show. We’re headlining, we booked the other bands, and I think we’re going to have a good turn out. Have a video of us dancing. Come tonight for yet more! Click here for a handy map and directions! We’re playing with some awesome bands, and the show starts at 9, so don’t be late (look who’s talking)!
Last night at rehearsal at our space in Jersey City, we were taking a break and I stepped outside for some fresh air. In the parking lot, next to my car, was that Monte Carlo we always see. The one with a shady fellow in it who’s just always there, usually in the back of the lot. It’s a shady area; Pearl Studio is on the outskirts of the city, just off the turnpike exit 14b. The local neighborhood is bad, looks like the kind of place where people get whacked, so we mind our own business and we don’t leave anything in our cars. We’ve figured he’s up to no good, but we didn’t know what. As of last night, we have a much better idea.
He was beating a woman and trying to keep her in the car and she was trying to get away. She may have been a prostitute. He was grunting and threatening at her in Spanish, and she was crying and pleading in Spanish. Other people were moving equipment out of their cars and into the studio, and ignored what was happening and went inside. Dude was much bigger than me, so I ran back inside to get the dudes to come out with me. I dialed 911 while we stood there watching as he let her go, mostly because I think he was worried about us. We didn’t want to get physical, but it looked like we would have to interfere. I’m glad we didn’t have to do so directly. She stumbled away in one direction, he drove off in another as the 911 dispatcher picked up. She put me through to the Jersey City police.
They took the info and said that’s all they needed from us, so we went back inside. When we were leaving later, the Monte Carlo was back, just sitting there again. I called 911 again, go forwarded to Jersey City police, and a different dispatcher answered. She was very mad at me for calling again, especially since it appeared to her to sound as if no one was in danger anymore. In fact, I’d go so far as to say she was nasty and rude.
I don’t think the Jersey City Police ever showed up. Gerry suggested that they might not care, since it’s Jersey City; they might honestly have better things to be taking care of, like murders. I can’t help but seriously doubt that. I think they could have at least pulled this guy over and scared him off, we gave them plate numbers and everything and he was beating a woman for God’s sake. We left together because we were worried that the bastard was going to fuck with us. This guy is there every single time we practice.
I haven’t heard the whole new White Stripes album. But I did hear one track on WFMU’s Teenage Wasteland program last weekend, a show that plays mostly old garage rock. Something like “You don’t know what love is … / You just do what you’re told.” And it was just one stomping, hot tune. It’s also pretty much a Rolling Stones tune. Which I say as a point of amusement, not because I think that somehow makes it less-than.
Philadelphia was pretty damn good. Ian who runs the shows in The Factory haunted house is a nice fella, and it was great of him to have us down.
Yo, what’s up with the local Philly bands that can’t be bothered to bring their own people? Everybody who was there was there because us Jersey bands go all the way to get the word out. I mean, I’ll play my heart out to 3 people, that’s fine, and we’ve definitely had nights where our turnout was awful (who hasn’t, at least when they’re just getting started?), but for three bands to strike out in one night was surprising. Maybe it had to do with the venue being so far out of the way (SOUTH Philly, yo)?
Anyway, we’ll see you Friday night in Clifton, NJ [Google Map] We’ve got an awesome show for your with lots of new material, and the other bands are friends of ours. Directions and details are all here. They’re taking a chance on us, letting us headline and book the other bands. So do come out, it’s going to be a blast. Here’s the flier. Hook us up and post it on myspace and what not, mail it to your friends!
“They got the hottest thrift store girls!”
So we’ve been invited to play a show in an out-of-season haunted house in South Philadelphia, Saturday the 23rd of June! No idea when we’re playing, but load-in / get-loaded is at 5pm and the show starts at 6pm. It should be a total blast. Our first out-of-state trip that isn’t NYC!
The Meltdowns dancing in some haunted house
Saturday June 23rd
38 Jackson St, Philadelphia, PA 19148
Doors: 6pm, cover: $5
w/ Trouble Everyday, Robots and Racecars, RunRunner, Heatsleeve, Velvet Crayon
A lot of my friends are not into rock bands with female singers, and I’ve been thinking about that lately, wondering what the deal is. One of these friends is even a woman and a singer herself. Now, it may all just be preference, and everyone is entitled to theirs. But there are far fewer women who sing rock music than men (I think… I mean, I didn’t do a survey, I could be wrong). And there are definitely patterns of singing in rock music, tricks and things stolen over the years (we all are total thieves and I don’t want to here anything otherwise) in a field dominated by men. So I’ve been listening intently to women who sing listening, just listening. And I got nearly knocked out of my chair, off my terrace, and rolled down McWhorter St to much laughter in the Ironbound when I heard Leslie Feist’s song “The Park”, off of her record The Reminder. It’s so beautiful, and she has an amazing voice. But wait for the 4 minute mark, when she sings just two words, her voice the trumpet of her own heart. The perfect mix of some strange microphone and her voice and her song. It’s amazing. And it’s nothing like anybody, man or woman, who sings in any rock bands that I listen to. I can’t get enough of it. I’m going to go listen to it again now.
Update: Listen to those slow, quiet, mournful horns, just barely there, the perfect embellishment, so subtle and graceful. The guitar that strums like a bell under her quivering voice. Ah! The few and powerful piano taps… it’s just perfect.
Last night we finished tracking for Club Sedition, the extra percussive stuff, and worked George Tenet into the mix. We just have to talk to our man of the law about clearing the sample, but it’s basically done. Mr. Gerry Griffin the Fourth of Temple of Tuneage Studios in Verona, NJ has done a fantastic job of putting this single together, and will be mixing it for us. We hope to send it out to a printer in a little over a week!
This Sunday we begin tracking a full-length, finally, with our man C-minus. We hope to do the whole thing (minus Shelter and Club Sedition) in two very long days.
We may be playing in Athens, Georgia this August with our friends Oh No They Didn’t, and we’re also trying to nail down a show in Durham, North Carolina! And we may be playing in Philadelphia really soon. Like really soon (two weeks?) Lots of shows in the works for August! A couple of awesome gigs in July, as well, here in New Jersey, and possibly another Brooklyn gig at Luna.
Lastly, we will be playing a gig with the spoken word poet Twig on his return from Japan at the end of August, and we’ll be backing him up for some of the Zephyr Device tunes!
I just spent some serious time reading this research piece on a performance-artists streaker type over on the WFMU blog:
At the start of 1974, Opel was a freelance photographer for the gay newspaper The Advocate (now a leading national magazine). When he showed up at the Academy Awards he used these credentials, and a great deal of exaggeration, to make himself appear a more significant journalist than he actually was (nobody questioned the validity of a long-haired journalist in a blue jump suit?). Once Opel was in, he knew that his incongruous appearance could have potentially raised red flags before the stunt was attempted. He made his way backstage and hid inside an enormous piece of scenery. According to Jack Fritscher, a fellow artist and confidant of Opel’s, “He said he thought he was going to die in there because there were electrical cables feeding all around him and he had to stand on them and at any moment they would move around.”
Fascinating read. Guy gets knocked off in the end. I don’t think we’ve ever known a time in our lives when we could pull off a stunt like that without worrying about getting the shit kicked out of us by cops and sent to jail as terrorists, but back then people like Opel would show up in court naked and wave their balls at the chief of police, big middle fingers for cops, not taking any shit for speaking their minds, screaming about their rights at the top of their lungs.
We make fun of them, the righteous and rebellious of days gone by, we roll our eyes when people talk about their rights. It doesn’t have to be a scary time to be alive. We could all make like Gilgamesh, defiantly waving our genitalia at the gods and reveling in the very fact that we’re alive.
Anyway. We finished two songs last night, like BAM! “Honey” is a tune that kinda spontaneously happened one night in April, in that basement in Montclair, and it just needed some love. And a new part just happened, too.
We also finished up this other song that doesn’t quite have a name yet, I think. It’s got this intense Fugazi meets Guns N Roses verse riff and a Stones chorus. It rocks REALLY FUCKING HARD and I’m very happy about it. We’re learning to write songs that are slower than 180bpm, and it’s a good thing. We had the parts already, and Adam just whipped some crazy shit out for the vocals and it came together. Expect to hear them later this month.
Next gig:
FRIDAY JUNE 29th 10PM
CLASH BAR
39 Harding Ave, Clifton, NJ 07011
w/ Water Under Water (Jersey City) and Up The Empire (Brooklyn)
$7, 21+
Should be a righteous show. We’re headlining and put the bill together. Water Under Water are our excellent rehearsal space roommates, and Up The Empire totally whips ass. We played with them at 58 Gallery and it was thunderous and can’t wait to do it again. The drummer has the largest kick drum I’ve ever seen (he’s also possibly the loudest I’ve seen).