i wasn't able to sleep yesterday morning, and here i am, now, still wide awake. i'm pushing a 40 hour day. which is not that odd for me, but it's been a while. and, certainly, this lack of tiredness at the end of it is a little unsettling.
after some appointments yesterday afternoon on no sleep, and a second failed attempt at it, i rolled out of bed, grabbed the proverbial comb, and stumbled out to explore another new area of detroit: michigan street. the thing you've got to realize about detroit is that it was obviously built by the illuminati, because of the geometry. it's clear as day. hundred mile long roads rotate out of each other at increments of thirty degrees, winding out to suburbs where no bus is allowed to go. michigan st is the fourth option i've taken so far...
of the four, the end point is actually the shortest walk. and, it seems to be the punk rock district. i will be back in this area fairly often.
when one mentions that they attended a show at the ufo club, it's fair game to ask if they played astronomy domine, to which the answer is: fuck off.
"what? not even interstellar overdrive....?"
well, detroit has it's own history - and this place is actually important in it, being across the street from the old tiger stadium. which appears to basically still be there, just fenced off. rumour has it that the likes of babe ruth himself liked to hit a few out of the park at this place. it's a very old building. those days are gone now, but you can kind of still feel them walking up to the bar...
mexican knives are a local act, but i've seen them written up in review sites. those.....hipster (said with somewhat of a plugged nose).....review sites. and, the accusation may be an accurate first impression, but it's not really fair.
hipster is really a different animal than this. it's goofier. it thinks it's more modern, but that's why people with better taste laugh at hipsters, right?
i think something like "generalized punk" is more accurate.
"generalized punk", as i'd put forth it's use, is a kind of amalgam of punk styles, without any concept of time or geography. which is why hipster is a forgivable immediate reaction. for a minute, it's some early dk thing, then it's got a teenage jesus vibe - wait, now it's joy division with...dude is actually strumming like johnny ramone, get out of here...
see, it's not the worst idea to take all these ideas and try and mix them all up. it's better than flat out copying somebody, at least. but it turns into a "who are they now?" game. and, then you're not really listening to what they're doing anymore.
i'll probably see them open at least a second time, and probably a fourth time. they get plenty of gigs. but it needs to be taken to the next level if it wants to really be taken seriously. whatever that means. maybe doing overlapping duelling medleys instead....
"i just gotta tell you what i'm thinking right away while it's fresh: it came to me in a dream, man. the next movement in punk is recursion. i'll come back around to this, i just need to cycle it through my head. it's really spinning."
google recursion. click on "did you mean recursion". those google kids, always playing silly games...
==
so, noveller was the artist i went to see tonight...
i'm generally pretty dismissive/critical of these "think they can play with a loop pedal" types. almost nobody does this well. it almost always instantly turns into fripp does reich - with lobotomies offered in place of 3d glasses.
"now, with free lobotomy!"
noveller's a cut above, though. it's a completely different talent level. the loops are largely atmospheric, and she's setting off more than a few things as they spin around...
she was visibly unhappy with the sound, even stopping a few times. it's hard to believe that she didn't know that tube amps break up a little at high volume. personally, i thought it sounded fine.
she makes a nice - and often rather beautiful - racket. recommended.
here's a full set:
i caught about a half hour of the soft moon, and then left for the bus. i was a little cautious about timing, it being my first time up that way. one of these days, they'll open the tunnel to bicycle traffic. until then, there's no bus service between 1:00 and 4:00, and i'm stuck in detroit if i'm going to stay late. wasn't into that last night...
it turns out i could have stayed an extra twenty minutes, which probably would have nearly closed the set.
i can't say i really regret leaving early, though. the noisy joy division vibe ends up somewhere near late nine inch nails, and i just wasn't nearly drunk enough for it. despite loving noise. and joy division. and early nine inch nails.
it's just really blunt. they've shifted their sound around through different takes of post-punk, and can at times conjure up some decent soundscapes. it's just that there's no subtlety in the writing. that's a problem that no number of sonic facelifts is going to fix.
this is a short clip, but it's pretty accurate.
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2015/04/14.html
