Monthly Archives: June 2010

Shows and shows and shows and shows and shows and

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Sunday’s night of mayhem was a success on all counts from what I’ve heard. The boys down at the Corner Record Shop put on an excellent harsh noise performance in the evening, and the night was filled with raucious folk yelling and supercharged electric guitar, depending on your location.

The turnout for the Strutt was exceptional according to The Reptilian guitarist and DIT Member Russ Wagner. Plenty of support for Empire! Empire!, Boyln , and Joie De Vivre, which from a performer’s perspective, makes it that much easier to put on an absolutely killer show. Hopefully photos will be forthcoming from that delightful bit of chaos.

Meanwhile, The No Fun House had a record turn-out for Chicken Little, Our Lady…, and The Almanac Shouters, with upwards of 45 people paying at the door (and a bunch of attendees being let in for free). All three bands were fantastic (with Chicken Little being called up for an encore), and everyone had a blast as far as I could tell. I know I did, anyway. Highlights of the evening include No Fun House inhabitant Benji Puppies bringing down a NERF gun which got passed around and used to shoot a great number of innocent bystanders. Thanks to Josh Tabbia for arming Mr. Puppies.

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It’s been a busy month for DIT, but the month is only halfway through. So if you’re feeling bummed out that you missed some of the excellent shows passed, you can surely remedy the situation by checking out some of the excellent upcoming musical joy.

More music tomorrow night at the No Fun House! Parlor Scouts, Bears of Blue River and locals The Number Eight will join the Elephant 6-related band Folklore for an excellent line-up of ambient soundscape and top-notch songwriting. This is not a show to be missed, especially for the measly sum of 2 dollars (suggested. It’s always nice to toss the touring bands a little more). Let’s see if we can’t break last night’s record. See you guys there.

Isn’t it hard enough?

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So some crazy stuff has been happening in downtown Kalamazoo in regards to parking. We’re going to get right down to the bare bones of the operations here at DIT because we don’t like to mess around.

First off: Downtown Kalamazoo Inc. (DKI) tried to hike some parking fines back in December of 06, but that was a no-go. Somehow a bunch of people got charged the higher rates anyways, even though DKI never got any approval from the City Commission. DKI says that they’ll refund the ($80,000) difference to some people who got hiked charges, but, “The amounts will depend upon the number of citations a driver paid and how long it took them to pay the tickets after they were issued.” In short, not how much they got screwed, just how much the government decides to give them back from what they got screwed.

Secondly: DKI is going to “hike a host of parking fees, ranging from an expected 25-cent jump in the cost of an hour’s parking at a short-term meter to a 5 percent hike in the cost of monthly parking passes at public lots and ramps.” Which, according to the Facebook group “Isn’t It Hard Enough To Park On Academy“, is going to cost any employee of a downtown business $1.50 an hour, or $12 a day for an 8 hour shift. And especially on Academy street, where they will be adding approximately 40 new parking meters.

Oh, and they are going to lay off staff at parking ramps by changing their starting time from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Oh, and DKI President Kennith Nacci said “parking fines are not considered a significant revenue generator for the downtown group…”

Oh, and Kalamazoo Noise picked up on it as well so you can tell this is pretty major.

Friday night at La Iglesia: a review of epic proportions.

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On Friday, June 11th, a seed was sown. A seed filled with noise and a fair amount of calls for pizza. Quite a few kids came out after the sun extinguished its hot, muggy rays to witness just what this seed would grow into. Little did any of us know that this seed would drink up our enthusiasm and sweat, and GROW FANGS!

I am impressed, you guys. You have all completely restored my faith in our little scene. What a tremendous turnout! You all are awesome and win a gold star. Give yourself a good pat on the back, or large ice cream cone in commemoration to this occasion.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the glorious music played on Friday. If you couldn’t make it out- don’t sweat it. This is what I am here to do- relay exactly what you missed.

Kicking off the night was Kalamazoo’s own Problems That Fix ThemselvesPhotobucket– fronted by the illustrious Josh Tabbia and joined in his set by one of my very favorite people, Ray Jackson. I want to be very clear before I continue. If you are not a fan of the genre of Noise music, this may not be your, ahem, cup of tea. I do however believe that you should give it a try if you have not. And there is not a better place to start than with Problems. It never ceases to amaze me what people can use to create the most interesting sounds. Sure you could bang on a keyboard for half an hour and call it Noise, but it takes real skill to make someone listen to you without covering their ears out of annoyance. The best thing about Problems is that Josh is able to create an incredible piece of music with nothing more than a Macbook, a Korg, and some random samples from a radio. Knowing him, he could do an awesome set with much less if he wanted to. Since every set Josh does is different, this time it involved his fairly regular set up (as previously mentioned), and Ray jamming on a water jug and a Dynamic Microphone hooked through a gritty, distorted amplifier. I’m not going to attempt to describe the sound, because I know none of what I say would do Problems justice. Really, Problems is something you just have to experience for yourself. And I can promise at the very least you will not have heard anything like it. At the very most, your mind will be blown clear out of your head. I’m not sure if that’s a Problem that could fix itself. heh heh heh…bad joke.

Before I continue, I have to be honest. I did miss out on the band after Problems. I’m not going to make excuses, you just have to know that I had to help out a friend in a middle of a crisis. Regardless, I had the opportunity to listen to The Cell Phones on their Myspace. PhotobucketI’m sad I didn’t get to see them, but I’m glad Myspace is here because this band rocks. It’s really damn good gritty dance music with quite a bit of metal and punk thrown in for good measure. And they have a chick singer. Who not only is a singer, but a GOOD singer. If The Yeah Yeah Yeahs had a baby with Janis Joplin and it was raised in a dirty basement on the blood of Shellac it would be something like The Cell Phones.

One of the most interesting parts about last night was the project of young man named Daniel Francis Doyle. You can’t really tell much about his music from that name, but maybe that’s the way he likes it. If his goal is to surprise us, he has done a hell of a good job. I don’t think there was a person in that room whose mouth didn’t drop to the floor while he played. PhotobucketI think this picture accurately describes what we saw. This guy is, quite literally, a one man band. With just a drum, a guitar, and a loop machine, he could create the sound of an entire band (and he sings too!!!). The sound is really frantic, but controlled like a well-oiled, quirky machine. This guy knows EXACTLY what he is doing. I can’t say that I know much about using a looping machine, but when discussing his music with a few of my musician friends afterward, I discovered that not only was this guy able to make multiple loops with his guitar and play drums to said drums (while keeping on beat and singing no less), he was able to play to the loop playing BACKWARDS. I am so pleased that I was able to experience this guy’s music. If you missed his set on Friday, I would encourage you to check him out if he comes back up to Kalamazoo.

Closing out the night was, of course, our very own Grow Fangs. Photobucket Ever moshed to an acoustic guitar and a mini drum set with a noise machine? Didn’t think so. “How can you mosh to that?” some of our punk rawk readers may ask. Well, go to a Grow Fangs show and you will. The best part about Grow Fangs is that they show us you don’t have to be Eddie Van Halen to play guitar or be an amazing song writer. Who cares about any of that stuff anyway? I sure don’t. The joy that Ray and Joel have when playing music is infectious, and you can’t help but jump around giggling. Grow Fangs is about having fun with your friends and shouting about pizza, no school, and girlfriends being wolves. How much better can it get?

Well, I must be off. There are multiple shows going on in Kzoo right now (including the corner record shop), so i suggest hitting up one (or all) of them to enjoy some incredible music. See you all there, loves! ❤

Do It Together!

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Like what you see here at the DIT Kalamazoo blog? Interested in getting involved? Have a show you’d like help promoting? Have a band you’d like us to book? Do you love the Kalamazoo music community and want to see it grow stronger by everyone joining hands in a spirit of ‘Do It Togetherness’?!?!?

Then join us for one of our weekly meetings! Every Sunday, 2pm at 632 Locust, we here at DIT Kalamazoo meet up and talk about booking and promoting local shows, ideas for posts on this blog, ways to improve our community and how to kill Superman and take over the world once and for all.

Newcomers are welcomed and encouraged. Even if you just want to sit in the corner and try to figure out what the heck we’re trying to do, come on over. If you’ve ever felt like you wanted to do more for Kalamazoo music, this is your chance. Or, if you just want us to book your band so that you can become world famous and be the envy of all your friends, this is your chance. We’re getting new show requests every day from touring bands from all over and we need all the help we can get.

Any questions can be directed to: ditkalamazoo@gmail.com

See you at the meeting.

The Almanac Shouters’ first full-length album ready to drop.

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As usual, the Shouters and I completely underestimated the time it would take to mix down the album. We ended up missing The Grow Fangs! / Problems that Fix Themselves minitour show last night, but the 13-track debacle that was the Almanac Shouters’ first full-length album is completely mixed and mastered to the band’s satisfaction. The jams sound good, if I do say. Of course, if you don’t believe me, you can always check out ‘A Walking Song’ on the band’s Myspace.

The Shouters will be playing the Trumbullplex tonight in Detroit, Mi, and selling their newly-cut album for a reasonable price. Then, tomorrow night, the official hometown CD release is happening at 9pm at the No Fun House right along with Chicken Little and Our Lady… . It’s gonna be a hootin’ and hollerin’ (shoutin’?) good time.

Well, I’ll be yelling anyway.

Looking sharp, DIT.

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In the true spirit of doing it together, fellow musician and newly-graduated graphic designer Josh Tabia threw together a most excellent banner for the blog. Fella knows how to make a two-bit operation look good, that’s for sure. Thanks Josh, for making us seem that much more legitimate. If we keep this up, we might even get somebody fooled!

Last night was another I spent in the studio, but not with the Almanac Shouters (that mayhem will resume – and hopefully culminate – tonight). No, last night was installment 3 of a project that has been creatively (hah!) dubbed ‘The Album-A-Week Project’. Every week we’ve been getting together some of Kalamazoo’s finest young musicians, writing up some chord changes, and jamming – just to see what will happen.

This is not an Album-A-Week session, but it looks like one

All three sessions have been very successful, with plenty of fusion-jazz jam-band goodness packed in to three hot and sweaty Wednesday nights. As soon as I get some of the material mixed and mastered, you can bet it will be available for free download right here, so if that’s something you’re interested in, make sure you keep checking back – I’m bound to get some of it done eventually.

The blog will be getting yet another facelift and slight relocation in the near future, as DIT member Carman Goodrich was awesome enough to take care of URL and hosting space for a bona-fide site, which he’s also going to whip up for us. We’ll let you know before that happens and where we’re going, but rest assured it’s going to a positive development, allowing us to do all the silly things we really want to see in a DIT website.

That said, if there’s anything you guys want to see us do, give us your recommendations by emailing jaradwselner (at) yahoo (dot) com and we’ll make sure we take ’em in to consideration. After all is said and done, everybody’s got to help if we’re gonna do it together.

Noise Annoys At The Corner Record Shop

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Not doing anything terribly important this Sunday night? Feel like experiencing something a bit different? Then the Corner Record Shop has just what you need. A noise concert. This Sunday, from 6:30-9pm, CRS Kalamazoo will be overtaken by a host of otherworldly sounds that surround the listener and destroys the sense of both time and space. If you’ve never experienced a real noise show, you owe it to yourself to at least try it once. Besides, it’s a free show. You have nothing to lose.

The show is presented by local noise label SNSE Records. Owner, Pat Yankee, will also be performing as his alter ego Paranoid Time. Other performers include: Grain Belt from Minneapolis, Custodian from Milwaukee, Gnawed also from Minneapolis, and lastly Infirmary from Peoria, IL.

Just so you know, this is a HARSH NOISE show. Bring your earplugs if you don’t want to die.

Get Your HEALTH Tickets Before It’s Too Late

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HEALTH is playing The Strutt this Wednesday with Gold Panda and Rotten Wood Moon. Doors are at 7pm and it will be $12 day of. Discount pre sale tickets are still available at The Corner Record Shop in Kalamazoo. Be sure to come get them before they run out and you have to pay full price or maybe even not get in!

Elephant 6 Member To Play No Fun House On June 15

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If you don’t know who the Elephant 6 collective is, you’ve probably at least heard of some of the bands. Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, Apples In Stereo, Of Montreal & Elf Power, just to name a few. The last band is who this article is more or less about. Jimmy Hughes, the guitarist for Elf Power, has another band by the name of Folklore and they will be playing the No Fun House this Tuesday, June 15. Folklore is exactly what you want out of a summertime concert. Catchy vocals, lo-fi guitars, horn sections and every song has a care free feeling that makes you want to dance the whole night through.

On tour with Folklore is Chicago band Bears Of Blue River. They bring all the same great vibes of Folklore except they utilize more acoustic instruments. Think something like Fleet Foxes or maybe early M. Ward. Their songs are warm, beautiful and makes the listener want to feel alright.

The third band playing the show will be The Parlor Scouts from Forest Glen, Maryland. Parlor Scouts are one of the happiest bands you will ever hear. Every song is so full of unbridled joy that you can’t help but have at least a glimmer of happiness. At the same time, they have a very experimental element to their music. Some of the guitar parts and rhythms have a distinct post punk and no wave influence to them. This sound could perhaps best be described as ‘Avant Twee Pop’. Definitely worth checking out.

Finally, as if this show didn’t already have enough variety and awesome bands, The Number Eight will be providing the local support. Tim and Carman have a unique approach to their music by combining drum machine, feedback and distortion to the sometimes stale singer/songwriter style. They’ve been perfecting these songs for a few months now are starting to hit on something very special. You’re not going to want to miss out on this.

Long Nights and the Like

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Over the last few days, I’ve had the pleasure of hosting the Alamanac Shouters in my studio, where we have been diligently (if not ridiculously) recording their first full length album. I don’t know what it’s called. I don’t know what it’s packaged in. I just set up the microphones, play the fancy nobs and sliders, and press the little red button that says ‘record’ from time to time.

When you spend extended hours in two small, padded rooms with the same 4 people, things tend to melt down from time time. At points, you just can’t help but shouting (oho! See what I did there?). At other points, you’re just going to laugh and laugh and laugh while the guys in the other room shout at you for laughing because, well, damn it, they’re trying to record a take here.

For as silly as things can get, though, The Shouters are a real pleasure to work with, and as many of you guys know, their material is top-notch home-grown minimalist guitar-plus-banjo folk-punk bliss. Barring a complete failure in production (which is not impossible), I know you cats are gonna dig this album. So you know, make sure you come around on the 13th when the Almanac Shouters (hopefully… fingers crossed!) release it.