Come On, Feel The Noise Rock!

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This Friday! The No Fun House is being overrun by a bunch of dirty noise rockers. Hide your mothers and children. It’s going to be wild.

First up is Grand Rapids’ Victory!. Not to be confused with Kalamazoo’s HMS, Victory!. I know it’s confusing. Just trust me. Victory! is a two piece Noise Core Rot band. You may know them as Sam and Brandon from the new line up of Spit For Athena. You may not know them at all. Even more of a reason to come to the show then. This is punk rock like you’ve never heard it before. Get ready.

Next up, Divorce Party will be making their Kalamazoo debut. Do you like The Locust, Arab On Radar, or AIDS Wolf? Then I personally guarantee that you will love Divorce Party. Listen for yourself:

http://divorceparty.bandcamp.com/album/divorce-party-ep

Rounding out the night will be local Post Everything Free Jazz Freak Out Rockers, Forget The Times. Three guitars and a drummer who sometimes plays saxophone. Bring earplugs.

All this craziness goes down Friday October 1st at the No Fun House. 9pm sharp. No punk rock time. If you don’t know the address, shoot us an email at ditkalamazoo@gmail.com. $2 suggested donation for the traveling bands.

See you there!

Tonight at the Strutt…Mind DEATH!

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Things could get messy. We’re kind of hoping your mind melts into a liquid and drips through your nose.

JEREMY RUGGLES AND THE MIND DEATH QUINTET will be battling three other bands for some Tuna. Specifically, the kind of Tuna that features bands like Lightning Bolt, King Kahn, Casiotone, Dan Deacon and Wolf Eyes.

Other bands competing for a slot at the Barking Tuna Festival are worthy opponents Skeleton Party, Nunca Duerma and Coma Nova. Cover is $3. Show starts at nine. Let’s have some fun.

Daniel Francis Doyle returns to Kalamazoo Oct. 3

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If you caught Daniel Francis Doyle’s set at La Iglesia last time he came through town, you probably experienced the same sense of perplexity, surprise, and delight that I did. He’s a man with three first names and he works a loop pedal like no one else I’ve seen.

Doyle will start out a song by recording a random and incomprehensible series of guitar phrases that I’m sure only the man himself can wrap his mind around; he’ll then pause what he has looped, sit down at a drum set, and proceed to simultaneously manipulate the guitar playback along to his drumming – all while singing into a headset mic. It’s a remarkable display of creativity. Check out the video below to get a better understanding of what this one man alone can pull off.

Doyle is just about to begin a lengthy tour that has him on the road all the way through the month of October until the middle of November. He’ll be making the Strutt the fourth stop of his trip. Joining him will be three bands from across Michigan – newer Kalamazoo act, That’s Blood, who bring the shred in a hard way with their proggy, aggressive sound; Ferndale’s brilliantly mathematical The Summer Pledge; and the hyper-energetic punk frenzy of Radiator Hospital from Grand Rapids.

Jokes and Hatchets.

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Tonight at No Fun House, both of these things will be tossed through the air liberally and with abandon. The evening will begin with some decidedly bent humor from Barsen Miller and Jarad Selner, collectively known as BC.

After the lulz have flowed freely, John Van Hattum (aka JUGGLING AT LARGE) will juggle bowling pins, hatchets, torches, small animals and whatever else he can get his hands on. This guy’s a pro… do not miss!

Above: JVH juggles a prosthetic leg that costs about as much as a SUV.

This show has no cover, but the hat will be passed for the performers, so give generously and support Kalamazoo’s funkiest fringe of artists!

They Come From Osaka, Japan!

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This Wednesday, The Strutt is hosting a legend. The amazing Shonen Knife!This all girl pop punk power trio paved the way for Japanese bands and was the first big band from their country to tour the USA. Shonen Knife has recorded some of the greatest and catchiest pop punk songs of all time. And they’ve been doing it since 1981!

An incredibly respected band, SK has toured with Sonic Youth, Nirvana and Mudhoney. Thurston Moore even helped put together a tribute album featuring some of the coolest underground artists of the day covering SK songs.

This is pop punk as it should be. Super fun, fast and short. With songs that only leave you wanting more. Don’t believe me? Check them out yourself:

Joining the fun is Kill Rock Stars Records’ Grass Widow. GW is another all girl power trio but with a slightly different sound. GW have perfected that lo-fi 60s revival indie pop sound that has been going on lately. They are very quickly making a name for themselves. Chances are, you’ll be hearing a lot more of them in the near future.

Locals on this show are the amazing Glowfriends from Kalamazoo and Swimsuit from Ypsilanti. If you’re a lover of local music, you’ve probably already heard these two great bands. But, just in case, here’s some cool videos for you:

So Cow, An Irish Tradition

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Monday nights are typified by being the first night after work / school / sleeping all day every week. Usually there’s no good reason to leave whatever domicile you tend to reside in. Tonight is an exception, and a big one. Heed my warning.

The night starts with Kalamazoo’s newest old band, Night Wired. Newest old, because Night Wired is a slightly reorganized Tiny Rhythm, except their bassist headed on for greener pastures, and the legendary maracca player Gitis Baggs has taken up that position. Now they play spooky surf revival tunes, and it is good.

The middle of the evening belongs to Kalamazoo’s UFO Dictator’s Legendary Wings, old-school punk for your old-school punk heart. Enough said. Rock it.

Finally, Ireland has SO COW on loan for the evening. Punky surfy do-woppy goodness from across the big pond. They’re pretty rockin’. Don’t take my word for it though, check out what Pitchfork has to say about it. I’ll be there jockin, so you better be there rockin. See you tonight.

Cancellation tonight at No Fun

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The Philadelphia-based outfit Conversations with enemies had a transmission drop out of the bottom of a van on ’em, and so won’t be able to make it up tonight for the show at No Fun. As a result, No Fun House’s show tonight has been canceled. We know, it’s lame, but hopefully we’ll catch them next time around.

Meanwhile, there’s all kinds of great stuff going on this weekend at The DAAC, the Strutt, and elsewhere, so make sure you check something out. Oh, and some punk-sissy jazz quartet is at the Craftsman Chop House in Portage tonight from 7:30 to 10:30, so if you really need something to do, the food is good, the drinks are reasonable, and the band will probably do something that closely resembles music. Probably.

Decisions, decisions

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One way or the other, you probably ought to be at a show on Saturday night.

Not only will spastic math-rock virtuosos Tera Melos be in town performing with our local boys Pan and Good News, but legendary folk punks Defiance, OH will be coming to Grand Rapids performing with our very own The Almanac Shouters.

Something like four years ago now I had the chance to catch a little band called By the End of Tonight at the Dolphin House (RIP) here in Kalamazoo. Not only was I blown away by their performance that night, I was also introduced to the equally mind-altering Tera Melos through the split release they put out, Complex Full of Phantoms. Here we are, four years on, and they’re finally making their way from California for what I believe will be their first ever visit to our fair city. Since 2004, this three-piece (formerly a quartet) has been honing and constantly evolving their style, putting out release after release, and touring hard – thus establishing themselves as a touchstone of the math-rock genre. They’ll be touring behind their newest release, the poppier, Patagonian Rats.

Joining them for this show will be locals Good News who may arguably not be the band they are today if it weren’t for Tera Melos (or at least bands of that ilk) and Pan, who I’ve watched only get better and better in the year and a half since they’ve formed.

That same night Defiance, OH will be playing what will surely be a packed to the gills show at the DAAC in Grand Rapids. For about the last decade these folk punk troubadors have been defining a genre and inspiring countless others to mix up their punk rock with banjos and upright basses and cellos, invoking the the activist spirit of classic rabble-rousers like Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger. All the while, they’ve remained true to the DIY ethos. If you’re a fan of sing-alongs and capacity shows you can crowd surf at, you would do well to be at the DAAC Saturday night.

Also performing will be solo artist Toby Foster from the punk mecca of Bloomington, IN (original home of Plan-It-X Records) and Grand Rapids’ Radiator Hospital, as well as the afformentioned Almanac Shouters (our Kalamazoo darlings).

It’s easy to be torn, but Saturday will be an undeniably excellent night for music in Southwest Michigan. Either way, you win.

Unless you’re talking about the game, in which case you definitely just lost.

AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS

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AIDS Wolf is coming to The Strutt on October 15th and will be joined by Rotten Wood Moon, Spykes (John Olson from Wolf Eyes) and D Rider. I’m super excited and you should be too. If you’re not, then watch these videos and GET INTO IT!!!