Monday trifles.

1. Temperature? I was ridden with the plague & I still made it out–suck it up old man! :)I love that Mark Fry track; I definitely will be picking up that album ASAP–thanks!And thanks as well for posting to my review of the Sun Circle/Wind-Up Bird show. I lost my site counter when I upgraded my blog software and I’ve been wondering if anyone still visits anymore.

2. Yeah, the cat’s outta the bag, if it ever it was in: I don’t like VT winters. They’re rough on my old man bones. Mark Fry is definitely some airy-faery goodness, fo sho.I visit your blog every damn day, dude — often up to and/or exceeding five times! In fact, I’m heading there right now!

3. Awww, shucks…. **blushes**I wasn’t sure if I was getting five hits a week at this point; guess I better keep it going!So here’s a question–what’s going on at Higher Ground? I had been so disillusioned with their booking decisions for awhile, and suddenly it’s like someone discovered the Pazz and Jop poll and had a life-changing experience. Is someone new handling the booking there or are outside influences at play? Inquiring minds want to know….

4. I don’t have the direct mindlink to the HG hive, but I do have a few pet theories as to why this happens.To my understanding, those who book/influence the booking at HG are definitely interested in indie-rock, experimental and other, non-jam musics. But at a certain time of the year (ie: when the college students return) they typically shift towards stuff that they know will put asses in the building. This is akin to squirrels hoarding nuts before a long winter; all local businesses seem to practice a form of this.Then, once it gets really brutal outside, things kind of slow down on all fronts. It’s tough to motivate folks to leave their houses on nights when it’s below freezing — I’m certainly no exception, and it’s part of my job. The shows reach their lowest ebb around the holidays. They’ll continue to pick up from now ’til spring.At that time, a lot more bands will start touring more heavily, which increases the lot from which to pick. It still takes convincing to bring some bands up here, especially if they’re percieved to be on a fast track. It’s better for them to saturate major markets at that point. If it weren’t for Montreal, we’d likely be dead in the water.Vermont is weird in general… the perception is we’re ruled by jam, and to be honest, we are one of the more reliable markets for touring acts of that ilk. But it’s been demonstrated that there is an audience for other stuff; it’s just more difficult to predict turnout. I think HG is doing the best they can considering all of the variables. They bring in metal, comedy and mainstream country, too — all performance genres that can easily be overlooked in a town this small. So I say, be psyched when something you like comes to their club. The best way to ensure it keeps happening is by attending the show.

5. Excellent theory Casey, and I think you’re dead on. It’s hard enough for a music venue like Higher Ground to stay in business in small area like Burlington, and damn near impossible if they were only catering to specialized tastes. Martin Scorcese had a quote about filmmaking that said (to paraphrase) you have to make an entertaining movie & try your best to sneak the art in. This is what I see Higher Ground doing–catering to the popular taste & then booking some more challenging acts that might not bring in as much revenue.I also agree with your theory on seasons–not only do more people go out to shows in the summertime, a lot of people tend to enjoy more introspective music in the winter and fun, jump-around kind of music when the seasonal depression wears off. So again, it makes since that we would be seeing more experimental bands making an appearance at HG now.But even still, it seems like the next few months has more indie/experimental/whatever talent compressed into it than I have seen at HG over the past couple of years combined. It definitely seems like something is going on there, whether it be newly enlightened staff, new inputs or just a good year revenue-wise so they figured, what the heck, let’s give some people a treat. Either way, I’m just happy to have it while it lasts!

6. Well, in the few years that I’ve been at this post I’ve witnessed some surprising acts come through HG: Antony & The Johnsons, Brightblack Morning Light and The Books are among the first that come to mind. Then again, it seems like moe. and G. Love are here at least a couple times a year. But they also had Wolf Parade, Wolf Eyes, Of Montreal and Deerhoof. And, love ’em or not (me = not) this is CYHSY’s second HG appearance.So I dunno.

7. Point well taken! It just seems like The Books didn’t perform until well after the initial glowing reviews of “Lemon of Pink” appeared, and same with CYHSY. I guess to me it’s not so much the shock of the talent, it’s that there’s so much in a short time period & they’re such timely bookings–right after some major critical recognition and/or album releases for Clipse, Deerhoof, CYHSY, Akron/Family (fingers crossed), etc.It’s just so seldom that I get into a band and just weeks or months later they’re playing at Higher Ground. I feel like I’m living in NYC only without the traffic, high rent & revival movie houses 🙂

8. casey you missed the gong bath dude….

9. We saw The Host! It was cute. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it, I think, a lot more than I would’ve Grindhouse. I do love ‘splosions and guns and cars and blood and death and stuff, but… Grindhouse just seems too self-aware and self-congratulatory.

10. The Robert Rodriguez half was right up your alley, though. He did all the music himself, and it was awesome in a Romero/Goblin kind of way. The script was wonderfully atrocious. It’s hard to write that bad. Takes talent. Freddy Rodriguez from “Six Feet Under” was all faux-serious, like a clueless porn star. And Michael Biehn was just plain funny. Haven’t hardly seen him since Aliens. Of course, the mood of naughty good times was completely ruined by Tarantino’s half, which could be rightfully called “too self-aware and self-congratulatory.” The saddest part is that he’s, like, Mr. Grindhouse, yet it seemed like he couldn’t let go of his ego enough to make a bad movie awesomely. Instead, he made an awesomely bad movie.

11. I have less of a problem with Lindsay Buckingham than I do with Paul Kaza. If Buckingham wants to use pre-recorded tracks, that’s his call. However, I was just annoyed that Kaza knew Buckingham was using pre-recorded tracks and still considered it one of the best performances in Vermont since 1977. It just seemed like a jerky thing to say. I should know because I’m the king of saying jerky things.

12. Loved the LA Weekly piece! There was a little girl in Honolulu whose cultural mother’s milk was 70’s pop radio. She used to listen to Casey Kasem on her red globe-shaped Panasonic transistor AM radio, even writing down the Top 100 on New Year’s Eve every year. (Major geek, that girl!)When people snobbishly dismiss 70’s pop–especially hipster young ‘uns who weren’t there–they’re thinking narrowly of the piles of disco that some folks bulldozed or burned at decade’s end. But the decade also produced a lot of great stuff. As the LA Weekly writer reflected, one random week’s Top 40 blows most of today’s forgettable pop music out of the water. Finally, some R-E-S-P-E-C-T for the 70’s. Even some of the disco cheese was mighty tasty…or so some little girl told me!

13. Murf, I get that you didn’t like Kaza’s article. But there’s a big difference between Milli Vanilli and the use of live loops, which tons of today’s artists do — Joseph Arthur (gag) and Andrew Bird being but two examples. Hell, half of any Flaming Lips concert is pre-recorded, and everyone still gets all gooey over them. Judging from the tone of the writing, Kaza was blown away by these “mystery sounds,” which betrays a certain degree of cluelessness. Of course, he’s not strictly a music writer, so I cut him some slack for being square, ha-ha.On the subject of of last Sunday’s concert events: I can’t stand the band Cold War Kids, and would much rather sit through acoustic dad-rock by a guy who contributed something lasting to pop music. But that’s just me. Of course, I didn’t attend either show!My problem with Kaza’s piece (no offense Paul), is that it wasn’t terribly insightful. But Gannett dailies aren’t exactly known for their penetrating criticism. Isn’t that why God invented blogs?Anyway, I thought yours was a fun post (and letter). Hope you don’t mind me razzin’ ya a little bit.

14. Dino Jr. at Higher Ground with Lou Barlow…WHOAAAA!!!!!

15. I haven’t seen Andrew Bird live before but I’ve seen live videos of his performances and the impression I had was that he was using loops of sounds he recorded while on stage; same as M. Ward and Yo La Tengo. However, like I said, I haven’t seen him live so I don’t know for sure.What does Kaza normally write?

16. I think he’s a freelance theater and music reviewer for BFP. He owns his own marketing company in S. Burlington. It’s his main gig. It’s been around since the early ’80s. We can all agree that his live review was “weak salsa,” as a friend of mine would say.But let’s get back to the other debate. Tons of acts use live loops. Chances are, anytime you hear one, it’s from this device. I’ve had one for years. You are correct in your statement that the repeated patterns are usually generated from a live phrase.However, there are lots of other popular bands that employ pre-recorded sounds, and not just in hip-hop and electronic genres. I mentioned Flaming Lips, who make fine use of canned tracks in their sets. There’s also Super Furry Animals. Locally, there’s Carrigan. Triggering a sampled part to create texture doesn’t neccessarily equal coasting. Mr. Buckingham, fingerpicker that he is, can certainly hold his own on a solo instrument in a live context. Perhaps the show had a “Stop Making Sense” kind of build up — start with a single guitar and voice, then add other elements. But I’m guessing.

17. Did the Burlington Free Press actually print the words “giant dick slap”?? Cause I might need to move back if so. Either way, bravo Murf. Come to think of it, I DO remember waking up one morning recently rubbing my jaw and thinking “WTF… did I just get slapped with a giant dick??Can I say dick slap again?Dick slap.

18. Unfortunately, I don’t think they ever printed it. A few people have gotten on me for using “dick slap” when I knew that they wouldn’t print something like that. However, when I’ve sent letters to the editor before, they’ve written back to me and asked me to edit it so they could use it. So, I was hoping they would just pull “dick” out and leave it as a “giant slap” but they just binned the whole thing. I think they prefer letters that challenge an issue rather than their writers…or they just thought I was a vile son of a bitch.

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