The Black Angels and Vietnam @ The Independent, 5/30/07

by hardrockchick [about 3 years, 3 months ago.]

It was psychedelic rock night at The Independent, and this was proved not only by the music at hand, but also the earthy smell of unwashed hippie-sters in the air, and the passion clashin’ happening both onstage and in the audience.

As Vietnam took the stage, I soon caught the vibe of ‘something going on behind the scenes’. Guitar boy wasn’t really playing, and was muttering to Lead Singer boy to give him a pick or something. Not in the oops-this-is-the-kind-of-funny-thing-the-audience-pays-to-see way, but in a jerky, shit-not-together way. These types of guitarist-singer disruptions continued, which kept taking me out of the ‘peace sign sway’ mode and pushed me right into ‘this guy sounds like a poor man’s Dylan- hurry up and finish your set’ mode. Highlight was definitely when the guitarist played a ‘solo’ on a Nintendo DS, complete with floor rolls and all. That type of technical integration did not fit with a ’70s throwback band. Then, shortly after, another ‘interaction’ occurred, this time with the drummer and guitarist, I think. And, the next thing we all knew, the drummer got up and left and the set was cut short. Guitar boy even muttered “well, I guess it’s over”. Hmmmm…..bit of advice? If you’re going to have some band drama on stage, crank it up a little. Take some lessons from Anton (BJM) and throw a hissy and punch someone out. The youtube cred will get you a record deal for sure. The muttering and sideways glances aren’t going to cut it.

Then, The Black Angels. Class act, these guys. No, really, I went to school with the guitarist, Christian Bland. I really enjoyed them, even though some of the space out moments would have been better in an altered state. I commend them for heavy hard rock chick integration into the band- they’ve got a chick on keyboards and a drummer/bassist chick. They finished with a brilliant cover of Iggy’s ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’, sung by the bassist. Strange way to end a show, but no complaints here. Great video projections of national geographic/history channel stuff added to the atmosphere. The Black Angels are proving to everyone that Austin produces some of the best space out rock bands of today (Explosions in the Sky, The Octopus Project, Trail of Dead…)

Video from a different show, the cover of Iggy’s ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ (this song has been covered by some really different acts…I also love this version)

Genre(s): My Musical Adventures

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The USO

by hardrockchick [about 3 years, 3 months ago.]

We are at war. And that means that the USO goes into full swing to entertain our troops. While I always read about famous USO tours during WWII and Vietnam, it seems to be pretty low key nowadays. So, HRC did a little digging…and didn’t come up with much.

2006 entertainers to Iraq included:
-> you guessed it…several American Idols
-> and Toby Keith

2007 entertainers to Iraq:
-> Jamie Kennedy’s Hip Hop Comedy tour featuring Paul Wall
-> ?

Oh, there’s plenty going on in other places…like Italy and Germany, Texas, Hawaii, and even Africa. Perhaps Iraq is too dangerous for the USO, and some acts refuse to participate because they don’t want to support the war.

Here’s a vid from recent Iraq USO event. Chuck Norris was there!

Genre(s): Musings

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Top 5: machinima music videos

by hardrockchick [about 3 years, 3 months ago.]

What is machinima? Read the wiki here. Prepare to geek out.

1. Ballad of Black Mesa ipod parody

2. Nine Inch Nails ‘Only’/Sims 2

3. Ludacris & Mary J Blige ‘Runaway Love’/ Sims 2

4. Zero 7 ‘In the Waiting Line’/ Quake engine

5. Goth Girl/World of Warcraft

Genre(s): Lists

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Doc Martens: Dead Rock Stars

by hardrockchick [about 3 years, 3 months ago.]

So I have an advertising degree. OK, I have 2. So you can imagine my interst when I heard about the dead rock stars ad campaign that Doc Martens recently attempted to launch. Please forgive me while hard rock chick takes of her bandanna and puts on her academic hat.

Saatchi and Saatchi London is Doc Marten’s agency. Someone somewhere in those two entities came up with this idea: “Let’s use the images of dead rock stars in this ad campaign!” Mind you, things like this go through legal departments. It’s blatantly illegal to use someone’s image in an ad without their permission (aka, paying them for it) even if they are dead. It’s questionable if you can even imply the likeness of a celebrity unless it is a blatant parody, where no one in their right mind would believe that it is actually supposed to be the celebrity.

So how can so many people make this kind of mistake? Because it was intentional! Would I be writing about this if it were some random guys that looked like dead rock stars in those ads. No. We’ve entered a point in time where you have to break the law to get people’s attention. Had you heard about Aqua Teen Hunger Force before their Light Brite installation pieces were mistaken for bombs and shut down Boston? OK, wrong audience for that question.

Genre(s): Read This