A Quick Aside: Victim's Family/Street Eaters at Cafe Du Nord 9/30/11

Victim's Family, Bay Area weirdo punk institution, is back and playing shows these days. Kelly Kaos, friend of the blog, decided to head over to Cafe Du Nord on Friday to check them out with Street Eaters. Here's what she saw...

As I walked up to Cafe du Nord on Friday night, I heard what sounded like a girl band already blasting out of the doors from downstairs. It was rather early and I hadn't expected the show to start right at the stroke of nine. I sauntered down into the club and discovered that Street Eaters had already taken the stage. What I thought had been a girl band turned out to be the falsetto of John Geek and his life partner, Megan, who was pounding the drums as if she a guy three times her size. For a two piece, they made a lot of noise. Attendance was sparse (it was still early after all) but the few audience members there to enjoy it were appreciative all the same.

Next up was a band called Two Headed Spy. They were more of a straight up rock group, who seemed fairly competent. I could see why they were booked with Victim's Family. They had a similar sorts of guitar licks between lyrics, kind of a swooping, if you will. I can't say I minded them all that much, but they weren't my cup of tea. I went outside to smoke.

At one point I thought that I saw my friend Janna, so I went up behind her to give her a hug and it turned out to be a woman I don't think I ever met, but she and I went with the pretense of it and we spoke to each other like we had met at Thee Parkside in the bathroom line or something. Now I have a new best friend called Belinda, who followed me around. Always make sure you know who you're about to hug.

Victim's Family, the band I came to see, lived up to the expectation. The crowd was pretty excited too. Many of their most rabid fans were there to pay respects to one of the most long-lived old school punk bands in the Bay Area. The combination of punk/jazz and funk via Larry's git-down guitar slappin' style and Ralph's frenetic intellectual lyrics was intoxicating to both the crowd and the band themselves. You could tell they were having a really good time. Ralph was sweating profusely and drummer Tim was banging it out while Larry preformed a never ending dance with his bass. It was sublime for a Victim's Family fan. Even Jello Biafra was there, not surprising because Ralph is also presently playing with Jello Biafra and the Guantamano School of Medicine. It seemed that the sound was better way in the back of the club, even though you wanted to be up front where the pit was going on. You could even really hear Larry slap that bass from the ladies' room.

I hung out with John Geek and Megan from Street Eaters after the show and John told me that The Fleshies (John's old band) have a show coming up at some warehouse in the Tenderloin on Dec 9th. Keep your eyes out for that. I know I'll be going.

-Kaos Kelly

OLDMAN! ONCE AGAIN!

The first family man of hip hop is back with some video reviews! Without further ado....

Gym Class Heroes w/ Adam Levine "Stereo Hearts"


I’m a grown man so no surprise that I think this song is wack. You know who doesn’t think this song is wack? My 5 year old daughter. That’s clearly who this song was made for: girls ages 5 to 13. Its all good, they need music too. Gym Class Heroes need to check their hip hop pass at the door tho. They are about as hip hop as Linkin Park. This is one of those feature songs totally void of any real soul or emotion behind it. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I bet Adam Levine and Travie McCoy spent zero time together in the studio working on this one. Levine sang a hook, shopped it, and these dudes had the highest bid. Insert pop hook here. I actually think Levine is a pretty talented singer, however.

Gucci Mane "Round One (Salem Remix)"


Have you ever liked something that sucks? Me too! Its called "Round One" by Gucci Mane. I guess that’s the true definition of a guilty pleasure. Just to clarify, Gucci Mane sounds like he’s drunk and cant hear the beat at all, however I do like the hella 80’s synthed out beat which adds a dark cinematic feel to the song. I picture this playing during that scene in a movie when the main character is going through a hard period in his life when he’s zonked out on some illegal substance heading for rock bottom before he comes out on top at the end. It has the feel of Miami Vice on Codeine.

Pusha T/Tyler, The Creator "Trouble On My Mind"


Pusha knows new hip hop math. Odd Future = YouTube views. This song is nothing special and has three million views. In my humble opinion, they deserve the attention. These dudes are one of the more interesting things happening right now in hip hop. I know the comparisons to Wu-Tang are well documented, but Tyler has to share some genetic connection with ODB. Seeing him hitting two wheels on a handicap cart while wearing a cast and making out with an old lady harkens back to some of the crazy shit Dirty did in his day (ie picking up a welfare check in a limo). Pusha is a member of one of the most slept on groups of the past decade and he is an afterthought in his own song due to the presence of Tyler. Also kind of weird to see the more veteran rapper try to be like the new dude on the block. Big brothers aren’t supposed to wanna be like their little brother. Come on Pusha, at least wear different socks.

Frank Ocean "Novacane"


We really are living in a drug culture when even R&B songs are about drugs. I doubt Smokey Robinson sang about poppin' Quaaludes. He is a member of OF so I guess its not too surprising. It is kinda sad though that dudes so young (some under 18 I think) are into such hard drugs. Aren’t you supposed to be smokin' weed in your parents garage at that age? The song is ok; has an "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins vibe. The video is crazy. Its a really good low budget video. I've never tripped but it appears to be a very genuine representation of what it must be like, as opposed to the spinning spirals and color changes usually used on TV. Now I know why they call it getting melted.

I realize that I write about what I don’t like quite a bit in the reviews so let me share a "try this instead" suggestion.

Aceyalone "Book of Human Language"


As crazy as it is to pick one song as a favorite, this might be mine. The perfect storm of music/beat, flow, and writing. Acey's ability to describe basic things in the most poetically creative ways is rare if not unparalleled. Most MC's are either very literal or try too hard to be abstract and end up being totally unintelligible (see Aesop Rock). I think real genius is easily understood. "Even though I trail with bread crumbs, I'll take it the Max Headroom" for example as a way to describe his trait of being both cautious and aggressive is real lyricism in my mind. Or describing fear as "your spacesuit's got a tear." Not the most common metaphor for fear but I can’t think of anything that would make me piss my pants more. The lyrics are delivered with genuine passion that only true MCs have when they write something they know is next level. Enough gushing over another dude, check it out for yourself.

EP Reviews! Broadway Calls! Pepper! Wavves!

Sometimes full lengths are a drag. Not to mention, how many bands have put a song on a full length only to never play it beyond recording it? That shit is a waste. Here are some new EPs worth checking out.

Broadway Calls Toxic Kids



I interviewed Broadway Calls for SFist last year and in that interview, singer/guitarist Ty Vaughan mentioned that he had been listening to "lots of Green Day" as he was prepping songs for an upcoming release which at that time, appeared to be a full length. Apparently Broadway Calls didn't feel like waiting to put out a full length and decided to hit us with six of those "heavy on the Green Day" tracks via an ep entitled Toxic Kids. Vaughan wasn't lying when he alluded to Green Day being an influence on these newer songs, but what stands out the most about this EP is the raw, grimey production which is a far cry from the band's last full-length, Good Views, Bad News. Toxic Kids, with its gritty production, falls much more in line with the bands live sound and aesthetic than the super-slick Good Views, Bad News (but that's not saying we aren't fans of that record or anything). Stand out tracks include the opener, "I'm So Ready To Be Done With My Twenties" (a sentiment I found myself thinking when I left that decade of my life behind) as well as the peppy, upbeat title track, "Toxic Kids". The band just left on a month long tour which will take them out to The Fest in Florida, so check their website (broadwaycalls.tumblr.com) for tour dates and go get your pogo on.

Pepper Stitches



One of my best friends turned me onto Pepper about seven years ago. He and I are both Sublime fans (make all the fun you want, we give no fucks) and I want to say some girl he was hanging out floated him their first full length, which we found appealing as Sublime fans. Pepper were a solid reggae/ska band, nothing more, nothing less. I ended up getting wasted with the band in Atlanta when their tour played the downstairs room of the Masquerade (I was upstairs drum teching for Unearth). Their latest release, Stitches, is five songs of catchy ska/reggae that will be huge with college kids nationwide. The highlight of the ep would definitely be "Drunk Girl", which is an homage to that all too common party occurrence known as inebriated women. "Wake Up" lends itself well to some epic pogo-ing and sees vocalist Kaleo Wassmen doing his best Brad Nowell (and doing him justice, might I add). Stitches sort of trails off as it ends (the slowish "Lonely" and acoustic version of "Mirror" don't hold up as well against the ep's earlier tracks), but overall, fans of fun, reggae, summertime, partying, and bonfires are going to be REALLY into this ep.

Wavves Life Sux



At first, I wasn't really a fan of Wavves. That first lp was brutal on my ears and I was somewhat jealous that their singer/guitarist Nathan Williams was dating Bethanny from Best Coast. I saw Wavves open for Best Coast and even that particular live show left a little to be desired. On a whim, I decided to check out the King Of The Beach record and was totally blown away. I don't know what I hadn't been hearing before, but Wavves were fucking awesome. Life Sux dropped last month and has picked up where King Of The Beach left off and then some. Wavves mastermind Nathan Williams has perfected blending beachy surf rock with noisy pop punk so much that MTV can't stop using his songs in the background of Jersey shore almost weekly. "I Wanna Be Dave Grohl", the ep's first single, is one of those anthemic songs that lends itself well to epic car singalongs and serious public transportation air drumming. Life Sux features collaborations with Best Coast and Fucked Up, the former being laden with cute, female background vocals and the latter sounding basically like a Wavves song sans collaborators, but we all know Fucked Up blows so no one should be surprised. Life Sux will be all over several "best of 2011" lists, so cop this shit now because its that good.