Crosses (†††) on Kimmel, performing “The Epilogue.”
So fun.
music
We Are KMFDM
Not many bands last 30 years. Not many continue to crank out new material, either.
But KMFDM has marched on through many iterations, founders coming and going, and new lineups that freshen up the sound.
I’ve been a fan since the Nihil era – KMFDM’s glory days. The golden age when each new album, from Angst to Symbols, did better than the one before it.
And like a lot of people, it was “Juke Joint Jezebel” that turned me on to the band. I should say – it turned me on to a world of music I didn’t know before.
Danceable. Techno beats. Shredding, heavy-metal style guitars. Backup singers. Self references. Self mockery.
And so much fun.
The current lineup is a talented group. I do enjoy the twin-guitar gallop of Steve (above) and Jules. Andy’s live drums add a new dimension that makes many live KMFDM songs better.
My buddy Don and I saw KMFDM at the Magic Stick, a smaller venue than usual, along Detroit’s Woodward Ave. It’s actually the perfect place to see the band: small, intimate, and easy to get to.
A lot of the new stuff is so-so, but Sascha always throws in plenty of the classic stuff. “Light,” “DIY,” “Anarchy” – these are the songs we came to scream. Some of the new stuff, like “Kunst,” sounds great live, too. But I think the majority of KMFDM fans prefer the classics.
Who knows how much longer KMFDM will be around. Forty more years? Fifty?
This stuff from ††† (Crosses) is fantastic. As if the last few Deftones album weren’t amazing, Chino gets his techno groove on.
Just pre-ordered the EP collection.
I wasn’t going to play you tonight,
But I can’t help the feeling’s alive.
As long as you play my game,
I’ll let you win.
KEEP SHELLY IN ATHENS “RECOLLECTION” [DIR. LAMAR+NIK] (by LAMAR+NIK)
Can’t say enough about this song, and this album, by Keep Shelly in Athens.
Got “Recollection” as a freebie on Amazon MP3 a while back, and put September 16 – the day At Home came out – on my calendar as a must-buy. Now I’m gobbling up everything Keep Shelly in Athens does.
For the video, I had always pictured something a little sunnier in my head: clouds and lens flares and Polaroid color schemes. I guess for that you can check out the promo video.
Anyway. This song has been on repeat since August. Glad to see they made a proper video for it.
(Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)
Andy McKee, ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’
Andy McKee – “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”
Remember when Dennis Miller was sane, and had that bad-ass show on HBO? My single favorite part of that series was the opener. It was so perfect.
So this song has always stuck with me. And here’s Andy McKee offering an insane guitar arrangement. Just perfect.
See also: Andy’s rendition of “Africa.”
The Look
We often do things that we regret when we’re out of our heads. Drunk, in love, low blood sugar – whatever the reason, something causes our brain to reboot, usually the day after, and look back on our behavior in horror.
But at concerts, at least we’re doing things we regret with other people. It’s fine to act like a screw-loose reptile when everyone else is just as goofy as you.
Look around you. See all those people screaming their heads off? See how they’re gyrating and dancing in a sea of other lunatics? Notice how they don’t care who’s watching, because (probably) no one really is?
That’s why I go to concerts: to utterly lose myself in the songs I love. These kids, just like me, were having the time of their lives – and they didn’t care who was watching.
The difference is that my enjoyment didn’t stem from the music on stage. No, it came from the kids losing their collective minds. This is why I want to take pictures. They mean something. I mean, look at them. They’re in ecstasy.
Not on Ecstasy, mind you. No, there’s something about a collective musical experience that makes drugs or alcohol totally redundant. Who needs booze when you have grooves?
It makes my heart ache to see these pictures, the day after, and realize what fun we all had that night. They’ll remember the songs and their friends singing along.
I’ll remember that look on their face.
The Importance of Artifact
Perhaps it was just my childhood fascination with all things printed and ephemeral, but I do feel a definite disconnect now between myself and my –all digital– music collection. I personally like the idea of a physical object to represents an otherwise unsee-able art form.
I’ve mentioned this before, many times: I prefer buying my music on clunky old CDs because (a) I like having a physical backup and (b) it feels better holding music in my hands. That may be an outdated philosophy, now that all the kids are getting their music on Amazon MP3 and iTunes, but it’s especially true in instances like photography.
For instance, I don’t want some boorish electronic photo frame, cycling through pictures at my new house. Photos capture moments, and should stand as artifacts of the time and place.
Thing is, it’s been years since I’ve printed photos for display. Flickr and Facebook are the new digital photo albums.
But now I have photo frames to fill, and fill them I will.
lonelysandwich: Working with music
lonelysandwich: Working with music
I have work to do, and lots of it, and I have music to listen to, lots of it. Work is good for me. And music is even better.
So they must coexist.
I would go so far as to say I can’t do anything productive unless there’s music on. In fact, I will do just about anything for anyone as long as there’s music playing in the background.
So while Sandwich struggles to combine the two, I struggle when they’re not combined. My typical workflow at the day job has me picking out something on the iPhone, letting the album wash over me, and then digging in to the work.
Brainless tasks, like stuffing envelopes or painting a room, are even better with music – because you can be both there and with the music. Or at least I can.