HW: some; OFF: Latest s-o-c rant...

[Henderson Keith]

Hoi zäme...

I know it's been a long time since I last rapped at ya' (obligatory Jim
Anchower reference, for all those fellow fans of Jim - anybody?)...but I've
been too lazy lately to force myself to stay after work (it's already dark
this time of day, and that's already depressing enough) and write anything
much.  But I've been (trying to) follow(ing) all the latest threads, and was
*wanting* to contribute some wonderful bits of insight, but alas...words (or
inspiration) failed me when it counted.

So...in typical fashion, I'll just write a long stream of nonsense off the
top of my head about what's been happening here, there, and any other place
in the trans-dimensional world where music might be heard.  Just to prove I
*have* been paying attention (is there a test?), I have just now thrown on
my brand new copy of Particle's "Launchpad" CD, which came in the mail
yesterday.  Thanks for the recommendation...I just bought it 'cause a few
people here liked it, and I've been starving for something new and
different.  In fact, after the first two tracks (Track Three is just
starting, and actually this one is damn good!), I see that this is *really*
like Budapesti music (perhaps not so different then?  Ah, no matter)...very
much like the Colorstar/Korai Orom style of danceable hyperkinetic
instrumental 'space.'  Cool...I went to Budapest in the late summer to catch
the HUGE Sziget Festival where I saw all my favorite Budapest bands, and
discovered yet a couple more.  Tanu Tuva (who I was completely unfamiliar
with, going in) was especially fantastic, more Ozrics-like than this
Particle band even, though I don't think they have any official CDs out yet.
But watch for that name anyway.  My review of the fest is up at A-I.com
(latest issue, #29) if you want to peruse more...I'm not sure why, but the
photo gallery for Sziget didn't get prepared in time to get added in.  I'm
not going to complain to Jerry (his job is tough enough), but maybe he'll
find time during the next update to get that added in as well...I got a lot
of cool photos, more than just the few that appear with the text.

Of course, my reviews of both Herzberg fests are up there as well, with
photo galleries in tact, the only minor error being the mis-ID of Ingo
Bischof (he's the keyboard guy in the photo above the one where he's ID'd).
Those were long enough ago that I'm not going to say much more about them
just now.  But of course, for those who want specifically to read about HW
and HW-related things, you know certainly that they were the main headliners
at BH, so of course, there's something there for you.  As I noted there, the
big 'find' of my time in Germany this past summer was Pothead, and I was
lucky enough to see them again just last weekend here in Switzerland.  This
time I knew *all* the music they played though, 'cause I now have all six of
the CDs that are still available (some of their earlier stuff is due for
re-release according to their website).  They are a three-piece from Berlin,
though the guys up "front" are both from Seattle, WA originally.  I would be
tempted to say that they are a 'stoner' band, but they are not really very
similar.  And they are *absolutely* not a band that stretches out songs and
does any improv. or jamming...just the opposite.  Everything is down, dirty,
and brief....their 2-hour show must have included 35 songs at least.  But
still...I love their power, riff construction, and lead singer Brad's voice
(really strong and yet 'melodic' at the same time...again, unlike normal
stoner-rock vocalists).  Anyway, I got lots of good photos and will do a
review for next A-I.com issue, so I won't bore you with any more details.
If you look for CDs, search for either 'Dessicated Soup' or even better,
'Tuf Luv' (the newest studio, which while shorter, is brilliant).  And the
even newer 'Live in Berlin' is yet better, if you don't mind slightly
muddier sound, and the occasional off note.  I don't.

So, let me now look at my calendar and remember what I've seen lately (so
many concerts, I've forgotten them all!).  Oh, yeah, I caught On Trial once
more here in Winterthur, CH (I'll abbreviate Switzerland as CH from now
on...less writing), and they were as strong as always.  Didn't do photos or
plan another review 'cause I've covered them twice at AI in the last year
alone.  Plus Scott H. writes about them as well, so they get plenty of 'face
time' at AI.  Just before that, I was in Munich for the "Swamp Room
Happening" that included ColourHaze, Hypnos69, and Liquid Visions, among
others.  My review made it into AI#29 as well, so I won't go on about that
here again.  On 16.October, I was in Lahr, Schwarzwald (Black Forest) for
the show with Trigon (from Karlsruhe) and Zone Six (from Berlin)...that was
pretty cool too.  Dave Schmidt, ex-bassist of Liquid Visions (and many other
groups) and Martin Schorn are still in the band, but the guitarist HP
Ringholz (also Liquid Visions) is out and so is the old drummer.  So the
four-piece now has two new guys, but they are still a 100% space-improv
group of high quality.  The new CD is pretty good too (Psychedelic
Scripture) but is the old lineup, so the new guys will have to wait for
their turn on disc.  I didn't get my review done for this one, but I got
good pictures and will get that done any day now.  Trigon was pretty
impressive too...much more so than my Herzberg '03 experience with them in
the oppressive daytime heat.  In fact, some of their tunes were actually
quite spacey/psychedelic, whereas I had pegged them as just another
'prog-metal' band.  That's not right..they're not very much like Dream
Theater sort of stuff at all...my first impression was shockingly inaccurate
in fact.  The 2003 summer heat melted my brain I think.

OK, I see here I went to the Zuerich airport (yeah, there's a concert club
at the freaking *airport* in Zueri...komisch!) and saw the newest iteration
of the Michael Schenker Group.  Eh...who knows why?  You know, sometimes
'stupid-drunk air-guitar music' just needs to be enjoyed without thinking
about it too much.  Especially if one gets stupid drunk at the time.  Can't
get too drunk there though, since the beers cost the equivalent of an
average steak dinner in the US...or so it seemed.  Anyway, I never knew who
the hell the other guys in the band were, but who cares...everyone came just
to see Schenker play his Flying V.  They did lots of old UFO and Barden-era
MSG stuff, and quite a lot of it came over well, so I was happy enough.

In similar vein, I went to Basel to catch Saxon once more (my third time
with them).  I am quite surprised at how popular they continue to be here in
CH!  I'd say that there were about 1,000 there for that show...it was
verging on uncomfortably crowded in there and that place (Z-7) is about the
biggest concert club anywhere around here.  Nothing much to report...they
played about two hours, and missed hardly any of their best classic rock
tunes...."Wheeeeeeeeelllls....Wheels of Steeeeeelllll."  Sing it with me
now.  :)

Oh wait...I was in Basel a couple days earlier to (supposedly) see the local
stoner band Phased play at a place called the Wagenmeister, along with a St.
Gallen (Ostschweiz) band called Cheamor Buddha.  It was a weeknight though,
so I had to leave even before Phased went on in order to get home with the
last train.  That pissed me off, 'cause they farted around for an extra 40
minutes before getting the show started, and so they ignored (in totally
un-Swiss-like fashion) their own published start time.  Also, the club has
the tiniest stage & viewing area of any club I have ever seen in any country
anywhere in the world.  15 people can comfortably fill the place it seemed.
Cheamor Buddha were "OK", way too damn loud though (the limited size the
obvious cause), and not the greatest songs.  I *could* have stayed long
enough to hear the first couple of songs from Phased maybe, but I decided to
leave during the break, and leisurely make my way home, 'cause if I'd stayed
then I would have been more pissed to leave during just the third song.
Hopefully, I'll get to see them when Gas Giant comes down from Copenhagen to
tour around with them in the spring of '05.

The next week, the Ozrics were here in CH playing in Interlaken (two shows
on consecutive nights), but it was the middle of the week, and it just
didn't work out to get down there (it takes a while to get into the
mountainous region of CH on the train).  Bummer.  But then on the 25th of
November, the Soundtrack of our Lives came to play in Zueri (*much*
closer!), and I made sure not to miss that show.  I had one of their
previous CDs (the one with the six plaster faces on it) and liked it, and
then before the show, ordered their new CD in order to familiarize myself
with the newest songs that they were likely to play that night.  It's good
too...kinda poppy at times, but they have a good energy and the music is
crisp, well-produced, and well performed.  Well, they're a major label band
that has been nominated for a Grammy, so that's no surprise.  Anyway, SOOL
was another topic of conversation here at boc-l just recently, and some
people had compared them to various bands.  My take would be a mix of the
Who, Velvet Underground, and the Beatles.  I'd like to use somebody more
'modern' than that to use as comparison, but I'm afraid that would be
largely unwarranted 'cause SOOL are pretty damn "late 60s" through and
through.  Anyway, their live concert was quite entertaining...they are yet
more energetic and fun on stage, and did not disappoint.  I would try to
catch them any time they come your way, and I will do the same next tour.
BTW, the song "Bigtime" from the new album is a song I might expect to be a
big radio hit somewhere in the world...is it?  I like it...poppy to the max,
but psychy all the while.

Two days later I was back at Z-7 in Basel for the Gathering, with Paatos
opening.  The Gathering I lambasted in my Sziget review, for reasons that I
feel are justifiable.  And they pretty much continued the same stupid trend
of ignoring their most energetic songs for their current live set.  I'm sure
they must have gotten tired of playing the same songs year after year, but
because each of the newer albums only *has* one or two sufficiently up-tempo
numbers, they pretty much have forced themselves (if they actually would
*do* the right thing, I mean) to playing these four or five songs every
concert.  Those would be "On Most Surfaces," "Third Chance," "Liberty Bell,"
and "Shot to Pieces," but sadly (again) they only did the first one of these
(which was unquestionably the highlight of the show for *everybody* in the
audience, not just me).  The show was slightly better than in Budapest, but
still they are a big disappointment lately.  I think we will all see an
extended hiatus of the Gathering for all of 2005 due to the fact that Anneke
is obviously, uh, preggers.  If *that* isn't the strangest sight I've ever
seen on a rock stage!!  (I mean, like four-five months at least.)  And what
a way to put the kibosh on the fantasies of all the horny guys in the
audience...geez.

Anyway, I mainly went to see Paatos, who I *must* admit are hardly much more
energetic live than the Gathering were...but then they were the opener (and
*shouldn't* (be able to) upstage the headliner), plus their show is actually
'true' to what is on their albums (i.e., they are not 'ignoring' their
livelier music for their own self-indulgent reasons).  They are Swedish and
are related to other prog groups, including Landberk via bassist Stefan
Dimle.  He ran the merchandising himself after the show and so it was nice
to talk to him about all things Swedish prog.  In fact, he's the guy who
runs (?) the Mellotronen label, and I bought two CDs by Trettioariga Kriget
(one classic 70s reissue, one brand new 'reunion' disc).  The next week I
was really busy so I ended up missing out on seeing Hermano (stoner rock) in
Bern and also very sadly Legendary Pink Dots in Basel.  Yeah, the LPD show
was in that same stupid Wagenmeister club...I can't *imagine* having as
"big" a band as LPD play in that little rathole...seriously.  I think that's
an insult.  I wasn't sure I would again see the whole concert, plus I was
worried that I wouldn't even get *in* or be able to move around if there
were even 80 people there.  Plus, I guess LPD doesn't have a drummer
anymore, so while that works on album (I have Wishing Well now, and there
are, like always, some really good tracks and then a couple that I will soon
start skipping over) I would really rather hear a live drummer at an actual
gig.  Still, it was a bummer to pass them up, but it just wasn't in the
cards that night.

Well, the aforementioned Pothead show was just two days later so I was again
happy and able to put it all behind me.  Oh, so that was just last week, and
now yesterday I was (once more) in Basel at Z-7 for Steven Wilson's
Blackfield.  Well, it's just called Blackfield, but really...he's the main
guy once again.  Well, OK, the CD liner notes seem to indicate that it's a
co-project between Wilson and Israeli Aviv Geffen (also ac./el. guitar and
vocals) but for some reason the old SNL skit about Hall and Oates ("I'm
Oates..."...pause....longer pause....shrug....nothing) seems to come to
mind.  Actually, that's a bit unfair, as Geffen wrote/co-wrote a fair amount
of the music, and does add an important second vocal.  In fact, I would
think PT would have been better off if they'd added this guy instead of
Wesley, as I didn't like Wesley's singing (he did a horrible "Fadeaway" as
lead IMHO).  Geffen's voice is nasally and it works well as harmony with
Wilson, whose voice is frankly quite wimpy, even though he's getting
gradually stronger in that department.  I haven't really liked the
all-Wilson choir backing vocals on recent PT albums (an understatement) and
using this guy's voice is/would be a huge improvement.  Anyway, of all
Wilson entities (incl. PT, IEM, No-Man, Bass Communion), this one isn't up
near the top, but they're not bad.  Former PT drummer Chris Maitland played
on the Blackfield CD, but sadly he wasn't in the touring band.  They played
*all* of the one CD they've made, plus the two songs from the bonus EP
(included in the ltd. ed. version that I have), and also two PT tracks,
including "Waiting" (the highlight...very good version), and still the whole
show was only about 70 minutes.

But then they had Richard Barbieri on for about 40 minutes ahead of that as
'warm-up.'  He has a new solo CD out that he's promoting.  His stuff doesn't
deviate much from what one would expect, in that it would fit in well with
Tim or Harvey solo set (no vocals though).  That works OK as such an opener,
but really...again, the 'programmed synth beat/percussion' just doesn't cut
it with me in a live setting.  Anyway, there was one track that I thought
was particularly interesting, but overall I wasn't inspired to go out and
track down this CD.  I noticed that (like Saxon earlier) there was no
merchandising going on at the show last night at Z-7, which I understand is
because 'customs police' have been showing up to make sure that there's no
under-the-table profit-taking going on, and so bands (without a proper
permit) have been thwarted there.  I don't know the politics of the
situation, but there have been some strange things going on between CH and
DE (or perhaps all Schengen lands?) as I've been stopped at the border just
lately to get an Ausweis check, and that used to never happen (up to '04).
Anyway, that's not really very interesting to you all, is it?  But anyway,
Blackfield was OK but not awe-inspiring, and they didn't draw a huge
crowd...maybe 200, so roughly about half (or a third) of what I would expect
if PT had played there, depending on the particular day (Friday/Saturday
always does better).  And Z-7 is a *big* club, so anything under 200 looks
*really* empty.

Well, that brings me up to the present concert-wise, except of course next
week I have three concerts...Jane plays at, yep, you guessed it, Z-7 in
Basel Thursday night.  I'll probably stay over there in a hotel, as I fly
out of Euroairport (Basel CH/Mulhouse FR/Freiburg DE) Friday morning to
Luton, on my way to Cambridge's Corn Exchange for Hawkwind.  Then I'll hang
around somewhere until Sunday (won't go out to Exeter I'm afraid) for the
Xmas show at the Astoria.  It'll be fun to see you all there again (those of
you lucky enough to make it, that is).  Hopefully, I'm in a social
mood...sometimes that comes and goes, but if anything inspires me to talk to
people, it's Hawkwind.  The following week Amon Duul II will play at a small
club in Bonn DE, which will be filmed for broadcast on WDR (Köln) sometime
early in January.  I'll get to watch that broadcast "live" but I won't be
doing a DVD-R myself, as there's somebody on the KrautrockII list that has
already offered to do it himself and trade copies to all interested parties.
I'll try to get one myself and see if there's interest to spread it around
here or at Neo-quark (still going?).  Of course, with AD2, you never know if
it will turn out to be worth the effort.  :)  As much as I love them, they
are a bit uh, "undisciplined," to some degree...all part of the charm
perhaps?

So that takes me up to the year 2005, where I only have written in my
calendar that I need to renew my passport, lest I be detained at the border
for *real*.  My own future in this country seems sadly limited, as my
contract expires 31.December, 2004, and that point will be happily
unemployed.  I have gotten permission to remain here until 1.April, 2005 in
my apartment, and so I might (or might not?) search for another job here in
central Europe (it would be a shame to let my German studies go to
waste...today I had my Abschlussprüfung, but won't have any additional
classroom instruction, for awhile at least).  I had a *chance* to get a job
in Cambridge UK at the British Antarctic Survey, and did go there for an
interview (a whirlwind 20-hour trip), but they chose someone else for the
position.  Just as well...I think I would have turned it down anyway, as
another two-year contract position doesn't excite me (no immigration
'value'), and I'm thinking about trying yet another different field of
science for a change.  I'm not very normal I guess.  I'm bored now with
ice-core paleoclimatology.  Bummer that I won't be going to Antarctica next
year, but I'll live.  I might just send my crap "home" to the US and go
travelling around Europe through next summer, living from festival to
festival when that season comes, that is, if I don't run out of the money
I've saved up just for such a reason.  I'll hate to leave CH behind no
matter what happens, but these people here just haven't made it easy for
even 'high-qualified' people to emigrate here (there's another
understatement), and so they've kind of pissed me off with their
over-protective sensibilities as it pertains to the value of the CH
citizenship.  Not even third generation immigrants who were born/raised
here/know-nothing-else-*but*-CH are "Swiss" in these people's minds...in
fact they voted against it (again) just a couple months ago!  Thanks
Christoph (Arsch)Blocher!

Well, so my days as Swiss boc-l/AI correspondent may be limited, but
hopefully I'll end up in a place where lots of good music is still to be
heard.

Anyway, looking forward to next week...see you all at the hotel!  (BTW, is
there an after-concert event of some kind, any kind, this time 'round?)

Grakkl (FAA)

P.S.  Well, the craziest news for me in a looooonnnggg time is what took
place two days ago in my former hometown of Columbus, OH, at the Alrosa
Villa, a club that I had been to quite a number of times in the past decade.
Of course, you all know what happened there...it's just about the biggest
story in the US at the moment.  Pantera is a band that I saw (open for Black
Sabbath??) though I never called myself a fan (too fast, too loud, despite
the fact that I'm a big Motorhead fan), and though I didn't know any people
(at least none that I know of) at the show Wednesday night, a friend of a
friend was there and essentially had a lifeless Dime fall on her.  That's
just too close for comfort.  F*cking crazy world we all live in.  Music is
supposed to be the *escape* from it all the goddamned nonsense...what the
hell's wrong with this planet?  Jeebus.

P.P.S.  I never gave my thoughts about the 'must have' list of Hr. Forstner,
partly because I was (as above) too damn lazy to write anything, and partly
because Chuck (others?) also said many of the things I was going to say.
Anyway, I'm not sure if anyone demanded that the Hungarians be added in
there as one of the most important 'categories' to include.  But if not, let
me now suggest such an addition (I don't know about Magma...as much as I
love them, and think Udu Wudu is an absolute essential album to own, it's
hard to call it space-rock...so perhaps in their place...that or one of the
minimalist/electronic categories as it seemed maybe a little redundant
there).  Korai Orom/Colorstar/Tanu Tuva/Masfel...these bands shouldn't be
overlooked!  And of course, Ship of Fools and Dead Flowers as
'additions/alternatives' to any category including the Ozrics.  And how
'bout Kingston Wall III...maybe not 'space' enough, but instead
'psych-rock'?

Anyway, the very first thing I ever wrote (wow...six-and-a-half years ago!
How naive I was back then!) for A-I (Issue #2 if you care to check) was
exactly this kind of thing (a top 20 instead of 10).  Of course, the
Hungarians are missing there too, but that was because I didn't discover
Korai Orom until just thereafter.

ObCD: Afresco Mantis - Harris Tweed (pulled this out last night for the
first time in awhile...it's really quite excellent...they should do more)