Nuclear Rays From My Halogen Haze

music, politics, art, Elvis apologism

Stephen Kalinich at A Rrose in a Prose – December 16 December 28, 2012

Filed under: Bobb Bruno,Literature,Los Angeles,Poems,Poetry,Songwriters,The Beach Boys — D. M. Collins @ 1:33 pm
Tags: , ,

I first learned about Stephen Kalinich from a bootleg Brian Wilson CD that Bobb Bruno loaned to me years ago. I never imagined that the unknown man behind this strange, disembodied, beautiful voice would someday be a friend. This is a guy who writes poetry that feels like warm sunshine coming into your kitchen window in the morning. As a poet, he’s graced the steps of our nation’s capitol and the grooves of my favorite Beach Boys albums.  I’m so happy that he’s now graced our presence twice at A Rrose in a Prose.

This time, he could only stay briefly: he was on his way from a recording studio and on his way to another reading, or vice versa, or something–I can’t keep up with the guy! I hope once I’ve lived as long and as thoughtful a life as Stevie has that I’ll still have this kind of enthusiasm and joy in sharing my work with others.

 

Imaad Wasif April 26, 2008

Filed under: Bands,Bobb Bruno,Folk,L.A. Record,Performers,Personal Shit,Songwriters — prodigalsonnybono @ 5:30 pm

There was an L.A. Record presence at the show I went to with orangehairboy last night, and I was kind of shocked and horrified to open the most recent issue and see Bobb Bruno standing there in a photo next to Imaad Wasif.  I guess they’re playing together now.

 

Actually, Imaad Wasif can be pretty good when he wants to be.  I have a chip on my shoulder I think because a couple years ago, Imaad opened for Arthur Lee and Love at Spaceland, and I was DJ’ing, and Imaad came up to me before his set and asked if I could play something that was “not dance music.”  And this was while I was spinning a Fugs song that had just followed a Pretty Things song that had probably followed Syd Barrett—not exactly dance music, you screaming douchebag! 

 

If he’d played well, I might have forgiven him.  But he proceeded to get up there and whine over his acoustic guitar, draining all the energy out of the room.  All me and the five people who stood there watching could think was “whoa, this is even worse than Alaska!”

 

However, fast forward to a couple months ago, when I saw Imaad Wasif play at Safari Sam’s, and I totally ate crow.  I stuck around to see him just because I’d played on the same bill and wanted to be polite, but he totally wowed me.  He played simple, maudlin folk songs, just his voice, guitar, and the accompaniment of an electronic drone in a little box, a simple effect that was very moving and matched the tunes perfectly.  He knocked out one after another song, going from good to good to great to pretty good, and I stayed for the whole set (even gave him a “hey, great show dude” when it was over).  A vast improvement over where he’d been four years ago.

 

Bobb Bruno of course is fucking fantastic all the time, and I think his participation is just one more sign that I had Wasif pegged all wrong.  I’m looking forward to seeing them live.

 

Wildildlife and Goliath Bird Eater at the Smell March 10, 2008

Filed under: Bands,Bobb Bruno,Shows,The Smell — orangehairboy @ 8:21 am

Just got back from seeing Wildildlife (yep, that’s the spelling) at the Smell.  My house is often the crash-pad for visiting bands coming through L.A., and for some reason, these guys have already been in town a time or two and stayed with me without my ever getting to see them live or knowing what the actual band sounded like (they’re actually friends of the girlfriend, ya see).

I finally fixed that problem at the Smell tonight, and I was more than impressed.  The trio’s sound is steeped in doom and speed metal, but bassist Andy also plays a giant Taurus II Moog bass pedal thingie (it looks like the big foot-played notes you’d see beside the volume pedal on a church organ) with his feet to add atmospheric sounds, kinda like Hawkwind meets Slayer–but with classic echo-drenched vocal style reminiscent of Maiden, Priest, or the ancient shaman-warlocks, ensnared by ancient lightning bolts in their mountain halls, who sing from their minarets of ice to call in the Yetis. 

Andy sang lead, but all three guys sang at least on a song or two, and they all play tight, with energy and style–and yet somehow the guitarist can run around in the crowd flailing himself back and forth like Angus Young without the outfit and duckwalk.  Here’s a bit of a performance from a few months’ back–tonight was pretty much the same deal as this, except played even better! 

Too bad there wasn’t much of a crowd tonight, but Wildildlife are gonna be in Austin soon for SXSW, so check ‘em out.

Also on the line-up was tonight Goliath Bird Eater, which due to a last-minute drummer drop-out consisted of Bobb Bruno playing guitar all by his lonesome, accompanied only by some well-crafted impromptu effects and drum machines!  It was still a full sound (Bobb’s talents as a one-man band have been chronicled here before, because he’s fucking rad), so I didn’t realize that the lack of a drummer was unintentional.  Apparently Bobb’s playing this Friday at the Smell with Ariel Pink and some other kids, so go watch him.

 

Bobb Bruno December 14, 2007

Filed under: Bobb Bruno,Performers,Songwriters — orangehairboy @ 1:31 am

I love Bobb Bruno.  He’s a one man band who plays instrumental music with drum pads and samples, all the while dressed in a crazy Japanese bunny costume and surrounded by stuffed animals (one of them is a penguin disguised as a pig!).  He’s played with tons of bands and sat in on shows and tours with Fiona Apple and Carla Bozulich, but I like him best when he’s playing solo.

It’s great music in part because it combines electronic music with live, human-made rhythm, much like some of my favorite bands (Silver Apples, Can, New Collapse, Devo) do.  His drumsticks are like knitting needles, crocheting different strands of music together–first trance, then black metal, then modern R&B, none of which are my favorite genres–but somehow he makes it seem dreamlike and wonderful. It’s a bit like the sound of young young childhood, but with a pinch of sadness, a dash of loneliness (makes sense, since he’s alone up there) and a splash of hope.  And the transitions are so smooth, you don’t even notice things have changed until suddenly the music drops out, and he’s just tapping on one element or plays a few bars of sample with his drum accompaniment. 

Sometimes I feel like I’m part of a very small batch of folks who understand his music and like it, but that’s changing.  All of Bobb’s musical friends–from Jon Brion to No Age to Nels Cline–have grown in fame and fortune in the last couple years, and he’s very soon going to be appearing in a documentary about Largo, the amazing comedy and music club on Fairfax.  And Bobb has recorded a dozen or so great up-and-coming bands from L.A., such as Silver Daggers and Mika Miko.  I think we’ll be hearing about him a lot more in the upcoming year.

 

 
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.