T.O.D. v Dino Jr. - 28/10/2012 and 31/10/2012.
by Nick the Bookman

Well, it's been a while since my last post. The Stone Roses and other X-rated stuff. No more to report on CC and TT, but there's loads of other shit accumulating globally. Like The 2012 Election. Obama could still blow it, but let's hope the country gets its head together and realise that Republicans are bad, bad, bad. Look at the previous incumbent, The Great Dub-Yahoo. A smugly odious man who made high art out of Upward Failure. Rising and rising lower until he reached his nadir and became POTUS 43. Thanks in part to consistent bailout's by Daddy's pet oligarchs and The Five Bad Supremes who renounced legal impartiality in favour of personal profit. Cue eight years of increasing global unpopularity and all restraints lifted off the top financiers and jobs for all the wealthy Good Old Boys. Getting involved in two wars, one completely unnecessary and blowing a great chance to obliterate Bin Laden and his top mates at Tora Bora in favour of preserving the FEAR. Manipulating the American psyche to a state of near-total paralysis. While bankrupting the world. And because the Democratic Barack Obama couldn't fix the mess - frankly no one can - they think it's their turn back in power because the other guy is useless. Why can't we tie all the Republicans to their bankers, loop their lawyers guts around them and toss them out of Black Ops military flights? Put their heads on spikes or torture them to death for treason during wartime? For personal profit. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney is gushing forth about his Mormonism. Here's a question for him. Where's he hiding his other wives? Hypocrite. Anyway, here's a nice phrase for remembering The Bush Reich Era. "...and you shall know us by the trail of dead" Catchy, huh?

I'm driven at times to find the connections between things. Wasn't it Lenin who once said "Everything is Connected"? Anyway, the above phrase is just my little segue into the fact that I went to see the alternative/indie rock band And You Shall Know Us By The Trail Of Dead (henceforth just TOD) at Grappas on 28/10/2012. They've been around for 17 years and eight albums. They hail from Austin, Texas - the town where the annual South By Southwest Festival takes place. Featuring a helluva lot of world class bands right down to formerly previous buskers plying their trade. And also where DP, HK's mighty metal duo who are a stalwart at Clockenflap, made their debut a couple of years ago. Their set was as muscular and powerful as I remember. A couple of new tunes and classics like "Supermegadon" are ripped from the sonic cupboard of memories and not just given a dusting down, but thrashed wildly into near oblivion. Fine vocals, gutsy basslines - treated and normal - from Dave and a powerhouse drumming display by Paul. All while Dave's adorable wife Claire watches from front and centre stage. Great stuff. Looking forward to the (hopefully) enhanced quartet doing a similar Take No Prisoners full-frontal assault at Clockenflap next month. And your CD rocks!

This appearance at Grappas, brought to you by Your Mum - an offshoot of the Clockenflap organisation - is their second show after Mystery Jets. It's part of a debut Southeast Asian tour by TOD. The quartet is Conrad on vocals and lead guitar. Autry (with a new major haircrop) on bass. Jason on second lead guitar and occasional drums. And Jamie, the main drummer who dabbles in occasional lead guitar. I was aware of the band. Hadn't heard much. Had them pegged as slightly drone/electronics/guitarnoise/drums band. A hellacious racked in the best sense of the word. I wasn't disappointed by their show. There seemed to be drone and some feedback and relentless strumming and icy nu-goth sort of guitar. A sort of stoner-prog feel to it all. Pleasing vocals. A hyper-active bass performance. At one point Autry jumps off stage into the moshpit and keeps on choogling along. Jason and James swap guitars and drums every couple of songs. James is the main drummer. He is extravagantly precise in his movements, Big clomping beats and flurries of rapid drum rolls. A pleasure to watch. Jason is in yer face. His wrists a blur as he leaves no part of the kit unhit. He looks like he's trying to overtake 200 BPM. I'm getting shagged out just watching him. Even a stage invasion by about 10 dancing punters doesn't faze the band. They just play and bop round them. They're here to lay down their mission statement which is This Is A Party! Everyone have Fun! I did. So did Tom, a friend of Sean from David Bowie Knives. So did the lovely Vlatka who I saw on the stage and chatted with after the show. We've both got a date for Dinosaur Jr. on Halloween. Also spotted in the crowd were Don from Pak Kok whose excellent new CD has been co-produced with drummer Paul. The irrepressible Simon was there. You're my bellwether for all the good gigs, mate! Especially thanks to TOD for an eye-opening and pleasurable gig and may I say, I think you're way too together to be Republicans. I hope I'm not wrong and do your best to blow Dinosaur Jr. off the stage when you do your joint concert in Taipei. Oh yeah. Come Back Soon. It was great to hear you and to chat briefly with Conrad. Thanks for the brain-melting time!

It's Haunted Halloween tonight and that means another excellent Songs For Children gig at KITEC. I can't stress enough how much I think they bring to the local music scene. Starting with the more collegiate bands like Asahi Shobu and Deerhoof who both played great gigs with fine local bands like Poubelle International, The Yours and the much missed Milkteeth in support. The Deerhoof gig was Milkteeth's penultimate show. They played a blinder at Clockenflap 2011 and then Joey, the mainman was found dead in a Sham Shui Po toilet just before Xmas. A fatal drug overdose, administered by others, as part of a holdup gone wrong. Possibly by junkies. The police haven't been very forthcoming. Songs For Children hit a peak with their Jesus And Mary Chain gig last summer. And now they've got Dinosaur Jr. to sandblast our sensibilities. The word is out. This will be a loud show. Louder than TOD at any rate. But hopefully, not up to the legendary excesses of say Swans, My Bloody Valentine or the Sixties psyche-freak-rock trio Blue Cheer. Who are still playing in some form or another today and used to be managed by Gut, an ex-Hells Angel. (Or as ex as one can be with that motorcycle mob.) Offhand, the only thing louder would by The Trumpets Of Jericho who specialised in sonic disintegration...

The core trio of Dinosaur Jr., first formed in 1984, are J. Mascis on guitar and vocals. Lou Barlow on megabass. Murph on drums. Charlie Carter writes in the SCMP Review on 14/10/2012 that Dino Jr. helped shape "America's nascent alternative rock sound" with Sonic Youth and The Pixies. He says "they forged a heavy, cranking and melodic brew that pioneered the quiet-loud-quiet template" that eventually led to Nirvana and grunge. J.'s monomaniacal desire for total control estranged his band mates and Dino Jr. folded in 1997, but reformed in 2005, figuring that there's still gold to be mined in them thar musical hills. Lou also has the side-project band, Sebadoh, who are due to release a new freakbeat Nuggets style CD, ooh, any day now.

I'm coming into this gig cold. Like TOD, Dino Jr. have been in my memory bank, although I couldn't name any other song except "Freak Scene" from 1988. It was a big hit up at 53 Po Wah Yuen, along with "Monkey's Gone To Heaven" by The Pixies. It had a visceral impact on Ray and Chris, Mikey and Andrew and assorted other party people. Also pretty much led to the formation of The Adaptors and subsequently Sisters Of Sharon, The Filthy Flute And Bongo Band and some Grateful Dead inspired wild, wild Wild parties at The Fringe Club, The Beach hut in LKF and a double gig with Ado at The Deep Water Bay Yacht Club which could have out day-gloed the hippies and freaks at Fillmore West. You just don't get acid that good these days! Sorry. Brain-flash bomb going off there. Let's get back to the future, ie the present.

Pekka is helping with ticket sales. Jane tells me I'm on the guest list. Keith from The Sleeves is here. Good to catch up since seeing The Damned together. There's Karina, with Dee the DJ. Missed her at The Stone Roses. A big high to Mike and his Elvis wig. There's Aussie Sam from Lamma and Jo?. And about 400 or so friendly strangers. Mike is on stage, promising that Songs For Children will keep on bringing the best acts they can if you loyal punters keep buying tickets. Seems a very fair deal. The new venue is on the ground floor of KITEC and looks like a good place for a raucous party. Band and stage at one end of the all. Camera pans back about 50 metres past the crowd and the bar area on the left and then the other closed door. Plenty of room. The opening band Papancha is a new one on me. Their first tune should have Rob "His Bobness" Zimmerman on the blower, asking where are his royalties for "All Along The Watchtower". Something that Keith noticed as well. Papacha is a trio, guitar/vox, drums and bass. Their songs are energetic, loudish and evoke enough changes in tempo to keep me listening. Stewart, the guitarist/vocalist is wearing a Freddie Kreuger red/black stripe sweater in honour of the date. A fun beginning.

So, Dino Jr. take the stage. I'm up front for a while and sitting at the back for the last half of the show. They have a more varied musical palette than TOD and they're not as LOUD as I feared. There's some classic glam-cum-punk for an early Lou song called "Not Going To College" which mutates into "Freak Scene", but that's near the end of the show. Earlier, the guitar mastery on display is wide-ranging. Some fuzz, some wah-wah. Drone and white noise. At one point a lovely solo which sounds like stabbing keyboards or clanky pistons. Lou keeps saying "Hello" at random moments. Murph does all the drumming bits effectively. Fast when necessary, but not quite as unhinged as Paul or Jason from the previous gig. Then, again, he is older and appears more laidback. Pekka tells me he thinks they played a couple of tunes off the latest album "I Bet On Sky". It's the "difficult third album for the second time in their career. The second time round version of "Bug" which had "Freak Scene" on it and was later disowned by J. This release also has two songs by Lou. A growing sign that the band is way more mature and everyone gets a share. Hell, they're all playing the stuff together. let them all share equally in the rewards.

So, another storming night out. Vlatka and I met up. Share the minibus to The Wanch. I decline a drink as I've got to get the 0030 ferry home. Mari,s nephew Pontus should have arrived by now. Pity he couldn't get to HK earlier. He would have enjoyed the show, assuming he wasn't jet-lagged to buggery. Big thanks to Mike and Jane at Songds For Children for another gloriously great gig. Pekka tells me he got to hang with J. for a bit and the band autographed his vinyl version of "I Bet On Sky". And Dino Jr., I hope you do your best to blow TOD off the stage when you do your joint concert in Taipei. See you all at Clockenflap...

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