Another sculptor that I found in my search. Meg White is an interesting sculptor that she started doing 3D works by paper, and now she uses other materials like bronze,limestone and clay. Most of her works are public works but I found her private works much more attractive. To see her work click right here.

Araştırmam sırasında bulduğum bir başka heykeltıraş. Meg White 3 boyutlu heykel yapmaya kağıtla başlamış ilginç bir sanatçı ve şimdi bronz, kireçtaşı ve kil gibi diğer materialleri de kullanıyor. Çoğu işi kamuya açık ama ben bireysel işlerini çok daha çekici buldum. İşlerini görmek için buraya tıklayabilirsiniz.

The White Stripes performed  ‘Folksinger’ on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic in 2005

Audio from Good to me, B- side of Seven Nation army, from the album Elephant

A KCRW affair is always a classy one. This year’s Halloween Masquerade did not disappoint. From the gorgeous setting at the legendary Park Plaza to the central casting styled beautiful people in costumes fit for a movie shoot, there was everything needed for a visual and aural bacchanal.

The grand staircase of the Park Plaza was jammed with incredible ensembles ranging from clever to kitschy. There were the topical and predictable, like a Galifianakis in blu blockers with baby from The Hangover, to costumes so intricate they had moving parts which lit up.

There were hats and gloves, masks, tails and plumes, which scraped floors and door frames. The amount of glitter, feathers and fur left in clumps on the floor of the women’s bathroom made the place look like a kennel in Vegas.

Each level in the historic Neo-Gothic hall had a full bar, spooky projected visuals and grand gothic décor. Out in the back, the premier foodie trucks, Sprinkles Cupcakes, Koji Korean barbeque, Border Grill and Kool Haus served up treats to hungry ghouls.

Gothenberg’s electropoppers Little Dragon dressed in all black like Dieter dancers with brightly colored Aztec paper masks, played their synthy tunes for an enthusiastic crowd in the Bronze room. As Yukimi writhed and waved her oblong tambourine and atoned ala Siouxie over the poppy goth beat, the well dressed crowd didn’t waver for a moment.  She rewarded the audience by dancing harder and singing to the back of the house with Evita arms outstretched. There was a massive response for these Swedes. Angelinos want more Little Dragon and they want it immediately.

Little Dragon by Jeremiah Garcia

Upstairs, the crowd for Sea Wolf was just as great, even though Little Dragon’s set overlapped theirs – the only unfortunate problem during the evening – Alex Church and company took the stage decked out a la Day Of The Dead in black skeleton jumpsuits and white skull faces. True, I was a bit disappointed he wasn’t dressed as Teen Wolf (luckily KCRW DJ Eric Lawrence WAS dressed as the MJ Fox character) but that’s where my disappointment ended. Alex sang the new songs with a confidence I haven’t yet seen from him, which will serve him well once the New Moon hoopla snowballs into insanity.

The band launched into old favorites like ‘Songs For The Dead’ and ‘Black Dirt’, asking Big Bird, Super Mario Bros, Jack and Meg White, and several slutty showgirls in the front row to join the band on the stage steps. As they played their hit ‘You’re A Wolf’, the scary visuals being projected above dissolved into the twins from The Shining which almost pulled focus from the newly charismatic Alex Church. Almost.

Sea Wolf by Jeremiah Garcia

Downstairs, DJ Shadow took the decks with 45s, of course, spinning funk and old school favorites. In my eyes, Shadow was the ‘get’ of the night and the clear headliner. He is one of the premiere DJs of his time.

DJ Shadow by Jeramiah Garcia

Unfortunately, his crowd was a bit thin, due to the set times overlapping and the fact that he was up against the Jonestown-like fervor of Edward Sharpe and an electronic rave that Jason Bentley was commandeering on the top floor. I’ve never seen men in full Amadeus regalia and powdered wigs dance in a room that was hot enough for a Bikrams yoga class. It was like Bentley had them in a Trance trance and none of them could pull their overly made up bodies away.

Bentley's crowd by Jeremiah Garcia

Many people filed in the ballroom to watch the final band of the evening, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, perform. Alex Ebert and his polyphonic spree type cult of musicians crowded onto the stage and launched into pleasant singalong sounds. It’s funny to think of Ebert this way. I remember him with the bi-level razored hair and skinny Ima Robot jeans when his songs ‘Scream’ and ‘Dirty Life’ made me do a lil’ indie dance. That was before he made a pilgrimage to Pioneertown and started dressing in all white, all the time. Now, everyone is entitled to a sea change both musically and looks wise. I just wish I liked the new music as much as everyone else around me did. Even the guy dressed as a Golden Shower, danced like a Manson family member on a Joshua Tree LSD binge.

Edward Sharpe and Spree by Gary Leonard

I went back downstairs for more DJ Shadow and for some Garth Trinidad who brought the obvious missing element: Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Decked out as Moses, he used his great, ahem, staff, to part the wheat from the chaff and really make the zombies dance. On the floor. In the round.

Garth/Moses and his big staff

Thriller night, indeed. Something for everyone and each one of the senses provoked, the masked masses danced straight into the early hours of All Saints Day.

Alice Cooper In Wonderland

The Demon Beat is THE band to lookout for in the coming months. Hailing from West Virginia, these boys play their instruments like it was 1974 all over again. The trio made up of Adam Meisterhans, Tucker Riggleman and Jordan Hudkins have been blowing away crowds on the east coast and they’re bound to only get bigger. The band will be releasing their newest album titled Shit We’re 23! (Big Bullet) will be out November 3rd, so be sure to pick up a copy! We had the chance of sitting down with the hillarious boys from The Demon Beat and here’s how it all went down.

How did you come up with the name, The Demon Beat?

Tucker: Who wants to feel this one, Adam?

Adam:  It’s from the story about this band I used to be into, one of the guys, well they used to be on a Christian label and he was wearing a Rolling Stones shirt and this guy came up to him after the show and said “You shouldn’t be wearing that Stones shirt, because Keith Richards went to Africa to study the Demon Beat.” Which is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard….and it’s still one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard(laughs).

How did the band form?

Jordan: I’ll feel this one Adam. So Adam and I were in a band beforehand, a four piece op rock band called the Kamikazanauts and this is like you go to college and form a band of your friends, so after that Adam and I were talking that we’d really like to o sort of a classic rock duo. Adam had written all of these really cool riffs that he had played for me on an acoustic guitar, and I didn’t know how to play drums so I was like “I’m going to go home and learn how to play drums over the summer so we can form this band in the fall when we come back to school.” We came back to school, he had all the riffs, I had the drum skills, so we form a two piece kind of in the vein of The White Stripes, The Black Keys that sort of thing. It was really popular at the time so we tried to cash on that.

You could be Meg White!

Jordan: I don’t know how to play drums, surely I’ll be better than Meg White! So we got together and played our first show at a coffee house in Martinsberg, West Virginia. We set up in the corner in front of the flavor syrups and played in front of a few of our friends…

 Adam: We got a standing ovation!

 Jordan: We got a standing ovation. Our initial idea was to write a 40 minute long song, which we did…

 Adam: I did!

 Jordan: I didn’t have anything to do with it. Adam did everything. We started playing pen mics in our local town and after a while we were like, we need some bass, you know? To round it out. We needed some bass, and we had this guy playing with us and it wasn’t really working out and he couldn’t make an open mic night to play and Tucker was there and he’d seen us and so he filled in and he worked up chops in a band called Thunder Struck, a classic rock cover band, so he really knew how to weigh in down. Like seriously he broke the void, he was perfect it felt really good and we kept playingtogether. Kept going, keep on keeping on, I think that’s how the old poem goes. Then we came here and you were here and you had a tape recorder in my face. What’s a demon beat?!

 Who are our influences?

 Tucker: Musically? The Dada actually, anything Dadaist.

 Jordan: I’m into impressionism!

 Tucker: No actually musically, The Who, The Stones, anything on classic rock radio. 

Just so we can pitch it. We got into this brief period when we were really into Stack Records.

Jordan: Then we got really into Spacehog for a day!

 Tucker: For a day….

 Jordan: We quickly fell out of our Spacehog phase.

 I didn’t see that coming…

 Jordan: Now we like The Arctic Monkeys (laughs)

 How does the band write songs? Is it collaborative or does everyone bring in their

own songs?

 Jordan: Adam is the primary songwriter.

Adam: Yea, usually what happens is the songs come about one or two ways. Sometimes I’ll have like I’ll kind of know exactly how I‘ll want things. I’ve made some demos where  I’ve played all the parts and then they’ll listen to it and adapt it, because he’s (Jordan) a much better drummer and he’s (Tucker) a much better bass player. Sometimes it’s that way, sometimes they’ll be downstairs waiting for me to come down to start practicing and they’ll just be fucking around, and it’s awesome. We’ve written a lot of songs that way. I write the words all the time. That’s why there are so many drug references (laughs).

 Crack habit?

 Jordan: Adam is really into crack sheik. That’s his look.  All he eats is rice and old seasoning, but he doesn’t put it on rice he just licks it out of his palm (laughs).

At what point did you think that music was something you wanted to pursue in your

life?

Tucker: We all came from towns that were full of industry, and you went, well Jordan, for you it was coalmines, right? And for Adam plastic…And for me it was chicken factories and when you grow up there it’s pretty depressing and you know when that’s your future you feel the need to do something else. I think we all just kind of found music. It was like a dead end in all of our towns.

 Jordan: Man, you know what? Having a job blows. The coolest thing in the world….well you want to see the world, see the country, why not do it playing music? Why not?! That’s what I think. Our college just blew. I was going to drop out but I thought why not and just finished it out.

Tucker: I graduated and couldn’t get a good job, he graduated and got a decent job.

Jordan: I make 500,000 dollars a year (laughs). Can you believe that? Do you want a beer later? They have a beer that’s actually in an old sheep bladder…it was bladder-ed in 1835, I’ll buy it for you! It’s 90 dollars a glass. It’s called ‘Bladder Brow’ (laughs).

Adam: He’s the least charming person you’ve ever heard!

Jordan: You don’t have to be charming when you make 300 million dollars a year! 

What inspires you to write a song?

 Jordan: Robots.

 Adam: Just anything, most of our songs are about really deep shit and some of them aren’t about really deep shit.

 Tucker: It’s getting angrier.

 Adam: Actually I had a friend told me I was clinically depressed lately.

 Jordan: The more we go to Philadelphia pissed off we get…No Philly’s cool, right?

What do you prefer more, being in the studio or being on the road?

 Adam: Anytime we’ve been in the studio it’s been less than 2 days. But we love those 2 days. We’re probably not a good enough band to answer that question! We like both I guess.

Tucker: It depends on the weekend of shows. It’s just a really fun weekend but we’ve only been to a studio once, other than that it’s just recording in the basement.

Adam: We’ve sort of got a lot of shit in our basement so we kind of live in a studio. Sort of.

 Jordan: We did record in the studio where 2 Live Crew did their record. Put that on the front page!

 Tucker: We also recorded where they do the voice overs for that show, Backyardigans.

 Jordan: How does this work? Are you going to transpose all of this directly?

 Pretty much, yea.

Jordan: So it’s just going to be a question and all the shit we say? (laughs) Is this going to be in there? What I’m saying right now? I’m cool with it.

What’s your favorite song to perform live and why?

Adam: We like to do this song called “Bad Man” and I get to do windmills and stuff, so that’s cool.

 Tucker: We all get to do solos.

 Jordan: I like to do it because I get to do paradiddles, and they’re my favorite drum rhythm.

 Adam: Right, yea you figured out what paradiddles were 4 months ago!

 Tucker: I still don’t know what a paradiddle is, I figured out how to pronounce it 4 months ago.

 Jordan: It’s paradiddles, not per-diddle. Like two diddles. A pair of diddles.

 What was the first band you were a part of and was it awful?

Adam: I was in a band called Skele-Toothpaste (SPELLING) for 2 weeks, and I quit because of spiritual differences. Then they went onto become Scenes from a Movie and went on the Warped Tour and I’m in a dark concrete part of Brooklyn so obviously made the right move. I’m kidding, they did go to Warped Tour but they’re douche bags (laughs).

 Tucker: The local guitar player found me one day in my house with a bass guitar, which ironically was my thunderbird bass. He told me “I’m going to teach you bass” and what he meant by that was going to point and tell me to play that note. So for along time I didn’t know anything about music when I played it.

 Adam: Jordan, tell us about your first band experience…

 Jordan: Well if you do need to know, my first  band that I was ever in was the great Elementary marching band. I played saxophone. We played the “Duck Tales” theme which was a real scorcher, everyone loved that one. Actually as far like, stupid bands go Like band-bands,  I was in the Kamikazanauts in college. I already told you that already, what more do you want? (laughs).

 How has your music, songwriting wise evolved since you first started?

 Adam: Like a tadpole to a frog, not so much as evolved as it’s grown. I think the more you play, the more shows you do, the more you write. Everything gets better. We’ve all gotten better as musicians, we’ve all gotten to know what each of us are going to do and embrace it. Like I can write more towards the way he plays drums and more towards the way he plays bass. Plus we have more fuzz pedals now so that means we don’t have to write as much. We can just turn them on (laughs).

 Tucker: We’ve gotten lazier!

 Is there a big music scene where you live?

 All: NO!

Wow that was in unison!

 Tucker: There’s a lot of talented people but there’s one and a half places to play…

 Jordan: One and a half?

 Tucker: Well we tried to play the second place and they told us that we were too loud. So I mean like, all of West Virginia is kind of like that. There’s a couple of really cool venues, and a lot of really talented people but they don’t end up doing anything. There are some really good bands in West Virginia that are on the cusp of exploding.

Jordan: And they’re all better than us but we’re the only ones who drive to New York! Keep your eyes peeled for West Virginia bands to take over the scene. Williamsburg may be cool right now, but West Virginia is going to blow up. West Virginia is the new Williamsburg. Nirvana was a really good band.(This is where Adam’s eyes get really big)

 Adam:  Okay right where he says that can you say in parenthesis “This is Adam’s eyes get really big.”

 Jordan: Can you transcribe exactly what Adam just said?

 Yes! You blend a bit of blues and rock, if you had to chose just one
to play forever, which one would it be?

 Jordan: I hate blues. I really don’t like blues! That’s just me though. I’ll put blues into rock, but no, I don’t play blues. Adam just puts blue on top of what I play. I refuse to admit that I play blues.

 Tucker: You wouldn’t have rock without blues.

 Jordan: True there’s that history.

Adam: I can answer your question by saying I don’t want to play with Jordan anymore (laughs).

Jordan: Oh well, you win some you lose some! If you need me I’m back on a mega bus back to West Virginia in the morning. I’m taking mega bus this time! I may get my head chopped off by an ICP fan or whatever happens. I don’t know I heard something crazy happened. Strike that from the record! Please.

 It’s totally in there. Tucker, how did you decide to start Big Bullet Records?

 Tucker: I was procrastinating for finals in my senior year in college and I was really pissed off because we were talking about how there was a lot of really talented people in our town but they didn’t do anything. So I was like “Hey I’m going to help them book shows and make records and all that.” All it is basically like he does the artwork and stuff, I book the bands and help manage them and stuff, and get into the press, stuff like that. Help promote bands in area and bands like Dandelion Snow, and we friends on the label, and it’s like a community. A bunch of fans helping each other out, pooling our resources to make everything a little easier. Also I don’t ever want a real job, so one day I can pay my rent from running a record label, that’s my goal. It’s all about how the world sees you.

 At what age did you start to love music?

Jordan: I was born loving music! I came out of the womb with a “Jesus Christ Superstar” soundtrack. I was dancing.

 Adam: Jordan was one of those baby’s where that they put the headphones on. They played all musicals and ABBA.

 Jordan:  Actually my Mom had a record that was like “Classical Music for Your Uterus”or something like that!

 Adam: Classic Uterus?!

 Jordan: Mr. Holland’s Ovaries. Hey Adam, you like music!

 Adam: Well my parents only kept a few records from their collection. It was Magical Mystery Tour, Are You Experienced? And around 13 I heard Jimi Hendrix, but I also heard The Cardigans “Love Fool” and “Love Fool” made me want to play guitar and Jimi Hendrix made me want to have big hair, which I don’t have right now. But yea, around 13.

Tucker: My Dad claims he named me after the Marshall Tucker Band,, but my Mom claimed she named me after a hot firefighter. My Grandfather’s middle name was Asbury.

 What’s your favorite city or town to play a show?

 Tucker: I like New York. It’s always a favorite.

 Adam: I like North Carolina, you can drink on the street. We’ve only been there once by the way.

Jordan: We’re going back, I swear! We’re we going next weekend? Raleigh! We’re playing the Eastern Regional Final Roller Derby after party. Are you listening America? This is live right?

What is your favorite album of all time?

 Adam: He’s not really big, but I like Kevin Devine. He’s from Brooklyn. I’m into that singer/songwriter stuff. I love Kevin Devine.

 Tucker: I’m going to get lame on you and do an either/or. It’s either Are You Experienced  by Jimi Hendrix, or The Who Live at Leeds.

 Jordan: Those are good ones. If I had to pick it’s probably either The Blue Album by

Weezer or Ratitude by Weezer. Do you know about Ratitude?!

 I do know about Ratitude….

Jordan: And you’re very upset! You like that new single, right?

I haven’t heard it actually.

Jordan: You haven’t heard it? There is a lyric in the new single that goes…have you heard the new single Adam? It goes “The summer was the best we ever had, we watched Titanic and it didnt make us sad.”

 Wow that’s why I haven’t listened to it.

 Jordan: Emily Dickinson is a really good poet. I like The Blue Album by Weezer and I

like, I’ve been listening to a lot of Cake lately, and I like Cake but it’s not my favorite.

 If you weren’t in the Demon Beat, what would you be doing? Would you be playing

in another band?

Adam: Playing in the Demon Beat. I would move to the city and start selling drugs because I’d be too poor to do anything else.

Jordan: I would sit back and ride on m 500K a year salary. I don’t know what I’d do, I’d probably sleep on a bed made of mermaid hide.

Tucker: I’d probably date a girl and so something to make my parents proud. Not express myself anymore.

Become a lawyer?!

Jordan: Hudkins, Meisterhans and Riggleman. That sound’s awful! Do you want to be in our law firm? What’s your last name?

Nastasi.

Nastasi, Hudkins, Meisterhans and Riggleman, we play hardball ya’ll.

 What are the immediate plans for the band’s future?

 Jordan: I know, I know what it is! We’re playing a show at the Charleston in

Williamsburg tonight, tomorrow we’re going home and chilling out, we’re playing a

couple shows, playing some more shows, we are booked up until November until our CD

release extravaganza is. Statewide CD release extravaganza, West Virginia. Spread the

word. New Williamsburg. We’re putting out an album in November. A record that we

recorded, did we talk about this already? We just recorded a record  in New York City,

with our good friend Chris in  Dubway studios, Manhattan, it comes out in November and

it’s called Shit, We’re 23! We’re going to put that record out and see where it takes us. It

may take us to new heights. Or it may take us to new lows. We may play SXSW too.

 Where do you see the band in 10 years from now?

 Adam: I’m trying to die while I’m young here. Past the age of 27.

 Jordan: What’s that poster, Forever 26?

 Adam: Forever 27. We want to end up on that.

Presentato al Toronto International Film Festival lo scorso 18 settembre, il docu-film dei White Stripes intitolato Under Great White Northern Lights si preannuncia imperdibile stando a quello che si vocifera sul web.

E in effetti il trailer del lungometraggio, che trovate qui sotto e che è stato filmato da Emmett Malloy nel 2007 durante il tour canadese del duo composto da Jack e Meg White, ci ha fatto venire la proverbiale acquolina in bocca.

Per maggiori informazioni su Under Great White Northern Lights cliccate qui.

My bro and I checked out The White Stripes Under the Great White Northern Lights on Friday.  I don’t know if you can appreciate music without appreciating the White Stripes. The doc follows the band when they hit up Canada on their summer tour in 2007. The cool part is they decided they were going to play every province and territory in our fair land. Pretty sick. And then they turned up the sick dial to 11 by playing secret shows at every stop on the tour. Not  the radio promoted type of secret show, more like they would pick the most random place possible and then announce it about 30 mins before on their website where it was. The movie even starts with the last of these shows where Jack and Meg hit the stage in (maybe) Nova Scotia, play one note, and peace out. There’s more like that too; for example, in PEI they played on a boat, Winnipeg was on a bus, and Toronto in a YMCA (videos after the jump). Here’s this band, who in many ways is larger than life, with their minimalistic style, crazy mix between folk and rock and a solid amount of Grammy nominations, and they are just finding every opportunity to play in the most unique situations possible.

I wish there could have been more focus on the secret shows, because they were hilarious and cool, but about a third of the way through the doc, after showing a couple of these, they lined them all up. No more secrets. That’s not to say there still wasn’t some sweet performances. The rest of the focus bounced between a random interview with Jack and Meg in what looks like a shanty (with Jack’s cousin passed out in the background) and the actual live performances from the tour. These clips are amazing and show the versatility of this band in the live forum. Jack White’s guitar playing is nothing short of amazing; watching him rotate between rocking the axe and the keyboard in Icky Thump makes me wish I did something better with my life. And after saying a thousand times that Meg White’s drumming skill, I was more than impressed. Not only is she more than a capable drummer, she’s hot and she has great … posture.

The banter between Jack and Meg is nothing short of hilarious. Saying Meg is soft spoken is the biggest understatement of all time; everything she says in the movie is subtitled. Jack rips on her for this too and it makes some charming interviews.But their relationship is confusing considering they refer to each other as brother and sister, but are actually ex-husband and wife. If only all exs could get along that well.  An 8.5 seems low, and considering I felt like I had seen them in concert after this, I’m bumping this one up to a 9/10. Nice work, Stripes.

Most people have heard different stories about The White Stripes.  The former married couple that likes to claim that they are brother and sister open up in a new documentary.

I want it NAO!

I’m feeling lazy today and distracted and needing to make some more progress on my book so what day better than today to write something relatively easy on the mind AND the eyes? It’s also swelteringly hot here in NJ so it seemed appropriate to feature some of music’s most smokin’-est chicks. These ladies all get an A for AWESOME.

 Amanda Palmer

This woman is truly a Jane-of-all-Trades. She sings, she plays, she does performance art, she blogs! http://blog.amandapalmer.net/ and she inspires fans with her originality and passion. She writes ridiculously honest content, she likes to get naked A LOT and she just DOES NOT care what you think about her.

 Amy Winehouse

I know she’s kind of the poster child for Hot Mess as of late but this nor any other unsavory trait of hers will stop me from loving the shit out of this girl. She is truly unique & beautiful and possibly the most talented vocalist I have ever had the pleasure to hear. She’s sexy and a badass and is the person on this list most likely to cut a bitch.

 Gwen Stefani

She has been my idol since the first time I saw the video for Spiderwebs. The bangs, the lips, the abs! That bitch! I’m envious and awed all at the same time. She has always had such a distinctive style and vocal delivery and I’ve been working for years to emulate her brand of cool. Plus, she has produced two of the cutest kids in the universe.

 Jenny Lewis

I wish I had an OUNCE of this woman’s talent. She produces some of the most clever, smart and heartfelt music I have ever heard. She has a voice like a kitten and a canary mated and the result was this gorgeous red-headed creature with a voice to put the mythical Sirens to shame. Only girl is real and I am J.E.A.L.O.U.S.

 Meg White

Holy boobs, Batman! Meg, usually demure and the quieter of the duo which brought her to fame, is definitely a sexy music lady worthy of mention. Her drumming was one of the biggest inspirations for me to pick up the sticks and attempt to bang it out in a style like her own. Even Ray LaMontagne wrote an ode to her and it rocks:

It’s Friday bitches! Let’s take a moment to thank whomever for that fact…

Now……….  enjoy!!!

Stage presence can make or break you. You can be playing the most amazing fills or grooves, but if you have a deer-in-the-headlights look the effect gets a bit lost. If you’re going to tear it up, really tear it up! Get into it! There’s nothing more fun than watching a drummer that really grooves when they groove.

First, I’d like to examine Meg White’s presence.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li3Sqqf3Ki0)

She doesn’t just hit the drums, she’s beating them. Notice that she doesn’t just use wrist-strokes here…No, she’s using arm for those strokes. Sometimes above her head.

Her playing isn’t too complicated, but she’s filling the stage with sound. This is an especially important role, as there are only two people in the White Stripes. The notes she plays on the floor tom & bass drive the verses, and when she brings the crash cymbals in, you can feel it. It all comes together.

The passing of writer/director John Hughes last week brought back a rush of ’80’s memories. He wrote some classic comedies including National Lampoon’s Vacation and Mr. Mom. Yet for many of us, it was movies like Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off that captured our high school experiences with stories and music that came to, dare I say, almost define a generation. My favorite of his films was not a huge hit. Some Kind of Wonderful starred Mary Stuart Masterson as quirky drummer chick, Watts. I’ve seen this movie so many times, I’ve lost count. John Hughes movies reminded me of Watts, which started me thinking about female drummers.

Some Kind of Wonderful

Sheila E. comes immediately to mind. Who can forget her video for “Glamourous Life”? The album of the same title is superb, and remains a favorite of mine. I prefer “Belle of St. Mark” to “Glamorous Life,” but there are plenty of great songs there and on her follow-up album Romance 1600. In addition to playing the drums on her own albums, she performed on several Prince albums and toured with him throughout the 1980’s. I saw her when she opened for Prince on the Purple Rain tour. She sang and played drums for an hour, then jumped in and played for a good portion of Prince’s show. At the end of her set, all the house lights went out and all the audience could see were her illuminated drumsticks flying around in the dark. As I’ve said before, (see Purplish Rain) no concert I’ve seen since has compared.

Originally a jazz drummer, Sheila E. played with Herbie Hancock, Marvin Gaye, Lionel Ritchie, and Diana Ross before meeting Prince and embarking on her solo career. Today, Sheila Escovedo, her real name, tends to religious themes in her music. Earlier this year she won the Country Music Televisions (CMT) reality show Gone Country. She beat out the grandfather of funk, George Clinton, to win. I have never seen this show, but I can’t imagine what George Clinton sounds like playing country music. (Seriously, go look him up.) As the winner, Sheila E. will now have the opportunity to make country music with a famous country producer and writer. She has already released a country single, “Glorious Train.” I’m not sure how I feel about this change in direction. I’m not a big country fan, so will hold my comments for now. Thankfully, she’s still playing jazz as well and is performing later this month at Jazz in the Pines in Idyllwild, CA.

If you’ve seen a Lenny Kravitz video, you may have noticed Cindy Blackman slamming away in the back. This woman can ROCK. She is also an extremely talented jazz drummer and composer. In addition to Lenny Kravitz, she’s played with jazz greats such as Ron Carter, Bill Laswell, Joe Henderson and, one of my favorites, Cassandra Wilson. Her most recent recording was Music for the New Millennium released in 2005 and a new album is expected soon. Jazz is not my area of expertise. So I asked my brother, Erik, who is a drummer and initially suggested that I check out Blackman, to say a bit about her playing. He says, “From light and smooth to all out groove, Blackman’s drumming spans the spectrum of musical flavors.  She has earned her mark in the history of drumming.  It takes great talent and insight to play different styles as effortlessly as she does. Her latest album shows that she is well rooted in the many developments of jazz drumming, but is not afraid to go out on a limb and push the music somewhere new.” (Wow! Maybe he should start a blog?) I prefer classic jazz standards and Music for the New Millennium dips into more of a jazz fusion sound so it may not be for everyone. Works on Canvas is a bit more straightforward and may be a good place to start if you’re a jazz neophyte.

In 2009 one can’t write a blog about female drummers and not include Meg White of the White Stripes. I have to admit that, and this may be a shock to some readers, I am not a huge White Stripes fan. This is odd because they certainly have a punk and blues influence that normally thrills me. Maybe I just missed the wave? Or I’m finally too old for this music? A duo from Detroit, their sound can be called low-fi garage rock. The White Stripes stick to a color pallet of red, white, and black for their album covers, photos, and videos. This makes them highly stylized despite their anti-establishment sound. Music critics have been harsh on Meg White’s minimalist drumming. From all accounts, she has never taken a lesson. Yet, most drummers in punk and garage rock bands never took lessons. It’s typical for the genre. So I’m not sure why she’s given such a hard time for her playing. Oh wait, punk drummers are usually men. Can you say double standard? She may not be a Sheila E. or Cindy Blackman, but her style works for the music. It makes sense. Maybe the critics should just get over it, if they love the music so much. She rocks, plain and simple. AND she kept her shirt on for their Rolling Stone cover in 2005.

Finally, we come to Karen Carpenter, who I think was one of the first female drummers. After some limited research, it doesn’t seem like there were any women playing drums before 1969. If there were, they certainly didn’t get much credit for it. Karen Carpenter was highly respected by her peers as a drummer before moving front and center to sing. Originally, she recorded the drums on the Carpenters’ songs. When they preformed she sang and played the drums. Eventually, the label hired other drummers so she could be out front and sing. I grew up listening to the Carpenters, and know almost all of their songs by heart. They remind of my childhood, particularly my grandmother, or grandmama as we called her. I remember staying up late with her to watch the Carpenters Christmas special. While they may not have been ground-breaking in their sound, Karen’s voice was essentially perfect. Yet, according to her brother, she always considered herself a “drummer who sang”.

As for the fictional drummer Watts, it’s impressive that Hughes crafted this intriguing female character who played the drums. Except for a few unrealistic plot diversions, Some Kind of Wonderful resonated with me. The tomboyish Watts is in love with her best friend Keith, (Eric Stoltz) who wants the popular girl Amanda Jones (Lea Thompson). While I was never as cool as Watts in high school and never played the drums, she was exactly who I wanted to be at the time. The fact that I was embroiled in a similar situation with a crush on my best guy friend may have fueled my ongoing passion for the film. Of course, my high school love triangle didn’t have the same happy ending as the movie. Maybe I should have started playing drums? I suppose it’s never too late. I’ll see if my brother can fit me into his teaching schedule.

Hear Music
SWIK Drummers Vol. 1

See Music
Sheila E: Glamorous Life, random drum solo, All Around (live)
Cindy Blackman: The One , random drum solo, Are You Going My Way
Meg White: The Hardest Button to Button, Black Math (live)
Karen Carpenter: a drumming montage, For All We Know/Close To you (live)

Learn More (websites)
Sheila E.
Cindy Blackman
White Stripes
Carpenters

Buy Music
Sheila E.
Cindy Blackman
White Stripes
The Carpenters

Sandy West – The Runaways
Gina Shock – Go-Go’s
Debbi Peterson – Bangles
Janet Weiss- Sleater-Kinney
Lori Barbero – Babes in Toyland
Torry Castellano – The Donnas
Kate Schellebach – Luscious Jackson, Beastie Boys
Samantha Maloney – Hole, Motley Crue, Peaches
Patty Schemel – Hole
Caroline Rue – Hole
Dee Plakas – L7
Jennifer Finch – L7, Betty Blowtorch
Judy Molish – Betty Blowtorch
Kim Thompson – Beyonce, Meshell N’Degeocello, Roy Hargrave
Dawn Richardson – 4 Non Blondes
Kat Kraft – Vixen
Hannah Blilie – The Gossip
Yael Benzaken – Savatage, My Ruin
Athena Kottak – KrunK
Evelyn Glennie – Bjork, Bela Fleck, Bobby McFerrin
Ruth Underwood – Frank Zappa’ Mothers of Invention
Terri Lyne Carrington – Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock, Al Jarreau
Vera Figueiredo – Brazilian music
Camille Gainer – Chuck Mangione, Christian McBride, Kelis
Susie Ibarra – John Zorn, Yo La Tengo, Thurston More
Hilary Jones – The Mamas & The Papas, Clarence Clemmons, Lee Ritenhour, Dave Grusin
Helen Wiggin – The Shaggs
Debra Dobkin – Richard Thompson, Bonnie Raitt, Shawn Colvin, Melissa Etheridge

On an entirely different note, I think I’m going to post up some pictures of girls that I think are really cute. Now, for me, cuteness is based on three different factors: Pure beauty, personality, and the final appearance. Now cute girls are different from hot girls and beautiful girls. I feel like cuteness is much more individualized, wherein two girls can both be cute but cute in different ways. I feel like cuteness has a lot more to do with the guy rather than the girl in that one guy can see a girl as being cute whereas another guy sees the girl as being annoying or simply plain. Hot girls are simply incredibly attractive as a whole package, but seem to be attainable or unreachable. There’s a certain intimidating factor about them. For example, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, and Megan Fox are hot. They are so hot, in fact, that no man can ever really have any one of them. Still, there’s a certain commonality, a certain mundanity, a certain tawdry nature to hotness. Beautiful girls have a certain ethereal nature to them, like they’re… I dunno, not entirely human, I guess. I would consider Gwyneth Paltrow to be someone beautiful. Out of all three, I actually like cute girls the most. I don’t really have a definite reason why.

Anyway, back to the subject of cuteness. These two are the first I pulled up. The first one is a Korean pop artist named Younha and the second one is a Japanese alternative-rock/pop-rock guitarist/singer named YUI. Now, I certainly don’t know either of them personally, but I can pick up a little bit through their music and their interviews and stuff. Younha seems to be the type who’s cheery and bubbly and has a sort-of confident naivete about her. YUI, on the other hand, is a quiet, faltering, and shy girl. She’s like the female Japanese version of Chris Martin, sans the energetic on-stage performance. Both of them dress in ways that, at least to me, emphasizes their cuteness. Younha has a piece-y sort of hairstyle that seems to emanate a sort of rambunctious, off-the-wall nature. Recently, she’s been sporting curly hair that simply adds to this feeling. YUI, on the other hand, has longer, straighter hair that can easily be used to frame or hide her face away from the world, like a little emo child…

Now, these two are just people I know from Facebook. I’m not going to give out their real names, and truth be told, I don’t really know either of them that well. I’ll name the first one Amanda and the second one Alice. Now, in real life, Amanda is a really colorful, bouncy person. She’ll post random stuff on people’s pages, she’s loud, she jumps around a lot, and there’s literally no way of keeping her quiet and any attempts to do so is only meant with more noise and slight annoyance. Therefore, the bright colors and the bouncy, curly blond hair suits her very well. Alice is quieter… but… I dunno. She’s just cute. I like that. Hmmm… I wonder if she’s still living in my dorm next semester… I wonder if she has a boyfriend… I know she had something on her Facebook about a month ago that stated her relationship, but that has since disappeared when I checked it to grab this picture… I’m starting to sound a bit like a stalker… I’ll stop now… hahaha… ahem.

As for this one… this is Meg White, one half of The White Stripes. I picked her because of her pale skin, dark hair, and awesome, awesome cleavage. It’s just… it’s indescribable. I think cleavage is actually sexier than their actual breasts themselves… Yeah, there’s actually not much I can say about this one except awesome cleavage.

After doing this little post, I think I can conclude a couple things. I prefer darker hair, lighter skin, and less make-up. This contrasts with most other guys, who I think prefer tan girls with lighter hair. It would certainly explain the obsession with tanning beds and whatnot. No, I think I like the features I like because I prefer a more natural look…. I dunno. Also, strangely enough, I’ve realized that big breasts don’t hold much appeal for me. Sure, Meg White’s rack is made of pure awesome, but that’s just one example. If you look at the other girls, none of them have anything larger than… I’d say, a B-cup? I think Alice (NOT REAL NAME REMEMBER PLEASE) has something like a C-cup (maybe? I can’t tell…) in real life, but you can’t really tell in this picture. To me, anything larger than a handful is a waste, and I have some pretty damn small hands. Interesting fact: Smaller breasts are more sensitive than larger breasts. Apparently, breasts have the same number of nerve endings, regardless of size. The nerve endings are larger breasts are simply more spread out. As such, larger breasts can endure a bit rougher treatment, but remember dudes, it still fucking hurts if you mess around too much…. Good God, I sound like I have them…

Anyway… so yeah. On that slightly disturbing note, it’s now 12:06 AM and I feel like I ought to go to sleep.

He’s been filming with The Edge and Jimmy Page.

(You can find the rest of this entry at my new blog here.)

It Might Get Loud
Directed by Davis Guggenheim

In January 2008, three generations of guitarists met in Los Angeles to ostensibly discuss the future of electric guitars. Whether or not that took place is uncertain, as Loud functions as more of a history about these particular musicians and their creative processes’, or as simply a jam session of which we get the tiniest vox populi snippets. Representing the early 60’s we have Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, for early 80’s we have U2’s The Edge (real name TBD), and for the early Aughts hipster extraordinaire Jack White, who receives the bulk of the film’s screen time by far (hope you like him!). Introductions aside, *applause*. But not so fast – they might be giants.

Each musician speaks of his origins. Jimmy Page, from quite a different era, had to overcome the 50’s pop pablum know as ‘Skiffle,’ which is basically an unthreatening combination of our traditional rock bands, minus the rock and plus modernized folk tunes. Needless to say it was not loud; one could grow old to it. Jimmy Page, as a rather intelligent youngster and highly proficient Skiffler, helped Americans perk their ears and blink awake with The Yardbirds, and then finally discover real loudness through Led Zeppelin. The iconic Zeppelin image of a naked winged man, arched in triumph. arms to the heavens, seems representative of Page’s musical ambition; namely, to achieve orgasm (he did come of age in the 60’s, after all).

The Edge, who receives the least screen time, is a very nice man who responded to the right ad in grade school. He came of age in Dublin during a spate of awful violence via the IRA, saw devastation around him, and like a character in a Macross-anime, tried to save the day with music (I’ll add that it helps one view this docu if they share this almost mystical appreciation of the power of music). Edge played to balance the violence in his life with positive ‘good times’ and most importantly, for his own comprehension of clarity – perhaps he should be called The Center. However, without a war to transcend, Edge’s passion never appeared to reach the fever pitch that got him noticed in the first place. That’s the problem with being a musician – an inner fire is generally required, and inner fires usually only accompany youth. How many artists are career musicians, how many go on for decades? All I’m saying is ‘not many.’ Edge has a few doubts, but heads to his beach and keeps searching for the Earth’s rock (to Bono’s toe-tap).

Which brings us to Jack White, an odd amalgam of poor-black-blues-crooner and dime-a-dozen hipster party dood. His talent is unquestioned, but his modus operendi remains a mystery to this viewer. Growing up in a crappy Detroit house, the youngest of 10 siblings, was excellent practice for learning to make his voice heard against all odds. And now that I think about it, growing up as the only white family in his neighborhood might just explain why he’s so obsessed with being an old black blues crooner himself… but does not explain why The Raconteurs could not sound further from them. The Raconteurs may very well be simply the product of the success of The White Stripes, both bands seeming to me to be equally incidental and irreverent (lord knows Meg White acted that way). I know from experience that White’s Raconteurs have been prominently inspired by the violently inventive Mars Volta, and White appears to me as a man who feels entitled to succeed through his talents, but whose individual inspirations are somewhat bereft without the shoulders of others, perhaps destined to say little more than a hunched old crooner on a box with a ratty old guitar and his woes. But woe is White without anymore woes to speak of… in Loud he does go on to say that he prefers to suffer through his music, that nothing easy (namely technological advances) assists art. There is a flair of indignance in White, a dash of punk in his passion, but what does he rock ‘against?’ Out of the ghetto, he grew up. Now grow up.

Director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) is too sexy to be trusted. Loud feels not like the youthful artistic spark it centers on, but like a corporate training video about those sparks. There is nothing raw about it. I would even go so far as to say that Guggenheim may just be a star-fucker… as such I do have a difficult time picturing a target audience who are fans of Zeppelin, U2, and Jack White. How old is this person…? Does he have any more than a generalized appreciation of music…? Does he listen to the radio considerably more than he listens to the albums he personally owns…? Loud disguises itself as a film about technical expertise only to be unmasked as a Coca-Cola printed with a nostalgic label (“You see, we know our history!”). Jack White speaks of other musicians, “That family of storytellers… You’re supposed to join the family, become part of it.” That’s certainly how White feels, and Davis wanted it too.

written by David Ashley

LINK TO THE TRAILER: www.apple.com/trailers/sony/itmightgetloud

Ok, haters. Don’t hate. I realise it’s been a good couple of weeks since I blogged last, but I have good reason!

A few weeks ago, I applied for an MA Broadcast course at Leeds Trinity & All Saints. This week was the interview, and whadda-you-know? I got a place.

That’s right, little me, with my ever-so-futile Drama degree (of which I achieved a 2:1 by-the-by) got a place at one of the top 3 BJTC-accredited courses in the country, to study TV & radio broadcast next year, starting in January. I literally can’t tell you how excited I am…not to mention it means that by the end of this year I will be based in Leeds; a city with a reputation for producing musical excellence (… if we perhaps ignore the fact it’s home to the Kaiser Chiefs.)

So, what musical nuggets of joy caught my attention this week?

I guess most notably would be new super-group The Dead Weather; Jack White of The White Stripes latest side-project, only this time…they’re quite good.

White collaborates with has stolen 3 members from 3 bands of the alternative rock genre; Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age, Jack Lawrence of White’s previous and more underground side-project The Raconteurs (besides perhaps the 2006 release of ‘Steady As She Goes’). And finally…and the real reason why The Dead Weather works for me…the lovely Alison Mosshart of The Kills (who I seem to have a growing obsession about?  Seriously, I dreamt I was in a band with her a couple weeks ago…best dream I’ve had in weeks!)

L-R: Jack Lawrence, Jack White, Dean Fertita, Alison Mosshart.

Now, if you can put aside the fact that they insist on looking like they’ve risen from the grave, often dressing top-to-toe in black and giving it the ‘hey-look-at-us-don’t-we-look-mean & moody,-we-must-be-uber-cool’ look, you might find that suddenly thrust into limelight is a band whose music perfectly reflects the musical mish-mash of it’s members. It’s clear that this isn’t just Jack White’s project for which he’s roped in some good musicians, as The Raconteurs might have been. It’s better than that, it’s more mature than that. Check the latest single, ‘Treat Me Like Your Mother’; certainly it’s riddled with Mr White’s signiture sound for the first 1min 55secs. But at 1min 56…you suddenly get the distinct feeling Mosshart’s been sticking her oar in.

It moves away from The White Stripes’ trademark simplicity of post-punk fused with the blues and there seems to almost be a little more thought put into it. You get the feeling that this didn’t just magically materialise from a evening of jamming alongside a couple of whiskys or three. A controlled confusion, if you like. It timeless yet it’s contemporary. It’s simple with White & Mosshart’s overlapping vocals, yet there’s a strange complexity in structure which takes you by surprise. It quite justifiably harks back to the sound of The White Stripes, yet it seems to jump between genres. All this and a cracking high-budget video, with low-effort ideology.

However, I have my concerns. Do we have on our hands a Jack-White-of-all-trades, soon to be master of none? Reviews of new White Stripes material has got progressively less positive. There was outright horror at the quality of White’s collaboration with Alicia Keys on the 2008 Quantum of Solace theme tune which was criticised as being “a rubbish Bond theme tune” (Me: 2008…well, it was no ‘Goldfinger’ was it??). Not to mention Meg White’s so-called “acute anxiety” causing them to cancel their 2007 tour, which upset my good friend Sam tremendously. Are we in danger of losing a critically-acclaimed, hugely popular band to several worse ones which will never have the same success?

Let’s hope The Dead Weather keep up the good work, for now at least.

Last weeks’ performance of “Meg White” from Ray LaMontagne on Late Night TV:

“Meg White” Ray Lamontagne

myspace

Album Review: The White Stripes//Elephant

Elephant is the forth album from The White Stripes and was made in 2003. Jack White and Meg White are not to be mistaken as siblings, as commonly thought, but they were in fact married from 1996 to 2000.

Every once-and-awhile you come across an album where every song from start to end is amazing. I have been listening to this album for about a year, and i still cant believe how much i like these songs. The guitar riffs are so different than what you usually hear from bands today. Bluesy at times and funny at others.  Out of any scale of any amount i give this album a complete pack of elephants. But what i say doesnt matter, i want to hear your opinion; because mine is the least important.

TORRENT

ZIP

53MB
GeekySpeaky: Submit Your Site!