Alienated top 12 blogposts for 2024

Curious about what people care about on my blog, dear reader? Here are my top twelve stories of the year. All posts are given with the minimum number of reads, as reported by Blogger -- some regulars might have read it just at the top of my blog, without having clicked on it or such, so who knows if Blogger keeps track of that. These are not huge numbers but at least they're all at least triple digits, eh?

Anyhoo, Happy New Year, and congrats to you if you were in one of these stories, presented in sequential order.  

 Live review of Black Flag, last January: 243 reads

Dead Bob with Colin MacRae, last February: 491 reads.

Powerclown live review, March, 283 reads. 

Selina Martin, Tony Bardach, and the Minimalist Jug Band: also March, 245 reads. 

Reverend Horton Heat live review, also March. Someone must have shared this bad boy because it's at 1940 reads. 

Jon Card obituary and archival interview, April: 466 reads. Not bad for a Canadian punk drummer, eh?

LanaLou's folk punk night with Jonny Bones, Jesse LeBourdais, Matt Earle, and Spencer Jo: July, 210 reads. 

Alejandro Escovedo primer, July, 202 reads.

Why bats? About "If I Was a Bat" and more, a very personal post from October, but it got 189 reads. 

Ty Stranglehold interview, December: 207 reads. 

Live review of Dead Bob, Victims Family and Invasives, December, 269 reads.

Pre-Ronfest article focusing on Chris Crud: 190 reads!

Honorable mention: Tony Walker, at 182 reads, last June.  

Steve Albini in memoriam

Just something I posted on Facebook earlier today that I figured I would also put here, because it really just seemed to merit my psychic energy. Ford Pier tells me in the comments there that the right way to do Shellac is to start with the first album and then follow their development: I might do that. He also thinks, with Mr. Yow, that Two Nuns and a Pack Mule is peak Albini. I'm bearing this in mind, but man that band name makes me squeamish. All the same, I'm glad he matured, glad he grew up: this is why it makes no sense to crucify people for things they did 20 or 30 years ago, because sometimes they aren't that person anymore. 

Excited to have Mr. Albini back in my life, musically, even if it has come at some cost. Commence FB post:

I hope this is not insensitive, but in terms of musical events of 2024, something really personally valuable to me, as a music fan, came out of Steve Albini's passing. I already had both Vic Bondi (who was most definitely not always on this page) and David Yow say good things about him in interviews, over the last few years -- Yow seemed particularly in awe of him, described him as a genius, while Bondi, who was on the record disparaging Albini in the past, gave him lots of credit for his later work and growth and was quite amelioratory, which I was glad to help put into the world. But it wasn't until Albini's unexpected passing this past May that I went back and read Albini himself reflecting on his own early work, which I had liked at the time when I too was young(er) and dumb(er), then decided was off-putting and problematic and swore off by the time I was 30. "Fists of Love," screw dat: I tried at various points to keep some of Albini's music in the house but there were always things that grossed me out, "immature edgelord horseshit, who needs it, meh." When he died, I had a bunch of albums he had produced, but maybe only one CD by a band I won't even name here, which I only bought (Two Nuns and a Pack Mule, we mean) because Yow loved it so much. Good record, but horrible band name -- I mostly kept it for the ZZ Top cover (which I had to admit ruled, but I never had a problem with how Albini SOUNDED, you know? Just what he said and wrote and his posturing).

 
Anyhow, reading Albini in 21st century interviews, which I did a bunch of on his passing, made it very very clear that Albini had grown up tons, and got me to do something I had never done before: I bought a Shellac record, To All Trains, which came out just after he died in May. And holy cripes, it's great. It may turn into my favourite album of 2024 -- I haven't gotten to the bottom of yet, nowhere close, but it's one of those deep, solid listens that you know is going to be exciting for years to come, like, say, late-phase Fugazi or something; you're not going to spin it every day, but it's not going to get boring, ever. My only complaint is the best kind of complaint you can have about an album: it's too short, I want more! Plus, having deliberately ignored them while Albini was alive, I had no idea that Shellac was also the band of Bob Weston, formerly of the Volcano Suns (a band I dearly love, fronted by Peter Prescott of Mission of Burma, also now in another band, Minibeast), so that doubles my excitement.

 
Anyhow, I'm not sure that there's any single figure in popular music I read about, thought about, talked about more than Steve Albini while *not actually listening to them*, you know? I have spent far more of my life not listening to Steve Albini than I have doin' the other thing. That may change now -- I think I need to explore some more Shellac, though I'm going to restrict myself to their recent work for now. And though it comes late in the game, RIP, Mr. Albini -- man of the year, I guess, tho' I'm sorry you aren't around to take in my saying so. I hope when you were around, you read my Yow interview where we talked about you -- that was some pretty fun stuff he said about your freakish ability to name the chemicals in sperm, and he talked about your poker playing a little, which I had paid no attention to (it's in a back issue of Big Takeover, for those who are curious). If other people are like me, it might actually be time to give the man a break and give the album a listen. It's real good!!! (PS, I just finished writing you into a grammar worksheet I'm preparing for my dayjob, illustrating restrictive and non-restrictive appositives, asking students to add commas where necessary to these sentences: "The producer of Nirvana’s album In Utero Steve Albini was also a member of the band Shellac. He ran the studio Electrical Audio in Chicago the city where he lived." Furthering your legacy one ESL student at a time!).

AJJ -- an inspiring night with Sean Bonnette

It's nice to see kids -- I'm not entirely serious about that word, but when you're 56, anyone under 35 looks like a kid -- getting so enthusiastically into a band as artful and strange and naked as AJJ, who, in a very stripped down form, played a packed house at the Pearl earlier tonight (Ben, the bassist, had a family emergency so it was essentially a Sean Bonnette solo acoustic set). 

Truth is, the youthful audience -- I figure the median age was about 27, but if you removed a few dozen old fuckers like myself, the average would drop lower -- knew the band's catalogue better than I do; I could only sing semi-confidently along with a couple of songs, like "Getting Naked, Playing with Guns," but the gathered crowd seemed to know a lot more lyrics than I did, and generally got passionately into Bonnette's performance (which wasn't entirely solo: Jim of Pigeon Pit, the AJJish opener -- and also of Foot Ox, whose song "Lucky Strike" Bonnette covered -- joined him for a couple of songs). The songs were quiet enough that you could hear the rumble of the moshers' feet on the floor of the Pearl, like a small stampede was passing through. It was a very enjoyable and even inspiring night -- if you are old and jaded and not used to seeing young people behaving in such cool ways -- though jeepers, I've never seen people mosh to an acoustic Roger Miller cover before (there was even some crowd surfing!). In fact, Bonnette semi-chastened people for getting a bit too enthusiastic at times (pointing out for his performance of "White Ghosts," say, off their newest album, that the song works better if people don't stomp along; he also quipped something mid-set about playing a few bangers so that the people in the pit would burn off their energy, but they never did). He also fucked with us a bit, in a way that reminded me a bit, weirdly, of Jonathan Richman, playfully doing four sequential readings of "The Michael Jordan of Drunk Driving" (which is about a minute long) then a couple of other songs ("Body Terror Song" off Good Luck Everybody, and a cover of Neil Young's "Tell Me Why," noting that Neil is his favourite Canadian) before doing a fifth take, the audience tittering but maybe also wondering what was going on. After a few more other songs -- he did a final sixth take of it as an encore. Never quite seen it done that way before! He flubbed his lyrics a couple times, over the course of the night, and abandoned one song outright -- "shit, I don't know that one!" -- but they're complex, dense lyrics he's singing, and, I mean, heck, Phil Ochs used to forget lyrics all the time, and he's practically a saint, so fuggit). In fact, Bonnette played with incredible energy -- check out "Normalization Blues," a Trump-themed song from the previous album; it was amazing to hear live. I wish it wasn't relevant again! (There were a few references to the current political situation, which runs throughout Good Luck Everybody, previously linked. Bring on the mega-guillotine, indeed).  

Sean crosses off his setlist, which was based on requests made on a clipboard at the merch table (!)

I shot one other video, for "Kokopelli Face Tattoo," which, fittingly enough, was the song I recorded the last time I saw AJJ play, ten years ago at the Biltmore, when they were still using their full name (and had a full band. Sean's hair wasn't as good back then!). Unless you count a fairly bad Roky Erickson thing I shot on my wife's cellphone at the Electric Owl, then posted under her account, that song was the first video I ever put onto Youtube!

Anyhoo, I don't have much to say, but it was a great night, and I loved that there was at least one person there who came BECAUSE OF MY RECOMMENDATIONS on social media. One person! Who also really loved seeing the young'uns getting into such creative music, and bought an album off the merch table (this one, which features the fascinating "Bad Bad Things," probably their most horrifying song -- yet somehow a very moving one). At the end of the evening, Sean squatted at the front of the stage and signed things, and politely ignored a drunk girl who kept calling him "Andrew" (?!) and insisting he play "Skate Park," a song I barely even know, but that obviously runs deep with her. Me, I'd had "Bad Bad Things" on my brain all night, but it's so terrifying I didn't mind that he skipped it. Still, I sang it to myself as I walked down Granville Street -- "Do you remember me? I killed your family" -- amidst large numbers of 20somethings, also carrying AJJ records. 

Kids these days: I like'm.  

AJJ Sunday!

Very excited, because this will be something unusual: Sean solo! (He was touring with a bassist but there was a family emergency). Have seen them before, but not like this. Bandcamp here -- I recommend the Glasgow live album, and like Christmas Island the best of their studio albums, but there are gems throughout.

NO FUN at Christmas 2024: some photos

So LanaLou's had a pretty good crowd tonight, but was still intimate and funny and very participatory -- the second best NO FUN show I have seen in 2024 since my bloggerversary. If you missed it, there will still be a post-Christmas letdown show at LanaLou's after Christmas, we believe, with many of the same highlights, but with commentary in a faux-Ukrainian accent. Maybe Pete will do "Too Cool for Christmas?" I haven't heard that song in years. 

Meantime, here is the whole "Good King Wenceslas Show (2024)", possibly with slight audio lag, and "Be like Xmus," and ooh, here's three songs from early in the set, and wonderful ones at that. Guest opener Sister DJ's funniest, most striking song was about Whalley but her "Goodwill Christmas" song was pretty great too -- all her songs seemed to be themed around poverty, and had a little bit of underclass political bite to them, but they were still very very funny and tuneful. Plus if you watch the Wenceslas clip to the end, Pete Campbell tells the story of the time Stevie Ray Vaughan played his Stratocaster (!). 

Oh, and I take the stage for the Wenceslas suite, dangling my bat as per normal, but with the lyrics to "our song" rewritten to efface all mention of bats. There's a rat in it, though. I would have brought a rat if I had known! 

There are lots of rats around Metrotown Station. They're quite large and none too shy. I saw one coming home, in fact! But no bats. 

Neptoon, Charles van Sandwyk, and NO FUN: 3 Christmas-related things to do!

Music lovers, do you have high-end record collector friends that you want to spend a lot of money on this Christmas? A word to the wise, Rob Frith purchased a ridiculously cool box of 7" singles, all very valuable, from multiple vintage David Bowie (like the original "Space Oddity" 7", pictured below) to an early Jethro Tull 7" mis-attributed to Jethro Toe! These are the sort of singles that are so so cool that I probably wouldn't even recognize them; like, if I saw them at a thrift store I would go, "Huh, a Yardbirds 7", that's cool but it's probably a reissue or something," then not buy it. But these are not reissues. 

Of course, these are out of my price range, but super-cool to see. More along the lines of what I can afford is this terrific California punk compilation, notable for me in that the best songs on it are not the ones by bands I know: I bought it for the Dead Kennedys and Flipper and 7 Seconds and such, but I love it for tunes like "Shrunken Heads" by Ghost Dance, a band I had never heard before, or, say, "Dan with the Mellow Hair" by Naked Lady Wrestlers (!) or "No More Riots" by Bent Nails. Who the heck were Bent Nails? Amazingly cool comp -- probably my favourite punk comp ever? And LOOK, it is actually affordable (but don't buy it for me, I have it).

But maybe not everyone on your shopping list does vinyl. Do you want to buy lovingly-made cards, fine art, or illustrated books made to a very high standard? Charles van Sandwyk, whom my wife interviewed for Montecristo last year, is closing up his shop come Boxing Day. Located upstairs at 315 Cambie, more or less above where Scratch Records used to be all those years ago, it's a delightful, unique space. Charles may re-open a store at some point in the future but finds it is taking too much time from his making art; his attitude is very healthy, however (he describes it as having been a "three-year pop-up shop"). Trust me, you will find a gift for someone here, or a card, or something. 

Photograph by Kamil Bialous

Maybe shopping isn't your thing, but you really want to come see me sing "If I Was a Bat" with David M. and NO FUN again (or see if there is a Christmas-themed variant?). Did you miss out the last time we did this? Come to NO FUN at Christmas, this Sunday at LanaLou's! Some NO FUN backstory here, and note David's delightful album of Christmas-themed music from a few years ago -- especially "Elf Toymaker," his seasonal spin on Bowie. NO FUN will be performing at the Bowie Ball this year, incidentally!  

This is all I have for you this Christmas. I'll be back with some writing in the New Year, but otherwise going to try to take a bit of a hiatus again. Happy holidays, though, folks!  

Ronfest: I, Braineater, Daddy Issues, Art Bergmann and the Enigmas

 NOW UPDATED! And the video problem seems to have resolved itself... yay... 

All photos by me, including a selfie with Ron!

I said I wasn't going to write anything and I'm not, really, but then I thought about friends who couldn't make it... plus I must give thanks here to Judith Beeman! I think the show last night was Graham's introduction to Betty, which would not have happened, maybe, if she hadn't gifted me those tickets. A postie was there, too - Jeannette! Plus someone Beeman herself suggested (UPDATE), one Nick Mitchum, AKA ARGH!!, who donated the DOA Colouring Books that some of you won, and offers this as a review:

a funtime time machine…music and faces from 40 years ago…it sounded like the 1980s …it looked like 2024…old grey fat bald….but nobody gives a fuck about that...jimmy c hasn’t changed…still fun…braineater music…sounds like nothing else…yeah i seen bad girl betty and daddy issues and her plastic pussy before…essence of early alice and iggy…very stoogey….fun rock’n’roll…but i didn’t really need be reminded that i have seen iggy’s real dick too many times…art…kinda sad…too quiet for the loud room…i liked him better with lick the pole minus the girls backing him at the hard core logo screening at the rio a couple of weeks….wasn’t that excited about seeing the enigmas…saw them lots years ago…but were alway fun but never a fave…i had been thinking i wish the modernettes were playing instead…but last night the enigmas were wow…very much lots of rock’n’roll fun…i guess you know i really like fun music…and they pass the test of of true punk rock...when the covers are all (mostly) from lenny kaye's nuggets…the seeds of all punk…but most of all i liked the old man times….rockin’ at 7…back out on the street at 10…home with a beer in my hand by 11….a real good fun night…thanks the nudge and the ticket…saw some folks walk out the door with my coloring book…i’m going back to the fox this morning and check the trash bins in the neighbourhood...

This is not how ARGH!! dressed last night, but it is how he dressed at the previous gig we saw him at:

Graham Peat of Videomatica (and now of Boarder Labs & CalStreets Skate Shop  1754 W 4th Ave at Burrard) was another guest and writes: 

Loved the show and the chance to reconnect with so many friends, so I am really grateful for the ticket!

I don't have enough time to fill you in on my connections with the performers but I, Braineater took me back to shows in the late '70s and early '80s where a comedy act I was promoting sometimes opened for Jim. He still sounds as primal as ever and the set was rockin!

I wasn't completely prepared for Betty and being up front for that set was something else. Aside from the highly entertaining visuals, she can sing!

Art was in better form than last month at the Rio ( Hardcore Logo ) according to Nick Mitchum. So much history and he's still doing it when others would have given up.

The Enigmas were tight, loud and lovin' it. Paul is such a fine frontman. I kinda miss the kilt but I have stories for you about him, his bike and his girl, who worked at Videomatica.

Again, a big thanks for a great evening!

 With store manager Cyrus

...which thanks, once again, go out to Judith Beeman for the tickets. All four were well-accounted for and the people I have invited may have donated to the Gofundme besides! I have posted some clips, of the Engimas, Art Bergmann (solo acoustic), Daddy Issues, and I, Braineater -- there seemed to be an audio-video synch issue when I first played them, but it has mostly resolved itself. There is also a hidden clip of Daddy Issues covering Nomeansno, but apparently one musician was a bit off, so I have left it a private clip for now! Tried to sneak out early because I am tired, sick, sore... then someone reminded me that I'd forgotten something and I went back in, ended up backstage for a bit... which meant, because I don't know where the backdoor is, I was stuck at the front of the stage for the start of the Enigmas, and changed my mind about leaving. Sure was glad I did! 

The video kicks off with an amusing/ embarrassing moment: Danny Shmanny almost won a guitar that had been stolen from Ron, then given back, then gifted as a prize, but his ticket didn't match (the drawn ticket was # 117 to Danny's 118), which Dave characterized as someone trying to steal the guitar again! It was fun to see Danny called to the stage, anyhow. Actually, I was talking briefly to Boom Boom Benson of the Spores -- Danny's previous band, much missed by me -- and it turns out he wasn't annoyed or offended at all (as I feared) by my raving about the absence of a Spores song from the show that Stiff Middle Finger did with Aging Youth Gang. In fact, he had had the same thought: "Why didn't we do a Spores song?" So he found my griping about the same kind of validating. 

Maybe someday a Spores reunion will happen? If you don't have this CD, and you're a local punk, you're missing out. The best 2nd wave punk band in Vancouver history? (Okay, well, some of you might be Death Sentence fans; House of Commons were pretty great too but from Victoria. My money is on the Spores).  

As for other raffle prizes, the aforesaid ARGH!! donated DOA colouring books, Jim donated shirts, and Bev donated a photo of Ron with Black Flag. There were other things, too (but no merch table that I could find). When the draws happened, between each song, it generally took a very long time to get people to check their tickets! Some winners went prize-less, and Lisa Lloyd almost had her swag given to someone else -- she only got to the stage at the last minute! 

As for the music, it made sense last night, hearing I, Braineater, that Jim had done stuff with Tony (RIP) of Deja Voodoo. The new lineup of the band has a very strong garage element -- muscular Neanderthal rock. I arrived late, as they were doing a new song, "Bunny" (or something like that), which is really fun! "Sacred Cow" in the hands of this unit sure sounds a lot like "I Wanna Be Your Dog," but that is not in any way a complaint. 

Betty, strapping on a dildo for, I think, "Bad Touch," said her usual "this song is about your father's cock," and then, gesturing at her new appendage, said something like, "Do you recognize it, or do you need me to move it closer to your face?" Ouch! Her hair tonight brought the phrase "Peg Bundy from hell" to mind. She remains the most intensely watchable performer in Vancouver, but I have a point of etiquette, expressed as a question: when the singer is 95% butt-naked and wearing a fake vagina over her real vagina, is it gauche to then zoom in on that vagina? Is the vagina a legit part of the performance? What about if Betty -- erm, Holly Holy -- waggles her ass as part of her performance? Can one zoom in on that? 

Because I did, somewhere in there, but I also zoomed in on Richard Katynski's frontal bulge a couple of times, mind you. Got some shots of the "cocaine" betty threw over him (looks like sugar to me?). It seemed maybe healthier for Betty to pack a baggie than for her to be smoking sugar in a meth pipe (she did not do that this time). I was worried for her lungs. 

Interestingly, Orchard Pinkish managed to keep more of his clothes on than usual tonight... 

People who have missed Daddy Issues should consider this Halloween-themed New Years event, also with the Campfire Shitkickers and the Fomites. I will not be there, alas. A venue I do not know!

Art, up next, played as quiet as I've heard him, because, as he said, all these years of punk rock and nothing has changed. It was very moving -- even for Art; one song off ShadowWalk had him burst into tears, but he sang through them and even smiled to be crying. My favourite of the songs he did was "Children of Kali," which he connected to Luigi Mangione, who he called "the guy who assassinated the medical stockbroker," envisioning a movement in which said children "pick up bows and arrows and start assassinating the cunts that rule over us." Then he chuckled at himself.

I like Art. And sure, people should have listened more attentively, but it was a heavily social event -- there was a lot for people to talk about last night -- so maybe we can forgive some of the audience this time? Another chance to see Art looms large this spring at the re-release show for What Fresh Hell is This? I wonder if this will also be solo acoustic? 

But that was a full meal for me, so even though the Enigmas had not taken the stage -- and I do *like* the Enigmas -- I was actually walking out the door when a guy who I was supposed to have connected with was walking in and reminded me of the thing we had to do, so though I'd said goodbye to people, I ended up following said guy backstage and getting a package off him. I am making this seem mysterious but no, it wasn't drugs, but a Christmas gift (and no, not Christmas drugs). Shhhh. 

Anyhow, I ended up seeing the Enigmas do a couple of songs, after all, so I'm glad. Singer Paul McKenzie, looking dapper, explained that if they didn't begin with a certain song, bad things happen -- a genuine Enigmas superstition! That song turned out to be "You're Gonna Miss Me," and holy cow; I wish my video of it were more watchable. Weirdly, there was a bit of a Tom Jones thing that was happening, but in the best of all possible ways. Maybe I'll add the clip later? My sync issue is annoying.  

Great night, in any case. My article about Ronfest here, links to the Gofundme here (still $10,000 from the goal). Our best to Ron and Dianne (and thanks to Dave Bowes for putting the show together).