you're a dirty robber, i said you're a dirty robber... well, you take my love, & then you run away

tonight at the speaker mtg, something wild happened - the mild-seeming, sort of casper milquetoast-looking speaker said he used to go to wailers shows in wash state... no, people, not the bob marley wailers, but the tacoma 60s garage-punk R&R band, the howling vocals, slamming piano, saxes, & guitars akin to the sonics & the mummies (all recorded "dirty robber," for instance)... it was like hearing your grandma say she used to party with jerry lee lewis!!! here's a wailers snippet (go down to "dirty robber"): http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=3896076 ; sonics version: http://www.101cd.com/detail.aspx?productid=56493 ; the mummies (go down a ways) http://www.101cd.com/detail.aspx?productid=56493/detail.aspx?productid=56493 ... these bands were/are rough, wild, alive, with production/studio quality/all that talk that makes me crazy second to the rock & roll... when you're in my (non)league of musicality, who cares what mike or monitor or whatever is used??? who cares what clothes you have on, or what you're "supposed" to play? (like phil alvin said, "i ain't never been nothing you call 'billy'!") you just want to wail... & there you go: there's the band's name... on topic of practiced players who don't need perfect gear to put on a dang good show, the other day at school we had a swell cinco de mayo assembly with local legends mento buru. the school orchestra played a few tunes & i plunked away on accompaniment at request of our upright music teacher (who can blow mean sax). on the mexican hat dance, each time we'd all chime in instrumentally on the "clap-clap" part, i'd hear los mentos over there, giggling... then matt was nice enough to read aloud with me "the story of cinco de mayo" so we'd have an educational excuse for it all, then the band began to wail, using our cruddy school PA (set up time for entire band: 15 minutes)... & it worked just fine!! the kids went nuts, whooping wildly; a high chorus of kiddie cheers erupted at the end of song one, & matt said, smiling widely, "that's the best applause we've ever gotten, kids!" near the end, i found out one of our teachers used to own a dance studio, so my god! why was she sitting? i asked her to go up & dance with a few of the kids, then a few more little hams ran out there & started shaking their stuff... it was wonderful! ......... i wish all local bands were as soulfully cheerful & rocking as mento buru, but i do remember My Teens & Twenties, when life was dark, dark, dark & verrrrrrrrrrry serious... well, my experience is, the teens & 20s must be endured... then life gets fun. :) ............a show i DO VERY MUCH want to see is this guy, playing at gigantic vintage on may 18: www.myspace.com/duckmandu ... an accordion punk rock one man band!!!! of course, on the same blasted night, my friend greg goodsell opens a poetry event. here in backwardsfield, CULTurally, it never rains, but when it does, it pours. i would like to reiterate:
it never ever, ever, ever rains here. but when it does, it pours.
my favorites tonight: 1) jogging til i'm lit with endorphins & yet feel like i have rigor mortis; 2) oatmeal with peanut butter, salt, & cinnamon; 3) mordantly witty, romantically violent song titles like your pretty face is going to hell (the stooges) & the world's a mess it's in my kiss (x); 4) limewire; 5) ricardo's coffee at tonight's meeting (it's ALWAYS horrible at drunk meetings, & this was a happy exception!); 6) orson welles' touch of evil, which i'm about to go watch for the 20th time or so ("the sleaziest good movie ever made" "a masterpiece of bad juju" http://www.austinchronicle.com/gbase/Calendar/Film?Film=oid%3a142768 ) ... happy mothers' day to all mamas... i hope everyone's mama is as smart & wonderful as mine & angie's is... in fact, it's funny - the older i get, the smarter my folks get.