Of Montreal/James Husband split 7" (Happy Happy Birthday To Me)

Of Montreal deliver a track in the horny Prince mode, or should I say in the mode of "Victor," Prince's dark alter ego. Be wary, boys and girls! But no such warning needed for the aptly named Husband...this guy is marrying material! Like Prince/Victor, this lush pop charmer seems to have a doppleganger in the flipside band (not Kevin Barnes, but Of Montreal's multi-instrumentalist James Huggins), and maybe the fact that this lovely tune mentions a dead dog should have hinted at a touch of menace.

all girl summer fun band/cars can be blue split 7" (Happy Happy Birthday To Me)

AGSFB, one of my all time fave indie pop combos, delivers a coupe of gems, one of them a delightfully mean hate song sung with Hello Kitty notebook cuteness. CCBB do the always great coupling of lo-fi indie production and 60s girl group ambition with nice results. Plus a poop song blooper. A pooper? Had you been in the HHBTM singles club and got this in the mail you would have been super happy.

Apples in Stereo/Patience Please split single (Happy Happy Birthday To Me)

You know how sitcoms in the 60s or 70s or 80s would have a fake folk or hippie or punk or metal band and try to boil the essence of what they misconceive the music to be into some weird strange wrong thing that nonetheless is kind of the best example of folk, hippie, punk or metal even though it's totally fake sounding. If you didn't tell me who these bands were I would have thought these were fake songs by someone making fun of Apples in Stereo's bubblegum psyche indie rock and Patience Please's lo fi indie pop candy music. Which is to say, these songs are sort of perfect!

Chica X/He Who Corrupts split 7" (Cassette Deck)

I have a stack of split 7" records in front of me, and I probably should have saved this for last, because it is the perfect double bill. The A-side is Chica X, a pre-teen rapper with attitude and charm, who comes off as a G-rated Peaches despite her best efforts ("I'm 8 years old with a heck of a mouth"). These are ultra-awesome electro songs about going to the mall, not being tall, and your parents coming to your show, with every line obviously actually crafted by a kid who isn't so much a prodigy (the lyrics are very 8-year old-ish) as she is beautifully brave...any kid theoretically could take the stage, but it takes a noble kind of confidence to actually do it. I love Chica X! How could you make her better? By coupling her with brain-blowingly intense ear-melting super fast political hardcore that gives you seizures! These two bands are the new peanut butter and chocolate!

I, Crime "Dove Skin Gloves" b/w "Candy Stripes" (Woodbridge)

When I slap a new 7" vinyl record on the turntable I naturally expect either punk, garage or some kind of lo-fi indie. I guess with the CD in its death dance it could be anything these days, even enchantingly 80s-style Anglo something or another (this is halfway between New Romantic and shoegaze with some X-style boy/girl vocals thrown atop...is there even a name for that?) Should be called "I, Dig."

Raw Nerves "Murderers Among Us" (Poisoned Candy)

This is some hardcore Hardcore -- the kind where you actually feel a little a scared listening to it. Menacing message music that made me mess myself.

YOKO ONO Live at Brooklyn Academy of Music, NYC February 15 & 16, 2010

(Guest Review by Madeline Bocaro) At last the day has come when Yoko Ono is appreciated for her art, music and work toward world peace. At last, after 50 years, I am now proud to be living on a planet with people who understand that she is special. Nobody believed John Lennon. It took time, and a younger, purer generation with not much space between their heads and the sky. It took the youth of the world who don't need to imagine peace, but simply live it. This generation (and mostly her son, band mate, and biggest fan and supporter Sean Lennon) have turned the world on to the glory of Yoko.
On the eve of her 77th birthday, superstars and pop stars, young and old, celebrated the woman who WOKE up the Beatles, joining Yoko in the re-formation and expansion of the Plastic Ono Band. The first show was a 3-hour rehearsal / jam, and even more special guests showed up on the second night. The interchangeable Plastic Ono Band was revived for Yoko’s latest album, Between My Head and the Sky, and the core band still has 2
Lennons (Yoko and Sean), and various Japanese musicians including Yuka Honda and Cornelius.
Yoko’s art was scattered throughout the venue; Wish Tree, Apple, War Is Over! posters, and her 1966 Film No. 4, Bottoms was playing in the lobby. The sound of twittering birds filled the hall, prior to an informative film montage spanning Yoko’s incredible life.
Then she appeared alone, small, glowing and magnificent, singing a capella, ‘It Happened’. The band cranked up ‘Waiting For the D Train’ with Mark Ronson incorporating the bass-line from ‘Why’, and it was full-on from there. The first hour was a pure Yoko fest – including the screamers
and the dreamers! ‘Calling’, ‘Between My Head and the Sky’ and ‘Mind Train’ were lengthy free form rock/jazz/funk excursions to places we’ve never been before. The haunting ‘Walking on Thin Ice’ brought back chilling memories.
If suffering produces the best art, then all that this woman has endured in her life has led her to this moment – the accumulation of all the hardship, sadness and loss - and the expulsion of it all in her music. Nobody sings the blues like Yoko. She once explained, "If you are drowning, you don’t say, “Excuse me but I seem to be falling deeper into this water, and I would appreciate if you would be so kind as to help me.” You just scream, “Argghhhhh!” And that's just what she does. Then, at the end of each song, she instantly purges the pain, revels in the wild applause
and still seems amazed (after being conditioned by years of indifference) that people actually love her now!
There was a wonderful light-heartedness and warmth throughout both concerts, as Yoko and Sean had conversations with the audience and with each other, explaining the origins of each song with amusing anecdotes, love and laughter.
Of course, there were many delicate moments of beauty, like ‘Rising’ and ‘Higa Noboru’. Yoko sang intensely, mostly with her eyes closed during ‘Moving Mountains’, and you just knew that somewhere in the world, the earth was shifting. At times it resembled the intense, very Japanese
soundtrack of a Kurosawa film. The ambience of Haruomi Hosono (Yellow Magic Orchestra) blended beautifully on these songs.
After the intermission, the Scissor Sisters performed ‘The Sun Is Down’. Justin Bond rendered ‘What A Bastard the World Is’. It was hilarious seeing a drag queen, dressed like Liza Minelli in Cabaret, singing the brutal and biting lines from the ultimate (perhaps the very first) male-bashing song - way ahead of its time in 1973!
Kim and Thurston of Sonic Youth joined Yoko on ‘Mulberry’, playing screeching guitars that wept with bows and sticks. We could envision the magnificent sunset as a young Yoko gathered mulberries from the countryside bushes in war-torn Tokyo for her starving brother and sister. She
lived through this as a child, finding beauty in a desperate situation, and we lived it with her.
Original POB members, Klaus Voormann, Jim Keltner and Eric Clapton joined Sean and Yoko for the Beatles’ song ‘Yer Blues’. Yoko started out inside a black bag, for old times sake. As we were still reeling from that, Sean announced a song that’s never been performed live before (a Yoko classic from 1973’s Approximately Infinite Universe album) the stunning, bluesy ‘Death of Samantha’.
On the second night, I was living someone else’s dream, sitting in the front row as Eric Clapton wailed away right in front of me! Several hours of boring technical virtuosity can’t compete with one sincere primal howl from Yoko, but Clapton gets 10 points for showing up and supporting her.
He actually rocked out, playing slide guitar on ‘Yer Blues’, and ‘Don’t Worry Kyoko’, and a nice
lead on ‘Death of Samantha’.
There were two lovely acoustic guitar duets; ‘Oh Yoko!’ by Sean and Gene Ween, and Paul Simon along with his son Harper gently harmonized on the delicate ‘Silver Horse’ and John Lennon’s ‘Hold On’.
The Plastic Ono Band became the Plastic Ono Orchestra, with a tuba, horn and various strings as Bette Midler arrived to wild applause, and sang a divine ‘Yes, I'm Your Angel’ from the Double Fantasy album. Perfect for Midler, it’s a sweet and campy song that Yoko wrote for John in 1980 when he was anxious about turning 40. Sean explained that Bette had worked out the whole
arrangement for the song herself.
The crowd broke into a spontaneous chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’, which touched Yoko deeply. She then led everyone into ‘Give Peace A Chance’, and left us with the undying message of love and peace from John and Yoko.
Yoko sees things that we can’t see, hears things that we can’t hear, and knows things that we
can’t know. She knows that one day there will be peace on earth, and lives her life as if it is undoubtedly so. We would be foolish not to believe her. Like animals, who can sense danger before it happens, she knows. The universe has let her in on some profound secrets, and she is trying to share them with us all. She is trying to tell us something, and we should pay serious attention!
The very first form of music that existed must have been just like Yoko’s – millions of years ago - before language, before instruments…the first prehistoric bird call, the grunt of a cave man, the first vocal expression of joy or sadness. The music of the future will probably resemble hers as
well (whether it be made by humans or aliens) pure and simple. It’s already starting to happen. The circle will eventually be complete.
I am proud to share my time on earth with Yoko Ono, and blessed to have been touched by her. I really hope there is an afterlife for one reason only - so that John Lennon can see all of Yoko's triumphs, and know that his dream has finally come true. For all we know, he might be behind all of this, wherever he may be.

Spider Bags "Teen-Age Eyes" b/w "Eileen" (Odessa)

They spun themselves a web of awesome!

"Bare Wires "Let Down" b/w "Looking for Some Action" (MNH))

This awesome single presents some serious "bedroom boogie" music, meaning both the obvious definition (heh heh) and also that it sounds like a sleazy 70s boogie rock record that was somehow made by a modern-day dude in his bedroom with a four track.

White Mystery "Powerglove" EP (HoZac)

Three raw, spare (obviously, it's a drums and guitars duo) beautifully weird trash rockers form Chicago's best sibling act since Polk Brothers. stopped selling Frigidaires. The standout here is "Ye Olde Stone" where suddenly Miss Alex is vocally channelling Grace Slick, but the weighty SF 60s vibe is brought to earth by lifting song structure from Larry and the Blue Notes' "Night of the Sadist"/"Night of the Phantom," as gloriously un-progressive a garage single as any ever made! The only mystery here is why they ain't playing the Superbowl halftime show!