Rocking You, Me, Others

Last night, one of the incredible rock bands I play in Children of the Unicorn, rocked balls over at the Annex on Orchard Street. It was a fun show full of all the rocking good times that attracted me to rocking in the first place (minus the groping).

Before the show, Phil and I headed next door to the Thai place they had sitting right there and ate the fuck out of a couple orders of spicy noodles with basil and chicken. We also ate some salads since we are all healthy-like. The food was pretty delicious but Phil and I agreed afterward that we had overdone it as far as pre-rock meals go. Generally speaking, if you’re stomach pushes your guitar out further in front of you than normal, you have most likely gone and overdone it. Making matters worse, the food was spicy too. I can’t speak for Phil, but a spicy meal before a rock show increases the chances of me shitting my pants on stage by roughly 75% according to my privately-funded research on the topic. Thankfully, however, we had a good set anyway and at no point did my ass explode or anything.

After we got done rocking the fuck of the Annex, a band called Captured! By Robots took the stage. The band consists of one dude on guitar and vocals and then a bunch of robots that he built himself rocking along with him. It’s quite a sight to behold. The robots actually play their instruments- it’s not just pre-recorded music. That said, the music the lone human in the band and his robots produce is not really my kind of thing, but I still support it fully. Anyone that builds a bunch of robots, piles them into an RV, and then rocks the fuck out the entire country with them is to be commended in my book. They have cool T-shirts too. To get a sense of the Captured! By Robots magic, check out the video above. He/they are onto something.

In other news, my computer totally died on Friday so right now I am typing this on a loaner computer. As a result, I don’t have any my iTunes music (what some people might call “jams”) so I am instead listening to actual CDs and also some Internet radio until I get my computer back (assuming it hasn’t just gone and slit its wrists). A second ago the station I was listening to played some Pere Ubu, a great band from my hometown of Cleveland that I really dig. I dig them so much in fact that I am totally recommending you go and watch/listen to the Pere Ubu video above. It is from “Night Music,” a great music show that was on NBC in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s. The show was hosted by Jools Holland and David Sanborn. This particular episode featured Pere Ubu, Philip, Glass, Debbie Harry, and Loudon Wainwright among others. It’s mindblowing to think that a collection of artists of this quality actually appeared on network television all at once like this. That would quite simply never happen today, at least not in America anyway. How did our country get to the point of sucking so much? Oh wait, I remember.

Speaking of rocking rock music, earlier today I was listening to Superjoint Ritual, the now-defunct heavy metal band from New Orleans that featured Phil Anselmo from Pantera and Down, Jimmy Bower from Down and Eyehategod, Hank Williams III and a couple other dudes. Here is an incredible video for one of my favorite songs by them. I hope you enjoy it so much. It rocks balls. It is also kind of disgusting. Historically, however, this has often proved to be a potent combination.

Dave Hill