UPCOMING SHOWS
I wrote a few weeks ago about the Pixie's 20th Anniversary of
Doolittle dates in London and Paris. I immediately considered heading to London. Mohawk Mat told me to wait--he was sure they would be coming to Seattle. I was skeptical and I was wrong.

Guess what kids? The Pixies just announced that they will be playing the Paramount in Seattle on November 12th and 13th. The tickets go on sale this Saturday at 10AM. The pre-sale starts tomorrow, Thurs, 7/30 10am to Fri, 7/31 10pm. Use "KEXP".

May the Monkeys in Heaven be with you.

The Dutchess and the Duke, a self-proclaimed "campfire punk" band, kicked off the Capitol Hill Block Party on Friday July 24th on the Mainstage.

When I hear "campfire punk", I think of Trenchmouth or some gritty, down-on-his-luck stinky crust punk scratching out songs meant to incite revolution on a beat-up Gibson. In other words, I was looking forward to it.

Instead, as I eased my way near the mainstage on Pike Street, I found myself listening to a genre I am beginning to hate: Folk music. That's right, the Dutchess and the Duke, like their contemporaries the highly successful Fleet Foxes and The Cave Singers, are ANOTHER Gen-Y Folk band.

I had many thoughts about this: First, disappointment. I was hoping for something gritty. Second, I got bored. Third, I realized that there's a huge love of folk music among the twenty-something hipster-set. I guess they were never forced to listen to Peter Paul and Mary sing Puff the Magic Dragon over and over on a 45 record when they really just wanted to listen to Blondie (Puff can take his ceiling wax and shove it).

Let me be clear, though. The Dutchess and the Duke are talented musicians who write songs with beautiful harmonies. And to play the devil's advocate, Pitchfork has compared their latest album with some classic music of The Velvet Underground. I just personally hear more Bob Dylan than Lou Reed.

Whether "campfire punk" or Folk, I didn't swoon over the Dutchess and the Duke. I will, however, buy their CD for my hippie mom for Christmas.

The Capitol Hill Block Party is upon us.

I plan on seeing: The Gossip, The Dutchess and the Duke, and the Black Lips. I am super excited to see the Hotels, which I think is going to be my new favorite band in Seattle.

I also am going to head to a few wild cards to discover some new bands. I'll have lots to tell you on Sunday.

MUSIC NEWS
CNN is reporting that the Beastie Boys are delaying the release of their new album Hot Sauce Committee 1 and associated tour because MCA has cancer. It looks like MCA will be okay, and we wish him a speedy recovery.

I love the Beastie Boys and their punkhiphopfunkfusion brand of music. They played a secret show two years ago at the Crocodile Cafe and I managed to get tickets. Two hundred people, the Beastie Boys, and me. It was pure love.

Get well soon, MCA.

UPCOMING SHOWS
Has anyone else noticed that classic rock is everwhere this summer? I just read that Dakota Fanning is starring in a biopic of the Runaways set to be released next year. Hopefully it will do the Runaways justice and bring their music to a new audience. Those ladies are f*ing rock goddesses.

On another note, I was taking a look at the summer major concert lineup, and it's packed with classic rock acts. School's out for summer, kids, and Seattle is being invaded by 80s classic rockers. Here's a rundown of shows that will make you wanna smoke in the boy's room, shout at the devil, or maybe just pour some sugar on your girl.

CrueFest: Motley Crue with Godsmack / July 27 / White River Amphitheater
Rod Stewart/ August 7 / White River Amphitheater

Aerosmith with ZZ Top / August 17 / White River Amphitheater

Foreigner / August 22 / Marymoor Park

ACDC / August 30 / The Tacoma Dome

Def Leppard / September 12 / White River Amphitheater

For tickets, go to Ticketmaster.

SHOW REVIEW
BY DAN THE MAN

I first heard the Slackers in the late 1990s, about 15 years since I had been given a mix tape with Fishbone, the Crazy 8's and the Specials as my introduction to Ska.

This mix tape got me hooked and I went on to explore the old ska, reggae, the 2nd wave of two-tone ska, and the third wave in the mid 90's of the punk ska that fizzled out and left only the true purveyors of the ska riddims making music. The NYC based Slackers are one of these groups that have continually created great albums featuring tight musicianship and creative songwriting.

Never having seen the Slackers live I had heard great things about their shows - this all ages adventure at El Corazon proved that the Slackers are indeed a great live act.

The one bad thing about El Corazon is that the bar is a separate room from the stage, so for an all ages show you have to watch the band on a shitty tv screen if you want to have a drink in your hand. So after arriving mid 2nd band (doors at f'n early time of 7pm!) we head straight to the bar to throw back a beer or two. We get in to see Seattle Diablotones play their brand of ska-punk, with two horns sitting in for this show. The bass player's voice is gone, a victim of the previous nights gig - apparently he fronts a hardcore band also.

The near capacity crowd is getting warmed up, and a mosh circle starts, fueled by the 16 year old with their shirts off. It's like some Seattle prep school is having a pep assembly here... but it's good to see these teens at such a stellar show instead of playing xbox or twittering on youtube. There are some mohawked punks in the crowd, a few dreadlocked rasta dudes, and a scooter gang worth of true ska heads. A pretty good showing considering the weak attendance at last year's Bad Manners show here - I felt embarrassed for our town when Buster Bloodvessel and his ska legends played to a crowd 1/4 this size, but the show was at some ungodly early hour of 4pm. So this Slackers crowd is making up for it - apparently Seattle likes it's ska domestic.
The Diablotones bust out a cover of "A Message to you Rudy" and are soon done, so we are back in the bar. I miss most of the next band, Vancouvers well-dressed Skavenjah, but come back to see their crazy instrumental (ska) version of Jesus Christ Superstar.

During the break I take a trip to the merch table to buy the latest Slacker's cd for $10, as well as a 7" featuring Kevin Hillyard, the Slackers Sax man. Bands - if you are gonna sell your cd at shows, $10 is a good price. $15 and I probably won't buy it, as I can support my local record store and get it on sale for $12 or so. And really, stickers should be free.

The room is full of energy when the Slackers take the stage, the bass player dressed all in white to match his massive bass amp in a white cabinet. He plays an electric bass guitar upright, like playing a stand up bass. They rip into songs from their new cd, "Self Medication".. I had no idea that the trombonist (Glenn) shared so many of the vocals with Vic Ruggiero (Hammond organ, harmonica, etc). They are all accomplished musicians in the manner of jazz players, and it shows.

Vic weaves stories in between the songs, his inner city NYC accent apparent. He plays the Hammond organ like it's an extension of his body, very fluid. Glenn the trombonist sounds like a 50's era Sinatra style lounge singer. These guys like what they are doing.

Luckily the crowd is too crammed in for the youngin's to start any moshing, though a few try and are shoved back by the rest of us. Everyone in front of the stage is doing some verion skanking...which the band comments on at some point, Vic telling a story of the old guys at the ska shows he went to when he was young. Of course there is some ditzy girl with long hair dancing in front of me, and she keeps flipping her hair around like she's in a beauty pageant. A hint for Betties like her: put your hair up in pigtails or hair ties or some Princess Leia bun, nobody wants to have your hair flipped in their face all during the show. At some point she is tired and leaves, and us true ska fans are left to bask in the amazing sounds of the Slackers.

They play lots of tunes from their new cd, as well as old stuff, and most of the crowd is singing along to the lyrics. Glenn and Vic share the lead role, as does David on the Sax, a veritable one man horn section.

They play longer than the bouncer told me they would, and come back for an encore, which includes crowd requests like "Wasted Days" from their cd of the same name. The end with some slower tempo dub style ska, and the crowd wants more but will have to wait for next time.

- Dan The Man

Girlfriends are worth their weight in gold. My best friend is amazing, smart, bad-ass, insightful, and is obsessed with Rufus Wainwright. She is not without company: Elvis Costello considers Rufus one of the best songwriters of our time, and interviewed him about the dark side of songwriting for Spectacle TV.

Rufus has a versatile, velvety voice that illuminates the deep sorrow and beauty of his lyrics. He composes songs that are masterfully arranged to create a sort of sweet tension for the listener. It's an operatic tension that aches to be resolved, and at the same time, makes you wish it would never end. Just listen to Memphis Skyline, a song he wrote about the myth of Orpheus in honor of Jeff Buckley. You'll hear what I mean.

It's not a shock then, that Rufus has been working on Prima Donna, an opera commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. The interesting part of the story is that his inspiration for the story came from the dark side of his partying lifestyle. He recently said that he was in the middle of a party that even Bacchus would think was scandalous, and looked around thinking: I have to get out of this. With the help of his friend, Elton John, he went to rehab for a Methamphetamine addiction. He also started writing the opera.

After a fight with the Met over whether the libretto would be in English or French (Rufus wanted French), the opera was "shelved" by the Met. This didn't stop Rufus--who continued his work.

This week, Prima Donna premiered at the Manchester International Festival to mixed reviews. The Omnniscient Mussel, a UK Entertainment Blog, published a very useful guide to the reviews. The New York Times review called the set beautiful, Rufus' performance of Verdi awesome, the plot muddled and the ending unsettling (in a good way).

The good news is that Rufus fans seem to have loved it. And the great news for my Rufus-fanatic-of-a-best-friend, is that it may soon be heading to London.

Road trip?

The Seattle Times just released news that Pearl Jam's Backspacer tour will start in Seattle at Key Arena on September 21st and 22nd.

In an interesting twist, Pearl Jam is selling out. Or should I say, continuing to build on their commercial success. Tickets for the tour will be sold on TicketMaster. Target, which recently shot a commercial at the Showbox directed by Cameron Crowe and starring the band, will be well stocked with the album, which is slated to release to the masses in September.

Tonight marks the passing of a legendary Seattle DJ Night. It's the last official night of London Loves, the only night of Britpop in Seattle. DJ The Reverend of Rock, who knows his British music, has hosted the night at Buddha Belltown for almost two years. He plays the best of Britpop: Blur, Suede, Happy Mondays, Echo and the Bunnymen, Supergrass, and tons of new music.

Come down to Buddha Belltown to mark the end of an era and perhaps the beginning of a new one? The music and happy hour start at 10PM.

I found something especially cool for early LA punk fans. Revenge of the 80s Radio, a brilliant New Wave Internet radio station, recently podcast a new, hour-long interview with Tony Kinman of the Dils.

For you non-punk fans or baby punks, the Dils were an early LA band that was formed in 1977, and, like a lot of bands in that scene, was broken up by 1980. Their most popular single, I Hate the Rich, is still relevant and sounds like it was recorded by that drunk skater kid down the street. They're the epitomy of the pre-hardcore LA sound.

Enjoy.

FOUR WAY MIRROR EXCLUSIVE - PUNK HISTORY
Continuing with Back Porch Video coverage with Mohawk Mat from the JuJu in Seattle's Belltown Neighborhood. Alex is bartending. She is a black-haired rocker goddess. I sip on a margarita. Mat sips a water. I seem to have drunken him under the table.

Back Porch Video was in full swing when Mat met Henry Rollins. Before he gets to Henry Rollins, though, he wants to give you a quick prelude.

At the time, circa 1983, Detroit had a few venues where you could experience the hardcore punk scene. The punks of Detroit mostly went to Cass Corridor, which was full of junkies, prostitutes, and other stuff “you don't want to tell your mother about.” We also hung out at another venue that used to be a funeral parlor but had turned into a hardcore venue. His favorite, though, was the Greystone Hall.

The night that Black Flag performed at the Greystone Hall with three other bands, Mat was there to see the show, not to film. He paid $5 for the show. His friend, Dave Hebb, was chosen to do an interview with the lead singer of Black Flag, Henry Rollins. “To us, Henry was just another average punk,” Mat says, “and when Dave began the interview, Henry already knew what he wanted to say. The young Henry Rollins was so obnoxious that Dave handed him the microphone and said: 'You do the interview.' Henry, standing there with his shirt off, took the microphone and began to interview Dave. The whole thing went bad, but f*ck it, we aired it on Back Porch video anyway.”

An hour later, the show started at the Greystone. Three bands performed, and then Black Flag came on. They were mesmerized by Kira Roessler, Black Flag's bass player. Kira, the sister of Screamer's keyboardist, Paul Roessler, gave an amazing performance. He could feel that he was watching someone legendary. And he was.

The next morning, Mat went to another cast member's house Steve Kempner, to start his day. Henry Rollins had crashed at Steve's place and was sleeping upstairs. Steve lit up his hookah, and about ten minutes later, Henry walked downstairs.


Henry was half naked and had a new tattoo of the sun on his back. He sat down with them for a bit to chat, he said: “did you guys record the show?” The guys said: "yeah. It was a good show." Henry said: “no it wasn't, it sucked.” After that exchange, Mat says: “We talked about chicks, politics, the scene, and other bands. We also talked about how the hardcore scene was happening and about Back Porch Video. Then he went upstairs to bone a girl he brought home.”

The video of the Back Porch Henry Rollins interview is everywhere on the web. There's two different versions available, the edited version and the ten minute version. Mat recommends the ten minute interview.



Thanks to Mat for his insights about punk history and for his interest in Four Way Mirror.

EXCLUSIVE - PUNK HISTORY
Continuing with the coverage about the Back Porch Video from the Rendezvous in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood.

Mat Hunt, the cast Member of Back Porch Video known as Mohawk Mat, first came across the Misfits at age 16, when he was asked to video tape them for a segment of Back Porch Video at the Greystone Hall in Detroit on October 29, 1983. At the time, he had only heard of them, but had yet to experienced them live. He didn't know the footage would become legendary.

The camera he used was 15 or 20 pounds. He had to get a good view, and the show was packed. There were were tons of kids moshing, fighting, and stage diving. In order to get a good shot, he had to crawl up to a dangerous small ledge in the kitchen near the back of the hall. Occasionally, he was hit with glass bottles, but it was worth it.

As he filmed the Misfits, he felt: “that night, in particular, was a few days before Halloween. The energy in the room was disharmonious, and the band wasn't getting along well with each other. They were about to fall apart and kill each other. Seriously. You could feel it.” His feeling was reinforced as the Misfits announced that it was to be their last show.

The Back Porch Video crew was were there, though, to “record the natural Detroit vibration that was happening at the time.” The video recorded that night went on to be legendary footage played all over the world. To date, YouTube marks half a million viewers.

The day after the show was the real story: the human side of the Misfits. After the band had played their show, they spent the night at the house of Russ Gibb, the producer of Back Porch video. After an all-nighter with two other Back Porch crew members, Tony “Boy” Ostyn and Joe Fiassel, Mat stopped by Russ's place. The Misfits were having breakfast, served by Russ's mother, Mrs. Gibb:
“I walked in, returned the camera, and handed Russ the tape of the Misfits show from the night before. I went into the kitchen and saw the members of the Misfits eating breakfast around a tiny table. From around the corner, Mrs. Gibb, holding a spatula and wearing an apron, said with a thick Scottish accent: “Would you boys like some more scrambled eggs and sausage?” To me, it seemed like Anywhere, USA, but it was the f*cking Misfits. The guys, hung over, exhausted, pissed, with long black sexy hair in their face, barely raised their head and said: “yeaaaaaaaa, I'd like some more eggs please, Mrs. Gibb.” It was the “please” that got me. It was a very surreal and natural moment of our punk scene in Detroit. The expectation was that they were rock stars, but here it was grandma with some regular boys."

To watch the video of the last show that Mat recorded, at his own peril, click here.

More about Back Porch Video and Henry Rollins next post.

EXCLUSIVE- PUNK HISTORY
For the next installment of the story of Back Porch Video, Mat and I moved to the Rendezvous for drinks poured by Seattle's most infamous and fabulous bartender, Babe of Belltown, Babe is a Belltown fixture, and is a costume designer, showman, and producer of Match Game Belltown and the Mr and Ms. Belltown Pageant.

The Rendezvous is an original old school Belltown, opened in the 1927, as a screening room and watering hole for movie industry-types. Some things never change—the Rendezvous is still a watering hole for locals and future film stars.

Over a Black Russian, Mat and I returned to the story of Back Porch Video, an innovative music video television show run by high school students in the 80s. The show is important not only because it was ground-breaking, but also that it documented the 1980s Detroit hardcore scene.

Within the first six months of the advent of Back Porch Video, the show was broadcasted in all of suburban Detroit, giving kids in the suburbs an opportunity to listen to alternative and punk music. Later that year it was picked up by WHIT in Ann Arbor. Students in Ann Arbor, the hometown of The Stooges and MC5, started watching Back Porch Video. The cast started getting phone calls and letters from kids thanking the cast for the music. Because of the response, the cast realized that that their work was important, and ramped up their programming.

According to Mat: “We did interviews with Madonna's brother, Martin Ciccone, interviews with local radio DJs, rock newspaper writers, Henry Rollins, and Adrian Belew. We did live interviews on the air, and showed more live videos. We essentially took over the studio from early evening until late at night. We destroyed it, dismantled it, reconstructed it, respected it, utilized it, created in it. We collected our seeds, transmitted them, laughed at them, tore them apart, and left only footprints.”

Their work paid off, and they went from being broadcast locally to being picked up by PBS Canada. Within two weeks they were receiving letters from all over Canada. The viewers thanked them, wanted to know more about the punk movement, and were intrigued.

By 1984, Back Porch Video won the prestigious Cable Ace Award, and a new television broadcast station called MTV started taking notice. They asked the Back Porch Video cast to the MTV Studios for a visit. It was an epic trip full of teenage debauchery and stories that are not fit for blogs. Fun aside, the cast of Back Porch Video influenced history.

In the first meeting MTV interviewed the cast about: “what we did, how we did it, why we did it, and who we did it for.” The kids toured MTV and had dinner with Vjs Nina Blackwood, Martha Quinn, and Jay Jay. The kids felt that MTV had listened to them. MTV seemed to change their programming style based on the kids input, and began to target a younger demographic.

Back Porch Video eventually reached a point where most of the original cast went off to college, and the new generation took over. “We went off to do things like college, film in Los Angeles, modeling in London, and a new music out of Detroit called Techno.” Regardless of where the kids ended up, the cast of Back Porch Video forever impacted the punk scene by spreading it to the masses.

Next post, some stories about Back Porch Video and the Misfits.

EXCLUSIVE- PUNK HISTORY
Youtube is full of all kinds of gold: old LaToya Jackson videos, years of Top of the Pops, and of course, crazy squirrel videos. My favorite is Back Porch Video.

Back Porch Video, a show made and produced by Michigan high school students, was one of the first television programs to highlight a new genre of music communication: the music video. It began in 1983, around the time MTV began, and ran on public access television until 1992.

I sat down with Mat Hunt, a founding member of the show known as Mohawk Matt, at Beldam Coffee House in Seattle. He was part of the crew that started Back Porch Video in 1983 and is a punk historian of sorts.

According to Mat, Back Porch Video started when Russ Gibb, a visionary entrepreneur taught a class on Mass Media at Dearborn High School. The kids in the class produced a show called Why Be Something You're Not?, which featured a peformance by the legendary punk band, the Misfits on their first US tour, as well as other local Detroit hardcore bands. Mat says: "The studio filled up with punks who were laughing, slam dancing, punching, cheering, good times, and raw energy. The essence of Detroit was there. Suburbia was disturbed by this, so we decided to push the envelope a bit further and create this show called Back Porch Video."

They started Back Porch Video with a meeting with Russ Gibb about the rules of the show. In that meeting, Russ said: "Here's the rules: there are no rules." Russ had already landed contracts with major labels to show videos. To put this all into context, Mat points out: "at the same time, there was this little video program called MTV starting up." The kids were given license to choose one song an hour, and had a live call-in line for requests. They were elated.

The night of the first show was a bit awkward, Mat recalls, because the kids were nervous. It was hosted by Mark Porada and Hard Core Teddy, whose real name was Steve. The first video song was Neil Young's The Wanderer, which, Mat says, set the tone for the show since, Mat says, they were indeed wanderers because of their youthful enthusiasm and punk ethos.

After about two months of nervously playing videos, the kids got more comfortable creating the show and working behind the camera. Spontaneous bits starting emerging from the crew, including a weather man who would go outside and look up at the sky to give weather reports. A skit called "Joe Toy" was one of their favorites. Joe would chase Paul Streffon, a show producer, through the halls. The operator of Joe, which is a close guarded secret, has finally been revealed by Mat: It was the famous Dino Kovis of the New Monkeys.

The show was fun, but Mat says the most important element of the show was the music. Each night followed a basic format based on viewership, requests, and demographics. The first hour was mostly mainstream, "fluffy" stuff that you would find on MTV like the Cure, Duran Duran, and Oingo Boingo. In the second hour, the programming was more New Wave and Punk influenced: they played T-Rex, Roxy Music, Bauhaus, Siouxie and the Banshees, New Order, and The The.

The last hour was the most interesting, according to Mat, as the show would focus on the emerging Detroit hardcore punk scene. Each week, the kids played footage that they had recorded at local punk hangouts in the grungiest parts of Detroit. Mat says that at the time, you could pay $5 to see legendary hardcore punk shows. The kids documented them.

Mat and Back Porch Video crews recorded the majority of their footage at the Greystone Hall. The Greystone, like Bookies Club 870, was one of the many legendary punk venues in Detroit. Backporch Video footage from the Greystone Hall includes Black Flag, Necros, Meat Puppets, Nig Heist, Tribe, Antie N. E. Thing, and Skrew Driver. For you Misfits fans, Mat is one of the camera men who recorded the legendary video of their last show at the Greystone Hall in 1983.

More about Mat and Back Porch Video to follow in the next post of Four Way Mirror.

KILLER DJ NIGHT
No matter what the world says, vinyl is still king. The thrill of the vinyl hunt has a prehistoric feel to it. I collect punk records, and when I find a good X-Ray Spex original pressing, I swear it must feel like finding and killing an antelope on the savanna or something. Ya know what I mean?

If you don't, DJ Problematic, a kick-ass Seattle female DJ, gets it. She and her friend, DJ Barbarella, are voracious vinyl collectors, and spend the weekends pouring over stacks of records. Their favorite places to hunt are the discounted vinyl stacks and thrift stores, where you can still find $1, $2, $3 records.

It only made sense, then, that when the economy tanked, Problematic would start Thrifty!, a night at Capitol Club devoted discount vinyl. Every Thursday, Problematic and her friends drag their vinyl ($3 or less) to the decks and play some of the best, and cheapest, music in Seattle.

The resulting night is magic. No genre is off limits, and the night is always entertaining. One set could include AM rock, disco, dance hits, and R&B. And you never know who might show up: DJ Edis, DJ Verse, The Reverend of Rock, DJ Barbarella, and others often stop by. The cover is free, the bartender makes excellent drinks (try the Hello Kitty), and DJ Problematic reinvents the music each week.

Thrifty! proves that money has nothing to do with taste.

UPCOMING SHOW
Can you believe that it's the twentieth anniversary of the release of The Pixie's album, Doolittle? You got it sweetheart--Here Comes Your Man and This Monkey's Gone to Heaven will be 21 next year. Holy crap. That's old enough to get into a bar.

Here's the real news, I was checking out a UK show email list, and found something thrilling. The Pixies are touring and are playing four shows at the Brixton Academy in London in October, a reprise of their 2004 gig there. At each show the Pixies will be playing all of the songs from Doolittle.

The Pixies announced their Doolittle European tour, which starts in London and ends in Paris, a few days ago in an interview with Scott Thrill of Wired:

Might be worth a trip to the City of Lights, non?

UPCOMING SHOW
The reunited celtic punk band The Pogues just announced a Seattle stop on their tour on October 10th. It's an all-orgininal lineup, and I absolutely love the band.

Two bits of bad news, though: 1) the tickets are $50 a piece and 2) the show is at the Showbox Sodo. I really hate that venue. The place is like a giant warehouse--tinny sound, too many people standing on one level, and expansive space with no thought to design. Seriously, it's like being at a rave circa 1990.

To Pogue or Not to Pogue? I can't decide, but here's some inspiration.