Review - Japanther @ The Hemlock Tavern

Just a quick shout out to Japanther for the show at The Hemlock Tavern (8/24/06). The Brooklyn based duo has sprung a west coast tour on us this month in cahoots with This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb. They played with Two Gallants in a warehouse in Oakland the night before, or at least tried to play, the police showed and shut it down. So when their telephone receiver/ microphones were acting up at the beginning of the set at the Hemlock you could tell they were exasperated and just wanted to play. Finally everything was in proper functioning order and they cranked their samples, complete with additional musical accompaniment throughout the songs, and tore up. Ian Vanek plays the drums like he wants to kill you but laughs pleasantly the whole time. Matt Reily’s bass is fast and on point and when he sings harmonies he looks like a grandmother swooping down to plant a kiss on your forehead. Seriously, it’s quite remarkable, people were holding their fucking guts because he looked so funny, lips puckered out and eyes squinted, almost closed. I played a show with these guys back in New York 2 years ago and since then they’ve added the samples and got a hell of a lot tighter. A fast intense song begins on a sample, and I mean on a sample, there is no intro. They nailed it and 20 seconds later it was over. Another song includes overly long stops that come to an abrupt end when bass and drums thunder in. Their timing didn’t seem that exceptional until I noticed that they weren’t looking in each other’s direction. Ian plays with his back to the audience (perhaps to showcase his drum technique?) while Matt stands up front. At one point during the show they invited a guest vocalist up named Stephanie or something. She added another level to the harmony as well as made some snide jokes. The only thing left to remark on is their completely kick-ass matching costumes. They were all black with what looked like that raised plastic goo people put on clothes sometimes. It was silvery-goldish I think and kinda made a line down the right side of their shirts and then connected and splattered down their pants. It reminded me of Star Trek meets Kid’n’Play.

TRANSLATION - Rainer Maria Rilke - page a month

The men acquiesced their close quarters, they who originally came from all over; from France and from Burgundy, from the Netherlands, from Carinthian valleys, from bohemian towns and from Emporor Leopold himself. Their stories had all been shared - not just verbally - but each had experienced them themselves directly before they’d become stories, as though the men had all told of the same mother…

Miles Davis say

Miles Davis say
Always known what I wanted
something terrible
a way to purchase back
a a man’s soul
cause when you born
that birth is result
result of that deal
to be born you must sell
your soul
so everyone in “life” dimension
just fumbles empty boxes
into weak shelves
the other realms of reality falter
beyond in their own ways
but in one are all our souls
and since I been young
I communicated with a being there
being there complicated and
unreasonable
so that I might get back to center
stand up taller and blow out a note
or two that’s
that’s really it
ya know
a note made of something
cause most of what we’ve all been hearin
are hollows
and that terrible being
all gold and diamonds and heavy whips
carries all our souls together
(cause they don’t weigh anything)
rummages through from time to time to
remind the soul inside belly that
being exists--
see
we here in life
don’t think we exist for one second
cause we don’t
like all truths this contains some
false
but sucker, you know you know
you ain’t all there
bargain hunter of divinity and sound
checker of element word
a cruel case box and shelf you
put a thing or two upon
stare up at thing or two, kiss up
wind through a time en
keel up
the true days cannot be remembered
cause true day exists now
a bird in a blue dress told me that
alive
breaking down a cage
made of place and hour
we’d never met before, but
she’d known the terrible being
from birth
she’d kissed soul belly’s feet
and knelt her signature across
the line
divine… divine old creature
outsida life
that bird was a cannon aimed into
the black hole
so me and her loved like silly
pigeons in the park eatin’
that day’s breadcrumbs imagining they’ll
be there forever but
course the rain come and next
winter and without our souls we couldn’t
make two empties even one full
the gun silenced her my being
a belly of rot put the now outta her
and she found a belly full of something
else I assure you
adrift
given up her birth I dream her
newness immensity
how full her is is
the color of morning midnight
that kind of… deep sailing
rivers and clear sky
that her Jabberwoky rings those
tones
absolute
so that now I have something to
bargain with
she’s in the terrible’s realm
and I with a horn and good shoes
can put up a blast
fuck all you other suckas…

7/8/06