Music

Prejudice and bigotry are grievous personality flaws, but I must admit that I applied both to Ages and Ages prior to seeing them live on September 18th. Over the years I’ve made something of a cottage industry of sneering at hipsters, musically anyway. I think it might run back to scary stories my mother told me of proto-hipsters in the early1960’s demanding source purity in folk music, as opposed to that hated sellout Judy Collins. Or maybe I’m terrified that someone knows more about Waylon Jennings than I do. Probably I’m just frightened of the double decker bike people. In any event, an evening in the Short North makes me go fight or flight, and I find Pitchfork magazine marginally useful for wiping off oil leaks on old Piaggio engines.

Winston Hightower is releasing “Exploration Date” on Super Dreamer records towards the end of October. “Exploration Date” is a follow-up to “Too Close to Home.”  Winston plays drums in Minority Threat. He was in Hardcore bands Yuze Boys and Puberty Wounds. Winston recently received some press that put him on experimental music innovators R. Stevie Moore and Gary Wilson’s radar.

“Exploration Date” sounds as if R. Stevie Moore filtered through the experimental narrative of Columbus Rock. Winton's solo stuff isn’t hardcore. Imagine Ariel Pink with ghostly Krylon Terracotta fingernail overspray from the Calumet Bridge.

Winston said of his contact with the influential Nashville musician, “I think R. Stevie Moore is at the point where he is so annoyed with me. That’s like my goal. That’s how I feel he operates.”

While we were conducting the interview it was difficult not to discuss our climate as this swing state that is reeling from the shooting of Ty’re King.

Do Italian musicians feel things differently?

Only one of these questions popped into my head at a very recent Friday Woodlands Tavern happy hour when the monstrously good guitarist Rick Collura and his Blue Cats played like the muddy waters of the Mississip coursed through their veins. I mean, baby, they were up to their necks in blue electric mud, churnin' out deep-pocketed groove like tax exiles in France. Groanin' and moanin' they had me, I confess. Where did their music end and my metabolism begin? It was a delta-Chicago-Vulcan soul-mind meld of the highest order. A rarity these days, what with all the roots doctors of music leaving no inheritors of the genre behind for what reason. Fuckin' millenials.

Nevertheless, I felt like I was in the catfish's stomach by the third song.

I’m something of a musical tourist. Once a year or so some friends and I travel to some American city famous for its music – New Orleans, Bakersfield or whatever – and spend a long weekend. This year was two nights in Memphis, with a stop at Graceland and a return trip through Nashville. It had been around eight years since I had been to either city, and I was looking forward to Beale Street and Broadway again.

So you know, when we travel to party we have no interest in finding the spot where the locals go to hear the “real thing,” nor do we avoid the “touristy” places because we are tourists. For more authentic travel advice, ask a hipster – you won’t have to look hard to find one.

The Felice Brothers aren't highfalutin'. The country boys from the Catskills would rather record an album in an unassuming farm garage shared by chickens than in a fancy studio in the big city. And that's just what they did with their new release, “Life in the Dark.” The result is a stark, unvarnished and down-to-earth record, as unpretentious yet thoroughly satisfying as a heaping plate of biscuits and gravy.

The band celebrates it's 10-year anniversary by hitting the road this month in support of “Life in the Dark,” and looks forward to returning to one of its favorite tour stops, the Rumba Cafe, on the15th. “We love coming to your town,” says James Felice, “we've played the Rumba four or five times.”

I linked up with my dude Gamble a couple weeks back. Gamble was in town for the 2x/2x Hip Hop festival. Gamble and I are both in IOK. Gamble is one of the more high profile graffiti writers who painted the 2x/2x Fest. The Cincy writer has painted streets, festivals, museums, galleries and television programs.

At the fest, Hery/Gamble/Cents rocked a technical, but finessed, gray scale that boasted the depth of artistic nuance without sacrificing the energy of graffiti. The rest of the wall had a formidable mixture of RA/Droids/PBJ/ESE who represented various parts of Ohio. This presented a collage of the past 20 years of Ohio graffiti. 

It was kind of funny that Ender snuck in before the event, rocked a burner then went back to wherever. Ender is a Columbus native but is constantly laying down work while traveling.

There was another mural on 11th Ave. To view this mural one walked past a portrait of LeBron James. This provided perfect anchoring seeing that LeBron just made everyone in Ohio proud by keeping his promise to give Ohio the title.

"In politics stupidity is not a handicap."--Napoleon Bonaparte

Are we really any different than ancient Rome?

You know what the hell I'm talking about so let's cut the bullshit.

We have entered Juggalo political hell, where the Screech Owl on the Left doesn't need Juggalo face paint and Daddy's Little Juggalo on the Right scares even Pittsburgh's evilest bad clowns. I went to the RNC last week. Talked to a lotta people left, right and center and not a single one of 'em isn't in a grim place about this election in this time in America.

Let it be said Thursday night, Public Square in Cleveland, anticipated epicenter of Protest, USA, was one of the most relaxed, mellow even joyful scenes of Americans not particularly angry with each other. Political opposites were actuallytalking to each other.

Festiveness reigned, silly signs of protest were carried straight-faced ("Cargo shorts are sinful"). Free hugs were plentiful. Maybe one anti-Trump guy went Juggalo Detroit. But a free hugger calmed him down. Nice.

Several years ago, I had a conversation with Robert Loss, Blind Engineers singer and principal songwriter, about the Bruce Springsteen song “The River.” If you don't know it, the gist of that song is the angst of a young man who gets his girlfriend pregnant just out of high school, gets married and is having difficulty finding work. What’s with this guy, I said – he’s just 20 years ago and just because his marriage is on the rocks he’s acting like his whole life is over. Sure, said Robert, but what you are missing is that at this point in the character’s life he thinks it is.

Loss’ songwriting reflects this attitude. As someone who uses his music to tell stories, he takes characters at face value and presents them without judgment. It is left for the listener to decide whether a character is a principled hero, an unreasonable dreamer or just a miserable son of a bitch.

In the wake of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ upset victory over the Golden State Warriors, a minor squabble has erupted over the 10-story tall LeBron James banner that presently hangs on the Sherwin-Williams building in downtown Cleveland. Mega-paint company Sherwin-Williams had initially intended to take down the banner and replace it with a giant company advertisement in time to welcome attendees of the Republican National Convention set to begin on July 18th. Concerned that a perceived slight to King James in his moment of triumph would send a million enraged Ohioans into the waiting arms of competitor Benjamin Moore and Co. Paint, however, Sherwin-Williams has since reversed course on that plan.  

I swapped info to set up this interview regarding Illogic’s new album, “A Man Who Thinks With Own Mind” while Aesop rock was performing.

It was heartwarming to see that some of underground rap’s finest were still friends.

“A Man Who Thinks With His Own Mind” is being released by Illogic after doing two albums with Aesop’s neighborhood friend Blockhead.

Obviously these dudes have been cutting records since Aesop’s “One Brick” off 2001 Labor Days.

Illogic and I linked up a week or so later at Fitzy’s Diner near Schrock Rd and he answered questions over coffee.

The album title stems from one of Illogic’s middle names: Korega, which literally means, “A Man Who Thinks With His Own Mind.”

This album reflects Illogic’s self-reliant cognitive abilities.

It also reflects the fact that this is the first album he has released himself. We tried to figure out how many albums Illogic has released since 1998.

Illogic quipped, “Too Many.” There was a humble answer.