Played the Scissor Sisters again and realized: I didn't like Ben Folds when he was straight, either. Then I felt better.

As for me, what am I doing? Drinking absinthe, listening to funk--that kind of thing.

Peter Scholtes is on fire, people. He's gunning for Minneapolis oral historian laureate--first his stunning First Avenue oral history (can't wait to see the 1st Ave. documentary on the bonus disc of the forthcoming Purple Rain DVD reissue, btw), then he runs down the early years of Mpls. funk, and with a quick stopover to Jukebox Jury with Low for my paper, he unearths the hidden history of Twin Cities rap. Who's the hardest working male in alt-weeklydom? Besides me and Bonazelli, I mean? This guy, folks. This guy.

Here is my new rule: Every good band should play their shows at Pier 62/63 in Seattle. The stage is huge, the sunset is to the far right (stage left) and the city skyline is to the left (stage right). It's glorious and there are plenty of chairs, though not enough for my party of four tonight; only during David Byrne's second song were we seated, and then only because someone working the grounds made us find spots to sit, helpfully telling a couple people to take their bags off the bench and scoot over so we could all fit. How was Byrne? Terrific: at least 45% T. Heads numbers, which surprised me on one level but didn't on a larger one--he's never shied away from talking about the band that made him famous, and why should he be as long as he gets some licks in about his new solo work, whatever that happens to be? I'm not an especially large fan of his solo albums myself but their representatives at the show tonite did him just fine. Two encores, first good, second amazing because it was first "Heaven" alone w/acoustic, heartstopping (he could stop hearts with that one if he were a fucking robot, it's such a breathtaking song), then "Lazy" w/full band, including Tosca Strings, who accompanied much of the main set. "Lazy" to me stands up with anything from the Heads catalogue, damn near, so having it close the show was fantastic since it's not really beholden to anyone's past, including his. And did I mention that he did this all at Pier 62/63, where every good band should play their shows in Seattle? They should have that deep blood red lighting on the rear curtain, too.

Have I ever mentioned that I love Tony Green? This Rick James obit demonstrates why.

"Instead of inviting a psychiatrist in for their film, maybe they should've called on Ingvar Kamprad, the Swedish furniture magnate who admits to bingeing regularly while at the helm of the IKEA monolith. He could've given them tips on how to run Damage Inc. while drunk off their asses all the time, and then he and drummer Lars Ulrich could've talked about Scandinavian shit like tennis and suicide and garage bands who take days trying to create a sound like the one Metallica's latest album, St. Anger, took mere years to achieve." Dave Queen does it again.

"I do have one tip for avoiding bad bands. For some reason, people who frequent literary circles tend to have particularly pedestrian tastes in music and a need to invest their latest boring discoveries with massive cultural significance. If you’re throwing a cocktail party, by all means invite the literati: They’re witty, they’re fun, and they sleep around, all of which are traits that music critics lack. But regarding music, writers don’t know what they’re talking about, they’re completely unaware of this, and nothing will convince them otherwise." Granting a handful of exceptions, in re: both lit and rockcrit folk, MB, I kiss you.

(Don't believe me? Check out the new issue of The Believer, which features a Q&A with Robert Pollard of the soon-to-be-departed-thank-fucking-god Guided by Voices by Matthew Derby, whose claims that this two-bit hustler of half-finished garbage is "crammed to the heart with song" whose "perfectly executed hooks" "rock, effortlessly"; who claims that a catalogue of ten thousand songs is somehow a mark of honor and not of extreme hackdom; and that GBV are "one of the all-time greatest rock acts in Western history." Good riddance to bad rubbish--except, of course, that Pollard will now concentrate on his--gag--solo career.)

Geeta shuts up the noise boys.

iPod makes good on bus ride to work, episode 57: Maston's Music Makers' "Slick Chick Boogie" (1948, from Proper's Hillbilly Boogie 4CD box) segues, interestingly and oddly, into the Beastie Boys' "Time to Build" (from To the 5 Boroughs, which isn't quite as bad as Nate thinks and nowhere near as good as David Fricke does). So far, so whatever. Then we go straight from the explicitly political (and puzzled-seeming) "Build" into a 27-second Huey Newton speech snippet from the Black Power compilation, and then into Jagwa's "Lady Marmalade" from the Marmalade Rhythm Album on Greensleeves. Which segues neatly into "Either/Or" by Numbers--not the Tigerbeat6 band, but a broken-beat artist that's on Kellman's 2001 C700, and in a transition out of the masters playbook, Jr. Walker's "What Does It Take" (from the Hitsville U.S.A. box). After that some Dave Edmunds country-hoedown thing came on and the streak was broken, but my what an interesting streak it was.

Today's meme:

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	High
Level 7 (Violent)	Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Very High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	High

Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno Test

Shockah! (well, the violence part is--I'm not a violent person at all)