Yvonne Liu (yl28172@yahoo.com)
Thu, 5 Nov 1998 04:04:10 -0800 (PST)
The CMJ Opening Night Party
last night at the Roxy
was fan-ta-bu-lous ! ! !
I can't believe I'm at work right now.
My clock now reads 6:41 am.
I got home at 5 am
( goddamn NYC subways );
showered and drank a glass of milk,
smoked a Red Kamel and listened to
( for some odd reason )
Smashing Pumpkins, Siamese Dream;
then left for work at 6 am.
Ugh.
Here was the line-up from last night:
(1) Tipsy
A very odd three man band.
One on the turntables kept on making
the oddest comments, like
" I miss the Schwartz,
Where is the Schwartz ? "
They reminded me kinda of Air,
but less flaky and more d n' b.
(2) Ryuichi Sakamoto
He was mixing vinyl and CDs.
What can I say ?
The man is a legend.
The only thing was that the crowd
was hyped up for some hard-hitting beats.
They had no patience for
esoteric scratchy Soundlab-esque noise.
(3) Rob Swift & Dujeous
Was Ok, wasn't too impressed by his band.
I wished he left more stage time
to his turntable talents,
then to the two ( or three ? )
MCs hoppin' around on the stage.
( The flyer says it was
MCs Large Professor, Sy/nade
and GudTymes. )
(4) DJ Spooky & the Universal Robot Band
I was kinda impressed by the performance
put on by Spooky and his electric cello,
scratchy-feedback guitar and noisemaker;
the other DJ; the MC; the drummer;
the bongo drummer; and the keyboardist
from somewhere in Israel.
But Spooky shined when he was doing
what he became famous for:
spinning records
not proselytizing about multicultural
unity blah blah blah, criticising the critics,
spouting techno electronica revolutionary etc.
I think it would have been better
had it been only * him * and two records,
a mixer and a microphone on stage.
But that's only my VERY humble opinion.
(5) Talvin Singh
This man, I swear to Gawd,
musta had something electronically
wired into the crotch of his pants.
I was standing right next to the stage,
looking up into his face going through
paroxysms of ecstatic orgasms everytime
he beat on his tablas drums.
( I had two screwballs next to me hum,
" I don't wanna work,
I just wanna bang on the drums all day..."
as they were getting fed up with Talvin's
long intro sequence. )
There was also an annoying blonde dreadlocked
photographer, * barefoot * photographer,
who pissed off everyone by standing
right in front of Talvin to focus in close on
( I swear to Gawd ) Talvin's crotch.
Talvin was excellent,
I particularly like the 2nd or 3rd track
which had East Asian influences,
Chinese opera-like.
(6) DJ Krush
Was good, I think.
I was tired, sorry, please excuse.
(7) Coldcut
Wow !
Two old Brits with two laptops apiece.
Apparently I had heard these folks before
at Irving Plaza with EBN ( Emergency
Broadcast Network ) and Spooky.
They had an amazing timing of the videos
with their musical set, with samples
from as diverse influences as the
Disney cartoon Jungle King ( ? )
and snaps of a Brazilian rainforest
being razored down.
(8) Mixmaster Mike
Wow, again !
There was a rumour going around
at the time that the Beastie Boys
would also come on to the stage.
Sadly, the Beasties didn't materialize,
but Mix Mike started off with spinning
some tracks from the Beasties,
" Mixmaster, scratch faster. "
He went off into something else
later at that point, but
I think I was losing consciousness then.
What do other members of the list
think of the concert ?
And what other CMJ events
are others planning to attend ?
Dosing myself with cawfee,
Yvonne.
==
Hermit Thrushes are elusive
and tend to drift quietly
as we are doing now
( I too consider myself a demented drifter )
-- Franklin Rosemont, Penelope
( Chicago Surrealist Editions: 1997 )
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