The Fucking Beer Barrel Polka

From Amanda Palmer's blog, The most HILLARIOUS "hate" mail ever written. Fan mail to the Dresden Dolls:

From: William Ader
Date: December 3, 2010 8:25:41 PM EST
To: contact@dresdendolls.com
Subject: St. Louis concert a major disappointment


You guys are the worst polka band in the history of polka bands. When I heard that “The Dresden Dolls” was going to play the Pageant here in St. Louis, I naturally assumed you were a German polka band. I LOVE polka music and was expecting to get $20 worth of OOM-PAH-PAH. Instead, I get you banging on an electric piano like you’re playing WHACK-A-MOLE at the county fair while screeching like a banshee, and your partner, Brain (what kind of name is “Brain,” anyway?) trying, but not succeeding, to keep the beat, which might explain why NO ONE WAS DANCING TO YOUR MUSIC. But you didn’t even notice that, did you? (Maybe because you and Brain were too busy watching the tv’s behind the bar at the back of the room behind US, the audience.)


I said to a woman sitting next to me, “This polka band sucks.” She replied, “They’re no polka band.” I said, “You got THAT right!” (So you see, it’s not just MY opinion!)


At some point during the show, Brain realized that the drum thing wasn’t working out for him (God bless him for trying, though) and he picked up a guitar and started playing a solo piece after you left the stage. Let me tell you, there aren’t enough Mel Bay books to turn that guy into a guitar player, but, again, God bless him for trying. Unfortunately for him, he was interrupted by some woman in the balcony who decided she wanted to sing “Mein Herr” in her underwear. Now that gal could SING! (Unlike YOU.) I don’t know where you had disappeared to, but we didn’t miss you. (Maybe you got interested in a tv show and went back to the bar so you wouldn’t miss the ending.)


ANOTHER THING: a lot of your songs alluded to fornication. Polka tunes, with the exception of “The Fucking Beer Barrel Polka,” don’t do that.


If you guys ever come back to St. Louis, I’m going to have to buy another ticket just to see if you’ve improved any. (Couldn’t get any worse, could you?) I’ll tell you this, though, you better be playing the accordion and Brain better be a virtuoso on the tuba by then, or I WILL be asking for a refund.


Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,


William Ader
St. Louis, Missouri

VideoRanch 3D Concert Season finale

Nez has made available special VIP admission to the VR3D Concert Season finale on December 18, 2010 in Austin, Texas.


The VR3D VIP All-Access Backstage Pass entitles you to:

• Admission to the VR3D Concert Season finale on December 18, 2010 in Austin, Texas
  
• Full VIP access to the VR3D soundstage, recording process and the hospitality trailer
  
• all-day catering for each of the VR3D shows
  
• a VIP gift bag
  

Artists performing live at the Austin Sound Stage include:

Michael Nesmith - offering a rare acoustic performance of his music.

Carolyn Wonderland - a musical force equipped with the soulful vocals of Janis Joplin and the guitar slinging skills of Stevie Ray, Carolyn Wonderland reaches into the depths of the Texas blues tradition with the wit of a poet. She hits the stage with unmatched presence, a true legend in her time.
http://www.carolynwonderland.com/

The Good Listeners - performing music from their third album which was made during a road trip across the country that resulted in their award winning documentary Don't Quit Your Daydream.
http://thegoodlisteners.com/

Availability is limited.
Purchase HERE!
All ticket purchases must be made before to December 15, 2010.

Lyrics to "Honey Blade"

JpopAsia has a page with the "Romanji", Kanji and Eglish translation of the lyrics to hide's epic "Honey Blade". hide (pron. HE-day) was the lead guitar player of X Japan, and performed solo and also with the band Spread Beaver. I dare say if you see enough hide, you may agree with me that he shares much in common with another great Rock icon, Marc Bolan.

Here are two renditions of this masterpiece,

one electric...


and one "unplugged". Enjoy!


R.I.P. hide San.

Lyics To "X"

JpopAsia has a page with the "Romanji", Kanji and Eglish translation of the lyrics to X Japan's Anthem, "X".

Shonen Knife is on their way!

Good Charamel Records is bringing the incomparable SHONEN KNIFE to the U.S and San Diego this September! You can listen and download the new song MOVE ON here!



Shonen Knife on Twitter
Good Charamel on Twitter

Cats! DoonTube for August 22, 2010

DoonTube & Shonen Knife

For almost a year now, I've been privileged to present a two hour long video show called DoonTube each week at Michael Nesmith's VideoRanch 3D. I concoct some sort of theme and then select 20 or 30 YouTube videos to share with Ranch Regulars and visitors to the Ranch.

From now on, as long as it may last, I'll try to archive each week's setlist here in this blog. I'll also post an article with many of the past setlists. Each of the songs in these lists has a link to their respective YouTube address.

I also intend to start being more concientious about posting other music topics of interest to me! I've really let this blog languish since I started playing on Twitter, but now I hope to do a better job of staying on top of it!

That being said...

One of my absolute FAVORITE bands, SHONEN KNIFE will be touring the U.S. again this fall! Here are the dates published so far!

9/8 Wed - Seattle WA - Tractor Tavern
9/9 Thurs - Vancouver BC - Biltmore Cabaret
9/10 Fri - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios
9/11 Sat - Oakland, CA - Uptown Night Club
9/12 Sun - San Francisco, CA - Bottom Of The Hill
9/13 Mon - San Diego, CA Casbah (yay!)
9/14 Tues - Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
9/17 Fri - Austin, TX - Red 7
9/18 Sat - Dallas, TX - The Loft
9/19 Sun - Kansas City, MO - Record Bar
9/20 Mon - Northfield, MN - The Cave
9/21 Tues - Chicago, IL - Schubas
9/22 Wed - Kalamazoo, MI - The Strutt
9/23 Thurs - Cincinnati, OH - Midpoint Music Fest
9/24 Fri - Pittsburgh, PA - 31st St Pub
9/25 Sat - New York, NY - Asia Society Museum
9/26 Sun - Washington, D.C. - Rock and Roll Hotel
9/28 Tues - Brooklyn, NY - Knitting Factory
9/29 Wed - TBA
9/30 Thurs - Montreal, Canada - Cabaret du Mile End
10/1 Fri - Toronto, Canada - Horseshoe Tavern
10/2 Sat - Buffalo, NY - Mohawk Place

Don't Miss Them!

DoonTube Aug. 15, 2010 "It Beats The Alternative!"

Weird theme, great songs!

My Favorite DoonTube Sets

A couple of DoonTube sets really stand out in my mind. The first is the Japanime set. Up until this set, Nez had not made any suggestions on what I should do. He showed me how to set up the DoonTube stream, and even created a venue in VR3D called the Grundome, but aside from that it was my show. One day, however, I received an email from Foreman saying, "Nez said maybe you can do a Japan Anime Rock Doontube." Now THAT was a challenge. My mind wondered, "Does he mean Japanese Anime cartoons with Western Rock & Roll soundtracks? Does he mean Japanese Rock with Anime video?" Requests for clarification left me more confused than before. So I just did what I always do: Whatever I felt like. But I was in for a huge surprise.

I've enjoyed Shonen Knife for a long time. I'd even shared their videos during a previous episode (or two?) of DoonTube. But beyond that I was pretty ignorant of the music scene from Japan. What I discovered caused this set to take a week longer than I'd anticipated. I had found a MOTHERLODE of INCREDIBLE music. I watched YouTube after YouTube of fascinating, awe-inspiring Rock and pop. I fell in love with Shiina Ringo and the Tokyo Incidents. I became enthralled by the Visual Kei movement! (I developed a crush on Hizaki too, but please don't tell anyone.) I felt utterly inspired by the pop and avante garde creations of ExGirl. On and on I was lead to more and more genius. Reducing the set list to two hours was a nearly impossible challenge, and I mourned every video I cut from the list.

Here is what emerged.



The only other time Nez requested a set was for the Global Zone festival held last Spring. I'd already discussed with Foreman the idea of playing some videos of the artists who were to be performing at the festival, but it was requested I make a dedicated episode. I had a lot of fun with it and we had a wonderful Festival. One of the artists performing at the festival was Lal Meri, featuring the captivating Nancy (Rosey) Kaye on vocals. This performance galvanized an idea that had been tickling my mind, but couldn't find substance up to that point. The result was my second favorite list, the Sulty Cabaret set.



My third favorite set is just that because I really love this music. A combination of "Glam" and "Punk" (Which are kissin' cousins anyway!) Here is the "Glunk" set.

DoonTube Archive

The archive has been removed from this blog because it really slowed the load time of the page. I posted the set lists as GoogleDocs spreadsheets HERE.