FF intern and rocker from the band NRSZ, Gabe blogs up some of his musical happenings about town.
It's outrageous the way time passes so quickly (is this a symptom of getting older?). July and more than half of August are already dusted and what do I have to say for myself? Well, in this whirlwind of time loss I might need a second. July blazed by so fast, one minute I was at Cell Space watching Bronze having their heads shaved in a show of patriotism for the July 4th festivities (see "doing their duty" interview), the next minute it was August 1st and I was back at Cell Space, but this time being thrashed around and consequently getting my camera knocked from my hand then ultimately broken at the Portraits of Past re-union show. These early 90s emotional hardcore trailblazers definitely brought it full force to their first show in I think ten(?) years. The crowd was losing their shit, however nothing but good vibes permeated the air. The revelry and elation evaporated all my worries and bummer times.

Bronze "doing their duty" 4th of July @ Cell Space

Sic Alps 4th of July @ Cell Space

Portraits of Past reunion show August 1st @ Cell Space

This is the last picture my camera took before it was thrown to the far end of the stage.

Earlier in the month I ended up playing a great and shockingly very packed show at the Eagle on the 19th of July with the Buttholes Urfers (Butthole Surfers cover band) and Extra Action Marching Band. It was one of the most exhilarating good-vibes shows I had the honor of playing in such a long time. Two weeks later I was there again, this time for a benefit to support my band-mate Antonio's upcoming documentary "In Search of Good Food" and to see my house mate's new band The Drums; a garage band consisting of only two drummers sharing one kick drum.

Buttholes Urfers July 19th @ Eagle Tavern

Bronze perform at Bay Area Now @ San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Dwyer sucks a loogie.

The box office guy at the Independent.

Jay Reatard and JPD

The Drums July 31st @ Eagle Tavern

Additionally, about a week ago I drove down to LA with the aforementioned Drums and friends for the August 8th BOADRUM performance taking place at the LeBrea Tar pits, which was to begin precisely at 8:08 pm. This was an event organized by Japanese noise luminaries the Boredoms and Hisham Bharoocha of Soft Circle. This same event also took place last year on July 7th in Brooklyn with 77 drummers. The idea is that this mass amount of drummers are picked and then gather together early on the date of the performance, learn the piece and then perform it that night. The result was both chaotic and hypnotic. In terms of set up this year, the drummers were spiraled out from the main stage where the core Boredoms were positioned and the piece acted as this ebb and flow chain of parts being played in rounds. It was very akin to 15th century baroque fugues (if you're familiar with music history), with the glaring exception that the primary instrument is drum sets not harpsichords (and I didn't see any powdered wigs), or "Row Row Row Your Boat" (if you're familiar with childhood history). The parts that came out sounding the most brilliant were the instances where every drummer was on point with their 87 counterparts and all 88 acted like a giant hive mind ant colony; quite a spectacle.

Honestly, all this business attending events was entirely fatiguing. The off time I spent at home lazing about and in my lackadaisical stupor stumbled onto a few cool things. First, is a fairly current release from a woman named Windy Weber. Her album, "I Hate People" was released in April of this year and is a beautiful, crushing two song guitar and sound collage LP. It's very brooding and intense, but the concept behind it is that it's a sonic testament to the idea of being alone on your perfect island. Pretty heavy, with a kind of a adolescent naivete to it, which is fitting because donning the cover is Weber's passport photo from 1987 in all her angst and nihilistic glory. Also, if you are a record nerd the vinyl is a splatter "peacock"-style design, is mixed different than the CD and the tracks are different lengths.

I also inadvertently missed an impromptu performance by German bicycle acrobat Ines Brunn over on 17th and Capp one night for the Bike Film Festival. I heard it was amazing which prompted me to research her online and no surprise, she has a website. Her stunts are extraordinary.Check this out:

Honestly though, I've been pretty reclusive other than this aforementioned stuff. I am not too sure what's going on in the coming weeks. Especially with my camera out of commission how am I supposed to document all these wonderful things? Hmm...I guess I'll have to settle with movie and book reviews. Perhaps I'll try and dive deep into the inner workings of deceased director Frank Perry, unfortunately well known for cult trash heap "Mommie Dearest", but check out his earlier work like "The Swimmer" and "David & Lisa". I'm telling you. We'll see what happens. {moscomment}

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