Geek Weekly #3

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GW#3 - p6 (4)
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GW#3 - p6 (4)

Chicago Again

So I went to Chicago for 2 weeks around Xmas. I got to hang out with my mom and go junk shoppin' with her - I accidentally got her loookin' at some 78s one afternoon and it was amazing some of the stuff she knows about some of the songs and bands. I also got to eat lots of really great food. Just about anything you want is in Chicago - consumer heaven! For example, mom just moved out to a suburb much like Westlake Hills (so that my brother could go to a good high school and not get knifed every other day), and even in this rich white suburb, there's an Ethiopian take-out place across the street from their apartment!

I didn't have much access to independent transportation this trip and I had to work, so I didn't get around much. Also everyone I met up there this trip was a Deadhead or something, except for my old friends and my brother's friends. Ben (my bro) brought 3 of his friends into town with us one day when we got to use Mom's car. We went to record stores and pawn shops and "alternative" shops and an army surplus store and a bad diner. It was pretty cool. I blew all my cash at Ajax (one of my favorite places in the world). Ben's friends are pretty cool for 15-year-olds. They're really into Nirvana and Pavement and, of course, the Offspring and shit, but they're on the right track.

They have a band called Chlorine and they play in eachothers' basements. I started sending zines to Ben a few moths ago and I brought some up at Xmas. I'd come home and Ben and a couple friends would be sittin around readin' U-236 or Ben Is Dead or something (they really liked Peek-a-Boo also). The one night they did their own zine called Is Your Dad Gay? It's got lists of what's cool and what SUCKS and reviews of Chlorine shows and reviews of records by Sonic Youth and Nirvana and the Breeders and Pavement and some philosophical runnings-on and some scanned pictures of Kurt Cobain and themselves and some Nirvana lyrics and a pretty cool board game on the back cover. Ben made me proud by successfully lobbying to get the Inhalants on their Top Ten Bands list (he's also probably the only 15-year-old in Chicago with a Jesus Christ Superfly/Rise t-shirt.) So if you're interested in what the youngsters (hee hee, Ben) are up to, write Ben and demand a copy of: Is Your Dad Gay?/Ben 424 S. Maple #3N Oak Park, IL 60302 (send him a stamp or somethin'-jeez!)

On New Year's eve I went to my friend James's party. The crowd was mostly queens and people I knew from Whole Foods up there. It ended up bein' really fun and I kicked off my I'm-takin'-control-of-my-life campaign by poppin' my first champagne cork. Then I talked to a guy named Will Power. Later I thought that was a hell of an omen, but at the time I was already drunk and I guess I didn't take the cosmic hint. I drank some more champagne and passed out.

Mom and I had a great time and her man, Nat played me tapes of his old bands which were really great! Mom even got into reading Cometbus and she loved the kim chee article in Wipeout #7 since it's one of her newfound culinary favorites. She should be contributing something to GW in the near future. I'm tryin' to talk Nat into it, too. And if my lazy-punk-ass brother ever sends it to me, we should be seein' the occasional Spindly Man cartoon.

Last edit over 9 years ago by Jennifer Hecker
GW#3 - p7 (5)
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GW#3 - p7 (5)

* LIVE ACTION SHOWS * --->

The San Antonio scene is lookin' promisin'. I was last there for the Makers/Drags show at Tacoland on ___ November. I never would have known about the show if it wasn't for a telephone tip I had passed along to me, which is something that is quite a problem: there is very little publicity for SA shows here, and vice-versa. That Texas show list that was happening for a while was great, but I haven't seen one in a while (but that may very well be my fault- that I haven't seen one, that is).

Other than that, however, there are all those great bands down there that we all know about- the Sons, Big Drag, Dropouts... But the key is that there are actually some people down there, I think. I really hope they get somethin' goin' cause pretty soon, this town's gonna fill up and we're all gonna have to go into exile, so we might as well go ahead and try to prime our closest alternative now.

Anyway, the show was fun. The Makers were kinda mediocre, but I liked them much better than at their lame show in Austin. Great background music, but they just bore me live. The Drags are always great to see, though and friendly to boot.

During the break between the Drags and the Makers sets, Susan espied Heath of Satans fame meanderin' down the street next to Tacoland with a 40 or somethin'. Turns out, a group of fellow Austinites was hangin' out weighing their options (cover was kinda high), so we had a welcome break from the Tacoland crowd.

But the trip is always worth it- San Antonio is just far enough from Austin to make it feel like you've gotten away, but close enough that you know you can be in your own bed within two hours. And you just can't beat the feelin' of standin' in the street out behind the Pearl brewery and knowin' they make shitty beer, but it's cheap and you don't care.

Last edit almost 10 years ago by Jennifer Hecker
GW#3 - p8 (6)
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GW#3 - p8 (6)

[poster for rock concert]

---------------------------- THE SATANS THE MOTARDS THE CRYING OUT LOUDS

Record Release Party at Brentwood Tavern 502 Brentwood St.

----------------------------

More Parties, Less Cops...

I guess the Brentwood Tavern is cursed now. There may be room for one last backyard garage fest, but I, for one, am wary. Maybe we should just hop from one abode to the next and just keep the bands playin' with the next band always in the bullpen, warmin' up by the keg. If the cops haven't shown up yet, we'll just send the next band in and keep on until the cops do show. Then we'll have a backup locale ready and waitin' and we'll just have Port-a-Parties. It'll be all the rage this spring. The next big thing.

Anyway, thanks from me to everyone who keeps comin' out to these doomed gatherings. More people! More bands! More beer!

And, by the way, if anybody has access to a big piece of land within 100 miles of here, drop me a line- let's put on a show or somethin'. 'Specially if there's a fishin' pond!

[image of the word "Easy"]

Last edit almost 10 years ago by Jennifer Hecker
GW#3 - p9 (7)
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GW#3 - p9 (7)

Nyah, look what I --> swiped from Emo's one alcoholic nite. The Satans're the new shit 'round town, together w/ Big Horny Hustler, and could give the MC5 a run for their money. Basically, Kids Meal plus a singer, they tear up the stage w/ short songs a la Teengenerat e but they don't sound generic after 1/2 a set.

Uh, sorry Dave.

[Photocopy of a Satans set list appears to the left of the text.]

Last edit about 10 years ago by Jennifer Hecker
GW#3 - p10 (8)
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GW#3 - p10 (8)

I want to preface this article with something I've been wanting to write about for a really long time: it seems I'm not much of a rock critic. You may have noticed this. Every once in a while I'll come up with some witty, descriptive little nugget that pinpoints exactly what it is about a band or a song or an album, but this is rare. Usually, for lack of any real talent, I'll resort to the "Yeah, this rocks!" school of criticism. This is why I rarely review any of my truly, deeply, intensely favorite bands. (Another reason is that I like to try to keep something personal, although I usually don't do a good job of it.) There are just a few records/shows/bands that leave me so completely at a loss that all I can do is think about them and sometimes talk about them. I particularly have a hard time with Pavement (esp. S&E), the Pixies, the Grifters, the Velvet Underground to a lesser degree, Paul's Boutique, and Flaming Lips shows oh, and the recent Thinking Fellers Local 282 show. Anyway, I'm young yet, so maybe my skills will evolve with time and maybe, oh, thirty years from now I'll be describing emo bands as "gutbucket" and writing articles about how it was to be young in the days of the first (out of several, by then) of the punk revivals for Rolling Schmeg...

I guess it was December 6, a Thursday, my memory isn't all that reliable. Susan and I limped our way to Houston in my dilapidated yet faithful automobile, Ruth. The Grifters were playing at the Urban Art Bar. I don't know if you've heard, but if you're ever lookin' for Susan and you find out there's a Grifters show within a four-state radius of Texas, it's a pretty safe bet you could find her there. And I'm getting to be that way, too.

[photocopied clip art image of the dictionary illustration for the word 'atomizer']

So we traveled. We hadn't done a road trip together since oh, the night before (San Antonio). BUt really, before that we hadn't been on the road together much at all, so we were havin' a great time. Little did we know the drive home would be hell.

The Urban Art Bar is a pretty cool club with a big, Liberty Lunch-esque space with some furniture toward the back (a sofa, a couple o' chairs and a coffee table exactly like the one at the Satans' house, minus the plaques) and great lights and good sound and a little room in the back for the bands to hang out in.

The show was incredible as always. I wish I had written about it right when I got home (I'm gonna have to start doin' that) cause I never can recall the itty-bitty details of a show, which are always what makes a show so great, unless I'm talkin' and rehashin' with someone who was there, too. All I can remember right now was that they didn't play Soda Pop, which is probably my favorite live song, and they did play Queen of the Table Waters, which I had never heard before. I also happened to know how drunk they were and that made it all the more impressive of a show, I was amazed they could actually do it. I wish I had known I wasn't going to see them the next night.

We hung around for a while after the show, and then when we were more or less sober enough to drive, we cruised and ended up in a perilous fog for a good half of the drive back. It was awful! And we were in a bad mood. But we made it home in time for me to get about an hour and a half of sleep before I had to go to work. Yeah, yeah, I know we're rock'n'roll martyrs, we don't need yer sympathy.

Last edit about 10 years ago by Jennifer Hecker
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