Morrissey Ruined My Life; Is Deemed "?questionable?"

The Institute for Unpopular Culture is showing the work of abstract painter Sean Starr in an exhibit called "Morrissey Ruined My Life". It's this coming Saturday, 3 Feb, at Workspace Limited, 2150 Folsom Street in San Francisco.

On February 3rd, 2007 Sean will demonstrate the effect of Morrissey on his life by painting a massive canvas on a stage in the gallery, recreating his private studio atmosphere. A selection of Sean's favorite Smiths and Morrissey songs will be playing while he paints. Dozens of other paintings will be on display throughout the gallery, most titled after Smiths and Morrissey songs.

Starr considers Morrissey "the world's greatest living poet"...

Al notes this paranoid Christian web site which has a list of must-hear musicians, including "Morrissey (?questionable)", "Merzbau" (sic) and "Ted Nugent (loincloth)".

Drugs are bad, mmkay...

Videos of 20 "Greatest" Guitar Solos

Shamelessly swiped from Boing Boing: YouTubes of the 20 greatest lute soliloquies (soliloquae... soliloquata...). The usual "Top N Ms of All Time" disclaimers apply. But seriously, where's the goddamn Living Colour.

Living Colour, "Broken Hearts"

Living Colour, "Information Overload" intro

"Information Overload" guitar solo

Living Colour, "Flying"

Extra bonus stony-faced funky bass shredding (check out the tape on the high strings! hahaha!):

Fredrik Thordendal and Morgan Ågren, Sol Niger Within medley

Kristin Hersh/Throwing Muses in Minneapolis and SF

Kristin Hersh will be zooming around promoting her new record Learn to Sing Like a Star. She'll be in Minneapolis at the Electric Fetus record store on 8 Feb, and at Amoeba in San Francisco on the 18th.

Robotspeak Sessions 3.4

Robotspeak Sessions 3.4 is coming up next Wednesday the 31st at Robotspeak in San Francisco, with Puzzle, Snareface, and 0mins0und:

Robotspeak sessions is our every-other-monthly electronic + computer [electronic] music event. Our goal with sessions is to create a comfortable venue for the performers and audience to interact, ask questions, trade ideas and techniques-you name it. Hosted here in our semi-underground shop in SF's lower Haight, each sessions features three 30 - 40 minute performances followed by an open forum and very informal "question-and-answer" session.

Unfortunately I'll be out of town this time.

It Was Probably Inevitable

What the fuck is this?

Beverage Concepts Chief Executive Josh Glass said his company would honor Hendrix's memory by donating some of the profit from the Liquid Experience to an unidentified music education foundation.

Uhh, yeah...

30 Pounds of Maple?!

After watching the Mahavishnu video, I started surfing around for John McLaughlin stuff (see his wacky website). I found this description of one of his famous doubleneck guitars, the "Double Rainbow". Thirty frakkin' pounds. In general, the 1970s were an experimental period for guitar design, and the preference was for density (it was believed that hunks of brass improved sustain) and wacky electronics. Stanley Clarke and Jerry Garcia also had hi- and/or sci-fi instruments in that era, for example.

Weirdly, it's hard to find pictures of the Double Rainbow (or maybe my Google-fu is weak this night), but there is this one:

Video of Mahavishnu Orchestra from 1972

My other jazz-loving friend named Al pointed me to this video of Mahavishnu Orchestra starting off with "Meeting of the Spirits" in 1972. As a guitar player I'm obviously a McLaughlin fan, but I especially love drummer Billy Cobham's performance here.

Flaming Horse @ Luggage Store Gallery 18 Jan

My friend and former bandmate Al's band Flaming Horse ("yes, it's really called that") will be playing at the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco (1007 Market St. @ 6th St.) on the 18th. Flaming Horse does free improvisation, so it'll be a bit different from Boshuda, our old band.