Show Review: Vision of a Dying World @ Stockton House

Photos: Vision of a Dying World @ Stockton House

ah- i had fun last night. it was... refreshing. honestly, i was dreading the prospect of the grand ole party/prayers/uv tigers show @ the casbah. not on the list- $10 cover; couple of bands on that list that don't return my calls- haha- jk- who uses a telephone for anything other than texting these days?

so when i caught the listing for the stockton house show on sddialedin i was like "fuck yeah! perfect!" just looking at the listing reminded me of a simpler time, say, last year at this time, when nobody gave a fuck about local music. also, i've always wanted to check out a show at stockton house. it has a quasi-legendary status here in golden hill. i'm certain that goblin cock played has played there & i'm pretty sure that sirhan sirhan played there, also. another reason i went is that i've been meaning to give vision of a dying world a second chance based on the good works of "Action" Jackson Millgaten(sp?), promoter and guitarist/singer of Vision of Dying World- he has been supportive of my endeavors, and i wanted to see if i couldn't find some way to dig their folky/acoustical sound (or at least that's what I THOUGHT they sounded like).

the night took a quasi random turn even before it began when troy johnson emailed me and wanted to know if i was going to the stockton house show. we kicked it with dialed in rosie and andrea (and troy) @ the happiest place on earth.

went to stockton house in time to see some dude with an acoustic guitar and a beard singing- i guess he is from arizona- along with the andrew jackson jihad(great name!)- all the bands on the bill were from arizona besides vision of a dying world. we were standing in the kitchen of stockton house(capacity- 25?)- it was full up.

there were three drunk dudes in the kitchen (all night). usually i'm not much for drunk house party guys- but these dudes were bringing it! it was A+ comedic material. I learned in between sets that one of them works with abattoir magazine and one is a promoter or something. I took a picture of the guy who had the lollipop- you have to check out the photos for him. funny! he kept saying "let's get some cocaine and hookers"- but he did "hookers" with a "Cheech" kind of mexican accent- it was funny. you had to be there. he also kind of got into it with one of his buddies who responded to his agression with peals of laughter and the repeated comment, "dude-- what are you going to do? you have a lollipop?" Classic! and true!

after the acoustic guy finished up we hung out in the (fucking freezing cold) yard. MC Flow and Gigi showed up. So did Jeremy Sess and the twins from iSociety!, Scarlett Symphony.

Vision of a Dying World played- i had an image of them being acoustical and folky, but they are now a conventional rock four piece and i have to say- i really liked it! they kind of land somewhere (locally) between the prayers and silverbird. hard to really tell how technically proficient they are (non existent sound system), but the rythym section was solid and they had good energy and the crowd was into it! my take on the influences are kind of country rock/libertines brit rock with a little bit of pysch rock. i'm not going to go that into it, because i want to see them at a venue with better sound.

after the set i talked to jackson and he said that the guy who played the mandolin, lute, etc. had moved to the bay area (natch) and they got a new drummer and they just had a more conventional rock sound now. he sounded kind of bummed out about it so i felt sort of bad about being so enthusiastic about the "new" sound. none the less- vision of a dying world- check them out. oh the other funny part is where i asked them how long they had the new sound and he was like "a year". ah- yeah- i'm all about checking out new music. ha ha.

jackson also said that they have a full length almost in the can- 13 songs worth! and i want to hear that! it must be subjected to critical evaluation ASAP!

after that we were ready to go so we took troy and abby and gigi back to the happiest place on earth, where Kelly Kite Flying Society was doing her friday night thang' -one of the other guys from kite flying society was kicking it and so was the mysterious knitting ninja(we know who you are!)

ok final bit is i had a great idea for something to do- call it "golden hill festival" or "golden hill social" and basically it would be to schedule four shows on two consecutive nights at all four quasi-legal venues in golden hill. so friday night it would be CHOB and then Stockton House. Saturday night it would be Black Box Studios & Habitat. Hey- wouldn't that be super fun? We can do it in april. I will be notifying the appropriate parties. the greatest thing about this partiuclar idea- don't need any help from anyone to pull it off! ha!

CHOB 4/13/07
THE POWER CHORDS
& ATOMS
Free/All Ages

STOCKTON HOUSE 4/13/07
THE SESS
VISION OF A DYING WORLD
house party free/all ages

BLACK BOX STUDIOS 4/14/07
FIFTY ON THEIR HEELS
MC FLOW
free/all ages

HABITAT HOUSE 4/14/07
HABITAT SOUND SYSTEM
THE BOYISH CHARMS
free/all ages

are you feeling it, san diego? sounds like a good time to me.

justin timberlake and the frankfurt school

one of my favorite works of post WWII marxist philosophy is The Dialectic of Enlightenment by Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno. Horkheimer and Adorno were both affiliated with the "Frankfurt School" of Marxism when they wrote this book. Oddly enough for a pair of contiential scholars, they wrote it while sitting out WWII in sunny Malibu, California(true!). So, this influential work of cultural theory has as much to do with southern california as western germany. Dialectic of Enlightenemnt is a series of disconnected essays, but the one to really check out is the fourth essay, "The Culture Industry: Enlightenement as Mass Deception." If you actually work in a culture industry, you owe it to yourself to read this short chapter because in it, Horkheimer and Adorno effectively analyze the (negative, it goes without saying for marxist theory) role of the culture industry in western capitalist society. Believe it!

here are some fab quotes:

"What connoisseurs discuss as good or bad points serve only to perpetuate the semblance of competition and range of choice."

"Not only are the hit songs, stars and soap operas cyclic ally recurrent and invariably rigid types, but the specific content of the entertainment itself is dervied from them and only appears to change."

"The development of the cultrue industry has led to the predominance of the effect, the obvious touch, and the techical detail over the work itself."

"Culture as a common denominator already contains in embryo that schematization and process of cataloguing and classification which bring culture within the sphere of administration."

"The culture industry can pride itself on having energetically executed the previously clumsy transposition of art into the sphere of consumption, on making this a principle, on divesting amusement of its obtrusive naivetes and improving the type of commodities."

"Pleasure hardens into boredom because, if it is to remain pleasure, it must not demand any effort and therefor moves rigorously in the worn grooves of association."

"The fusion of culture and entertainment that is taking place today leads not only to a depravation of culture, but inevitable to an intellectualization of amusement"(!)(guilty!)



The idea being that the justin timberlake concert is a fine, fine example of this same "culture industry" at work in 2007! The same thing they're writing about in 1945- in malibu! how crazy is that? i'm not saying i agree with all those quotes- quite the opposite! i live to intellectualize amusement! no lie! but everyone with an interest in the business of culture should read this book...

New Year's Pics From Little Radio Party

The official new year's pics from the Little Radio Dead Meadow/Autolux party are up! There is a cute pic of friends of jfcd and of a couple we met outside named max and jax (he's dressed in a three piece suit and she looked like madonna from desparately seeking susan but with better hair) who invited us to their loft nearby to get "girl scout cookies" - thinking that it was a la euphemism for something more sinister we turned them down - thirty minutes later max and jax showed up carrying a stack of girl scout cookie boxes and offered us to choose one - nothing like 2am cookies! thanks max and jax!

Little Radio New Year's Pics

show review: little radio new years eve w/ autolux & dead meadow

little radio new years eve los angeles ca.


photos from little radio new years eve w/ autoluxe & dead meadow 12/31/06

thanks to jfcd(sesac) and little radio for making this happen! it was... an amazing event... great energy! little radio is super awesome! the little radio warehouse in los angeles is a great venue! last night, i heard the next show is the breeders in los angeles- i don't know if that's been announced or what- but it's a great place to see a show!

you def need to check out the pics-- i'm constantly amazed at how many people look at the photos of berghain/panorama bar- but the little radio warehouse is at LEAST as cool as the panorama bar in berlin- maybe cooler. it's kind of apples and oranges.

lucky for us we had "vip" passes- little radio has a traditional club/warehouse/venue with a loft and bar- that's half of the building. then on the other side there are "offices"- look at the pics of the vip area to see the detail. apparently you can rent them out or something. not sure what's up with that. the whole thing was open bar- it was pretty nuts in the vip area- la hipsters are like wolverines when it comes to free booze. cdw & i were like "who's paying for this"?

best not to ask questions!

cdw and i were enraptured by dead meadow. we had a vantage point from the little radio vip loft/certain death trap (see photos). Dead Meadow was AMAZING. and i heard last night that they moved to los angeles a few weeks ago! sweet! Can you see Dead Meadow headlining sessions fest 2007? Ah, if i close my eyes i can see it now.

then new years happened and there was lots of drunk hipster mayhem. see picture of guy smoking cigarette on floor. then autolux played and they were not that great. they have a singing female drummer? it's a neo-shoegazer vibe. i dunno- what do i know.

cdw, jfcd, jgfjdcd(jen girlfriend of josh friend of cat dirt) and her friends from interscope almost got crushed to death trying to get into the loft for autolux. we watched a couple of autolux songs. we talked to Tim Burgess(Charlatans UK). I guess he lives in los angeles now? i hear he has a dj set! hey beauty bar san diego! that would be a fun night!

at the end of the night dave from little radio promised that he wanted to "talk" about legal issues and that they need a "new lawyer". i eagerly anticipate that call! intoxicated promises are legal contracts in the state of california, dave!!

anyway- the whole experience was inspirational! i can't wait for 2007.