WHERE ITS AT FRIDAY JULY 23

PERSUASION:IMAGES (part 2)

PERSUASION:IMAGES (part 1)

1-15-10 @ the temporary space houston tx 77002. text to follow later.

FUTURE BLONDES SHALL NEVER DIE? OR SHALL THEY???

there is talk on the HANDS UP HOUSTON message board FUTURE BLONDES is playing superhappyfunland tonight along with the amazing COP WARMTH among others. astute readers will recall we reported here last week future blondes was supposedly finished.

but who knows... certainly not us...

you wouldn't believe the things i'd do for 10 bucks.

-sharpe james

LIVE REVIEW: FUTURE BLONDES LAST SHOW

we went to the EXTERMINATING ANGELS/FUTURE BLONDES/PSYCHIC ILLS/INDIAN JEWELRY show at notsuoh last night in houston. unfortunately jen got sick shortly before psychic ills started their set so we missed them and indian jewelry. its been a sort of curse for us in our attempts to see indian jewelry. the gods do not seem to want it to happen. the gods must hate us. our karma is not good, friends.

so instead of the usual style piece (as new romantics we're all about the style) - i'll write today about the final show of future blondes. a performance for the ages.

we've seen future blondes perform in several places in various incarnations over the past few months, the one fixed thing about them is domokos on vocals & effects. tonight was something completely different yet still related to what they've done before. in what was more of a band set with charley & tyler of balaclavas on synths, and a gentlemen i haven't met named jerry on moog keytar. a woman in a body stocking draped in and out of a canvas tarp doing a sort of interpretive dance and crawl and horrified slither across the stage and into the packed in audience like the end of the world was nigh.

the set opened up slowly with an ambient wall of sound with dom's echoed and looped threats, accusations and one liners (the don rickles of noise?). the music seeming to breathe and became piercing and almost dangerous. a loop saying "fuck you too" repeated for maybe 20 minutes and beats kicked and ralf armin of dead roses & after party joined on saxaphone and suddenly this metal machine music meets metal box turned into interstellar space. if only rashied ali was alive to sit in.

this awesome sound would not quit - shards of abstract and clicked and cut synth noise rose from the stage, armins sax sounding like industrial explosions through dom's effects. armin taking out his cell phone and attempting to call dom in the midst of this hail of noise. dom did not answer. he was too busy playing god and curating the whole thing kneeling from his perch on the stage, shooting looks at the crowd and reveling in the end of future blondes. amazing.

future blondes is dead! long live future blondes! and fuck you too!

-sharpe james

LETTER TO THE WIRE

published in october 2009 issue.

WHERE ITS AT - FRIDAY

LIVE REVIEW: SORRY, THE BATTERY IN MY PEDAL JUST DIED

HOW I QUIT CRACK

//TENSE//

VOIDMATE

live at the mink, houston tx 9-26-09

how i quit crack formerly

houston, now austin at $220/month

liquid sky beats cribbed from the normal

(it all goes back to the normal, look them

up i say)

drones and song

song and feedback

this korg synth says freedom

the make up glows like shiva

this is how we do that dance

tense did their thing

and first just me and jon read up front

then dom then dom then d...

sin realite

if you don't get this - i mean,

why the hell houston press?

why aren't you covering this?

why some post-punk transplants

from jersey need to scoop you?

tense is awesome once again

this is how we do that dance

voidmate - apologies..

its been a tough week.

hung a bit with ralf dead roses after party

dom future somethings did don rickles bit

said hello to jon the wiggins

met people we never before knew

(the importance of living)

missed voidmate. we really

wanted to hear voidmates cover

of 'ouija board, ouija board'

but alas, drove home in mad fog

288 to the city of enchantment

signpost.

this is how we do that dance.

-sharpe james

LIVE REVIEW: GROUND CONTROL TO MAJOR TOM

//TENSE//

FUTURE BLONDES

AFTER PARTY

A THOUSAND CRANES

DJ CEEPLUS BAD KNIVES

@ mango's houston tx 7-24-09

A THOUSAND CRANES opened up with a brave set of burning incense, sacred drones, guitar feedback and travis kerschen expressing complete and total love for all humanity & animals.. and forgiveness of all abusers and enemies. his vocal style is somewhat reminiscent of jon vance of the legendary late 80s/early 90s hardcore band moss icon. his stage presence is undeniably intense, just staring at the audience through dark glasses while beats and noise envelop us. one of these days they will release an album, and based on the cdr's i've heard, it will be tremendous.

AFTER PARTY is a side project of ralf armin's amazing band dead roses. this was drum machine driven and made me think of the music wire may have made in that 7 1/2 year period between '154' and 'the ideal copy'. they just came back from a short tour and were really strong. this is totally a dance band and i hope to hear more from them soon.

FUTURE BLONDES is based around houston legend domokos. when i started hanging out a few months ago dom was the first person i met. meeting him has opened doors. name dropping him has gotten us bank loans. name dropping him has gotten us better drugs. name dropping him has gotten us locked in an infamous mexican prison. right after i met him he left town for a few months, but he's returned and last night was his first show since coming back. as he chanted like jah shaka in an echo chamber, a guy alternating between a moog liberation and a fucked up spray painted guitar played with drum sticks, and tina from how i quit crack niced up the dance.. it was scary and awesome (in the original sense of the word). this was the band that should've played that scene in 'fire walk with me' where the dialogue had to be subtitled. i felt wasted afterwards. and it was a good feeling.

i had never seen //TENSE// perform but they were really great. a boy girl duo, playing behind programmed rhythms attacking drum pads.. i originally started thinking heaven 17, but ralf armin corrected me saying it was more german than that. think some kraftwerk offshoot i missed out on, the beats were motorik.. maybe a touch of soft cell but way more aggro then marc almond ever got. even when almond was fucked up on drugs. afterwards, the gentlemen half of //tense// gave me a cdr that i'm listening to as i write and its really good. will discuss this in the future.

also, i don't want to neglect mentioning DJ CEEPLUS BAD KNIVES who did a dj set between bands. for some reason this reminded me of the time brandon pkH and i saw sonic boom do a solo spectrum set in nyc w the long lost philly noise band un & a duo of alan licht & loren mazzacane-conners opening. in between those acts dj spooky spun an awesome set. dj ceeplus's set was nothing like (never seen spooky scratch) that but it worked in the same way. i don't believe i'm explaining it well... i'd suggest you see him dj. i mean, that fucked up intro to 'oh bondage up yours' would've been worth the price of admission even if the show wasn't free.

ok. yeah...

-sharpe james