The Dirtbombs — Party Store

The idea of a rock band covering techno tunes may sound counter-intuitive, but it shouldn’t — really, all you’re doing is taking a bunch of great instrumentals and furnishing them with different instrumentation. And generally, Party Store works a treat — the live arrangements give the tracks a looser, more organic feel than their original electronic incarnations, and the result is definitely interesting listening. The band has previous experience here, too — its second album, Ultraglide in Black, applied the same treatment to a bunch of old soul and funk songs, with similarly excellent results.

Little Red Riding Hood begins the story as a paragon of virtue — wandering through the woods on an innocent mission, and easily led astray by the pretty flowers in the forest. In many ways, this is a fitting Valentine’s Day story — a virginal young girl ventures into the woods in an alluring cloak of the deepest red. Her innocence is stolen and her body compromised by a wolf of a man, before she is rescued by another, princely figure who rescues her. Like vampires, wolves (or werewolves) have a sexual, romantic connotation, ravishing their victims, taking them into their arms and mouths. Anyway, we’ll stop. We think Little Red Riding Hood would be struggling with her innocence post-wolf incident, clinging to the youthful, pretty songs she picked flowers to, while opening her world to new things. Also, we really think she’d be into mostly female singers, for some reason. Girl power and all that. Here are the songs we think our Little Red would get lost, get eaten, and get revenge to.

“Mayfly” – Belle & Sebastian

Belle & Sebastian is just the band that young, starry-eyed Red would love to listen to wandering through the woods on a sunny day, and this summery song is perfect for frolicking. Just be careful of wolves.

“The Woods” – Stars

This is a song for getting lost in the woods, especially with a companion that might just eat your heart. “That day we walked a little deeper / Breathless, lost and too alive to stop” Plus, all little girls (and many big girls) love Stars.

“Fool That I Am” – Etta James

Ah, the classic song of an innocent woman fooled by a seductive man who did nothing but hurt her. Don’t worry, Etta, Little Red will avenge you.

“Werewolf” – Cat Power (Michael Hurley cover)

This kind of sexy, kind of scary version of Michael Hurley’s classic song of the wolf might be just the kind of thing that the newly wise to the world Riding Hood would listen to after her liberation from the wolf’s belly, perhaps while lying on her bed and rolling the events of the fated day around in her head.

“Vision in Red” – Thao Nguyen

It is her very favorite color after all.

“A Forest” – Bat For Lashes (Cure cover)

This song sounds and feels like you’re running deeper and deeper into a darkening forest — perhaps for Red’s more somber, angry moments. Just don’t get completely lost, little girls.

“The Kindness of Strangers” – American Analog Set

In the Grimm version of the story (Little Red Cap), the huntsman is walking by the grandmother’s house and decides to break in and investigate when he hears how loud her snores are. Well, we’re not sure if that started out as “kindness,” but since he rescues the ladies, we suppose it’s for the best. Either way, we think our Red would appreciate this song.

“Dandelion” – Charlotte Gainsbourg

Another sexy track for a post-flower-picking girl, remembering the past and teetering on the edge of the future, wanting to take the plunge. Dandelion, I wanna go there too.

“White Rabbit” – Jefferson Airplane

If anyone (besides our dear Alice, of course) must have felt like she was headed down the rabbit hole, it would have been Little Red, diving headfirst into the belly of the wolf.

“Strawberry” – Paul Baribeau

We like to think she picked strawberries in addition to flowers. We also like to think that she was full of “secret flavors that are sharp, and tart, and red, and deep,” much like the strawberries.

“Kiss With A Fist” – Florence and The Machine

Revenge music — perhaps a soundtrack for that time that Little Red filled up the wolf’s body with stones and let him die.

“Heartbeat” – Annie

For celebrating the fact that after all of that, she’s still alive. What better reason to go out dancing?

10. Morrissey cancels his show after being hit by a cup

This video shows Morrissey getting nailed with a plastic cup in only the second song of his set. His reaction is a bit over-dramatic, eh?

[via Prefix]

9. Jay Reatard’s bloody Toronto

After being barraged by projectiles and having his gear and body covered in alcohol, the late Jay Reatard started throwing punches when a rambunctious fan climbed on stage and bumped into him. Tearing off the fan’s shirt and bloodying him a bit, Jay attempted to continue his show when a woman threw a beer jug at him. Jay, getting increasingly frustrated, decided to throw it violently back into the crowd. Eventually, when the front row wouldn’t stop thumping him, Jay decided to just pack up and leave.

[via Exclaim.ca]

8. Brian Jonestown Massacre fight on stage

An internal massacre indeed…

7. WAVVES melts down at Primavera Sound

Nathan Williams decided to show up drunk and spaced out to his gig at Primavera Sound and proceeded to do nothing more than mess around for the entirety of his set. After doing a “sound check” for 30 minutes, and verbally abusing both the concert staff and audience, Williams stumbled through a couple songs until his drummer got sick of it. Then he poured a beer on Williams’s head and walked out. Pretty rock ‘n roll!

[via Stereogum]

6. Whitest Boy Alive has glasses stolen, walks out

Erlend Oye simply cannot see without his glasses. After he climbed into the balcony of a show in Mexico City, some fan stole his specs and refused to return them. That’s when Oye decided to call the whole thing off.

[via HRO]

5. WAVVES and Black Lips’ fist/Internet fight

Showdowns such as this rarely happen in the indie-rock world, as sweater enthusiasts tend to be pretty laid back. But such was not the case between (who else?) Nathan Williams and Jared Swilley of Black Lips when the former’s entourage got into a fist fight with the latter after a show. So, who won? Apparently, after the scuffle Jared was bloodied and Nathan was fine (well, aside from the emotional sting of Swilley calling him a “faggot” on the Internet, which really only made the Black Lips look bad). We’re calling this one for the King of the Beach.

[via Brooklyn Vegan]

4. Deer Tick review Pitchfork’s review of Deer Tick

Angry about their sub-par Pitchfork review, Deer Tick decided to lash back at the taste-making site, reviewing the review of their album, The Black Dirt Sessions and posting their “Bitchfork” review on their Facebook. Kind of funny, mostly hissy-fitty.

[via Urlesque]

3. Patrick Wolf attacks stage crew

Even better: Later, Patrick Wolf refused to apologize for any of it.

[via Pitchfork]

2. Neko Case may just choke a bitch

To reiterate: This is why we love Neko so much. So awesome!

[via Vulture]

1. Cat Power’s whole tour of meltdowns

Chan Marshall of Cat Power’s onstage ridiculousness is pretty much legendary at this point. The distinction between fable and truth is a bit blurred in the Cat Power crazy epic, but what is known for certain is that in the mid-’00s, Chan Marshall would “treat” her audience to some sort of bat-shit display on an almost nightly basis. Ranging from rants about the KKK to mutterings under her breath about “bad vibes” while poorly improvising music to singing a Chinese restaurant’s menu word for word, Cat Power rarely failed to disappoint those hoping to see an indie trainwreck. For her consistency and dedication to baffling skinny jeans-wearing audiences, Cat Power wins the top spot in our canon of indie-rock hissyfits.

Bonus link: The Biggest Disappointments of the ’00s

Back in June we told you about Elizabeth Goodman’s unauthorized Cat Power biography — a piece that stirred up some of our most heated commenter debate to date. This morning, courtesy of Pop Candy we’ve been listening to these Cat Power BBC performances non-stop; the awkward interaction between Chan Marshall and the host on a few tracks is rather priceless. She’s a divisive artist around Flavorpill HQ, but for those of you who are fans, you’ll definitely enjoy this expansive collection of downloadable songs.

Flavorpill: There are a few videos of you crowd-surfing on YouTube, you really look like a pure-blooded rock star. What has been your most rock star moment?

Juliette Lewis: I don’t know if it’s rock star because that has other connotations, but I can tell you a very moving moment. I just played an amphitheater from the Jesus days in Verona, Italy. It was built in 35 A.D. I was opening for The Killers, so that was pretty powerful and humbling. Okay so for another rock star moment… one time I walked on the shoulders of people at Lollapalooza.

FP: That’s definitely a cool rock star moment. I’d want to step on people, too.

JL: You want the people to hold you, but you don’t want to hurt anybody. I figure I’m just a little pixie anyway… I’m a pixie and a lion — a combo.

FP: I was reading up on how you met up with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (Mars Volta) to work on your new album. I can really notice his influence  — those atmospheric Mars Volta sounds — in some of the songs, especially “Ghosts.”

JL: Yeah, there’s a melding of energies. It was a really vulnerable album for me to make. I wrote songs on piano for the first time. I also had a lot of courage to do really stripped down songs, and he was very supportive. He also created a lot of the sonic landscapes for those songs. But for “Ghosts,” it was so incredible to work with somebody who could accentuate the lyrical story. I wrote “Ghosts” on piano and always pictured it as haunting. I wanted to create a barren feeling and one of alienation. And that drum beat that’s like [sings] “Boom boom boo boo,” was made with my foot. Omar was like, “I love what you’re doing with your foot. Let’s replicate that.” He’s not intrusive and yet he was bringing light to the visions I was having.

FP: So he he reaffirmed and brought out more of your own ideas.

JL: You need encouragement, you need validation. At every turn somewhere in the world, there are these consumer signs that try to breed more complacency, to be like everyone else. There are things trying to inhibit us so that we’re all these perfect little robots that are just imitations of each other. I don’t know any other more radical artist than Omar — his music, the way he leads his life. He also makes films, he’s just fucking radical.

*The phone gets cut off for 10 minutes*

FP: Okay, so you were saying…about Omar and his geniosity.

JL: Geniosity! Love it. Did you make that up? I love making up words! It’s great. I made up another word because people are like, “Oh you act and you do music, bla bla bla.” And I’m like: “I’m an emotionalist.” I deal with emotions like finger-painting. It’s a different medium, but it’s still working with colors — blues reds, yellows, dealing with joy and anger and longing and lust. You can pull it out in lyrics, song, and melody.

*Phone cuts off again*

FP: Hello?

JL: We’re going to make this happen!

FP: I was wondering about your change in sound, from straight forward rock to a more experimental, atmospheric rock. Was this style of music always within you or did you have to grow into it?

JL: It’s living within me. It’s gaining the means and the ability and depth to be able to access it and pour it out. When I first started out, I wouldn’t have had the balls to write “Hard Loving Woman.” But I’m smart enough from my fifteen years of movies to know how to “get out of my own way,” to be able to execute where you are at the time. If you try to seek perfection, saying “It’s not good enough, it’s not good enough,” years will go by and you’ll never do anything.

FP: What song are you most emotionally attached to on the album?

JL: “Suicide Dive Bombers,” “Noche Sin Fin,” and “Hard Loving Woman” are the three most honest, they just poured out. “Noche Sin Fin” was like a purging and was very hard to record, because it was like a storm. How do you pour out a storm? I don’t know. “Suicide Dive Bombers” is about finding hope in disillusionment. I wrote it for my audience so that we could sing it together.

FP: Are your live shows different with the new band?

JL: It’s been awesome; it’s all been more me. All the shit that my audience responded to  — this whirling dervish, this girl, little pixie-lion creature or whatever it is I am. We’ve been playing live for months now and I’m loving it. We played old songs and new songs, it’s just a different groove. It all makes sense live.

FP: Will you be wearing equal amounts of spandex?

JL: No! I did wear jump suits, I only had three pairs. I do need clothes that I can move in. I’ve been into sequins lately, like Tina Turner.

FP: When people think of you from this point on, do you want them to think of you as a singer first and then an actor? Or vice-versa?

JL: I don’t even care what people call me to tell you the truth, just as long as they show up. I know some people take wording very seriously. I feel like no one is stopping me. I have this tremendous freedom, this great love for what I’m doing. You wanna call me a singer, a sham, an actor, I really don’t care. But like I said, I’m an emotionalist. I’m the pied piper for the underdog, the pied piper for all the little creatures that live in the forest [laughs]. I would like people to remember my life in cinema and I hope they get a kick out of the next thing I do. I’m all for the journey. Yeah, but labels… shit magazines, they like to take the substance out of everything.

FP: I really like that promo picture of you with the buffalo, by the way. You guys look like kindred spirits. Would you say it’s in line with your earthiness/pixie-lion image?

JL: Yeah, I had all these visions and to try to manifest them is hard with limited resources. If I had it my way, I would’ve created even more of a universe. The bull on a leash came out of Omar’s guitar. Omar played a guitar riff and I imagined a bull, because sounds can be really visual, and I think it went with the whole idea of Terra Incognita and this unknown land. We rented a bull and I held him on a leash. It should mean whatever you want it to mean, but it’s very symbolic of trying to domesticate the wild, but you can’t or harness your power, but you can’t.

FP: You should have kept him as a pet.

JL: That’s what I wanted to do! It’s like if this creature fell to earth and she had a bull as her pet. That bull’s name was Willy.

Goodman’s initial aim was to commemorate Marshall’s development as a musician and retell the moving story of her shaky childhood in Atlanta. Instead, she met with obstacles and traps, all set by Marshall.

Upon hearing of Goodman’s project, the musician went to great lengths to stop it: She called everyone she remotely knew, demanding that that they keep mum about her past. While Marshall was successful to some extent, she forgot to notify the most key members of her past — her family. Having tracked down multiple sources, Goodman has written a biography that exposes Marshall’s childhood, chronicles the troubling relationship with her schizophrenic mother, and reveals the events that catalyzed Marshall’s own fears onstage. You learn what eventually led to her breakdown, and how she regained her career. But I wanted to know more, so I sat down with Goodman to find out how she tracked down Marshall’s family, why Marshall was resistant to the book, and whether or not she’s actually read it.

Flavorpill: I love how you created a real double-sided Chan Marshall. You really managed to pry apart a very mysterious person.

Elizabeth Goodman: [Laughs] I’m glad you thought I was successful in doing that! Sometimes I wonder, you know? One of the themes in the book is the more you learn about her, the less you know. But, that having been said, I certainly feel I understand her better than I did when I started, which is a good thing, I guess.

FP: Chan went to great lengths to stop your book’s production. How did you manage to track down so many of her family members and one-time confidants?

EG: Well, honestly it just took some good research. Total doggedness, essentially. I mean part of what’s ironic about her resistance was that it forced me to be a better journalist. Because she wasn’t making herself available to me as the primary source on the major events that should have constituted her narrative, she forced me to find people who could be secondary sources. I had to dig and find out who else is around who could really tell her story… which is not to say that I wouldn’t have researched thoroughly had she been a participant in it. I had to go to extra lengths to find people because she wasn’t a participant in the book. Which is ironic (again) because that’s what she feared would happen.

Basically, there’s a lot of information out there. In this country you can find a lot of information about people just on things like, oh, the Internet… and housing records. Wherever we go we leave a virtual paper trail. So that was how I tracked down family members. Also, I’d say that part of the kind of research I’m talking about was showing up in Atlanta. I flew out to Atlanta and spent a little over a week there. I think that’s really the secret in terms of getting all of those people. Just showing up. In Atlanta, I was able to find the house Chan had lived in, in Cabbagetown. So I just went there, was kind of hanging out, and saw this woman who lived across the street. I asked her if she’d ever known Chan, and it turned out of course she’d been Chan’s landlord. That’s the kind of thing you could never have found out without just showing up and being there to find it.

FP: You literally tracked Chan’s youth. You were also able to create a real portrait of Chan’s New York surroundings in the early ’90s, back when the LES wasn’t a mall. How did you manage to do that?

EG: I had this conversation with a friend of mine who is a journalist but is also a fiction writer. I was talking to him about what book I would write next, and he asked if I ever thought about writing fiction. And I was like, “Oh no, I couldn’t write fiction, I’ve always been really interested in writing fact.” And he was like, “Well if you’re interested in fact, you should really write fiction!” We talked some more about it, and it’s really interesting but in fiction writing, you are able to create an entire world that is within your control. If you want to describe something and know that the entire truth is contained within your description, then you should really write fiction. That’s the only way you can know for sure that you’re getting every single detail right… whereas in nonfiction writing, you have to rely on a kind of inherently fractured perspective. Even if you could be your own primary source for a given event.

Take for example the first Cat Power show. Like, say I was there, (which I wasn’t), I still would remember it differently than other people would. There’s no such thing as real, undiluted, pure memory. So, the reason I say that to answer your question is that I kind of let myself pretend that I was there. I had a lot of amazing sources both on and off the record for that period of New York’s history, not to mention current history. I just pretended I was there and tried to kind of feel it: what would the air feel like; what would it smell like; what would I be doing on an average day? My friend told me that story about waiting in line for the Village Voice to come out so he could see what jobs were available. I thought that was really striking because it really wasn’t that long ago, and it’s so different from the way we do things today.

FP: What was the reaction like when the book came out? Did you hear from Chan or her lawyer again?

EG: You know what, I haven’t heard from her, and I haven’t heard from anyone in her camp, so to speak. I work with people at her label on other stuff all of the time… we just don’t really talk about it [laughs]… which is fine, because it was a contentious project for a long time. For reasons that are very clear in the book, that was not my desire. I really didn’t want it to be that way. But one of the things I’m most proud about in the book is the way that I approached it. The approach that I took to writing the book (with the exception of the introduction) was the same approach I would have taken had [Chan] cooperated. I told the story that was there to tell. I talked to everyone I could talk to, and that was my intention from the beginning. And then I wrote what I consider a synthesized version of what they told me. But it’s not like Chan became resistant and it became this total battle. I didn’t want the book to be like that. That’s just not the story.

It occurred to me in some of the more heated moments of her freaking out, that she might be pretty disappointed if she ever read it to discover that there’s really not any “white whale” of her story in the book that she was so afraid would be written. It always made me laugh to think of that. Like, what if Chan actually read it and said “That’s it? Damn! What was I so afraid of?” Which is not to say that her story is uninteresting or that there isn’t a lot for her fans to discover in this book. I think there is. But it’s not like I discovered that she’s secretly a man or something. [Laughs] But yeah, I haven’t heard from them and I don’t really expect to.

My goal with this book was to take this person who is adored by a select group of people already, and kind of reveal her and her story to those who are already interested and those who don’t yet know that they’re interested. I think in a lot of ways her story is even more global and transcendent than her music. Like take someone who wouldn’t be a huge fan of her music: I wanted for them to really get something out of this book. I’ve had a couple of emails that indicate at least for a couple of people, that’s happened. So in that way, it’s really gratifying.

FP: Do you think if Chan had been cooperative you have gone to such lengths to expose her as such a dueling personality?

EG: You know, a lot of people have asked me that question. It’s hard to know, like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book. I don’t know what would have happened. But I think what’s clear is her resistance to the book defines it. It is shaped by many factors. It’s shaped by who agreed to talk to me and who didn’t agree to talk to me. It’s shaped by what week I happened to choose go down to Atlanta. It’s shaped by a thousand different tiny choices, that are not really in my control or anyone else’s. And one of the major things it is shaped by is the fact that Chan didn’t cooperate with it. But I don’t think the book would have ultimately been better if she had. There’s an argument to be made that it wouldn’t have been as good if she had. One of the things I really learned about Chan through this process is how expert she is at weaving her own myth. As someone who kind of walked into this project very eager to please her, it’s entirely possible that I would have been pretty willing to write a version of her story as much as anything else. And in this case, that didn’t happen! She chose not to participate in it. What’s true about this book is that it’s not the version of the story she would have scripted. She wasn’t there to do it.

FP: I’d be willing to bet that Chan would or has already read it. She strikes me as someone who cares deeply about the way people see her, regardless of what personality she projects.

EG: It’s possible! I mean, I hope so. I hope she tells everyone she meets that she’s read it! No, I know what you mean and a lot of people have said that. But that’s what’s interesting about her. And that’s one of the major themes in the book. Chan is both an exhibitionist and a pathologically shy personality. The exhibitionist side of her, I mean the star in her, would probably want to read it. And the retiring Southern girl in her who just wants to be a mom would probably be horrified by it. I guess it just depends where she is right now in her own mind. But, I hope she reads it. I hope she likes it. That’s what I mean. I started off wanting to write a book that she would approve of, and although the way that I mean that has changed over the course of writing it, I still mean it. This was never supposed to be an exposé, and I don’t think that it is one. I think that it is an honest portrait of the story that was available to tell.

2. Google can’t keep up with Twitter’s speed, so Larry Page sez they might hop in bed together. [via Guardian]

3. It’s like our generation’s Lilith Fair: Cat Power will tour with Juliette Lewis and the Pretenders this summer. (Side note: I was totally kidding, but the Lilith Fair website say it’s returning in 2010.) [via Pitchfork]

4. Could Night at the Museum really hurt Terminator‘s box office? [via Variety]

5. 13 canceled shows that you’ll always miss. [via TDB]

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1. Empire of the Sun, “Swordfish Hotkiss Night”
I don’t know what a swordfish hotkiss night is but I would like to live there. – Ashley Casselman

2. Cat Power, “Lived In Bars”
Loving the late-night melancholy of the piano intro. – Jane McCarthy

3. Architecture In Helsinki, “That Beep”
The first single from their forthcoming album, Vision Revision. It’s been a while since we’ve heard from these guys, but it seems like they’ve been eschewing the twee that made them popular in favor of a smoother electro-pop sound. Definitely not arguing! – Cassidy Pignatello

4. Phoenix, “Lisztomania (Classixx Version)”
The only thing smoother than Thomas Mars’ voice is the buttery synths cascading behind him. – Cassidy

5. Passion Pit, “The Reeling (Calvin Harris Remix)”
While the original version is all right, Calvin Harris works some of his voodoo by pulling the one synth I wanted to hear more of and disco-fying it to the nth degree. The bassline is absolutely killer too. – Cassidy

6. Harlem Shakes, “Niagra Falls”
I love the keys on this track and the girl harmonies they bring about halfway through. It’s wistful in the very best possible way. – Leah Taylor

7. King Khan & the Shrines, “I Wanna Be a Girl”
Unfortunately, they didn’t put this track on the MySpace page. So check out “Welfare Bread” instead. And then find when they are next playing in your town, and buy some freakin’ tickets. The live show is incredible! I took my dad to see them; he said it was the best concert he’s been to in decades — and he was at Altamont. – Leah

8. The Beets, “Killer Tofu”
Ha, just kidding. Actually I mean these guys — and refreshingly, they’re from Jackson Heights, not the ‘Burg! Awesome garage rock, recently recognized by the L Magazine as one of the top 8 new bands to watch. – Leah

9. The Vaselines, “Son of a Gum”
Because it explains so much about the Tings Tings. And Kurt Cobain would approve. – Caroline

10. Lil Wayne, “Back On My Grizzy”
Nobody makes better hip hop right now. – Joseph Mangan