Cats On Holiday

U-Dot Music's free digital singles series

2011-10-13T22:57:00.006-04:00

Through much of the 00's, I was in a band called Continental. We had, and still have, a label called U-Dot. Even though Continental is no longer an active band, U-Dot continues to function as an outlet for Continental's archived recordings and for music by our close friends and collaborators. The label has abandoned making cds and is instead releasing a series of virtual singles designed to resemble 7" vinyl records. These singles are offered as free downloads and come complete with printable artwork and liner notes/credits.

The fifth single in the series was recently released and it is the best one to date. It's two new songs by Carta, a terrific band from the Bay Area. Carta deservedly garnered great reviews for their 2010 album, An Index Of Birds. These new songs are something of a sneak peak as Carta continues to work on a record that is due sometime in early 2012. U-Dot is very happy to be able to share this new music with you. Check it out: U-Dot

Bon jour!

2011-01-03T03:58:00.003-05:00

I've been in Paris the past week or so, with a few days still to go. I have been searching for records high and low and my experiences have been mixed. There aren't nearly as many record stores here as there is in most major US cities, and the ones I have found have been decent, if not mind blowing. All that changed yesterday when GG and I ventured to the outskirts, just a few blocks north of the Parisian city limits.

We went to check out what is billed as Europe's largest flea market. I didn't really expect there to be many records there, but I like a good flea market so I was excited to go. Upon first arrival, the market was very underwhelming with only about 75-100 vendors mostly selling new clothes and athletic shoes. We were done wandering through it, when I looked way down the street and saw what looked like more vendors far on the other side of the freeway. We decided to head over there to take a peek. What we stumbled upon was a huge, no HUGE, flea market and antique/vintage/second hand/army surplus district. There were thousands of shops and vendors along dozens of streets that splintered off every which way. We walked here and there, in and out of tiny passageways loaded with stuff. We were there for four hours and we just scratched the surface.

There weren't too many record vendors, but there was a great one. He had thousands of records in his booth all neatly organized and relatively alphabetic. He even had an auxiliary booth across the aisle that housed his inexpensive, 1.5 euro each, bins. I scored a Rita Lee record from the "dollar" bins! From his regular stock I picked up The Ruts' "The Crack", Young Marble Giants' "Colossal Youth", the first record by Trust a French metal/hard rock band, an old Francois Hardy record. I can't tell you how excited I was. It was a really great day of record shopping and one that I'd been itching for since our plane landed a week ago.

ATP NY

2010-07-08T15:50:00.002-04:00

I've posted about potential ATP NY lineups before. But, seeing as I'm not 100% stoked about the 2010 lineup thus far, I thought I'd take a stab at putting together a roster that would rule (and still be somewhat possible). Here's what a Cats On Holiday curated ATP would look like:

Day One: Don't Look Back series

Fugazi - perform The Argument
Buzzcocks - perform Love Bites
ESG - perform Come Away With ESG
Beat Happening - perform You Turn Me On
Greg Sage/Wipers - performing Over The Edge
Jawbox - perform For Your Own Special Sweetheart
Electrelane - perform No Shouts No Calls

Day Two:

PJ Harvey
St. Vincent
Dirty Projectors
The XX
jj
Konono no 1
Beach House
Jim O'Rourke
M83
Nels Cline Singers
Sleigh Bells
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Wild Nothing
Grouper

Day three:

Grinderman
Bonnie Prince Billy
Liars
Blues Control
Sunburned
Talk Normal
Woods
Dum Dum Girls
Abe Vigoda
Kurt Vile
Holly Golightly
Zola Jesus
Blank Dogs
Nina Nastasia

Comedy curated by Louis CK
Sound installation by Brian Eno

Is something like that possible? It's not too crazy is it (aside from Fugazi, who would never play a festival)?

Alex Chilton, thanks

2010-03-17T23:29:00.005-04:00

I'm sure a lot will be written about Alex Chilton and Big Star in the coming days, but I've got to add a little post anyway. I, like many people my age, first heard of Alex via the great Replacements song, "Alex Chilton". The song was one of my favorites, as it was instantly likable and memorable. It also made me curious to hear what Alex Chilton and Big Star sounded like. I tracked down a cd containing #1 Record and Radio City. Needless to say, Big Star quickly became one of my favorite bands and have remained near and dear to me some 20-plus years later.

Goodbye Alex Chilton. Thank you for all those great songs.

"I never go too far, without a little Big Star" - P.Westerberg

The true story of how Nirvana's Negative Creep saved my life

2009-06-27T18:53:00.003-04:00

When I was nineteen years old, me and my best friend Phil, moved from our little rural towns in the central California foothills up to Stockton to go to school and to start our lives away from our parents. I don't remember why we picked Stockton exactly, but it did have a nice community college, Delta.

We started going to Delta in the Fall of 1989, and we soon noticed flyers around campus advertising for punk rock and "college rock" shows in a place called The Cattle Club in Sacramento. We took note of quite a few shows that we wanted to go to, but we had no idea how far away Sacramento was, or how we would even find this club once we got there. On Feb. 12th, 1990 we finally felt bored and adventurous enough to get in the car and find this Cattle Club so we could check out a band I'd read about in Pulse! called "Nirvana". We'd never heard Nirvana, but we decided to go anyway. Well, we had our teenage minds completely blown away that night. Neither one of us had been to that many shows at that time because there simply was none where we grew up. We could barely even dial in the college radio station from our parent's houses. So, we were already freaking out when we walked in to the small, smelly, cramped room where TAD was in the midst of destroying eardrums with their sludgy metal. By the time Nirvana started, I knew it was going to be a memorable evening. I recall Nirvana being extremely powerful live, with a frenetic energy and tunes at once aggressive and memorable. As a matter of fact, here is a link to video of this show in its entirety. No need for me to try to describe it:

http://callenostalgia.blogspot.com/2008/12/nirvana-live-at-cattle-club-1990-video.html

In the weeks following this show I tracked down and purchased the sole copies of Bleach and the Blew EP that Tower had in stock. I played those records daily, for months and months on end. By the summer, I had a job working construction about a two hour drive from Stockton up in the hills. I had to leave our apartment by 5 am to make the 7 am start time. It was a rough, lonely drive on desolate country roads. Bleach was what I blasted out of my shitty stereo every day, desperately trying to stay alert and awake in the hours before sunrise. The cassette player was set on "auto-play" and I would let it roll through two or three times, back to back to back. It was between side 1 and side 2 one morning when I started to nod off. In those 30 seconds of silence I completely fell asleep.

Just then, Negative Creep came roaring in, scaring the crap out of me and shocking me wide awake. As I had fallen asleep, the car drifted to the right and was just about to head down a steep embankment. Startled and fully panicked, I jerked the car back on the road and whipped around a corner going way too fast. Luckily, I didn't overcorrect and I gained full control of the car at just about the last possible moment. I drove for a mile or so, stunned, confused, my heart pounding. I turned the music down, pulled over at the next turnout and tried to gather myself. I took a few deep breaths and it suddenly hit me, Nirvana had literally just saved my life. The music I had become rather obsessed with had had an actual impact on my life.

Now, I reckon it could have been any band or record or song in this story and things might have turned out the same way. But it wasn't. This experience not only deepened my fondness for the music, but made my connection to it seem even that much more personal. I guess that is what music is supposed to do. It's supposed to become part of our lives. To enrich them. To make them better. And even on occasion, to save them.

WFMU roools

2009-06-22T21:44:00.004-04:00

WFMU is a great radio station out of New Jersey. They have tons of free music available for download on their website here: http://freemusicarchive.org/curator/WFMU/collections

If you live in the NYC area tune in at 91.1 FM. Or listen online: http://wfmu.org/

My favorite WFMU show is Diane's Kamikaze Fun Machine, Thursdays 3 pm to 6 pm (EST).

Currently, I am listening to Harmonia's incredible set from ATP NY 2008.

Thanks WFMU.

2009-04-16T15:09:00.000-04:00

Hello? Hello? Testing. Is this thing on?

Stupefying.

2008-11-05T00:42:00.001-05:00

Best Day Ever.

My Life With Records, Vol. 1, 11/2/08

2008-11-02T12:08:00.026-05:00

My friend Gabe and I have been talking about doing a blog/podcast of records we have recently purchased for some time now. When we lived in the same city, the idea of such a podcast/blog was mostly for our friends and other nerdy record collector types. But, now that we live on opposite ends of the country, it can be a way for us to keep up with each others finds as well.

I'll try to work on a podcast so that you may be able to hear some of the records that I'll be posting here, but for now you'll have to settle for pics and descriptions.

Anyway, here is the first installment of what I hope to be a regular thing:

Last weekend I went to the New York Art Book Fair, where you wouldn't expect to find music, but of course I did. Amongst all the book, zine, chapbook publishers and art dealers at the fair, was a table by Fuck It Tapes. They had some cool zines and a whole bunch of rad cassette tapes. I wanted to buy five or six of their tapes, but having a limited amount of cash on hand, I decided on Sunburned Hand of the Man's "The Pegadrift". I just had to get it over the other tapes because I am a huge SHOTM fan and this cassette is a limited edition of 100. I had never seen it before or even knew that it existed.

Side 1 of The Pegadrift is one long droney, blissed out, instrumental mess. It's wonderful. So much better than 2007's "Z" album, which is similar but not nearly as interesting.

Side 2 finds Sunburned in their freaky freakout mode. Clattering drums, guitar scrapes/feedback, strange rambling vocals and shouting. It's filled with angst and tension. It's the kind of stuff that drives my wife crazy, but I think is fun to listen to.

check it out: http://www.fuckittapes.com/fuckittapes.htm

Next up is a group of 7" vinyl that I got at the flea market:

Carole King - One Fine Day b/w Rulers of This World

Badfinger - Come and Get It b/w Rock of All Ages

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Lookin' Out My Back Door b/w Long As I Can See the Light

Frjid Pink - House of the Rising Sun b/w Drivin' Blues

"One Fine Day" is a classic Goffin-King pop gem. I love Carole King's voice. It reminds me of my childhood, even though I don't think my parents listened to her that much. I don't know what it is about her, but every time I hear that voice I'm nine years old again. "Rulers of This World" is a slow, somber song, asking for peace and an end to war. This song doesn't seem to appear on any Carole King albums or compilations. Written by King, Goffin and Goldberg, with string arrangements by Jack Nitzche.

Badfinger's "Come and Get It" is a bouncy Paul McCartney song. Perhaps not Sir Paul's finest song ever, but Badfinger did it really well, making it is easy to see why so many people thought of them as Beatles clones. "Rock of All Ages" may surprise those only familiar with their mellower hit songs like "Day After Day" or "No Matter What". This is a rock 'n roll song by a band that didn't rock out often enough, especially given the excellence of this performance. That's not to say that I don't like their mellower stuff, "Baby Blue" is one of my favorite songs of all time. I just wished they would have recorded more straight up rockers like this, because they were really great at it too. This record is Apple 1815, released in 1970. It was Apple Records' 15th release and the first single by Badfinger for the label.

A little online research dates this CCR record (FANT-645 for you collector types) as a 1970 release, with "Lookin Out My Back Door" as the A side. These are both great songs that everyone knows, or should know.

Frijid Pink had a hit with "House of the Rising Sun". I hate that song, and I hate this version too. The B side, "Drivin' Blues", is bluesy proto-heavy metal akin to Ten Years After or Mountain. Neither track is very impressive, but I picked this 45 up because copies of the Frijid Pink album are expensive and hard to come by and I've always been curious to hear them. Anyway, this record is Parrot-341, released in 1969.

None of these records are earth shattering, but they were definitely worth the three bucks I paid for them. I'm sure I'll be breaking out the Badfinger 45 regularly, as I'm already humming "Come and Get it" after two plays.

Black Candy

2008-10-31T20:30:00.006-04:00

I finally saw Monotonix...

2008-10-28T22:39:00.010-04:00

...And they were crazy.

First things first. The show was at The Knitting Factory here in NYC, on Friday 10/24/2008. It was a CMJ showcase for Panache, which is some sort of booking agency and a magazine (weird combo right?). For those that have not been to "The Knit", a brief description is in order. The club is housed in a building in lower Manhattan, and has three floors with three separate stages/performance areas. The main room is on the smallish end of the scale with a little balcony that runs around two sides. It holds about 250 people in total. The other rooms, which are located below street level, are much smaller, holding maybe 75-100 each. Sometimes the club has two or three shows happening at once, requiring separate entry for each. The Panache showcase was an "all club event", meaning one ticket allowed you access to all performance areas.

Panache put together quite a lineup for their event: Akimbo, Aa, DMBQ, An Albatross, The Mae Shi, Homosexuals, AIDS Wolf, Yip Yip, Fiasco and headliners Monotonix. Me and my friends bounced around the rooms taking in all we could before heading upstairs for Monotonix. We got up there just as they were finishing their setup, which was on the floor in front of the stage. As soon as the band launched into their first song, their insane singer guy dove into the crowd and the place just went bonkers. Beer cans and water bottles began flying around the room. The singer made his way back to the stage only to throw himself AND a trash can back into the audience. The trash can was bandied about and hurled back and forth across the room. Insane Singer Guy then scurried up a column in the back of the room, and freaked out on a little platform he discovered near the balcony. When he made his way back down, he again rode the crowd back to the stage. He then grabbed a drum (floor tom) and surfed the crowd as he pounded the shit out of this drum (a trick he stole from openers DMBQ). All the while, beer cans and water bottles and shoes and all kinds of stuff were still flying around. ISG then brought out DMBQ and both bands crowd surfed whilst playing their instruments. For a big finish, ISG invited all members of every band that played that night to do one huge stage dive together. This was a hilarious conclusion to the night, as the whole lot collapsed into a big sweaty pile in front of the stage. Needless to say, it was a completely gonzo performance. It was also the first time, in a long time, that I felt real danger at a rock 'n roll show. I thought someone was going to lose an eye, for sure.

The only real problem with Monotonix was that their music was pretty forgettable. If I had to describe it, I'd say it sounded vaguely like MC5 or Zen Guerrilla, but devoid of any memorable tunes.

Still, they are something to see.

ATP NY wish list

2008-10-21T22:38:00.001-04:00

So after going to ATP NY, and writing about it, I started thinking about bands that I would love to see there in the future. I found it difficult trying to come up with bands that aren't overexposed or too obscure. I was also trying to keep in mind that you need bands, both old and new, that will have people excited enough to plunk down 200 bucks for a weekend pass. Here's a list of bands that would work for me:

Don't Look Back (bands performing albums in their entirety):

Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted

Superchunk - On the Mouth

Replacements - Tim

Beat Happening - You Turn Me On

Bonnie Prince Billy - I See a Darkness

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

Bands:

Electrelane

Black Dice

Loop

The Notwist

Silver Jews

Feelies

Nadja

Times New Viking

Witch Hats

Neurosis

Abe Vigoda

Life Without Buildings

Sunburned Hand of the Man

Haunted Graffiti

Trad Gras Och Stenar

Grails

Dungen

Circle/Pharaoh Overlord

High Places

TV on the Radio

Dead C

Valet

Studio

Pylon

Larsen

Angels of Light

Deerhunter

Unwound

Comets on Fire

Faust

Wire

Ghost

Boredoms

Vivian Girls

The Ex

The Mekons

M83

ESG

Danava

Wilderness

Crystal Antlers

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Deerhoof

Liars

Fugazi

The Smiths

Brian Eno

Nick Cave & Bad Seeds

PJ Harvey

Cat goes to ATP NY 2008, has his mind blown several times a day for three days straight, and lives to tell about it

2008-10-11T18:10:00.014-04:00

I've been to rock shows. A lot of rock shows. Big ones, small ones, in stadiums with hundreds of thousands of people, in house basements with just a handful of friends, and in venues of every size and shape in cities all across America. I usually avoid the mega-multiple band-outdoor-festival type thing though, because I inevitably have a horrible time and go home broke, disappointed and a little angry. I don't like crowds, especially HUGE crowds, which I guess is a little weird for a guy living in NYC, but that's another story. 2008 will have to go down as some kind of record for me then, because I went to not one, but two, huge ass concert/festival thingys.

My writer friend got me a free ticket to the All Points West festival held in Liberty State Park, in New Jersey this past July. As much as I hate the big concert experience, I was not about to pass up a chance to see Radiohead for free. And I was up for an adventure. My friend picked me up and we drove across Manhattan and into Jersey. We then got all kinds of lost trying to find the damn train that took us to the park/concert. We then had to walk for what seemed like an hour, to get from the train station to the concert entrance. We finally arrived at the press check-in, got our passes and headed into the "show". The All Points West concert area was huge. I mean immense. There were thousands of people everywhere, as far as the eye could see. We had a map of the grounds, but it was impossible to figure out where we were or where we needed to go. We tried to find the press area, figuring it would be a sanctuary from the masses. We wandered around behind stages and dressing room trailers, looking in vain for at least an hour. We asked several APW staffers where to go, and not a single one had a clue. In the end, we gave up, and headed out into the crowd. We worked our way along the side and toward the back of the main stage field, several hundred yards from the actual stage. It was here that we spotted the VIP area. We eagerly entered, but were shocked to find that the VIP area was nearly as packed and crazy as the non-VIP area we'd just left. Only it was a fraction of the size. We stood in line for about 30 minutes to get a beer, drank the beer within in a few minutes and then got right back in line for a second one. At APW, you were not allowed to take your beer out into the crowd, but had to stay in the beer "garden", which was so packed with people that it felt more like a beer prison. Also, the drinking wristband that they issued had three little tabs that you had to tear off and give to the cashiers as you paid for your drinks, which limited your consumption to just three ALL DAY LONG. Worst of all, you couldn't see or hear the bands from the beer prison. Needless to say, we didn't feel very important at all.

We spent a few hours at All Points West, and I'll the music I had seen or heard was from the back side of stages! When Radiohead finally took the stage, I headed to the VIP bleachers (located about 300 or 400 yards from the stage) in utter defeat. My friend went up front to take pictures, because he had to write about the event. I stayed back and found a nice little spot to relax in. I watched the little ants onstage and enjoyed the music, though it sounded so much like the albums that I didn't really feel like I was at an actual concert performance. They did have some awfully cool lights and staging though. Radiohead is a great band, so I was glad to have finally seen them, though it was tough trying to have fun at All Points West.

More recently, I attended All Tomorrow's Parties at Kutcher's resort in Monticello NY. My same writer friend invited me to join him and his gang as they had an extra ticket and space in their hotel room. I badly wanted to go, but boy was it expensive. I finally sucked it up (and saved up) and spent the money and I am oh so glad that I did.

My gang for the weekend was made up people I have known for a few years or friends of friends that I was meeting for the first time. It was a good mixture of the familiar and the new. We started by meeting at the 125th St. Metro North train station on 125th St. in Harlem. We got on our train and headed north to White Plains to pick up our rental van. The drive from White Plains to Monticello was quick (90 min) and easy. We arrived at Kutcher's in the early afternoon, got our wristbands, dropped our bags in the room, and then headed out to check the scene.

Kutcher's is a sprawling post -WWII vacation resort in Monticello NY. The surrounding area is sprinkled with resorts, summer camps and bungalows. Most seem to be in rather poor shape or abandoned altogether. Kutcher's is one of the largest and most well known. The look of the place is mid-fifties modern with a touch of casino. The grounds are huge featuring a small lake, a golf course, tennis courts, two pools, a baseball diamond, ski hill (with lift), playground and a mini golf course. The place is built for year round vacationing, with long enclosed hallways connecting all of the buildings. In addition to the main hotel there are several other buildings including banquet rooms, bars, dance floors, a convention center type hall and a full sized indoor theatre.

ATP took over the entire resort (except the golf course), and it made for a wonderful festival experience. You could wander the entire grounds and find something fun at every turn, whether that was having a drink in one of the many bars, lounging by the lake (or taking a row boat out on it), shopping at the merch store or art gallery, watching a movie in the Criterion sponsored screening room, playing ancient video games in the arcade, swimming, tennis, air hockey, ping pong, playing poker with Steve Albini (who was the house dealer), dancing to live DJs, chilling in your room, or checking out some amazing music.

Unlike most festivals, almost all of the activities were held indoors in small (or relatively small) rooms that were not overly crowded. You were free to go from place to place, beer in hand, and enjoy whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted. There was also a noticeable lack of sponsorship that was quite refreshing. ATP also had a wonderful international flair, as you were likely to hear Japanese, German, Italian, or Spanish when strolling the halls. I also found the people gathered at ATP to be extremely friendly and easy going, polite even. I don't think I've ever had so many conversations with complete strangers as I did at ATP. The whole weekend felt more like some kind of retreat or convention than a rock concert/festival and it was all the better for it.

My only complaint was the food at the food court. The food was sub-par and expensive. One night I paid six dollars for a plate of cold and soggy sweet potato fries. They also seemed to run out of items frequently. It was sad.

Even though I partied pretty hard most of the weekend, I was coherent enough to jot down some impressions and memorable moments (sorry about all the changes in tense):

Meat Puppets in 2008 can't compete with my memory of them in the 1989. I saw them on the Monsters tour and they were GODS. At ATP, they are great, but not the titans of yore. They came close with their crazed version of "Lake of Fire" though.

Tortoise are boring even when playing their best album. They are incredible musicians, that fact cannot be refuted. Despite all of their precision and expertise, they are quite dull.

Thurston rocks. He plays his album out of sequence, reads lyrics off of big cards, makes false starts and steals the show anyway.

Steve Albini need never worry about a career. He can get a job dealing poker at Cal-Neva anytime he wants.

Wooden Shjips sound incredible. Still, they leave me wanting. I can't really put my finger on it, but it seems like they need to cut loose and bring the noise. And get that keyboard player a Farfisa, stat!

Harmonia was one the most incredible things I've ever heard. C'mon now. In a perfect world they would be headlining the entire festival. 'Nuff said.

Polvo plays new material, and it is GREAT. Then they play 90s indie rock classics that still manage to sound 50 years ahead of their time. Fantastic!

Les Savy Fav invent new ways to use a ladder. Check youtube, it must be seen to be believed. Oh, by the way, the band is tight as hell with tunes that stand up to front man's brilliant spectacle.

The guy from Rapeman has a new band and they sound just like Rapeman, only better. This was my first live Shellac experience and they were pretty fucking awesome.

We started out day three by spending 42 dollars at Dunkin Donuts. Certainly some kind of record. And something that should never be repeated.

Walked in on Wounded Knees just as J joined them on guitar for a 20 min jammer. Sweet.

The Lilys were fun. Kinks-y tunes, lots of good humor and a tight band.

Spectrum filled the air with Spaceman 3 vibes (of course). They conjured up some really hypnotic grooves. They were quite good. I felt stoned even though I hadn't even had a beer yet.

Yo La Tengo started their set off on the wrong foot with one of those slow builder things that had an annoyingly long "Ira Kaplan Experience" guitar "solo". Unfortunately, they never fully recovered and didn't really get cookin until the final moments of their last jam. Remember when they played actual songs, and it was awesome? I do.

In a surprising upset, Bob Mould won the "set of the day" award. Songs from Workbook, Copper Blue and a block of Husker Du songs that had the crowd surfing and pogoing. A spirited performance that pulled out all the stops. Bravo.

Dinosaur jr is loud. And J looks like some kind of pagan warlock standing in front of monolithic pillars made of Marshall stacks.

My Bloody Valentine is even louder. Too loud actually. They sounded amazing for the first four tunes (pretty much all the "hits") but then they hit a snag. The bass became so loud and distorted that it negated all the beautiful swirl. I moved back to the soundboard, where it definitely sounded better, but the mix never recaptured the stunning beauty of the first part of the set. It was also a bit disappointing to see that they played with backing tracks. A lot of the melodic lines were obviously sampled. All in all, it was great to finally see MBV, but for me it was a bit of a letdown.

Here's a link to some live sets from ATP NY 2008, free for downloading, courtesy of WFMU:

http://freemusicarchive.org/curator/WFMU/WFMU_at_ATP-NY_2008