Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
I've been to plenty of rock shows at hotels over the years. When Scream was at the Park Plaza Hotel, I saw Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds on the Tender Prey tour, Sonic Youth on the Sister tour, Lords of the New Church with Stiv Bators, and Jane's Addiction who knows how many times. And then there were Rocket from the Crypt's legendary annual Halloween shows at Horton Plaza, which I attended a handful of. Tonight I went to the super trendy Mondrian on the cheesiest part of the Sunset Strip to catch a free show by Dum Dum Girls. Although the Skybar regulars were decidedly bourgoie, the pool actually added some cool ripple effects that complemented the sound of the upcoming EP: still decidedly dark (verging on goth) and psychedelic (more dreamy than acidic) with somewhat clearer vocals than before. It will be nice to hear the real thing and not hear it filtered through YouTube when it comes out in March. The set was short and sweet, the sound was suprisingly good, and the evening was a great teaser for the band's eventual return to L.A. Opening for the Dum Dums everywhere else on the current tour is Dirty Beaches from Vancouver by way of San Francisco, Hawaii, Toronto, Hawaii… Although I didn't get to see Alex play his primo brand of dreamy, lo-fi, deconstructed rockabilly, I did get to finally meet him and talk about all sorts of things: the movies of Wong Kar-Wai (which inspired him to take up smoking), his favorite bands in China (where he just got back from), and his dad (who is featured on a couple of his 7″ single sleeves). Look for the full interview to be posted next week, and definitely show up early to see him if you plan on catching the Dum Dum Girls when the tour hits your town. You'll be blown away by both. Dirty Beaches, above. Dum Dum Girls, below. Hot damn, what a killer lineup…
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Coffee Bean checking! Who knew that Coffee Beans aren't ok when you get them. They come green before they're roasted, but to make it all tasty, they need to be checked out one bean at a time! See the beans in the picture? Here's some examples of common flaws. In a sack of beans that might be 50 lbs on the minimum, the quality of each bean is key, and who's going to be check that as diligent as you may? It's on the roaster to do it. Here's Ray from Balconi shows me a quick demo of things that can go wrong. In a minute he picked out a bunch that were flawed from a tiny sample on that plate. You might think, who cares if a few beans are messed up? But Ray states, “one bad bean can ruin a whole pot.”
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Since 60 Minutes was on right before the Grammys, some of you might have caught Andy Rooney's rant on The King's Speech. It turns out that when the commentator was reporting on WWII, he and other correspondents were actually visited by King George VI in North Africa. Wow. It's always been easy to dismiss him as that cranky old curmudgeon, but on Sunday night he crossed the line from being really old old to historic! But the pontificator's point was that he likes movies that remind him of things that he knows about. Conversely, one of the things I've always liked about the Cometbus zine is that the author/drummer/photocopy artist Aaron Cometus writes about going to places I've never been and doing things I'll never do–embarking on long tours with bands, living in squats and punk houses, or riding a bike through Europe, for example. So it was odd that the latest issue features so much material that I am quite familiar with. In Cometbus 54, he accepts an invitation from Green Day to join the band on the Asian leg of its tour. Stops include Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan. As much as he can, he does his trademark wandering through alleys, scoping out used bookstores, and imbibing mass quantities of coffee on a continent that's new to him. But the real story is also about his longtime connections with the band, the different paths they chose–fame and obscurity, major label and DIY–and their lasting, evolving friendship. While I've gathered some knowledge about Asian culture as the editor of Giant Robot, I'm also very aware of the band. Green Day actually stayed at my house after they played a gig at UCLA's Coop when my friend Craig was booking shows there. The group had one album and a couple of singles out at the time and they only spent one night, but everything Cometbus writes about them rings true in my memories. Tre was the goofiest one, fucking around in his “Mack” baseball cap and yelling “Bass!” all the time (Public Enemy was huge). Mike was the sympathetic one who apologized for everyone sleeping in after I got busted for speeding on the way back to Westwood with them to catch the Mr. T Experience's lunchtime show and pick up their check the next day. Billie Joe was mostly quiet but left his phone number and said to call if I ever made it up to the East Bay. All three had stinky feet, and I baked cookies after they left so my roommates wouldn't have to smell the aftermath. I never dialed BJ's number, but I did keep seeing Green Day a lot back then. A pilgrimage to Gilman St., a road trip to some shack in Santa Barbara, and a date at the Palomino come to mind as being particularly amazing, with merely great shows ranging from a lowly slot at the Coconut Teaszer to opening for Bad Religion at the Palladium. I never...
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The Mutant Lemon brought on a competitor, The Bear Claw Daikon. My friend Jake Yasutomi of Yasutomi Farms (featured in GR) dug this one out. It's impressive and surprisingly symmetrical as well.
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