Velvet Kente "Binti"

Stop what you're doing right now. Press play on the video embedded below. Watch the entire clip, and do not attempt to restrain yourself from singing and dancing. That would be futile.

"Binti" is the song that introduced Joshua and Velvet Kente to the world. The demo that accompanied Korto Momolu's models walk on the runway in the 2008 Project Runway season finale, however, bears little resemblance to the epic jam as performed by the band these days, riffing off an irresistible Fela Kuti hook with horns, percussion, and full audience participation.



Visit Velvet Kente on the web: http://velvetkentemusic.tumblr.com.

Bonnie Montgomery to open Gossip's Fall US tour

"Cruel" is out soon on Fast Weapons. Image courtesy of Bonnie Montgomer/Fast Weapons.

The news just keeps rolling in today.

Ms. Bonnie Montgomery just posted the news on her Facebook page that she'll be opening the Fall leg of Gossip's US tour. Bonnie's retro-rockabilly should make for an interesting contrast to Gossip's punk-inspired disco/glam. But it should all be awesome. Gossip's 2009 show at Vino's is still one of the best live shows I've ever seen, and Bonnie is a fantastic entertainer. I would love to hear her and Beth Ditto do a duet if for no other reason than to hear Ditto sing country. I'll post the tour dates as soon as they're announced. The tour dates are listed below. Hopefully, Gossip guitarist, Nathan Howdeshell, will be backing up Bonnie on this tour as he has at her appearances around town and on the road for the last several months. The tour will be in support of "Cruel," Bonnie's debut 7" and CD for Howdeshell's indie label Fast Weapons.

Here is a live clip of my personal favorite Bonnie Montgomery track, "But I Won't."


This is Gossip's latest single, "Move in the Right Direction"


UPDATE: Here are the tour dates (No Arkansas dates, sadly):


Mon, Sep 24 - Bonnie Montgomery opening for Gossip - 9:30 Club, Washington, DC
Tue, Sep 25 - Bonnie Montgomery opening for Gossip - TLA, Philadelphia, PA
Wed, Sep 26 - Bonnie Montgomery opening for Gossip - Royale, Boston, MA
Thu, Sep 27 - Bonnie Montgomery opening for Gossip - Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn, NY
Sat, Sep 29 - Bonnie Montgomery opening for Gossip - Phoenix, Toronto, ON
Sun, Sep 30 - Bonnie Montgomery opening for Gossip - L'Olympia, Montreal, QB
Tue, Oct 02 - Bonnie Montgomery opening for Gossip - The Majestic Theatre,Detroit, MI
Wed, Oct 03 - Bonnie Montgomery opening for Gossip - Bottom Lounge, Chicago, IL
Fri, Oct 05 - Bonnie Montgomery opening for Gossip - Majestic, Madison, WI
Sat, Oct 06 - Bonnie Montgomery opening for Gossip - Fine Line Cafe
Tue, Oct 09 - Bonnie Montgomery opening for Gossip - Showbox Market, Seattle, WA
Wed, Oct 10 - Bonnie Montgomery opening for Gossip - Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR
Fri, Oct 12 - Bonnie Montgomery opening for Gossip - Fonda Theater, Los Angeles, CA
Sat, Oct 13 - Bonnie Montgomery opening for Gossip - Treasure Island Festival, San Francisco, CA
Sun, Oct 14 - Bonnie Montgomery opening for Gossip - Treasure Island Festival, San Francisco, CA

Thick Syrup Records 2012 Compilation

I owe a bunch of reviews on recent releases by Little Rock's great bands. Suffice it to say, all the records are great and you should seek them all out and pay double for them. But I didn't want to wait to clear out the backlog before mentioning that the release of the 2012 Thick Syrup Records Compilation is upon us.

Thick Syrup Records' occasional compilations are great snapshots of what's going on Arkansas' music scene, and the latest entry is no different. There's a party at Sticky Fingerz Friday night ($5 cover) with performances by The SEE, Frontier Circus, and Ginsu Wives -- all featured on the CD -- to celebrate the physical release of the 2012 edition, but the digital release is already up on BandCamp and features 35(!) bonus tracks. This, my friends, is good news.

Friday Night Out: Don't Stop Please and/or The Wicked Good

There’s lot’s of entertainment choices around town tonight for anyone who wants to brave the rain and/or heat.

Conway’s Don’t Stop Please is releasing a new EP, Crowded Car, at Stickyz. Fayetteville’s The 1 Oz. Jig opens up the show, which starts at 9. $6 will get you in the door.

The first single from the EP, the wonderfully Brian Wilson‑esque “Window Song,” is streaming below, or you can check it out at the band’s BandCamp page.

Over at White Water Tavern, The Wicked Good headline a show that will be frontman David Slade’s last with the group. Peckerwolf and Jab Jab Suckerpunch start off the 10 p.m. show. The Wicked Good’s CD, You’re Welcome, was one of my favorites from last year, and the CD release show was one of the most relentlessly rocking events I’ve seen in ages. I’ll be interested to see how the band adapts without Slade.

 

 

The Big Cats "Ancient Art of Leaving" part 2 out in August

Image used courtesy of The Big Cats.

The second half of The Big Cats' song cycle The Ancient Art of Leaving: Two Parts, will see the light of day on August 21, according to a new post on the band's website. The first half, High and Low, was released at the band's annual holiday show back in December. Rumor has it, both halves be combined for a 3-LP vinyl release as well. I'll post further details, song streams, release party, pre-order info, etc., as I get them.

Once it's out, I'll also post a review of both parts. Reviews are also forthcoming for Kevin Kerby's Apostle's Tongues, Holy Shakes' Feast or Famine, as well as recent releases by The SEE, Year of the Tiger, and other Little Rock bands (old and new) I want to talk about.

The last Beatles' song I "discovered"

Am I the last person in the world to realize what a great frakking song The Beatles' "It's All Too Much" is?

Does it get the shaft because it's over six minutes long (making it hard to play on the radio or put on a hits collections) and buried on Yellow Submarine, one of The Beatles' least considered albums? Did everyone in my generation just assume they were listening to The Stone Roses or Oasis?

For pride's sake, I should point out I came to this realization about three years ago. And, in a way, it's comforting to think you can love a band's music for decades and still have the capacity to be surprised by it.

Soon we will all live forever

Two articles cross my RSS feed today that herald fortuitous new medical discoveries that will soon usher in our immortal future.

The first, "You cannot poison an opossum", by Maggie Koerth-Baker at Boing Boing references Jason Bittel's article on the unique protein produced by opossums, the Lethal Toxin Neutralizing Factor (LTNF), that makes the marsupials nigh invulnerable to all environmental and even man-made poisons. More astoundingly, by injecting the protein into other mammals, rats in the case cited by Bittel, they also exhibited an immunity to everything from the venom from Thailand cobras, Australian taipans, Brazilian rattlesnakes, scorpions and honeybees, even always deadly man-made poisons like ricin.

Of course human trials of this protein would, I think, be quite unethical, as it would require poisoning your experimental group with all manner of known toxins to see if they are, indeed, immune. Mistakes would be lethal. But there is a lot of medical potential here if the ethical issues can be worked out. Just think of the huge boon/setback this will provide to the espionage/assassination industry.

The second article, "Scientists Find Molecule That Will Make Your Teeth Cavityproof," by Jesus Diaz at Gizmodo references research by Yale and Universidad de Santiago scientists who have discovered a compound that effectively kills the bacteria that cause tooth decay and, used regularly, would put an end to dental cavities. Which is good, because if we are no longer able to poison ourselves before we reach old age, we're going to need good, strong teeth to feed our immortal bodies.

"Augustus and Juniper" by Joshua of Velvet Kente

A terrific surprise appeared on my Facebook news feed this afternoon in the form of a video of a new song by Velvet Kente and Amasa Hines frontman Joshua. The video also teases its audience with the first public hints about Good News for Sinners, the long-awaited debut album by Velvet Kente.

The song, "Augustus and Juniper" tells the tale of "lovers. husband and wife. dreamers. parents. slaves. and of their escape from a South Carolina plantation with their twin daughters." It's also a fantastic showcase for Joshua's soulful singing.

 


Joshua's Tumblr blog, http://velvetkentemusic.tumblr.com, is a masterclass in jazz and pop music history. He posts pictures and links to recordings by his musical forbears on almost a daily basis, demonstrating the sense of history, and respect for his elders, that flavors the stew of influences that makes Velvet Kente and Amasa Hines so timely and timeless at the same time.


More details to come as I receive them.

Coming July 17: Kevin Kerby's "Apostle's Tongues"

You can't tell the history of Little Rock's prolific music scene or list the city's greatest songwriters without making a lot of space in those documents for Kevin Kerby. He played guitar in Ho Hum back when the group was signed to Universal, then struck out on his own and made four amazing albums leading the alternative country band par excellence Mulehead. The homespun recording The Secret Lives of All-Night Radios was Kerby's first solo release in 2005. He followed it up in 2009 with the more raucous Beautiful and Bright, recorded with his band Battery. Like a character in a Faulkner novel, Kerby writes country songs about rock 'n' roll hedonism, sings gospel songs in a bar at 2 a.m., and praises the bonds that tie him to a place he longs to escape but that also defines who he is.

It was the best news I got all week, then, when Max Recordings put out the news that Kerby's new album Apostle's Tongues is set to release on  July 17, and posted a nostalgia tinged video for the album's first single "It's Not Needing What You Want, It's Wanting What You Need," which is embedded at the top of this post. Apostle's Tongues is available as a limited edition (100 copies) CD and booklet, a regular edition CD, and on iTunes.

Friday Night Out: Iron Tongue 7" release show with The Holy Shakes, and Nigh Ends aboard the Arkansas Queen

Photo courtesy of Iron Tongue's Facebook page.

It's a busy week, not only bands for playing shows, but for bands releasing new music at said shows. Purveyors of fuzz and doom, Iron Tongue, featuring members of such stalwart Arkansas bands as Rwake and Brother Andy and His Big Damn Mouth, among others, are releasing a split 7" with Memphis' The Dirty Streets at a gig Friday night on The Arkansas Queen riverboat. The bill is rounded out by The Holy Shakes (more on them soon) and Nigh End. The boat casts off at 10 p.m. and the cover is $15.

Here's a video of "Shoot the Moon" from Iron Tongue's performance at this year's Riverfest Festival.

The Tricks' self-titled CD-release show at WWT tonight

Image courtesy of The Tricks' Facebook page.

Little Rock indie-rock band The Tricks are releasing its self-titled debut CD with a celebratory show at White Water Tavern (2500 West 7th Street). You can download a pair of singles from the album (streaming below) for $1 each at the band's Bandcamp site or stream the whole thing for free at its Soundcloud page. The CD will set you back $10 at the show. The band is also offering a CD+T-shirt deal for $15. The cover charge is $5. Conway's Don't Stop Please opens the show.

New Charles Portis 'miscellany' to be released this Fall.

Illustration by Mike Reddy. Used courtesy of University of Arkansas Press.

If any of you, my occasional readers, love me at all, a copy of this better be under the tree for me at Christmas. Multiple copies will not be looked upon with disappointment.

Twenty years after the publication of Portis’ last novel, Butler Center Books, an imprint of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, is publishing Escape Velocity: A CharlesPortis Miscellany, edited humorist and journalist Jay Jennings, that collects Portis’ short fiction, travel and journalism (including his coverage of the Medgar Evers assassination and Elvis Presley’s funeral), a memoir, and previously unpublished comic three-act play, Delray’s New Moon.

Portis published five novels between 1966 and 1991. He won over fans and critics with his deadpan humor, attention to detail, and masterful dialogue. Two of his books, Norwood and True Grit, were adapted as films. True Grit was adapted twice, first in 1966 starring John Wayne, and again in 2010 starring Jeff Bridges. Wayne won his only Academy Award® for his portrayal of Portis’ iconic character Rooster Cogburn, and Bridges was nominated for his portrayal of the same character.

Portis’ third novel, Dog of the South, is reportedly being made into a feature film by director Greg Mottola (Superbad, Adventureland, Paul) and starring Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live, Men In Black 3, Paul). No production information or release date was available on IMDB.

Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany goes on sale October 1 at fine booksellers everywhere.

Hitting the reset button

After three years of shamefully not updating my blog, I am preparing to resume posting content on a  somewhat regular basis. I've changed the name (I might yet change it again, if I can come up with something better that is available), updated the template, and decided to focus on Little Rock's cultures, popular and otherwise, as well as music, books, movies, politics, religion, or any other topics that I'm interested in that would not be properly served by simply sharing a link on Facebook.

I've got a number of posts already planned to post in the near future. Once they're used up, I'll probably lapse into another three years of inactivity. Or I'll get in the habit of planning and posting content regularly. If anyone besides me reads this thing, I might slather the site in advertising, too. We'll.

If you are amused even in the slightest by what you read here, feel free to add this blog to your RSS feed, leave a comment, and share a post on one the myriad social networks you belong to.

UPDATE: Let The Right One In

UPDATE: I should point out that I am deeply embarrassed that this is the last thing I posted to my blog. I'm embarrassed that I haven't posted anything new in almost three years (mainly because Facebook is more effective for link sharing and quick thoughts), and that my last broadcasted thought to the world was such an entitled whine.

But mainly I should say that Magnet did finally release this title with the correct subtitles, and (although Magnet initially said it would not exchange copies of the initial release for copies of the corrected one) I was able to convince a local retail chain that my copy was "defective" and make an even exchange for the re-release.

Thirdly, the US remake, titled "Let Me In", is almost as good as the original though it does miss much of the Swedish version's darkness and nuance.

*****

I loved this movie. Loved. Loved. Loved. Loved this movie. I thought about it constantly the week after I saw it and couldn't wait for the dvd release so I could watch it whenever I wanted.

Imagine my dismay, then, when I discovered today that Magnolia, the U.S. distributor for the film, ditched the subtitles that played alongside the film in theaters and attached new subtitles that not only destroy the elegance and dark wit of the film as it was originally translated but also are, on many occasions, just factually wrong.

The horror movie website Icons of Fright has all the details. The oddest thing is, the attrociously dubbed English language soundtrack actually has the correct translation, but the voice acting is so bad, it's almost like watching a bad 1970's kung fu movie. It's literally adding insult to injury.

I want to recommend "Let The Right One In" to everyone, but I have to advise avoiding it until a dvd is released with the correct subtitles or with a more competently dubbed English soundtrack.

Have you ever wondered what news anchors do during commercial breaks?

Well, wonder no more...



h/t Slog, via the Presurfer.

Lemon juice is...

... the best way to liven up bland food.

Especially soup.

Friends united through cinema, kind of.

Every Sunday, my fellow members of the "Manny Perry Movie Club"* and I go to the last matinee at a local theater and then out to dinner. This past Sunday, we celebrated the end of our fifth full year of the club (ironically, by not seeing a movie). It was a terrific evening with friends, food and wine, and remembering good times. Kevin brought a list of all 231 movies we have seen as a group. There were four or five that I didn't remember at all until I looked them up on IMDB. My favorite, however, is "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill," a small documentary that I didn't know a thing about before we went to see it, a film I never would have picked in a million years, but a film that entertained me, taught me, and even moved me.

Here is the list of all 231 movies we've seen as a group thus far:
In America
Big Fish
Calendar Girls
The Cooler
Master and Commander
Love Actually
The Triplets of Belleville
Dolphins
Monster
The Dreamers
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Company
Osama
Touching the Void
The Barbarian Invasions
Mean Girls
Goodbye, Lenin
Monsieur Ibrahim
Shrek 2
Bon Voyage
Saved!
I’m Not Scared
Fahrenheit 9/11
Dodgeball
Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself
Spider-Man 2
The Clearing
Napoleon Dynamite
The Manchurian Candidate
The Hunting of the President
Before Sunset
Hero
Intimate Strangers
Let’s Get Frank
Vanity Fair
Maria, Full of Grace
Coral Reef Adventure
Team America: World Police
I ♥ Huckabees
Ray
What the #$*! Do We Know?
The Incredibles
Being Julia
Sideways
Closer
The Motorcycle Diaries
Kinsey
Finding Neverland
A Very Long Engagement
Primer
Million Dollar Baby
Vera Drake
Hitch
Hotel Rwanda
The Woodsman
In Good Company
Robots
Schultze Gets the Blues
The Upside of Anger
Bride and Prejudice
Gunner Palace
Up and Down
Millions
Born into Brothels
Dear Frankie
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Layer Cake
Batman Begins
Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room
Howl’s Moving Castle
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
Saving Face
Almost Normal
Ladies in Lavender
Hustle and Flow
Me and You and Everyone We Know
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Murderball
Broken Flowers
March of the Penguins
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
Junebug
A History of Violence
Serenity
Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit
Grizzly Man
Good Night and Good Luck
Walk the Line
Paradise Now
Rent
Capote
Tarnation
The Squid and the Whale
Syriana
Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic
Brokeback Mountain
Munich
The Matador
Match Point
Transamerica
Caché
Why We Fight
V for Vendetta
C.S.A.: Confederate States of America
Inside Man
Thank You for Smoking
Friends with Money
Akeelah and the Bee
Tsotsi
L’Enfant
Aliens of the Deep
Over the Hedge
X-Men: The Last Stand
A Prairie Home Companion
Cars
An Inconvenient Truth
Water
Superman Returns
Clerks II
The Devil Wears Prada
Wordplay
A Scanner Darkly
The Great New Wonderful
Little Miss Sunshine
Hollywoodland
The Heart of the Game
The Illusionist
Quinceañera
The Departed
The Science of Sleep
Jesus Camp
The Prestige
Keeping Mum
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
The Queen
Casino Royale
Babel
Blood Diamond
Charlotte’s Web
Catch a Fire
Dreamgirls
Children of Men
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Last King of Scotland
Music and Lyrics
Zodiac
The History Boys
Bridge to Terabithia
The Lives of Others
The Lookout
Days of Glory
Disturbia
Starter for 10
Spider-Man 3
Hot Fuzz
Waitress
Knocked Up
The Valet
Away from Her
300
Ratatouille
Sicko
Once
Hairspray
Stardust
Rescue Dawn
Paris Je T’aime
Shoot ‘Em Up
3:10 to Yuma
Eastern Promises
Death at a Funeral
In the Valley of Elah
Sea Monsters in 3D
The Nightmare before Christmas in 3D
Gone Baby Gone
Into the Wild
Lars and the Real Girl
Beowulf
No Country for Old Men
Enchanted
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
For the Bible Tells Me So
Juno
Atonement
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Cloverfield
The Savages
The Kite Runner
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Persepolis
Be Kind Rewind
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Horton Hears a Who
In Bruges
The Bank Job
Paranoid Park
The Band’s Visit
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Snow Angels
Baby Mama
Iron Man
The Visitor
Son of Rambow
Priceless
Kung Fu Panda
Bigger, Stronger, Faster
WALL-E
Hellboy II
The Dark Knight
Mongol
Roman de Gare
Gonzo
Vicky, Christina, Barcelona
Man on Wire
American Teen
Tropic Thunder
Burn after Reading
Trans Siberian
Ghost Town
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Religulous
Appaloosa
Tell No One
A Girl Cut in Two
Happy-Go-Lucky
Quantum of Solace
Bolt
Rachel Getting Married
Cadillac Records
A Christmas Tale
Slumdog Millionaire

*Manny Perry is the famous stunt man who appeared in an anti-piracy PSA five or so years ago. We named the club after him because that PSA played in front of nearly every movie we saw for months. If not for him, we likely would have named the club "Friends United through Cinema, Kind Of" or "F.U.C.K.O."

This post combines two of my favorite things

Star Wars and Christmas cynicism

Welcome to the world, CJ

Introducing my first nephew, Christopher Shane Caviness Jr., a.k.a. "C.J." He was born 8 lbs., 4 oz., and 21 inches long. He may be the biggest newborn I've ever seen. He was born a couple of weeks early, so he's in NICU until his lungs dry out and he can breathe 100 percent on his own. The doctor says it's perfectly normal and there is nothing to worry about, but if you're they praying kind, we'd certainly appreciate you remembering him.

But as far as I can tell, he's beautiful and perfect and I'm proud as can be to be his uncle.

Consequences of Gay Marriage (From GraphJam.com)

more music charts