lacunae

thirst for the hoodoo mansions

Took a trip up to Olympia yesterday for my friend Lois's housewarming party. Every time I walk into someone's house these days I start appraising it--a bad habit. But hers is beautiful, and was full of several generations of family and friends. Lots of old-time Oly punXors with small children, or forthcoming children. Al Larsen from Some Velvet Sidewalk mistook me for one of my old doppelgängers--first time that's happened in a while. Somebody brought a chocolate pudding pie topped with wonderful seasonal strawberries; I should have cooked! (Partly to expiate my mild guilt over not having cooked for the party, I ended up making curry-stuffed eggplant tonight. Came out decently.)

We drove back to Portland, where we went to a show at Disjecta--how did it take me so long to go there? what a great space! The Evaporators went on shortly after we got there. They're Nardwuar the Human Serviette's band. If you haven't experienced Nardwuar before, it's hard to know how to explain him--Lisa & I decided that he's basically the devil spawn of Iggy Pop and Richard Simmons. There were multiple costume changes (including the entire band changing costumes DURING the last song), Canadian history lessons, Nardwuarian invasions of the audience (one song involved N. being held aloft by audience members while playing an organ that was also being held aloft), etc. And the bass player is also in the New Pornographers, which boggles the mind a little. They were followed by Double Dutchess, the indie-rock double dutch performance art group... who came on in walkers and old-lady polyester outfits, to the tune of "Thank You For Being A Friend," and then did about 15 minutes of what would've been even more kickass jumprope routines if they'd gotten through more than half of them all the way. Plenty entertaining anyway...

So today's MP3 is one of the glories of tweedom. Another Sunny Day was the band-pseudonym of Harvey Williams, who later played with the Field Mice, Blueboy and Trembling Blue Stars, among others. (ASD was one of the flagship acts of Sarah Records, which had the surest grasp on a particular aesthetic of any indie-pop label I can think of.) A lot of Williams' songs have a real reserve and gentleness about them, but part of what I love about Another Sunny Day's "You Should All Be Murdered" (removed) is its suggestion that there's something much darker beneath that reserve. Most of what I love about it, though, is that astounding lead guitar part in the second half of the song. Thanks to Harvey Williams for letting me post this.