Aisle 24

Aisle 24: Performance Art Supplies

It has been a long past few weeks, filled to the brim with performances and interesting crap. So without further ado here is a recap of the many things I have seen.

August 17th: Titus X

I imagine there are few Shakespearian plays you could convert into a punk rock opera other than Titus Andromicus. Everything you could want in a punk musical is there, violence, rape, war, cooking... It is an edgy and confrontational play, always has been and punk is edgy and confrontational as well right? Well, not really anymore. One can't say that punk is as revelant and jarring as it was when it first appeared on the scene. In becoming a commodity, a sterreotype, punk gave up most of its credibility and edgyness (though there are the odd few bands that still give it their all).

But this is not another essay on how punk has let me down, this is a witnessing of the horror that is Titus X. Horror, yes, horror like I Know What You Did Last Summer horror. The kind that makes you want to be scared as the premis is disturbing enough but you just can't help but laugh at the failings of the production. Did I laugh at Titus X? Why yes I did. I laughed and for a second I was insulted and the urge to leave my seat filled me, however no I could not do that. The show was free (yay M and your crazy theater reviewing prowesses!), and well there is always much to be learned when watching a piece of theater you don't find all that good.

The musical claimed to be a punk retelling of Titus. I was expecting several things, good punk music was on top of that chart. I didn't know if the play was using actual punk songs or making new songs up or what have you, but if they were to make songs I wanted to see a distinct difference in the styles of the songs. As each character in the play is unique and has their own story, their own motives they should have their own style of music too. Hell the play features Goths. I'd expect a couple of goth songs (something like Bauhaus or Joy Division, possibly, if they wanted to be more modern, NIN, Marylin Manson, or Mindless Self Indulgence -- the Invader Zim goth types). What I got were the same types of songs over and over. Oh there were some variations and even three songs I actually liked (Aaron's first solo was the only one that had balls, the love song about where the two kids loved that they didn't hate each other, and song by Levinia after the act of... but I get ahead of myself). On top of it all the songs were LONG. Punk tends to be fast and short (like crappy sex), it gets straight to the point says what it wants and leaves (again like crappy sex). This aspect of the genre is so important because when punk was gaining a following all the mainstream songs were super long (guitar solos, drum solos, key board solos, orangatang solos you name it) and incredibly over produced (like boring sex). Punk was instant satisfaction, concentrated energy shook up in a beer can passed to that dick friend and exploded all over their face (again like crappy sex, I mean its crappy but still its sex, its better than nothing right?). So long songs, needless repetition (not in the fun way that the Exploited's "Sex and Violence"- which would have been great for the house music but was absent- was, but more in the gregorian chant way), and it was all straight edge, emo-hardcore like music. I honestly should have realized that going to a show claiming to be punk and containing the letter "X" in the title would yeild this (unless it involved the band X who were NOT straight edge- please see their song "Nausea" for proof).

Moving on to the characterization and away from the music. Well, it was a small cast. Two actors basically played all the many different sons on all sides, Goths and Roman alike. The actors weren't bad, they just irked me. You could see the cockyness in their eyes, the "you are here to celebrate my wonder" cockyness. But it was the characterization of the roles that annoyed me more than the actors. Everyone was freakin' emo! Titus was even a little emo, and that's just wrong. Titus, if I were to imagine him in a punk world would be more of a combination of Iggy Pop and Danzig as they are now. Have you seen pictures of Iggy Pop taken recently? He looks dead tired, as Titus describes himself. In my reading of the character Titus I see a man who decides to leave the war business because he is tired of all his sons being killed. He is tired of all the death, the empty praises of the people. Hell he gives up the chance to be emporer because he just doesn't want to be bothered with all the political bull caaca. Moving on, the goths... well the Queen of the Goths looked a bit gothy, but her sons. Her sons looked as if they were new wave kids. I would expect them to listen to Devo. They were hyperactive and filled with malicious joy. Maliciousness is ok, but joy? Have you ever seen a goth kid smile in a circumstance that did not invlove the bitter hand of irony playing a part? No. If they did smile they wouldn't be goth, they would be stripped of their black garb and apathetic shoe gazing stare. All of Titus's kids were emo, think I mentioned that before... his daughter, Levinia, seemed to have the pep of a rude girl (i.e. female ska kid) but wasn't, she also was most certainly not a riot grrrl either (shame as both musical genres would have suited both the actress's voice and the character's persona).

I will say two good things about the musical though. It had alot of blood, alot of blood, and lots of baby killing, hell they even killed the bass player (which could have been a reference, but I doubt it). Also possibly one of the most entertaining portions of the show and one of the best songs was Levinia's song to her dad after she has been raped, had her tounge ripped out and hands chopped off. Yes, you heard me right, she has a song AFTER her tounge gets ripped out. With a mouth filled with bright red fake blood and with only the ability to utter grunts and vowels Levinia gave the most spirited performance of the night (just goes to show you that sometimes you really don't need deep lyrics to impress an audience).

So that was a bust but it could have been worse. They did have ear plugs. Very considerate of them.


August 18th: I Saw the Evil One.

I was suppose to go see Mother Courage with Meryle Streep and Kevin Kline, sadly I was seven people away from getting tickets, damn my luck. So I went to a tiny hole in the wall theater/gallery on 42nd street and saw I Saw the Evil One, a vaudville morality tale of a Panda's journey out into the world and the events that happen to her upon leaving her safe home. First off let me say that this was NOT a children's play. Oh no. It was, so far, the oddest thing I have seen on stage since moving to New York City. The main character the Panda was a young woman in a panda suit. Shortly after taking the stage she took off the large panda head and sported some pretty nice panda face paint. All the characters were absurdly colorful and disturbingly surreal. There was her "New Friend," a self described cutter, who looked like the cook for the Joe that wore that multi-colored smoking jacket, her first love intrest, Kittiepants, a wild untamed cat that gave Panda her first lesbian experience (all the while horny pink bunnies hopped on stage tossing felt hearts in the air and humping each other, as rabbits do), a mob of angry villagers, and, of course, the Evil One (i.e. the devil who date rapes and doesn't return your calls). All the while in the backgroung there's a band of sorts playing disjointed art rock while a female singer in angle wings narrates the action in song. Such jems included "Put Your Hand on My Stomach," "I Saw the Evil One," "Don't Look at Me (while we're having sex)," and "(You fuck) Like a Girl." The songs were well put together, the music was interesting, what was going on on the stage was insanely interesting. All in all the production was well done and not offensive (surprisingly given what happens in the play). Oh and the moral is not to be an angry villager that wants to destroy what you don't understand or agree with, because if you do, you are going to go to hell.

Double brownie points goes to this production for having an opening band. The Bloodthirsty Betsys are an all female band that sang about zombies, vampires and other such great evil things, from a high school view point. They weren't the cleanest band but you know what? I really don't like clean over produced bands. If I wanted to hear something that was tightly put together I'd listen to a cd from the Billboard. What I heard that night was raw and the rawness was good. Also I heard some of the best lines in the world, "I love him and he loves blood, he's my vampire boyfriend," "Zombie boy why don't you come up to me and ask me out? Zombie boy why don't I go up to you and ask you out?" Imagine those kids in high school that would sing songs or write poetry about how awkward dating is (and will always be) no toss in zombies and other monsters. I think you can all see why I enjoyed this band.

August 20th: Rev. Billy.

I saw the good Rev. Billy at the Spiegle Tent at the South Street Sea Port (which is an over grown commercial mecca center). Rev. Billy is the head of the Church of Stop-Shopping and he leads his congrigation and chorus in a spirited sermon about the evils of consumerism, the dangers of big corporations, the blindness of religious fanaticism (I know it's hillarious!) and all in a style that mimics a Southern Baptist/Televangilist Sermon. It was great. It was moving. It was inspiring. It was basically everything that more "Godly" religious services are to people who frequent churches or temples or what have you. The mantra of the day was "We believe in the God that the people who don't believe in God believe in." At the end of the service the whole group, performers and audience went outside the tent and sang towards the Vicotria Secrets store (Rev. Billy and his followers had a restraining order against them that forbid them from setting foot inside the mall). The song was as follows:

Victoria, we know your secrets
Your cataloges, are made from clear cuts.
Your famous angels, heat up the sky!
Did you intend, that we should all die?

Fun times that.

August 22: part 1, Czechosolvak-American Marionette Theatre's "Once there was a Village."

I like puppetry, I like Eastern European culture, I like New York history. Put all of these together and you have the Czechoslovak-American Marrionette Theatre's (CAMT) "Once there was a Village." I saw this as part of the Lincoln Center's Out of Doors series. The play is a work in progress, a work that should be completed by February for its debut at La Mama's theater. It is based off of the memoire of the same name by Yuri Kapralov. I've just started reading the book and it is amazing. The book chronicles Kapralov's life in the East Village during the late 60's. A time when the streets were dangerous, filled with junkies, rioters, violent police officers, and normal people just trying to survive in the urban war zone. This all took place before the gentrification of the East Village. There were some artists there, but none famous enough to draw a crowd. The production looked at the many phases the East Village went through and the many people that made it their home. Needless to say there was alot of violence.

It is interesting that when people see the word puppets they instantly expect the muppets and light hearted tales to be told. Many of the audience that went to see this production brought their children. Actually the make up of the audience was prodominately young children and elderly seinor citizens. Some people were upset that there were no marionettes, others were upset that there were no traditional puppets at all, many were upset with what the play was about. These people, I believe, neglected to read the program. The material of the play was explained in the program, it made mention of the violence and turmoil that was present throughout the land, yet some people got upset and left, not alot, but enough for me to notice. Some dragged their kids away, others muttered under their breath, all in all it was nothing too dramatic. The thing is the majority of the children enjoyed the show, several stayed to watch the performance's second run. I found the play to be quite moving and beautiful, while also highly entertaining.

The "puppets" were found objects. Suitcases were used to show the snapping jaws of the alligators in the swamp of Manhattan (playing on the myth of sewer gators no doubt, and creating the enviroment quite well), a vacuum cleaner was used as a plane that dropped bombs upon a village made of randome articles that you could find lying around your home as a milk crate with an elaborate dummy's head told the story of a European village's destruction from passing planes, wops were used as paddles, and then instantly flipped and became love ones huddled in their arms, and so forth. Live actors created most of the action (possibly something to be changed in the final version, though regardless they all did a fine job telling stories and monologues of the people who settled in the area known as the East Village, from the time it was a swamp to the gentrification process), and the Hungry March Band provided the music.

All in all it was a pleasent way to spend an afternoon. I know for sure that in February I will deffinately be seeing their full production.

August 22: part 2, Slavic Soul Party!

After seeing the CAMT, I headed east to Brooklyn to catch the Slavic Soul Party! perform at a small little bar called Barbes. The bar was red, and tiny. The band was energetic and lively. The audience was quickly whipped up into a mass ball off exuberance. The whole room came alive with people dancing, singing and, well, making merry. It was a gypsy, Balkan day and I can't wait to catch their next show.

Some where along this time I saw Snakes on a Plane and The Descent, both were great in their own way. See them... or don't.


August 25: The Balkan Social Group

I was just walking around Washington Square Park thinking about the paper I had to write on Eastern European culture and its influence on the artistic New York, when I happened upon a Balkan brass band. I shit you not. So I sat down watched them play, took some notes and some photos and had a good time.

The great thing about the whole event was that once people joined in the audience they quickly became part of the performance. People were given insturments to play, they were taught simple traditional Slavic folk dances and again everyone made merry. It was a great thing to be a witness to. Towards the end other street performers started to come by the group and join up in the music making. Several of my friends showed up and were pleasently surprised by the events and once the musicians called it a night I went to the organizer of the night and had a quick chat with him. Turns out that he, along with some other musicians, had just come back from a workshop in Balkan Gypsy music and decided they wanted to get together and play in an open and public space. Very informal and basically set up to provide a place for people who like the Balkan culture and music can come by and have fun with it. I also learned that this was their first event. So yay for me for discovering something new.

August 26th: The Stone and the Hear and Now Orchestra

My friend Will has been talking up this interesting place in the East Village called The Stone. The Stone is an avant garde music venue where for ten dollars you can watch and listen to some very interesting performance art. There is no alcohol, no food, and no talking. You go there and you experience the sounds.

The group we saw were the Hear and Now Orchestra. Think avant garde piano, sax percushion, singing and poetry, more or less improvised on the spot, and that's what it was. From a cocophony of sound came some of the most haunting music I ever heard. The lead voice was an elderly man (with a thick Eastern European accent, no I did not plan for that) who read disjointed poetry while the rest of the crew worked off of that and one another. A few great lines, "Everything has its own song," "Summers in New York, hot beautiful ladies," "You must know that you are not the only one." All of these were repeated and sustained and played about. It was crazy.



Well... that's it for now. If you read all of this I'm shocked and amazed. Congrats to you! Till next... Cheers.

Aisle 34 and 1/4

Aisle 34 & 1/4: The Bargin Movie Shelf


Rob Zombie is quickly becoming one of my favorite modern directors. I look over that sentance and I can't help but laugh a bit. Who would have thought that Rob Zombie films would have such a strong hold over me. Ok actually if you did meet me and got me talking about films then it would be pretty apparent that I go in for horrible B-movies, however, The Devil's Rejects is by no means a B-movie. House of 1000 Corpses could be seen as a B-movie and when people complained about that film to me I simply said to them, "Well, what did you expect from a Rob Zombie movie?" House of 1K Coropses was a pure splatter punk movie in the vein of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre {TCM} (almost to the point of ripping it off, I mean look at the families in both films, pretty similar, though Zombie's seemed a bit more colorful, oh and Bill Moseley - Otis - played Chop Top in TCM 2 so kind of makes sense).

Now why is Devil's Rejects not a B-movie? Because it is deadly serious in its tone. You see stuff on screen that is legitamately horrible, yet not just on a viceral level. Your psychie goes through as much horror as your gut. The viewer's sympathy goes from the victims to the villians in a fluid motion, it's an unstoppable force. Also alot of thought went into the story and the making of the film. There are references to older movies (every time I saw a cow I was taken back to TCM), interesting visual work, and one of the most gruesomely hillarious deaths imaginable.

Now is the film a horror film, a comedy, a thriller, a tragedy, or just a fucked up piece of art? I, personally, would place it in comedy, not in the same vein as a Will Ferrel movie, or even in the same class as Army of Darkness. This is more of a comedy of the human condition. You need only look at the music to see this. Listen to the songs when you watch the film. It's amazing. The film starts off with Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground," which is a bluesy rendition of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. You start a serial killer film off with a song about Jesus. What does the film end on? "Free Bird" and a violent and bloody shoot out with the cops. The music runs counter to what's going on yet at the same time if fits perfectly with the feel of the film. Just like in the first instalment with the reveal of the girls in the shed and the execution scene while the country song "I Remember You" by Slim Whitman played over the action.

The Devil's Rejects has to have one of the most thought out and interesting soundtrakcs I have ever heard. It also simultaneously repulsed, frightened, entertained and saddened me. To be able to bring out that many emotions in one film is truely something that only a select few directors and writers can do. Hell, I've been in relationships that had less emotions invested in them. So rock on Rob Zombie. I hope you make more movies soon and hopefully they will stand up to the level you set for yourself. Fuck Saw and those types of exploitative nouveau splatter punk movies that have been coming out. Devil's Rejects should not be placed in the same genre at all. Neither should House of 1000 Corpses as that film had a good sense of humor.

EDIT: Somthing I forgot to add in. I sort of picked this up when I was watching House of 1000 Corpses but thought it was just a coincidence until Devil's Rejects actually made mention of it as well. All of the Cutter family's aliases are taken from Marx Brothers films. Now that is pretty damn interesting isn't it?

Aisle 34 and 3/4

Aisle 34 and 3/4: Bargin Bin Music Aisle.


Mike Patton is the future, Mike Patton is the past, Mike Patton is forever!


So what am I getting on about? Mike Patton's latest incarnation Peeping Tom. For those of you not in the know, Mike Patton is the voice and mind behind several interesting groups. The most widely known is Faith No More (yeah that Faith No More, the whole Epic video with the piano and the fish at the end, yep he's still around). But other bands he's formed have been Mr. Bungle (kind of metal circus music from hell), Fantomas (insturmentals mostly, though he does do some singing from time to time, and some yelling), and Tomahawk (which I have yet to hear any of this but I'm sure it is more experimental heavy metal stuff, as it involves a guy from Jesus Lizard). Patton also appears as the male vocals on the Lovage album (soon to be albums) and on several tracks on both Handsomeboy Modeling School albums. So he covers a spectrum.

How is this album/incarnaition different from the past few? Well it's not different persay but more of a combining of styles. Mojo (which features Dan the Automator - i.e. Nathaniel Merrieweather - and Rahzel) sounds pretty much what I would imagine Faith No More would sound like if they came to be around now. Neighborhood Spaceman (with Jel & Odd Nosdam), sounds like a more dubbed up and funk-a-fided version of Mr. Bungle. Caipirihana (with Bebel Gilberto)and Kill the DJ (with Massive Attack) both sound like some of Fantomas' stuff, i.e. Caipirihana sounds like evil laid back lounge music.

There isn't really any major experimentation on the album, no real sonic shocks, nothing too alarming (though Nora Jones does say "mother fucker" on one of the tracks. YAY!!). Dan the Automator seems to have rubbed off on Patton as he's put together some nice mixes and layers to the album. Also, Kool Keith is on one of the tracks, and if you have Kool Keith you make me happy.

So this isn't the best music essay but I just spent the day writing a very long essay on blues as a form of secular religion. So don't judge me.