-FUPPETS- Video Of The Day: SONIC YOUTH

Today's -FUPPETS- Video Of The Day is brought to you by the legendary ruler of all things Sonic on the Sonic Youth Gossip Forum, MOSHE.
It is a video made for the closing track from the Rather Ripped LP.

SONIC YOUTH - Or

-FUPPETS- For Readers XXX

No, this is not the x-rated edition of -FUPPETS- For Readers. It is the 30th edition of -FUPPETS- efforts to expand the minds of people willing to take a few minutes to analyze the written word and understand the meaning to be found within those written words. You dig? The written language is the pinnacle of humanity's ability to create, understand, and use symbols to store information outside of our own mortal grey matter. This tool, the written word, is so powerful that even centuries after the speakers of a language have died, humans can go back and with painstaking diligence, reconstruct and translate the ancient words. That is an amazing thing, and is too often overlooked. Without words we are but animals, reacting to stimuli and never stepping outside of our current existence to appreciate the grandeur of the world that exists outside of our own selves.

SIXTY HOURS OF TERROR: A minute by minute first-hand account of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai - ( Jason Motlagh - Virginia Quarterly Review )

STUDYING A LEGEND: Tsiolkovskii, grandfather of Soviet rocketry - ( Taylor Dinerman - The Space Review )

THE EVOLUTION OF THE GOD GENE: In the Oaxaca Valley of Mexico, the archaeologists Joyce Marcus and Kent Flannery have gained a remarkable insight into the origin of religion. - ( Nicholas Wade - The New York Times )

SATCHMO & THE JEWS: Even as a little boy, “could easily see the ungodly treatment White Folks were handing the poor Jewish family I worked for”... - ( Terry Teachout - Commentary Magazine )

NATURE'S REJECTS: The music of the castrati - ( Jan Swafford - Slate )

HOW EINSTEIN DIVIDED AMERICA'S JEWS: - ( Walter Isaacson - The Atlantic )

Westheimer Block Party: Images

-FUPPETS-, as usual, put up some guerilla art for the Westheimer Block Party crowds to discover and enjoy. These are drawn on brown wrapping paper and are from 4-5 feet long and a yard wide with India Ink. The paper is put up and the drawing is done on site in less than 2-3 minutes. Click the image to enlarge.








Here is the kingpin himself, Omar Afra, as usual, right in the thick of things, making sure everyone is having a great time.

BORBETOMAGUS hits Houston TX this weekend!

Many, many -FUPPETS- thanks to the great Bytor Peltor, one of the mighty denizens of the Sonic Youth Gossip Forum for this great bit of sonic news.

Saturday, November 21, 2009
BORBETOMAGUS
Houston, Texas @ Frenetic Theater
5102 Navigation Blvd
8:00 PM
$13 General Admission
$10 Students, Everyone under 18 gets in for free.
This concert is part of Nameless Sound’s Andrew Mark Ladd Memorial Concert Series.
Call (713) 928-5653 for more information.
http://www.namelesssound.org/

Oh hell yeah. Borbetomagus, composed of three skronk-masters supreme, will be laying down the walls of skree for our ear's torture/pleasure. Borbetomagus are a free/noise/improvisation musical group. Jim Sauter (sax), Don Diedrich (sax), and Donald Miller (guitars) have been doing their freaky thing since 1979, and have collaborated and/or influenced most of the Japanese and American noise/improv scenes. They are a seminal freak-out and Houston is lucky to have them perform this Saturday.

-FUPPETS- will have to spin their LP Snuff Jazz a few times to get primed for this!

Here is a live performance from 2000 at the Knitting Factory in NYC.

BORBETOMAGUS

-FUPPETS- Videos of The Day: Power Trios (Part 2)

Ahhh the power trio. There is something primal about the three-headed hydra we know as a power trio. It breeds magic, and makes for some of the tightest tunes this side of Mama Cass' panty's waistband. In Part 2 of -FUPPETS- foray into the classic videos of power trio masters, we start off with the classic ZZ Top.


ZZ TOP - Tush
ZZ Top have ruled the world for almost 40 years now, and they will never stop with their infections stomp boogie blues rock.

MOTORHEAD - Eat The Rich
Motorhead made a name for themselves by declaring they wanted to be the loudest, ugliest rock n roll band in existance. They wanted Motorhead to be the band that, if they moved in next door to you, your lawn would die.

VIOLENT FEMMES - Gimme The Car
The Violent Femmes played a warped, country-esque, acoustic punk that shaped countless teen lives. Sissies with attitude.

HUSKER DU - Makes No Sense At All
Husker Du were so amazingly great. They are one of the true classic monsters of what was known as alternative/college rock. -FUPPETS- has much love for the Husker Du.

DINOSAUR JR - No Bones
Dinosaur Jr are an aural monolith, blasting your brain right through the back of your skull with skronk and sonic life.

THE MELVINS - Zodiac
The Melvins will set you straight. They will drive a wedge between you and all that bullshit you listen to. They will proclaim in heavy tones that they are the undisputed masters. You may not be worthy.

Westheimer Block Party - The Last Time Is The Best Time

Oh what a thrill it was, and what a portent of things to come. Omar Afra, the big-cheese behind the Free Press Houston and the grand master making the Westheimer Block Party happen, has announced on the FPH website that this past weekend's Block Party will be the last.

This will be the last Westheimer Block Party. However, the next one will be the return of the Westheimer Street Festival. It may take 2 months or it may take 2 years but this festival has outgrown our singular capacity. There can only be a return of the Westheimer Street Festival. The streets must be shut down, the city must get behind the event, and I can no longer personally foot the bill. Our staff can no longer handle the capacity of the growing festival and squeezing all of these people into the same block is becoming hazardous. The streets must be shut down. We have an on camera commitment from Annise Parker, that if elected, she will support street closure if we can find financing for necessary portopotties, police, and clean up. She even shook my hand on it. But we need the community involved. So whoever is elected, we are asking for a big community turnout at the first city council open session the new mayor presides over. We need 500+ people to swamp city hall and show city officials that there is indeed a large constituency that supports arts and music. We will let you know when this transpires but we NEED your support. We love this community so much and want to see WestFest grow but it cannot in it's current form. We will be forming a non-profit to meet this challenge which will be made up of only Jedi's who have an unyielding love for arts and music. It is time to take BIG steps and we will do whatever it takes to shut down the streets. Thanks for all of your support and love.

Omar Afra

BTW- Summer Fest is gonna be GINORMOUS. You would pee your pants if you knew who we confirmed today.

God Bless the Trose'.

Omar Afra
Managing Editor

To give some more background on the above quote, Annise Parker is one of two people vying to win the run-off election for Houston Mayor. The Westheimer Street Festival, formerly the Westheimer Arts Festival, was the yearly original weekend-long party that fueled the Montrose insanity. At it's peak, upwards of 200,000 people would show up and the streets from Montrose to Taft would be closed off completely. It was an insane and awesome affair and is fondly remembered by -FUPPETS- and by all the other freaks, weirdos, and lovers of freaks and weirdos out there.
Omar did good by creating the smaller Block Party format, but it has indeed gotten out of hand. Without street closures, and without the support of police and the city government, it is very difficult to justify letting 15-30 thousand freaks overrun what is a busy intersection at the heart of the Montrose. Oh, what beautiful chaos it is.
Summer Fest is a weekend long concert held by Allen Parkway put on by the good folks over at FPH. This next 2010 Summer Fest holds promise to blow the roof off of Houston.

-FUPPETS- will be uploading some images from this weekend's Block Party tonight. On a very sad note, a FPH staffer died late Saturday night, falling to his death from the Hazard St. bridge over Hwy. 59. His name was Lee Powers. Omar and the FPH are going to put a benefit concert at Mango's to raise funds for Lee Powers' funeral expenses.

NASA Unveils Plan to Free the Mars Rover SPIRIT!

It has been months in the making, and countless theories and possibilities brainstormed, but NASA has announced that it has a plan in place to begin what will hopefully accomplish the extraction of the Mars Rover SPIRIT from the "quicksand" trap it has been embedded in.

The "soil" is so fine it more closely resembles talcum powder than what we could call sand or dirt.

Click HERE to see a full circle panorama of Spirit's current location.

Click HERE to see a large image detailing the path of the Mars Rover SPIRIT since arriving at the plateau designated "Home Plate." The yellow line marks the path taken, and you can see the location of SPIRIT's current predicament, labelled "Troy."

They will begin to run the extraction program on Monday. Scientists expect it to be a painstakingly slow process, but little by little, they hope to once again have SPIRIT roaming free on Mars. Even if the worst occurs, and they are not able to extract SPIRIT from it's sandy trap, the area where it is located is highly rich in geological oddities, and much good science could still be done. -FUPPETS- hopes it does not come to that!

Westheimer Block Party - Fall 2009 Edition

It is that time of year again. Once again, the bad-ass mo-fo's over at the Free Press Houston have arranged for a tremendous weekend of music, art, insanity, and carousing, or as it is called, the WESTHEIMER BLOCK PARTY!
This twice-a-year event grows and grows each time, and is always a tremendous blast to attend. From the over two hundred and fifty local and regional bands, to the ideal people-watching, to the cold, cold beverages on sale, this weekend promises to be a good time for all.
Of course, the Block Party is free for all to attend, with at least ten different stages set up around the axis of the corner of Taft and Westheimer. On Saturday night, the main headliner will be a performance by Dead Prez and Japanther, which will take place at the infamous Numbers Nightclub, and will cost a measly $12 to get in!!!! CHEAP!

Here are the schedules for Saturday's half of the Block Party.

Here are the schedules for the Sunday half of the Block Party.

The last Block Party in the Spring of 2009 was a massive success, and ended with a tremendous set by the one and only Devin The Dude. This year's fest will expand to two days so be ready and pace yourselves on Saturday! If you can ride a bike to the Block Party all the better, as parking gets quite funky by the time festivities are fully in effect. So, if you find yourself in Houston TX this weekend, head into Montrose for a free party you will wish never ends. HERE is a map of the location.

DEAD PREZ - It's Bigger Than Hip-Hop

IN MEMORIAM - Jerry Fuchs

Jerry Fuchs, drummer for many an indie rock act, including Maserati and !!!, died last week in a bizarre elevator accident.
In honor of his memory, Pitchfork has put up a live clip from a session that !!! (Chk Chk Chk) did for them, where they perform the song Must Be The Moon from the album MYTH TAKES.

Here it is.

!!! - Must Be The Moon

-FUPPETS- VIDEOS OF THE DAY: Power Trios

-FUPPETS- dedicates today's installment of VIDEOS OF THE DAY to that venerable rock band format, the power trio. Normally consisting of a drummer, a bass player, and a guitarist, this can be the meanest and leanest, yet tightest and loudest, rock band format there is, and also it's most intimate. Vocal duties are usually covered by the guitarist or bassist, but every once in a while you find a funky act that kicks the lyrics over to the drummer. This usually means the drummer sucks and plays very standard beats, you know, shit he can play in his sleep. It is hard to play an instrument and sing at the same time, and doubly hard to play a drum set, using both feet and hands, and sing a song. There are many, many power trios out there, too many to post videos for all of them, but this is a tasty sampling.


The MINUTEMEN - Little Man With a Gun In His Hand
Our first power trio is the classic and under-appreciated group from San Pedro California. They were punks before punk was codified into a fashion subculture. They jammed Econo, doing it themselves and fighting the good fight for all the true disenfranchised punks out there.

The JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE - The Wind Cries Mary
Oh Jimi, you were around for far too short a time. The Experience, two British cats and an American guitar god named Jimi Hendrix, played stomping blues rock, psychedelia, blues, and just blasted people's shit out their asses on a regular basis. They have all passed away now, so all we have are their albums and recordings such as this live performance in Stockholm.

PRIMUS - John The Fisherman
From the twisted mind of Les Claypool came Primus, a power trio consisting of some phenomenally gifted musicians, who also happened to share a love for the truly absurd. Their music began as aggressive, heavy freak-rock and over time moved on to noodley space-funk. This song is a nasal ode to a dedicated fisherman.

SHELLAC - Steady As She Goes
Maybe the greatest power-trio supergroup there ever was, Steve Albini, Bob Weston and Todd Trainer are Shellac. They tour when they want to. They record when they want to. They take no shit from anyone in the recording industry and they will melt your fucking face off with the best kind of guitar heaviness and skronk that money can buy.