Drunken Sufis (Conspiracy Prog-Punk) Play Fontana's on Friday, Nov. 4th

It is bands like Drunken Sufis that make me miss CBGB and the old Continental where you could see 5 - 6 bands on a weekend night and there would always be a band that you hadn't heard of that would catch your ear. I remember being impressed the first time I saw The A.K.A's (who opened for The Dwarves) and Drunken Sufis sound like The A.K.A's crossed with the Dead Kennedy's.

Drunken Sufis recently released Death Cult Summer Camp, which Deli Magazine described as a 17-song collection of manic, sharply satirical bursts of "conspiracy prog-punk." The band is headlining a show this Friday at Fontana's and they are playing with The Sharp Lads (11PM set time), The Bright White (10PM set time), The Dardys (9PM set time) and The Frost Heaves (8PM set time). Cover is $8.



Links:
Drunken Sufis

East Bay Ray & The Killer Smiles CD Review (MVD Audio)

Dead Kennedys guitarist East Bay Ray’s latest project, The Killer Smiles (out Sept. 13 on MVD Audio), may be the closest thing to a new DKs album since 1986’s Bedtime for Democracy. This new disc features Ray along with current DKs vocalist Skip McSkipster and Greg Reeves (who was the touring bassist for the DKs last year) along with drummer Steve Wilson.

In a recent interview, Ray said that this new disc was originally conceived as a DKs disc but McSkipster’s lyrics are “more 'personal politics' and more 'poetry,' rather than 'journalism' and 'regular politics.'" Regardless of the lyrical focus, the new disc fully captures the current sound of the Dead Kennedys. While the band hasn’t lost their fervor, this new disc is melodic and musical diverse and it is a logic extension of the band's post-hardcore sound during their final years with Jello. This would have made a solid Dead Kennedys disc and the DKs played two songs from this disc, “Area 51” and “You’re Such a Fake”, at their concert last year at Irving Plaza.

Musically, this twelve-track/forty minute disc is raw melodic punk that is a healthy mix of power-punk (comparisons to The Atom Age came immediately to mind), Social Distortion/X-style rockabilly and surf rock. Given that this is an East Bay Ray disc, Ray’s guitars are featured prominently on each of the songs and producer (& Butthole Surfer) Paul Leary balances this off against McSkipster’s vocals and exploding sing-along choruses. Long-time Ray accomplice Chuck Lindo (Jumbo Shrimp, etc.) adds backing vocals on about half the tracks and other notable guests are Paul Leary and Paul Roessler, who respectively add guitar and piano to the track “The Heart is Something”.

Standout tracks are the punkish opener “Raising the Stakes”, the roots-rock track “I’m a User” and “It’s Broken”, where this last track has an immediately recognizable guitar riff that sounds like a holdover from Fresh Fruit for Rotten Vegetables.



East Bay Ray Tour Dates:
Oct. 6 - Old Town Pub, Pasadena, CA
Oct. 7 - Juke Joint, Anaheim, CA
Oct. 8 - The Shakedown, San Diego, Ca

Links:
East Bay Ray

Rock Band Continues to Add More Artists to the Music Store (Roy Orbison, Dead Kennedys, At The Gates, etc.)

While Christmas shopping a few weeks ago, I walked through a number of electronics and entertainment stores (BestBuy, Circuit City, etc.). It seems pretty obvious that Rock Band is the current winner of the "battle" of the music video games.

Every store that I went into had Guitar Hero: Aerosmith on sale for 50%+ off of its regular price. On the other hand, I'm receiving what seems like weekly emails from Rock Band as they add new artists to the Rock Band store. These artists range from Roy Orbison to Dead Kennedys, Motorhead, Testament, At The Gates, Mission of Burma and many other eclectic, non-mainstream artists. There is something to be said for having this much flexibility in customizing your music game...and I'm particularly enjoying being able to play Burma's "That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate" and At the Gates' "Blinded By Fear" back-to-back.

The Rock Band store is now has more than 500 tracks and has had over 30 million paid downloads to-date. Here is the link to the list of all of the songs available for Rock Band.

Harmonix Music Systems' big release for next year is going to be a new standalone game based on the Rock Band premise that features the music of The Beatles. The unnamed game will feature "a visual and musical history of the Beatles, and will include the United Kingdom-released versions of songs from their albums Please Please Me through Abbey Road." While this game will not be part of the Rock Band series, all Rock Band accessories are supposed to work with this title.

Links:
Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. (Creators of Rock Band)