Notes from a Hawaii girl in Brooklyn, Big Island to Long Island. Updates Sundays and Wednesdays. Weekly book reviews over at Big Island Rachel's Books.
Showing posts with label the tres amigos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the tres amigos. Show all posts
Last night was Election Night. Fortunately, my radio show is on Tuesdays and it gave me something a lot more pleasant to think about. Politics hurt my stomach. It's too much like listening to your parents fight: people holding your fate in their hands that don't even have enough on the ball to hold a civilized conversation, let alone guide a civilization.
There, I was topical. Now, the music!
ROCK-pical. And next week's guest is Rock Pickle. Weird.
Homesick Hounddogs are a Brooklyn-based Americana/bluegrass band. Two thirds of them came into the studio last night and played a great set for the Rodent Hour. They're actually the second vaguely folk-ish alterna-rock band that's been on the show this season, the first being The Tres Amigos, who were so good they made me want to be a better person. I'll give them another plug. Here's a slideshow of their appearance set to their song "Fiddleheads."
I had to put this up because we haven't made the video for Homesick Hounddogs yet. As soon as that one is up, I'll post it here. I also wanted to mention The Tres Amigos in this post about Homesick Hounddogs because I see them both as part of a movement taking place in music right now. I think it may have started with "O Brother, Where Art Thou," which came out in 2000 and seemed to revive interest in folksy Americana, especially among my generation.
I see it as part of the same fashion and cultural movement that's appropriated the aesthetic of the pre-war years. For brevity's sake I'll use the term "hipster," though I hate to pull out that word unless I'm referencing Allen Ginsberg's "Howl." Hipsters dress in outdated clothing, adopt the hairstyles of their grandparents, and fetishize the objects and technologies of a bygone era, like typewriters, fixed gear bikes, and Mason jar drinking glasses in order to project an image of authenticity (which is kind of an oxymoron, but I think they know that). The appropriation of this folksy aesthetic among the young and educated urbanite could be behind the resurgence of bluegrass/folk/roots inspired music.
And I am loving it!
That's right, you sit on the floor and jam with your mandolins and your harmonicas, you angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night.
This fall season, we've had three bands who fall into this old Americana sub-category of music: The Tres Amigos, lushTongue (they do Indigenous-inspired a capella, not vaguely folkish alterna-rock, which is why I didn't mention them earlier), and Homesick Hounddogs. Not coincidentally, they're all my new favorite bands. I would actually go out to see any of them play live, and if you read this blog, you know I literally have to get paid to go out and see live music in this town. I've set up my life quite nicely so that the live music comes directly to me. But The Tres Amigos are playing a gig at Columbia University on November 30th, so the BF should be prepared to get his ass dragged to a social event, because I want in on that sweet, toe-tappin' all-American action.
It's easy to be down on hipsters because they're mostly young, which means they're somewhat powerless (no one claiming the hipster label got elected last night) and therefore a safe target to mock. And I won't lie, they are so eminently mockable.
Wonder Woman sneers at your mainstream fashion sense.
But I think there's real value in attempting to preserve and perpetuate our own cultural history. Using a typewriter or knowing how to can your own vegetables serves as a tactical bridge to the past, to say nothing of the heritage explored and experienced when musicians mine America's past for inspiration. Is it fashionable? Of the moment? Yes, but it's also of the past, and therefore timeless.
And for my money, it makes for a way better evening than a political rally.
Chelsea is looking at the election results as of 9PM last night. Don't be sad, Chels, Obama wins in the end!
Are you a fan of my radio show? The Rodent Hour is on Tuesdays from 8 to 10PM EST, on Pratt Institute's online radio station, radio.pratt.edu. The links to our various social media sites are below. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Tumblr, and listen to past guests on YouTube and Soundcloud. All free, all awesome, and all for one and one for all! (Wait, I think I got off topic...)
I co-host a radio show. I'm not sure if I mentioned that before.
Oh, no, I totally mentioned it--but only once, and then never again. You wouldn't know from reading my blog (thanks everyone!) that I've been doing a weekly Internet radio show called The Rodent Hour for almost eight months now. Not to brag, but it's pretty sweet. Big Island Rachel, radio personality. I have to stay up so late for it! Sometimes I don't get to bed until after 11--on a school night, no less.
There's a pretty wide variety of music. We've had noise rock, hiphop, Afropunk, and just plain rock and/or roll.
Most of the bands are based in the tristate area (I never knew what that
term meant when I lived in Hawaii; the BF have to draw me a map of New
Jersey, New York, and Connecticut on a bar napkin and circle the
tristate area for me), but over the summer we had some bands come
through on tours from other places. The bands are kind enough to come into the studio and play a set live for us, and then my co-host feeds us all tacos from Tepango's Taqueria in Brooklyn. And oh, the laughter! The witty banter! The pithy comments! The pith runs so high on the Rodent Hour.
So high, friends.
You can listen to it, too! It's on the Internet, which means that anyone with an Internet connection and some speakers can tune in every Tuesday from 8 to 10PM Eastern Time to hear my meatspace voice and a lot of great music. For example, do you like the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? Do you like things that give you the opportunity to use words like "roots," "folk," or "Appalachia"? Do you use Mason jars as drinking glasses even though your family's never been on welfare and has proper cocktail glasses in the credenza? And you have a credenza? You'll love The Tres Amigos.
This is a slideshow of their Sept. 25th appearance on the Rodent Hour, set to their song "Fiddleheads." I defy you to listen to this song and not smile. That's a washboard and an accordion you're hearing. Feel the wholesome Americana rollicking from of those fine harmonious tenor voices! Listening to their set made me want to be a better person. They're that good. Plus they wear matching shirts! How adorable is that?
If you miss the show live, we usually post the whole two hours on a Soundcloud account and leave it up for a week or so, along with some studio-quality tracks of that week's guest. Our free account only allows us to have one show at a time up there, but you can download the songs and show as a podcast for free and have it on your computer to listen to it anytime you want. Last week's show isn't up right this second. What you CAN hear, though, is our show from the night we had Slam Donahue on, and yowzah, were we all on fire that night!
But wait--there's more!
We have a YouTube channel, a Tumblr, a Twitter account for livestreaming during the show so you can know what songs are playing, the Soundcloud account, a Facebook page, and even a Stickam account that theoretically gives you live video of the band as they play, though we've never been able to get the sound to work on it and sometimes the video cuts out. The whole thing is pretty DIY, but that's hip right now, don't question me, I drink from a Mason jar with a handle on it, I live in Brooklyn!
Here's all the links. I'll be better about posting after each show and end each Rodent Hour post with the links.
