Weekend Scenester Picks: Rock and Roll, 80's Themed Indoor Bicicyle Races, and Football

It's outrageously cold in LFK but you'll probably want to venture out for rock and roll this evening because, well, that's what you do.

The Bad Ideas, The Quivers, and Pale Hearts will be getting sleazy down at the Jackpot.  The flyer kicks ass.



And Radkey, Bloodbirds, and Ponyboy are at the Taproom, for those who prefer dangerously loud sounds in smaller spaces.  If those Radkey kids ever get old enough to drink, somebody buy 'em a PBR.

 

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Having brought you burlesque shows and a circus in recent months, the gang at Frank's have decided it's high time to host an indoor bicycle race on Friday.  Visit the FB event page here for details. 
  
Here's the gist of it:
 
"FNST and Tallgrass Brewing Company are teaming up to bring you an '80s themed roller race. $10 gets you a FNST/Tallgrass pint glass and 3 time trials."

Sadly, these bikes are stationary, so this won't be the kind of Thunderdome-style insanity of scenesters crashing into each other on bikes that we first envisioned.  Still, you'll enjoy it.  And a firkin of "Mr. T's Spicy Buffalo Sweat" stout will be tapped, which sounds...delicious??  And we hear there are prizes for best 80's outfits.  We're going as Nic Cage from Valley Girl.


 



















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The place to be after you've raced your bikes and puked out the Buffalo Sweat is certainly The Dead Girls' album release party at the Replay.  Fade In/Fade Out hits Bandcamp tomorrow as a pay-what-you-will download (don't be stingy, scenesters!!) and the band will be playing the whole album at the show.  Visit the FB event page here for the full scoop.   And download the first single for free at Soundcloud here, if you haven't already.



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And it's also Super Bowl weekend, if anybody gives a fuck?  Brother against brother, etc...

Go watch it with your friends at Liberty Hall.  Here's their very clever promo.  Think about it for awhile and you'll get it!

LFK Band of the Week: Something and the Whatevers / Final Friday Photo Recap: Boobs and Basketball Edition

Chip was recently chatting with his old pal and fellow Fort Scottian Quinton Cheney from Panda Circus about their favorite meals at Sharkey's Pub and Grub when he happened to learn that Quinton and two of his fellow Pandas, Ben and Travis, have a new band called Something and the Whatevers.

"What's the sound?" Chip inquired.

"Well," Quinton replied.  "We've replaced our drums, cello, horns, etc.with backing tracks in a maneuver I'm calling a reverse-They-Might-Be-Giants, and we make music that's loud, fast and fun a la Bomb the Music Industry! and Future of the Left."

Chip: "I think Sharky's Chicken Fried Chicken is one of the seven best Chicken Fried Chickens I've ever had."

Readers, you've got two upcoming opportunities to sample the "cyborg rock" (as their FB page terms it) of Something and the Whatevers.  They're at the Jackpot this Saturday, February 2, along with R-type Final, the ever-present Y(our) Fri(end), and fellow robot-lovers Theo's Mystic Robot Orchestra.   And they'll return to the Jackpot again on Friday the 15th with Electric Needle Room, Tiger Waves, and Har-di-Har.  Time permitting, we'll be doing a full interview prior to that second gig, in which Chip and Quinton compare their Fort Scott coming-of-age stories. Expect a few teardrops.  And a few boners.

Here's the flyer for Friday's show (and visit the FB event page here for a lot of info on the other bands):

 


And here's a recent shot from the Sharky's Pub and Grub photo gallery on Facebook: 

 

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Readers, this is a late Final Friday recap but we think you'll forgive us since it contains plenty of boobs and basketball.

Our stops were limited during last week's Final Friday, but we saw some sights nonetheless.

Leo Hayden has learned a lesson that many LFK artists would do well to heed if they want to sell some art:  paint things that people like.  Namely, boobs and basketball.

Here's a shot of Leo's exhibition at the Lawrence Art Party in Hobbs-Taylor Lofts featuring portraits of the Foxy By Proxy gals and Ben McLemore.





And here's a shot from just a few minutes later after someone, presumably Chip, purchased the boobs.




Over at the Percolator's Make Love exhibit, a love-in was poised to begin, and it was damn near impossible to actually get to the art on the walls.  We left before the orgy started.



And here's an odd shot from the Lawrence Arts Center.  Chip kept reading that sign in the back as "Lush Pussy" and getting a boner.

Hootenanny Alert! Olassa's EP Release at the Replay on Saturday

It's sort of rare when the Replay turns over their late-night weekend festivities to our rootsy friends who often play the matinee slots.  But get ready for Saturday, when Olassa celebrates their new EP "I Love You, Come Back To Me" along with the ever-hilarious Kansas City Bear Fighters, the rollicking Calamity Cubes, and Alex Law of Deadman Flats.  Visit the FB event page here , which is oddly specific about start and end times: 9:35 pm to 1:35 pm.   We all know the Replay is nothing if not punctual about set times!

We've heard the new EP and are pleased to report that it's just as pretty as you might expect.  You've likely heard tunes like "Sloe Gin" and "Little Darlin" live on numerous occasions and thought to yourself:  "Man, Gillian Welch is going to be fucking jealous she didn't write these tunes!"  And that's even more the case on record, which nicely captures the band's harmonies and unusual mix of sometimes stomping, sometimes soaring, sometimes bouncy accordion/guitar/tuba interplay.

"We write songs you'll never hear again / We get tattoos you'll never see again," sings Allison in "Vega," but she's wrong: you'll want to hear them many times.

Chip: "When she sings that verse on Saturday, yell 'Show us your tattoos' at the band."

The last time we caught Olassa at the Replay was a scalding-hot summer matinee and a strange fellow clambered on stage with them and attempted to remove his clothes (no, it was not Chip) before being hustled out.  Afterward, Allison bought us a "doorkno."  It was a nice evening.

Re-read our 2012 interview with Olassa's guitar-slinger Cain Robberson here .

Sexy Final Friday Picks: Make Love at the Percolator and Yes, Yes, Yes, Now, Now, Now at Wonder Fair / Mammoth Life: Being Young in San Francisco

Surely the sexiest event of January's Final Friday will be "Make Love" at the Percolator, which is getting the jump on Valentine's Day with "performances by Walt Babbit, Mel Smith, Heartscape Landbreak, and Baby Jessica including a photobooth and love potions by Kelly Kearns and artful responses to love by many, many people around town."   

Love potions, eh?  This event is almost certain to turn into an orgy. Probably not a Bacchanalian, Eyes-Wide-Shut-type orgy but rather one of those groovy, swinging 70's type affairs, possibly involving a lot of flabby old folks from ELFK. 


Get full details from the FB event page here.





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Wonder Fair's Final Friday offering has an absolutely orgasmic title:  Yes, Yes, Yes, Now, Now, Now.   The description, however, is a little less erotic, as the exhibit claims to offer special appeal for "linguistics lovers, code breakers, and nature nerds."  

Here's a bit of the description from the FB event page:

 "Tumbling paper rock forms spill in a ten foot flood onto the gallery floor, but there is order to their chaos; each stone is screenprinted with one of 26 faceted patterns corresponding to the letters of the alphabet. Read carefully, (with the aid of Bitters' key,) there is a message in the mountain..."

Chip: "This sounds like I'm going to have to work for it, so let's hope the 'message' ultimately gives me a boner."

 





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And speaking of making love not war and being groovy and such,  we like to check in with our ex-LFK friends in Mammoth Life on occasion to make sure they are still being suitably weird out in San Francisco. Today we are pleased to report that they have a new video for a song called "Being Young."

"This song feels so surreal," Kix croons, and the video does indeed get a bit surreal as it progresses, with a lot of quick scenery changes and close-up dance moves (Chip: "This video is going to be a treat for foot fetishists"). And look for an almost subliminal, balcony cameo by a shockingly short-haired Nicholas near the end, Hitchcock-style!

Check it out below and download the free single from Bandcamp here .

Stop by I Heart Local Music here for more details on the video and upcoming album, and also check out their great story from back in June about hanging with ML in San Francisco, which includes a video of the band playing the song live in a park.  Find it here .

Concert Review: Jeff Mangum at Liberty Hall

"What a curious life we have found here tonight
There is music that sounds from the street." 


Well, it actually happened, scenesters.  The delicate genius Jeff Mangum emerged from his hidey-hole, perched on a stool at Liberty Hall, and proceeded to play most of In an Aeroplane Over the Sea (and a few other tunes) to a VERY sold-out crowd who (mostly) refrained from snapping his picture (as requested).  The crowd was in a state of hipster rapture, singing along to the soundtrack of so many stoned evenings with occasional outbursts of "I love you, Jeff," and "Thank you for touring."  Mangum was gracious, thanking the crowd for being there and singing along, but his comments didn't stray much further from those platitudes (at least as far as we could hear, which wasn't far, way back among the General Admission rabble on the floor), and in an hour we were released back into the humdrum world of everyday scenester life in LFK.

Hippest moment:  Mangum playing a Roky Erickson cover.   We suspect several scenesters fainted from hipness overload.  Runner up:  the stomp-along during "Ghost" sounded great in Liberty Hall.

Complaint:  Too much chattering from back behind us under the balcony overhang.  Admittedly, those folks could neither see nor hear from their position, but why not look for a better sightline or go to the lobby?  But at least no one in LFK stooped low enough to steal Mangum's throat spray (unlike some in the previous evening's performance in St. Louis:  read about it here ).

A Chip moment:  Chip kept trying to use Mangum lyrics as pick-up lines:  "Hey, you ladies wanna lay and learn what each other's bodies are for?"  It didn't work.

Oddest moment:  Mangum abruptly hurling one of his four guitars to the side of the stage, mid-song, and switching to another.

Observation:  we suspect this is the first time that a Liberty Hall scenester crowd has ever sang the words "I love you Jesus Christ Jesus Christ I love you yes I do" at the top of their lungs.

Verdict:  transcendence for the superfans; a fascinating evening with a legendary recluse for the rest of us.

[Note:  we hope to bring you "A Contrarian's View of Mangum" soon, a guest column that's likely to be much less tolerant of last night's audience.]

Photo:  no, don't be alarmed, we didn't secretly take a photo.  But here's a caricature that Mangum drew of himself and handed to a fan at a recent(ish) show.  Read about it here .

Nerd Nite 13 Recap / Bananasuit and the LC in Huffington Post / Local Theater Pick of the Week

Each Nerd Nite is bigger than the last (and just wait till the next one, which is going to be HUGE: teaser below).  But first, here's what happened at Nerd Nite 13 last night:

1)   Erin Bennett and Chris Niileksela kicked things off with "Meta Nerdery: Being Smart about Being Smart," a wide-ranging look at the nature of intelligence that opened with a history of intelligence testing (the "big names" such as Alfred Binet), pondered the "G factor" of general intelligence (somehow this section was completely lacking in "G spot" jokes, much to Chip's dismay), and ended up focusing on new theories of intelligence based on socio-economic/environmental factors (with help from a chart that used South Park's Kenny and Silver Spoons' Ricky Schroeder to symbolize the extremes of income disparity).

 Greatest moment for nerds:  another chart featuring Lazlo Hollyfeld from the 1985 nerd-classic Real Genius.



2)  In "Google you can drive my car: The Future of the Automobile," Amy Mihalevich blew our minds by telling us that, possibly as soon as the next 20-40 years, many cars would be "self-driving", meaning we can get wildly plastered at the Replay and clamber into our good ol' sober automobile and order it to take us home!  However, we've got a ways to go before that beautiful moment arrives since, according to the presentation, much of the technology currently in your car, such as the MyFord Touch, is so damn complicated it requires special classes to figure it out.

Best moment:  Amy's adorable dance to the Knight Rider theme song, which was spoiled slightly by her admission that she was born in 1982 and had never actually seen Knight Rider.  Occasional LC columnist Courtneybelle, sitting nearby,  turned to us and exclaimed:  "1982?  That means you and I are farting dust, my friend."

Best Q & A statement:  "I drink more than I drive."

 


3) Becky Harpstrite's "Framing Information: The Fine Art of Big Data" was the most delightfully nerdy presentation of the night, an absorbing look at how data visualization is increasingly becoming a form of art.  Examples:  the NY-Times "Ebb and Flow" movie charts (check it out here ) and R. Luke Dubois' work which uses eye-charts to examine the frequency of words that pop up in State of the Union addresses (these were on display at the Lawrence Arts Center recently:  read about them here ). 



Unexpected and touching moment of the evening:  co-boss Travis offered a short tribute to the power of information sharing and to the late founder of Reddit, Aaron Swartz.

The next Nerd Nite is Feb. 13 and will be co-sponsored by the Lied Center and the It Gets Better Project with the Gay Men's Chorus of LA.  You will want to attend.

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It's a big day for the LC, as we unexpectedly found one of the LC's guest columns prominently displayed in the Huffington Post in a story about the #KUBoobs phenomenon and the country wide #Boobment it has inspired.  Yes, we're pleased to report that Bananasuit's "Paglian analysis" of KU Boobs is quoted prominently in a piece you can read right here via Huffpo (which even includes a shout-out to our blog!).   For the "full Paglia," check out the original piece on the LC here .

The HuffPo article also provides useful links to many, many other university-related boob accounts, so Chip has spent most of the day thus far comparing the boobs of different colleges.

Chip:  "I found myself really enjoying the boobs of Arizona State but oddly unmoved by the boobs of the Nittany Lions." 

Great job, HuffPo and B-suit and everyone involved in the #Boobment, for helping to insure that there are even more titties to look at on the interweb!













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Our friends at EMU Theatre have a new production kicking off this weekend at the Lawrence Arts Center.   Let My Mind Flash With Blades examines the relationship between Freud and the poet Hilda Doolittle (HD).   Visit the FB event page here for dates and times and a full summary.  Here's an excerpt:

"Doolittle befriended Freud in the 1930s and became his patient when she was suffering severely from writer’s block. Their multifaceted relationship incorporated their shared passion for art and culture, and their fondness for each other, as well as their fear of coming war."

Richard:  "This is exactly the kind of challenging fare that LFK's struggling theatre scene needs to embrace."  

Chip:  "I'm afraid I'll have to pass, since I've already got tickets to the Theatre Lawrence production of Fox in the Fairway, which I suspect is like Caddyshack for old people.  I'm hoping that the titular fox is a delightful play on words that means not only a sexy lady but also a little scamp of an actual fox that's wreaking havoc on the greens." 

Under the Radar Scenester Picks: Robots, Aussies, and the Dance Moves of Douglas County Democrats

Everyone knows that Nerd Nite is tonight and that Jeff Mangum is on the way to LFK this weekend, but what about other worthy events that might be flying under your scenester radar?   Let's showcase a few.

Liberty Hall celebrates their new website with a "celebration of the internet, cyborgs, war-machines, computer systems, and badass cinema."  Yep.  They're screening Terminator 2 on Thursday.  9:30 pm. Visit the new website and get the full scoop here.



Do you often find yourself wishing that more Australian singer-songwriters would pass through LFK?   Chris Pickering is an Aussie native now based in Nashville, and he's on a sprawling Midwest tour that stops at the Czar Bar in KC on Jan. 19th and the Jackpot on Sunday, Jan. 20, where Chris will play alongside our pals in Books of Bokonon as well as Rachel Black and TX's Please Please Me.  Check out his tunes on Bandcamp and give him a "like" on FB here .  His new EP is called Corners.  And we dig the album cover of his 2010 record Work of Fiction, which got major raves from those Americana-lovers over at  No Depression (read their review here




Chip:  "I hear that, after each of his sets, Chris Pickering boxes a kangaroo on stage."

The Jackpot has a snazzy new website too, so stop by over here to get the scoop on this show and many others.
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And our friends at Frank's are always up to something, be it a basement circus or an indoor bicycle roller race (coming next month).   This Friday you can party with the Douglas County Democrats for an "MLK Day Party and Food Drive."  Get the details from the FB event page here and discover that at least 48 of your most compassionate liberal friends will be on hand rocking out with Pat Nichols Delta and Country Blues Band upstairs and the Shebangs downstairs.

Nerd Nite 13 Preview / Photoshopped LFK Tourism Board Photo of the Week / Monday Night Movie: Top Gun

This Wednesday marks the first Nerd Nite of the new year, and it includes a presentation with the phrase "meta nerdery" in the title. Yes, we're excited.

Chip:  "I'm hoping for some practical advice on how to make my boner jokes more 'meta,' or, at the very least, some great clips from Community."

Here are the three presentation:

"Meta Nerdery: Being Smart about Being Smart" by Erin Bennett and Chris Niileksela  (dual presenters equals twice the nerdery!).

"Google you can drive my car: The Future of the Automobile" by Amy Mihalevich  (we get the Beatles reference!!)

Framing Information: The Fine Art of Big Data by Becky Harpstrite  (Becky is always super-fucking-cool!).

See you at Pachamama's.






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Big shout-out to intrepid local reporter @oxfordist for tipping us off to this great promotional photo of Lawrence from the TravelKS website (note Tyler Gregory on the right!)  Somehow, we suspect a little photoshopping in this street scene, would you all agree?

 

Also, we'd like to propose a competition in which you all photoshop your favorite pictures of T-Gregs into various LFK locales:  for example, Tyler Gregory playing guitar on the court of Allen Fieldhouse.  E-mail them to us at larryvillelife@gmail.com .  Or you can just send us actual undoctored photos of T-Gregs playing in unusual locations, since he has probably played in nearly every possible square inch of LFK.



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Our friends at Frank's continue their important month-long "Before they were douchebags" film series with a screening of Top Gun tonight after the KU game.  Does anyone remember this legendary early Tarantino rant from the film Sleep With Me in which he explains how Top Gun is one of the most subversive gay texts of all time?  Be warned: it's NSFW, as you'd expect from QT (watch till the end, as it keeps cutting back and forth between QT's lecture).

Weekend Scenester Picks: Atomic Vampires, Hootenannies, and Hidden Pictures

It's a bit of a slow weekend in LFK.  Maybe you should catch up with some of the Oscar nominees that were announced this morning, such as The Master (oh wait, it's not playing anymore and they failed to nominate it for Best Picture).  Or Amour.  (oh wait, it doesn't open in KC until February).  Or Zero Dark Thirty (Chip:  "This has already been named Best Pic of the year in Fort Scott, due mainly to it's 'pro-torture' position.").

Another (less high-falutin') movie option:  Cinema a Go Go is back at Liberty Hall with a double-feature of The Atomic Submarine and Atom Age Vampire, which is about  "a butt ugly monster who likes to skulk around in a hoodie when he's out murdering people for their glands."  Now THAT'S cinema!  FB event page here .




And if you insist on hitting the bars, here are some options.

The Bottleneck has a new(ish) event called Gallimaufry Stand-up Comedy With Open Mic.  We have no idea what "Gallimaufry" is, but it's probably something funny [Note:  we just looked it up.  It's not that funny, but it's a pretty clever name for a stand-up comedy night].

Chip:  "I'm thinking about testing out a few new boner jokes in the open mic portion this evening.  Also, I know a series of 'farmer's daughter' jokes that are so shockingly obscene my mother threatened to call an exorcist on me when I told one at Thanksgiving."

Doors at 8:00; open mic at 9:00.

 

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Cowgirl's Trainset is at the Replay's Friday matinee and they are a self-described "7 piece of destruction and energy" that plays "Gypsy Folk Swing" from the Midwest.  We caught 'em at Barnyard once and had a good time.  Give them a "like" on FB right here .  They're opening up for Sky Smeed, who normally only plays in fields:

 

We'd guess there's an 85% chance that Tyler Gregory will be onstage with one or both of these bands at some point! 

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Our friends in Hidden Pictures are at the Jackpot later on Friday along with Heidi and the Kicking Heels (great name!) and Electro Foam.   Re-read our classic HP interview here .

HP has a new line-up and promises a bunch of new tunes.  But we bet they're still adorable as ever!!




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And on Saturday, head back to Replay for a band called ARENTWEALLDEAD.   All-caps and no punctuation is so hip right now!   Here's a somewhat baffling description from their FB bio:

"Aren’t We All Dead isn’t a band in the typical sense. Guitars are played like pianos and violins, bass as a wall of sound, and drums that are dynamic and expressive. The musicians in this band don’t create riffs and hooks. They see sounds as different colors and arrange them accordingly. Everything seen and heard affects the music, both good and bad. Aren’t We All Dead is a project dedicated to sound."

Give them a listen via Bandcamp .  We're still trying to figure out what colors we're listening to!


 

Pick of the Month for Beer Nerds: Beer Night at the Watkins Community Museum / Concert Review: Father John Misty at the Bottleneck

Normally we don't promote events more than a week in advance, because our readers have short, beer-addled, attention spans, but we're making an exception today since this event may require you to act quick. 

We all know that LFK has a great event for nerds who like to drink beer (Nerd Nite), but what about a great event for beer nerds?  As it turns out, you're in luck!  

On Saturday, January 19, Watkins Community Museum is serving up (pouring up?) an event called Beer Night.  The event will kick off with a presentation on the history of Kansas brewers and breweries from Kansas historian Cindy Higgins at 7:30, followed by a beer tasting from Lawrence brewers including Free State and 23rd Street Brewery at 8:30.  Some of Larryville's finest homebrewers will also be on hand to discuss their craft, though law prohibits them from offering their samples at public events.  Bummer.  But perhaps there will be a little back-alley bootlegging going on?  The lecture is free.  The beer tasting is $10 bucks and gets you a commemorative tasting glass.  Since spaces are limited for the beer-tasting, e-mail reservations@watkinsmuseum.org  to reserve your spots or call 785-841-4109 x 205 if you're old-school.

Chip: "This sounds great, but I'm probably going to 'pre-game' with a few PBRs before heading down there."

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Father John Misty (Josh Tillman) brought his scenester revival to the Bottleneck last night and the PBR-swilling congregation flocked to hear him.  His sermon is a controversial one for often-apathetic rock fans:  music can still be fun!  The ex-Fleet Fox is now out from behind the drums and largely eschewing instruments altogether in favor of living it up as a prancing, dancing frontman (one part sexy Jagger swagger and three parts Lizard King with his shimmying arm and body movements).  Kicking off with "Fun Times in Babylon," which includes a vow to "smoke everything in sight / with every girl I've ever loved," the set alternated between indie-folk numbers that might have been kicked off Fleet Foxes albums for being too upbeat and others that ventured into countrified Flying Burrito Brothers territory (our favorite: "I'm Writing a Novel.").  There was plenty of time for crowd interaction as well, from an opening masturbation joke (perhaps taking a cue from KU's Dean of Education?) to a recitation of KU sports heroes ("Danny Manning!  Scott Pollard!") to an analysis of a fan holding a lighter during one particularly dark tune (according to Tillman, the fan briefly extinguished it during the middle of the song because he felt like he wasn't getting the point, but then he realized he DID get it, so he lit the flame again).  After a blazing encore of Canned Heat's "On the Road Again," the hard-partying evangelist hit the road, but he'll surface in St. Louis tonight.  You should totally go.

Head over here for a boner-inducing review from I Heart Local Music and some great pics and video.

Monday Scenester Pick: Peyote Party With Father John Misty and Magic Trick at Bottleneck

Things sometimes get a little slow in LFK during the winter, but the Bottleneck offers up a sure-to-be rambunctious national touring act tonight:  Father John Misty.

Yes, it was a buzzy 2012 for former Fleet Fox Josh Tillman, whose project Father John Misty won a lot of raves for Tillman's boozy antics and flashy dance moves.   Even Pitchfork gives Father John Misty's debut, Fear Fun, a perfectly respectable 7.2, though Tillman was got riled up and went on a Twitter rant due to certain lines such as:

"If there's a criticism to be made about the music, it's that it sounds a bit too composed and too contained to really sell the drug-fueled anarchy and municipal depravity. The arrangements entertain a rhythmic stiffness that sticks strictly to the beat, without any syncopation to suggest the messy experiences Tillman's lyrics evoke."  (full review here ).

Here are a few choice Tillman tweets on the subject:

"@pitchforkmedia Guess this means I don't get to come play your annual Bleep-Bloop Music and Nerdy, Contrarian Hip-Hop fan conference."

"@pitchforkmedia Supercomputer, I believe your review was a bit too "written." Much in the way my album was clearly too "composed."

Read a selection of other other snarky Tillman tweets here via SSGMusic.

See you at the show, but we're not going to tell Tillman that the name Father John Misty makes us giggle, because we fear he might kick our asses tonight.

Fear Fun album cover:

 


Father John Misty partying in the woods with what appears to be three sexy witches:



And Chip thinks you're certain to get a boner from the folllowing videos:  "Nancy From Now On," in which Tillman parties with some dominatrixes, and "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Songs," featuring (oh baby!) Aubrey Plaza.

Also on the bill tonight:  San Francisco's Magic Trick.   Check out these tracks via Bandcamp here .

Somebody BETTER bring some fucking peyote to this show!

Thoughts on Local Humor: The Comedy Stylings of JabberJosh, the Masturbation Jokes of the Dean of Education, and Meat-Based Innuendo From Biemers BBQ

Readers, we like to think of ourselves as mildly humorous here at the LC but, as many of you well know if you've ever tried to write something funny, it's not always easy.

In today's odd post, we consider three examples of local humor, two of them successful, the other not so much.

JabberJosh's Sam Gunnerson is headed to New York to hone his comic chops and we caught a farewell set from the brothers Gunnerson at Love Garden on Friday.  This was only our second time seeing these maniacs and, while their pummeling musical assault hurts our sensitive scenester ears, the comic aspect fascinates us.  While most bands shy away from between-song patter (and wisely, since most suck at it), Sam fires off strings of absurdity.  This show opened with the statement, "We're from Alabama.  Not the state or the street, but the band," followed by some fairly specific statements about the ancient country artists, followed by an assertion that the set would then begin with a cover of the drum part of "Rapid Eye Movement's 'It's the End of the World,' " which would soon transition into an "actual song."   Indeed, JabberJosh has a penchant for "covers," but instead of playing the songs they just play two or three second bursts of the songs.  So they offered on this night a three-second burst of a Saliva song.  "I bet this is the first time a Saliva cover's been played at Love Garden?" Sam asked Kelly Corcoran, who responded, "Well, in this store, but not in the old one," to which Sam quipped:  "Who was it?  Drakkar Sauna or some shit?" to which Kelly responded:  "Will Oldham."  (nice comedy routine, gents!).    Song titles too are a source of humor:  "This one is called 'These Milkshakes Are Alan Fucking Thicke.'"    Sure, much of this is greeted by stone-silence from a puzzled crowd, but our hats are always off to weirdness!

On the not-so-successful humor front, many are displeased (displeased to the point of death threats, apparently) with KU"s Dean of Education, whose e-mailed masturbation joke regarding the recent turkey-torture incident at a local frat party accidentally got forwarded (by an Associate Dean, who added another joke) to an irate woman in Indiana who had previously contacted the Dean to complain about the turkey incident.  Read the LJ-World coverage of the story here .

Chip:  "I'm going to stand by the Dean here.  The party in question is an annual event called the "Turkey Pull," and anything with "Pull" in the title is naturally going to necessitate a few jokes about masturbation.  Plus, we all know that every frat party climaxes with a circle-jerk anyway.  So the Dean may have just been stating some facts in a way that got misinterpreted as a joke."

Well, we can't really know, Chip, since the LJ-World's standards and practices prevent actually sharing the jokes in question.

But let's turn to the talkbackers for their usual astute analysis (and humor):

Perses says:  "I would fire them for simply being an embarrassment to the University. My guess is that they were both "chokin the chicken" and were distracted."

Blindrabbit says:  "Kansas: Land of Speaker of the House Owens racial jokesters! Sea of Galilee swimmers! Dean of Education crude e-mailers! State Representative shooters of aliens from helicopters! Board of Education evolution deniers! Home of supposedly Christian funeral protesters! Koch-a-Kola voter suppressors! No wonder we are the "laughing stock" for the rest of the country." 

And rockchalker52 wisely brings things back around to the real issue: that a bunch of drunken frat boys tortured a live turkey at a party until someone stepped in and killed it:  " No harm, no foul...unless you were the bird. Then it's plenty of harm to the fowl. Don't lose sight of what makes this disgusting. It isn't the email." 

Finally, one of the most reliable sources for meat-based innuendo is Biemer's BBQ, who have kicked off the new year with this sign that makes Chip howl with laughter every time he passes by:

Odd and Adorable Band of the Day: Baby Ghosts at Replay!

We enjoy cute things and were immediately intrigued by Utah band Baby Ghosts based on their name alone. 

But let's dig deeper.

1) Nine of the eleven songs on their new album have "ghost" in the title.  Our favorite:  "German Ghost Cat."  Our second favorite:  "The Ghosts of Our Crappy-Ass Friends."  Listen here via Bandcamp.

2) They are very into anime.

3) The cover of their album looks like this:



And you can hang out with them at the Replay tonight!  Okay?

Also on the bill is KC's Lazy, who have a new 7' called Party City on Moniker Records, which says of their sound: "dark drones and found sound snippets populate percussive, gang-vocal boy/girl rave-ups."  We love found sound snippets.  But our favorite Lazy song has got to be "I Wanna Know Who Gave You My Number" (from an earlier album). It reminds us a bit of a lazier Pavement tune.   Listen here .
 

  

Weekend Scenester Picks: JabberJosh at Love Garden and a Low-Brow Evening With Flameing Daeth Fearies at the Bottleneck

Readers, we're back in LFK after our southern holiday adventures and, based on what we've read in the LJ-World, you all had a good time on New Year's Eve with plenty of fights and even some gunshots at the Magic Lounge, a place that we didn't know existed  but is apparently home to the "Midwest Famous Duckbutter," whatever that means (Chip: "I'll be finding out, and soon.").

It's sort of a slow time of year in Lawrence, so we'll be posting sporadically for now with occasional scenester picks until we get back in the groove (or until more of you contact us for interviews:  hit us up at larryvillelife@gmail.com if you're interested in talking about music and boners).

In the meantime, you'll want to visit Love Garden on Friday and say farewell to JabberJosh for awhile, since half of the duo is headed to NYC.   It's all-ages and free.   Prediction:  hilarious hijinks and possible costumes.  Check out the FB event page here .



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As many of you know, 2012 was the year the LC inadvertently became a halfway legitimate source of actual information (in addition to boner jokes), thanks mostly to our series of band interviews.  And this means that a lot of bands reach out to us that we might otherwise overlook.  Our favorite (and most bizarre) discovery of the New Year so far is, hands-down, Arkansas' Flameing Daeth Fearies.  Yes, that's how it's spelled, making them damnably difficult to find on Facebook and such (but you can find them on FB right here and visit their official website here ).  We felt a kinship with these "Fearies" as soon as we read their bio material:


"Shows are a high-octane low-brow full-on experience: embracing blue comedy and obscure internet humor."

You had us at "low-brow."

And then we asked the band to send us a little blurb telling our readers why they MUST see them at the Bottleneck this Saturday, Jan. 5.  Here's what we received:

"Flameing Daeth Fearies are coming to bedazzle The Bottleneck on Jan 5th with their brand of rocking punk.  Expect songs about waffles, extending periods of highness, 3rd genders, bronies, furries, and robotic sex toys! "

Bronies AND Furries?  We're fucking sold!

In order to prepare, we insist that you go to their Soundcloud page here and play "Can I Get a Brohoof?" at least eleven times.  It begins with the wonderful declaration that "It's motherfucking pony-time, dawg!"

Need more?  Here's an Arkansas Times review of a recent Fearies gig which contains an LFK-reference to the Get Up Kids (another sign that this show is meant to be!):

"[Flameing Daeth Fearies] sound like early Blink 182 or maybe a gag-laden version of the Get-up Kids. They look like a cross between a Japanese cartoon and a Brittney Spears video, and they go out of their way to stage a production. Last night’s set included lit-up props, dancers in fuzzy costumes (furrydom, anyone?), amp-hopping and rock-star posturing" 

Sounds a bit like a Flaming Lips  show without the hefty price tag!  Also on the bill is Lawrence's R-Type Final, whose bio says they  "beautifully meld club and dance grooves, with elements of fur-core and chip-tunes..  The music is created live using a Playstation Portable and a Nintendo DSI.  Set sometimes feature a dancing cardboard robot grooving to the beat. "  

Fur-core?   We've got a strange feeling that a Furry is going to hook up with a Brony at this show!  Check R-Type Final out on Soundcloud here

So there you go:  all that and a dancing cardboard robot.  Typical Saturday night in LFK.  See you at the show.

 




dd