The Cabaret Metro in Wrigleyville neighborhood of Chicago (well known as just the Metro now) has hosted a great number of stellar acts since 1982. Some of which I have witnessed, and most of them were with our group “The Fish Guys.” Brown and Crosse and Sonny frequented multiple times with me to see a number of acts like Jon Spencer’s Blues Explosion, The Jesus Lizard and The Reverend Horton Heat. The Metro holds about 1100 people. So it’s a larger venue in the city but by no means as massive as say the Aragon Ballroom. And it can get loud…really loud. I remember that from JSBX show…just piercing but somehow cathartic.
That was not the case this past Wednesday when the four of us took in the reincarnation of the MC5 headed by guitarist Wayne Kramer under the guise of the MC50. While it rocked for certain, the sound in the Metro that evening was well, perfect.
Krammer is one of two original members of the MC5 still kicking and has toured as the MC5 in various lineups for good part of the past 15 years. The original MC5 were together until 1973 releasing 3 major label LPs. Then a 20 year hiatus and a reformation of the group in 1993 for a tribute to late singer Rob Tyner. In 2003 Kramer took to the road again and gigged with his two other original band mates Michael Davis on bass and Dennis Thompson on drums. They gigged with supporting members until 2012. This past year Kramer recruited Kim Thayil (Soundgarden) on second guitar, Billy Gould (Faith No More) on bass, Brendan Canty (Fugazi) on drums and front man extraordinaire Mark Durant (Zen Guerilla) to celebrate 50 years of Kicking out the Jams.
The Joup Friday Album: MC5 – Kick out the Jams
Endless Loop: Moonlight Sonata – Piano Sonata No. 14 (Movement 1)
Have you ever had one of those songs that gets stuck in your head for days…weeks…years? Sure you have. These are the songs that always make the cut. The songs on repeat. We all have them. I have a ton. Welcome back to Endless Loop.
“Moonlight Sonata – Piano Sonata No. 14 (Movement 1)” by Beethoven
I know it’s hoity-toity and as pretentious as all hell, and could possible be viewed as a written foray into pseudo-intellectualism on my part, but I’m totally riffing on classical music today.
Thee Comic Column #58: The Return of Geof Darrow’s Shaolin Cowboy

image courtesy of geek-news.mtv.com
This book is f$%kin’ crazy!!!
Seriously, I was wandering around the best comic shop in Southern California last week, The Comic Bug, and asked co-owner Mike if there was anything new he would recommend. Well, Mike casually put Geof Darrow’s The Shaolin Cowboy No. 1 from Dark Horse in my hands and after glancing through it and falling IN LOVE with the art (something I almost never buy a book based on) I added it to my pile for check out. Several hours later, after I’d gotten home and clocked through my required reading list (and lately that IDW TMNT has risen almost to the top of that list – but that’s a story for another column) I picked up Shaolin and opened the front cover only to fall head-long into the most insane two-page story prelude f text I’ve ever encountered. I’m not even going to try and describe it here – you’re simply going to have to seek this one out for yourself, it’s that insane.