Crow’s blog

I don't like watching music dvds, and sometimes seeing a music video can actually ruin the song for me.  Concerts are always much better in person too.  That said, there were 3 music dvd releases that I think are worth mentioning this year:

Amebix "Risen"  Great documentary of one of my favorite bands, with re-recordings of three old songs as well.  Absolutely essential!

Comus "Live At Melloboat 2008"  Comus!  Reformed!  Another old, influential band reforms and still proves that they have that certain something that made them influential in the first place. 

Circle "Saturnus Reality"  Strangest. Documentary. Ever.  This is a hilarious and intriguing look at the inner... er, circle, of Circle. 

I've got friends who are attempting to reflect on the music released during the whole first decade of this century.  I would find that hard to do, mainly because I lose track of when music was released.  Any reflection on the decade done by me would involve quite a bit of research on release dates. 

This year, I've kept obsessive track of what I purchased, so I have a handy list to review now that we're in the waning hours of 2009.  I'm currently listening to Headless Heroes "The Silence Of Love", which I recently purchased for a whole $2.00, plus shipping.  It features the beautiful, earthy voice Alela Diane, which is a very good thing in my book.  It's all cover songs, including ones written by people such as Nick Cave and Vashti Bunyan.  This cd gets the last word in before we all have to start writing "2010" instead of "2009".

As for the rest of this past year, I'll now provide a quick list of the cds that currently rank among my favorites.  This is all music that came into my life this year, and may include some releases that, while new to me this year, were actually released earlier.  I'm not going to attempt to reflect on the music I"ve downloaded this year (with a couple of exceptions) because... well, because there's a lot of it. 

Favorite releases of the year:

David Maranha "Marches of the New World"
Diana Rogerson & Andrew Liles "No Birds Do Sing"
Silver Summit "s/t"
Bernardo Devlin "Circa 1999"
Hazy Loper "High In The Murk"
Circle "Triumph"
Petit Mal "Ascetics", plus all of the other 3" cdrs released by Jim Kaiser. 
Marissa Nadler "Little Hells"
Nurse With Wound "May The Fleas Of A Thousand Camels Infest Your Armpits"
Nurse With Wound, et al. "Od Lot"
Eleni Karaindrou "Dust Of Time"
Orchestra Noir "The Affordable Holmes"
Timothy Renner "Every Fallen Leaf An Angel's Wing"
Anvil "This Is Thirteen"
Lhasa "Lhasa"
Chirgilchin "Pictures Of Tuva"
Current 93 "Aleph At Hallucinatory Mountain"
Tor Lundvall "Sleeping And Hiding"
Bohren & Der Club Of Gore "Mitleid Lady"
Nurse With Wound "The Memory Surface"
Tor Lundvall "Insect Wings, Leaf Matter, And Broken Twigs"
L'Impero Delle Ombre "s/t"
Bernardo Devlin "Albedo"
Tony Wakeford "Not All Of Me Will Die"
Simon Finn "Rats Laugh Mice Sing"
Forrest Fang "Phantoms"
Roger Wootton & Piu "Cut The Air At Mello Club"
Six Organs Of Admittance "Luminous Night"
Helena Espvall & Masaki Batoh "Overloaded Ark"
Maleficia "s/t" lp
Birch Book "A Hand Full Of Days"
Mountains "Choral"
Om "God Is Good"
Mount Eerie "Wind's Poem"
Alela Diane "To Be Still"
Stone Breath "The Shepherdess And The Bone-White Bird"
Paul Cat "Metropolis"
Paintbox "Trip, Trance, & Travelling"
Shrinebuilder "s/t"
Tom Waits "Glitter And Doom Live"
Nurse With Wound "Paranoia In Hi-Fi"
TimeMOTHeye "SnowAngelsUndeathSong"

Damn.  I thought I'd narrowed it down more than that.  A few of these artists were new to me this year.  I'm happy to have stumbled across Alela Diane, Mountains, Paintbox, Silver Summit, and Mount Eerie. 

As for live shows, they're all documented on this blog.  My favorite shows of the year were Amebix (both times I saw them), Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, and Nurse With Wound.  The Amebix show especially hit home with a combination of power, nostalgia, and inspiration.  I hope 2010 sees a new release by them.

Imagine the list I'd have if I tried to reflect on the whole decade.

I've been aware of Discogs.com for awhile now, but hadn't, until recently, given it more than a passing glance.  It was just one of those pages that I occasionally stumbled across when I searching for information on a band or cd.  At some point, while googling myself, I discovered that there is a page for me on there, based on my small contributions to a number of official releases.  Ha.  It makes me want to go create more music!

I've also decided that it is time to take advantage of their database and try to organize my own collection in the form of an online discography.  I blame this on my nerdy tendency to want to make lists of things I own.  Above and beyond this silly reason, I've found that just the process of shuffling through my records and cds has inspired me to spend time revisiting music I haven't listened to in awhile.  This also helps me save money, because my attention is turned towards music I already have in my collection, rather than music I want to have in my collection.  Of course, the flip side of this particular coin is that I've stumbled across some releases I didn't know existed, and now want to own.  Oh well. 

I've also found that a lot of items in my collection aren't on the site yet, and since Discogs is a wiki site, I've started contributing to it.  Fun! 

Things have been pretty quiet around these parts lately, so to tide you over until I spew out a bunch of year-end lists, here are a couple of in-depth cd reviews for you, done by our music journalism interns, Willow (6), and Sophie (8).

Patti Smith "Radio Ethiopia" cd

Willow:  "No offense, but she sounds horrible!"

Tom Waits "Blood Money" cd

Sophie: "Who sings this song... Frankenstein?"
Willow: "Santa wouldn't like this!"

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Faun Fables, but I must say it’s a rare treat to see them on the same bill.  As for Darling Freakhead, I’ve now seen them/him twice. 

It seems I’ve been spending more time at The Independent than usual this year too.  It’s a nice, medium-sized venue with a good lighting rig, decent sound, and timid furniture.  At least I assume the furniture is timid.  It hides during rock shows, only coming out when the evening promises quieter entertainment. 

For this show, there were no tables and chairs anywhere in sight.  Probably hiding upstairs with the Sleepytime children. 

Darling Freakhead were, I think, a last minute addition to the bill.  After Nils mentioned that Mr. Freakhead and company were opening, I tried to remember the other time I’d seen them.  I seem to remember Nils being on stage for a lot of that  long-ago show.  Possibly it was at the Starry Plough.  All I could remember was that it was noisy and silly. 

This time out, it was noisy and silly too, with Mr. Freakhead quickly doffing his garments, and performing most of the remainder of his set in all his near-naked, pasty glory.  The whole set had a child abuse/sexual confusion theme to it, performed with over the top grossness.  For instance, I don’t think I really needed to see him deep-throating a dildo.  I didn’t need to see certain portions of his anatomy hanging out either.  Maybe it’s just me…  The rest of the band mimed along in true Milli Vanilli style.  Definitely a very strange set, but one that I perhaps could have gone without seeing.  I do have to give him credit for having the guts to perform the whole thing in his underwear.  Ha. 

Perhaps the funniest part was at the end, when he apologized to any Faun Fables fans in the audience for alarming or offending them. 

It has been a few months since I’ve seen Faun Fables.  This time out, Faun Fables were just their core duo, with Dawn playing a lot more percussion than I’m used to seeing her do.  I don’t know the titles of a lot of the newer songs, but they’re starting to sound familiar to me.  They played Roadkill, which I’m always happy to hear.  This time out, it seemed slightly funkier than usual. 

Towards the beginning of the set, Nils played a long flute-like instrument for a reworking of an old traditional song, possibly called Who Killed Cock Robin?.  My modem is dead in the water, so I can’t jump online to do any research at the moment (I’m writing this as a Word document, to be posted from a nearby coffee shop later).  If I get the chance, I’ll update this while ostentatiously sitting in the coffee shop with my laptop.  Hipster masquerade!  Update:  looking around, I found this.  I can't remember the lyrics from the show, other than the phrase "who killed cock robin?", but the link may explain the origin of the song.

At any rate, Faun Fables are always a joy to watch.  The songs just flow over you and improve you in various ways.  Long live Faun Fables!

Towards the end of the Faun Fables set, Dan drafted Greg and me into the Sleepytime Gorilla Museum procession (for those who haven’t seen Sleepytime before, their shows often start out on the sidewalk, with various band members and friends playing assorted instruments and carrying banners as they walk into the club), so at the end of the set we went out and prepared to process.  If I’d known I’d be doing this in advance, I would have worn my processing clothes.  Greg at least had a black hoodie, which enabled him to look somewhat monk-like.  Out by the bus, we gathered, unfurled various banners, and prepared to march back in.  As an added surprise, Moe!  was on hand to take part in the procession.  Once ready, with banners, waving, we marched, clanked, and tooted our way back in to the club.  The band took the stage.  We ditched the banners in the corner, and the show begun. 

I rejoined J9 on the far side of the club, and shortly thereafter there was a commotion over by the door.  Somebody was clattering around on the floor.  I knew without having to see over the heads of the very tall Sleepytime audience that it was Moe!  Who else could it be?  More haphazard cymbal smashing and clattering followed.  People had their cameras in the air, documenting the moment.  It wasn’t until later that Greg came back over and revealed that Moe! had been wearing only a sock and had been making all of the noise by smashing the cymbals with his hands.  Hmmm.  If somebody could find a way to tap his energy and bottle it, the world could stop drilling for oil.

 

As for the Sleepytime set, they were obviously in fine form, honed to a fine point by the constant friction of touring.  They started their set with Baby Doctor, and it sounded better than ever,  and sometime later, ended it with yet another epic version of Sleep Is Wrong, which of course featured the usual nap in the middle, during which the band falls asleep standing up on stage before eventually bursting back into song.  I ‘ve always thought that this is a great way to build tension.    Or maybe it’s just a clever way to take a break.  Of course, I don’t think they actually ever need breaks.  One indication of this is the fact that Nils has a tendency to burst into song between songs.   Perhaps the silliest in-between song song would have to be the one about Disco Nosferatu.  The visual imagery alone is cause for pondering.  Of the newer songs, Salamander has really come into its own.  It’s always exciting to hear the songs subtly evolve.  It’s sort of like watching a small child growing up.  If you see the child every day, you might not even notice the difference, but if you wait a year or two before seeing the child again (or miss a couple of tours), the difference is much more noticeable.  Strange new appendages may have sprouted.  Hair color might be different.  New words have entered the vocabulary.  Anything is possible. 

There is one new new song, called Standing Still.  I downloaded a recording of a show from slightly earlier in the tour (8 days earlier, at Neumo’s in Washington), and I’m listening to it now to help jog my memory of the S.F. show – this is what I get for waiting nearly a week to write about it.  Standing Still is brief by Sleepytime standards, barely lasting 3 minutes.  To tell you the truth, I can’t remember if they played it in S.F. or not.  I might have blinked.  It seems almost lost in amongst all of the 8 to 10 minute songs, although the plaintive melody sort of reminds me of Silver Mt. Zion, who usually can’t bring a song in under 15 or 20 minutes.  Maybe Standing Still is an exercise in compressed epicness. 

What else did they play?  Ossuary, Angle of Repose, Puppet Show, Helpless Corpses Enactment (there’s guy on the Neumo’s recording shouting for Helpless Corpses Enchantment.  Ha ha.), The Only Dance, The Last Human Being (another one I’m liking more and more each time I hear it), and The Donkey-Headed Adversary of Humanity Opens The Discussion.

A fine, fine show.  I feel improved in some way.

 

 

Lately, it seems like most of the touring musicians have been hitting the Bay Area on weeknights, which means I'm probably fast running out of my paid time off hours.  Does a concert count as a family emergency, sickness, or personal necessity?  For me, I'd have to say "personal necessity."  Good thing I have coworkers willing to do the night shift while I'm off having fun. 

This is the second concert I've been to with J9, and we had fun wandering around in the vicinity of the Rickshaw Stop before the show, watching the moon between the buildings, enjoying the crisp air, and discovering a cool little bookshop around the corner from the venue.  I love that I've found a fellow wanderer to wander with. 

Once inside the Rickshaw Stop, I had a vague feeling of deja vu.  I don't think I've been there before, but it seemed familiar somehow.  It's an interesting little space.  The red velvet curtains on the walls serve to distract one from the fact that the ceiling looks like it's composed of old mattresses.  The lighting is subdued.  Actually, Marissa Nadler, once she arrived on stage, requested that the lighting become even more subdued because she's shy.  She started out solo, her haunting voice ghosting through the room as her hypnotic, skeletal guitar playing provided a bed of sound for it to rest on (or should I say, "grave of sound"?).  A few songs in, she was joined by a second guitarist and a bassist/percussionist.  Percussion consisted of some cymbal rattling and a singing bowl (which was a little hard to hear, actually).  The guitarist, despite being a little under the weather, sang backup here and there.  My favorite moment was the full band Hole is Wide, which sounded even more beautiful than the recorded version on her latest cd, Little Hells.  No mean feat that, since it's my favorite song on the cd.  Sylvia was also up there near the top of my list.  She also played, among others, Rosary, Little Hells, Salutations in the Dark, and Diamond Heart, every one of them hypnotic and beautiful.  Later, when I complimented her during my trip to the merch table, she was self-effacing, mentioning that mistakes were made.  That may be so, but they were beautiful mistakes.  That said, I did kind of wonder about the mysterious banjo that nobody ever played.  It would have been nice to hear a bit of banjo. 

Alela Diane has only recently become a blip on my radar.  The blip was created by her track on the wonderful Leaves of Life compilation - a version of the old folk standard, The Cuckoo.  Coincidentally enough, the track also features Mariee Sioux, who played with Marissa Nadler the last time I saw her.  Not too surprising I guess, because Alela Diane and Mariee Sioux both hail from Nevada City, which is beginning to sound like a real cultural hotspot.  Before the show, I'd located and downloaded some of her songs over at Daytrotter, but hadn't gotten a chance to listen to them before leaving for the show, so other than quickly listening to the songs on her MySpace page, I hadn't heard much.  Seeing her live remedied that, of course.  Her voice is more earthy than Marissa Nadler's is, and her guitar playing warmer, more organic sounding.  Marissa Nadler sounds like a woman with one foot in the spirit world, while Alela Diane sounds like she's firmly rooted in this one.  All of her songs were at least good, and some were excellent.  Of the ones with titles I can remember, White As Diamonds, and The Rifle were standouts.  She was joined on stage by, of all people, her dad, who played guitar and mandolin, and sang backup.  It seems that he was called in at the last minute as a replacement for her usual second band member, who was at home putting up "lost cat" flyers.  Apparently, her cat objected to being left with a friend while Alela was on tour, and took it upon itself to vanish.   Let's hope that particular story has a happy ending.

I did take some photos, but have deemed none of them fit for posting here.  I blame the muted lighting.  Just imagine it, why don't you?      

To the best of my recollection, it has been about 10 years since I've seen Damon and Naomi play, the last time being at the San Francisco version of the Terrastock Festival back at the end of the last century.  As for A Hawk And A Hacksaw, me being a new fan and all, I'd never seen them live before (which means you don't have to suffer through some sentimental reflection here about how I saw them years ago at some barely remembered venue in another city somewhere...). 

Damon and Naomi have been quietly putting out cds for years now, with the more recent ones sometimes featuring Ghost guitarist Kurihara.  I say "quietly" because, well, they are a pretty quiet sort of band, with a penchant for melancholy songs.  This time out, it was just the two of them, with no Kurihara.  Damon played acoustic guitar and sang.  Naomi played keyboards and sang.  Damon joked about how A Hawk And A Hacksaw would bring everybody up, but first Damon And Naomi were going to bring everybody down.  They then proceeded to do just that, often singing in quiet harmony as they made their way through a set that included some new songs and a little sub-set of older ones at the back (they're currently touring in support of a new "best of'" cd called "The Sub Pop Years", which features a collection of older material).  My favorite song of the night was a song about grizzled old homeless people living in a Japanese subway station (more or less Damon's words there) and inspired by a Japanese singer (Damon said his name, but I've forgotten it - possibly Mikami Kan, who is on the Damon And Naomi-curated "International Sad Hits" compilation).  Also of note was their closing song - a cover version of Leonard Cohen's "Bird On A Wire".  Very nicely done. 

A Hawk And A Hacksaw were another experience entirely.  They performed as a five-piece, wailing away on a diverse array of instruments, including bouzouki, violin, Stroh violin, accordion, drums (usually played my the multi-tasking accordion player), tuba, trumpet, and a few others.  Their set included at least one Macedonian, song, and at least one Hungarian song.  All of the other songs sounded like they could have originated in one of those countries as well, with frantic fiddle, staccato accordion, fluttery trumpet, and subsonic tuba rumbling.  Not to mention frenzied bouzouki bashing (with semi apologies to Tintin creator Herge for upending one of Captain Haddock's favorite insults there...).  The fiddler, Heather Trost, played what I think was a Stroh violin for a couple of songs.  For one song, she appeared to be tugging a thread across the violin strings, creating a thin sound, which when amplified by the violin's trumpet, sounded like an old nineteen twenties recording.

For the most part, the songs were instrumental, with the one exception being "I am not a gambling man" from their most recent cd, "Delivrance".  The song features the mirth-inducing lyric, "All the hunters have been poisoned, by an old deer". 

We had spent Damon And Naomi's set seated at one of the club's few tables, with a great view of the stage.  This great view was made possible by the fact that Damon And Naomi make everybody feel melancholy, and melancholy people tend to sit on the floor.  Also, of course, the fashionably-late hipster contingent hadn't yet appeared.  A Hawk And A Hacksaw, with their lightning speed gypsy ruckus, inspired considerably more standing up amongst the hitherto sedated crowed, which had a ripple effect on those of us seated at the tables.  The end result was that we were standing at the back of the crowd.  I mention this because, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, no doubt witnessing our plight, eventually abandoned the stage and walked through the audience until they were situated right in front of us.  They finished out their set playing acoustically in a compact little circle a mere foot away.  I found myself staring at my comically distorted reflection in the tuba while they played. They wandered away at the end of the set, and then resumed their positions on the floor for an encore. 

Time well spent, I'd say!   

I'm mildly surprised that this is the first time this year I've seen Faun Fables.  It seems like I used to see them once a month or so, but now that they've moved out of Oakland they don't grace Bay Area stages as often as they used to.  That's a pity. 

Parking anywhere near the Uptown was not in the cards, since apparently MC Hammer was playing at the nearby Paramount Theater.  It ended up working out for me though, because had I parked closer to the venue, I wouldn't have run into an old coworker of mine in a crosswalk several blocks away from the Uptown (she in a car, me walking towards the venue).  We stopped there in the middle of the street and caught up for awhile.  What are the odds of that?  Especially if one considers that we worked together at a museum fifty miles away, and neither of us live anywhere near Oakland.

I'd never been to the Uptown before, and I found myself pleasantly surprised.  It's actually a pretty nice venue.  You have to walk past the bar and towards the back before making a u-turn into the performance area.  The stage was just the right size, and well-lit.  The sound was crystal clear - to the extent that both Nils and Dawn made reference to it several times during the Faun Fables set. 

Emily Palin was on first.  Her name sounded familiar, and it didn't take me long to remember that she'd played with Bonfire Madigan earlier this year.  She took a single violin, and through the judicious use of effects, she looped her playing and accompanied herself, creating the illusion that there was a full band up on stage.  She would tap the violin and loop the sound to create a beat, lay down a rhythm track of top of it, and embellish this with a melody.  It reminded me of what I've heard/read about Matt Howden's (Sieben, Sol Invictus, etc.) solo sets.  Quite ingenious, really.  Unfortunately, her vocal and lyrical prowess didn't match her virtuosity on the violin.  Her voice sounded off to me - to my ears it sounded kind of flat, and her lyrics sounded like they'd been written by a teen pop star.  That said, she's young and she's got a long future ahead of her, during which I'm sure she'll improve in these departments.  A friend pointed out (and I paraphrase here) that her set was a combination of interesting music and things that would normally make him vacate the room.   Still, she got an enthusiastic response from the audience.  I'd love to hear what she's doing in a few years.

Jesse Quattro actually did have a full band with her, which this time out included my brother, so I guess that makes this a biased review.  Jesse sang and played acoustic guitar, with Miles Boisen accompanying her on electric guitar.  My brother provided some backing sounds and served as narrator, reading some effective little bits of poetry written by Jesse and her dad.  The band was rounded out with a bassist (Ross Sewage - great name!), a percussionist/backing vocalist, and a keyboardist/backing vocalist (whose names I've forgotten - sorry).  How to describe the music?  Slightly melancholy avant-garde pop?  Damn, I hate labeling things.  In some ways, it is hard to pigeonhole what Jesse does, and to my mind that's a good thing.  I've always liked bands/musicians who manage to be genre-less.  I'd like to get my hands on a recording of these songs, so I can let them properly sink in.

Faun Fables were a three piece for this show, with Cornelius Boots (of Edmund Welles fame) joining Dawn and Nils on... well, on whatever was needed - percussion, throat singing, flute, and a variety of other wind instruments, some of which resembled soo lings, but probably weren't.  They opened their set with a newly worked out version of a song by Polish composer Zygmunta Koniezcyniego, and from there proceeded into a set consisting primarily of new material.  The new songs were all definitely up to the high standards set by their older material, and I look forward to hearing them again.  They played "With Words and Cake" from their most recent cd, "A Table Forgotten", and "Carousel With Madonnas" (by Koniezcyniego again) the beautiful "Roadkill" as an encore.  I especially love the line "But one of these mornings you're gonna rise up singing a song that your grandfather knew, but your father forgot..."  This, in some ways, encapsulates for me what Faun Fables is all about.    

    

A week or two ago, Jean Smith from Mecca Normal contacted me and asked if she could use the photos I took at their gig at the Hemlock earlier this year.  I said yes, of course.  I just checked out their MySpace page and noticed that one of my photos is their default picture at the moment.  Kind of flattering, really.

If you haven't checked this duo out, or their various side projects and solo efforts, do so.  I have to mention their non-musical output as well - Jean Smith is an author, and David Lester has designed some nice shirts, as well as postcards, and the sobering "Gruesome Acts of Capitalism" booklet.  He's working on a graphic novel too!     

San Jose isn't the city I think of when I'm contemplating an evening out.  Despite the fact that I live in the aforementioned city, I usually look elsewhere for my entertainment needs.  That said, I do occasionally find myself in downtown San Jose, and it seems that every time I go, it looks more like a real city, with taller buildings and exponential neon sign multiplication.  One such neon sign advertises the Voodoo Lounge, the venue that Hellhound, along with Skinlab, Silent Sinner, and A Thousand Kingdoms played at on this particular evening. 

I had never heard the other three bands, and didn't even get around to checking to see if they had MySpace pages so I could get an idea of what they sounded like.  Nothing really sounds good on MySpace anyway - I'm not sure why that is.  Maybe it's because the sound quality isn't as good (although it's hugely better than the sound quality found on YouTube), or maybe it's because of the sheer volume of unheard music - something that inspires me to rush through the listening experience.  Anyway, I approached this gig eighties-style, which I figured was appropriate.  "Eighties-style" here means that I got there with no idea what the other bands would sound like.  Sure, I knew they'd be metal, but beyond that...

I met Wayne, Chris, and various members of Hellhound outside, which is something I haven't done anywhere, outside or inside, in over a couple of decades.  We're all sort of grown up now, although sometimes you wouldn't know it.  When we finally made it inside, a band which must have been A Thousand Kingdoms were playing.  They were actually pretty good, sounding raw and heavy, and featuring a singer who actually sang every once in awhile, trading off between the usual throat-tearing style so popular with many current metal bands, and some actual singing. I definitely enjoyed their set, although I'm not sure if I'd actually listen to their music much outside of a live context.  Silent Sinner weren't quite as good, with the vocals being more high-pitched in that stereotypical way that people mimic when they're making fun of heavy metal.  Chis opined that they occasionally sounded like old German speed metal band, Living Death.  I heard a bit of Kreator in there too. 

Hellhound ripped through a quick set, and fortunately the equipment problems that plagued their show in Alameda last month didn't come back for an encore.  The guitars were upfront and crunchy, and played with great precision of course.  This was my second time hearing the two new songs, and I have to say I prefer "The Bleeding Edge" to the other one (which I think is called "Circle of Trust", or something like that).  The old songs are as familiar to me as any of the other music I listened to in my youth, and it's great to hear them performed live again - especially "Killing Spree" and "Repression of Life".  The band got a great response from the crowd too.  Hopefully this time around they'll get the recognition they deserve. 

Like the old men that we are, we elected to leave before Skinlab played, so I still haven't heard them.  I know, I'll go check them out on MySpace, and be underwhelmed.  I'll be right back...  Yep.  Nothing new.  I guess they get points for sheer aggression, at least. 

Also, the guy who put the show together, working under the banner of Man Down Productions, is an old high school friend.  People are just coming out of the woodwork all over the place lately.  Now, why wasn't there a metal scene in San Jose back when I was a kid?