RIP: Koko Taylor, Chicago Blues Artist

By David Nadelle on Jun 3 2009

The notice on the bathroom stall was simple: “Seeking foot worshipper for long walks, to watch movies (Walk Hard, Stepping Out, Stomp the Yard) and Scattergories! Will not turn down eager, open-minded ankle biters and calf lovers but prefer those with an erotic, sexual, unshakeable attraction for the foot, proper! No one bearing plantar warts, bunions, or ingrown nails need call." I looked once. Twice. I was no foot fetishist by any stretch of the imagination but I did love L.A. kick-thumpers Foot Village. If this message could get me closer to the sole of the band in any way then maybe I would take my chances. I hesitantly jotted down the number and skulked out thinking about the prophylactic promise of what could be…

Little did I know that I could have just turned on my fuckin’ computer, brought up the new and improved Foot Village website, and gotten dem goods that I so dearly needed! Fellow followers of drum love will rejoice when they see that the Foot Village not only have a new album, Anti-Magic, coming out on Upset the Rhythm on July 21 (July 6 in the U.K./Europe) but have made freely available to everyone a ton of full-length, unedited, mp3 covers of their “Chicken and Cheese 2” -- parts of which will be included in the “super-collage” at the end of Anti-Magic’s LP and CD versions (which use different pieces for their respective collages) -- on the site at this very direct link. While on the site you can check out Anti-Magic’s awesome and insane cover art.

Who be thee artists and friends providing the cover versions of “Chicken and Cheese 2”? Be thee: AIDS Wolf, ANAVAN, Big Digits, Bio Bitch, BITCHES, Blue Sabbath Black Fiji, Brian Lewis Saunders, Cap N Fresh & The Stay Fresh Seals, Death Sentence: PANDA!, Eddie Brnabic, Fuck Hits Combo, Fur Fur, Geiger Retort, Gian Carlo, Herons, Holy Slouch, Ice Sea Dead People, I.E., Italic Indian, Jason Forrest, Kid Infinity, Kyle H Mabson, Laco$te, Lee Noble, Meta Magical, Mr. Pardiero, Narwhalz, Nero’s Day at Disneyland (contributing two versions), Paid in Puke, Power Sherlock, Robert Inhuman, Spirit Duplicator, Sunken Landscapes, tik///tik, T.I.T.S., Tussle, Two 2 Tango, Vankmen, Weird Habit, Window$, Wolfblitzer, and don't forget YNGWLV.

The digital and cassette (!) collage edits have yet to be completed by the band so there is still time to record a version of “Chicken and Cheese 2” and send it along to have your noise live forever in infamy, posterity, and absurdity.

Magic mushrooms:

1. Energy Hunters
2. Reggae War Zone
3. TAKE
4. Death of the Endless
5. -.. .-. ..- -- -.-. .. .-. -.-. .-.. . (a.k.a. Morse code “No Jam”)
6. Grace’s Death
7. National Jamthun
8. Crybaby
9. .-. --- … . .- -. -. . (a.k.a. Morse code “Roseanne”)
10. Anti-Magic
11. Chicken and Cheese 2 (with friends)

The band of sausage-toed athletes will screech their asses across the Atlantic for dates in the U.K. and Europe in October and November (lock up your sons and daughters, etc.) but for now, only residents of California and ambitious travelers will be able to see the band. Hoof it hard to these shows:
06.20.09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Smell %
06.28.09 - Los Angleles, CA - The Smell #
07.11.09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Smell ^
07.12.09 - San Francisco, CA - The Lab $
08.03.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Pehrspace *

% Religious Girls, Our Brother the Native, Voice on Tape

# DAT Politics, Captain Ahab, Battlehooch

^ Upset the Rhythm Showcase with K.I.T., Gowns, Death Sentence: PANDA!, Lucky Dragons

$ Upset the Rhythm Showcase

* Sean Carnage Anniversary Show with Nu Sensai

By David Nadelle on Jun 3 2009

We would never claim Jimmy Page to be an angel (actually, we have gotta give the man some credit for having impeccable taste) but, though innovative as he was in some regards, he cribbed notes wholesale time and time again. It has become a known fact that if Page snakes your action you must be something special. This may be some consolation to Bert Jansch but more consolation would come in the form of official credit for writing Zep’s “Black Mountain Side” (and possibly “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp” too). Page may have been the most obvious of admirers but many others have looked to Jansch for inspiration, among them, Neil Young, Nick Drake, Donovan, Johnny Marr, Beth Orton, and many new followers like Devendra Banhart and Espers. No matter who cops his moves, Bert Jansch is something special and something many more people will get the chance to figure out over the next few months. The revered guitarist will be touring this summer and has had a hand in reissuing three of his past masters which are due in a couple of weeks.

The tour will take Jansch all over the U.S., into Canada, and even close enough to this writer’s cardboard hovel to get hands sh-sh-shaking in anticipation of witnessing a rare live appearance by the venerable solo artist/Pentangle legend. Nearly half of the North American dates have support from Alasdair Roberts, who also knows a thing or two about commanding an audience's attention with his own folksome ways.

Dates:
06.08.09 - London, England - Jazz Café
06.26.09 - Albuquerque, NM - The Cooperage
06.28.09 - Denver, CO - Swallow Hill
07.01.09 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir
07.02.09 - Seattle, WA - Triple Door
07.03.09 - Vancouver, BC - Richard's on Richards
07.04.09 - Victoria, BC - Conservatory of Music
07.06.09 - Anchorage, AK - University of Alaska
07.08.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Largo
07.10.09 - Santa Cruz, CA - Don Quixote's
07.12.09 - San Francisco, CA - Café du Nord
07.13.09 - Portland, ME - The Space
08.03.09 - Montréal, QC - La Sala Rossa #
08.05.09 - Toronto, ON - Horseshoe Tavern #
08.07.09 - Pittsburgh, PA - The Warhol #
08.08.09 - Columbus, OH - Wexner Arts #
08.10.09 - Chicago, IL - Martyrs #
08.12.09 - Lexington, KY - The Dame #
08.14.09 - Asheville, NC - Diane Wartham Theatre
08.16.09 - Charlottesville, VA - The Southern #
08.19.09 - Alexandria, VA - Birchmere $
08.20.09 - New York, NY - City Winery #
08.21.09 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's #
08.25.09 - Edinburgh, Scotland - Edinburgh Festival
09.05.09 - Birmingham, England - Moseley Folk Festival

# with Alasdair Roberts

$ with Al Stewart

Jansch's three albums on Charisma -- L.A. Turnaround (1974), Santa Barbara Honeymoon (1975), and A Rare Conundrum (1977) -- will be issued for the first time on CD on June 15 by EMI/Virgin. All three albums have been remastered and include bonus material selected by Jansch, including many unreleased and newly discovered tracks. L.A. Turnaround will be an enhanced disc and includes a previously unseen 13-minute film made around the time of recording which features Jansch monkeying around with Mike Nesmith, Red Rhodes (Nesmith’s pedal steel sidekick), and others. Each album comes with newly penned notes, original artwork, photos, can opener, corkscrew, tweezers, toothpick, and saw.