Writing is Fighting

NYC Trip and an ode to Neurosis

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Last week I made a short trip to the best fucking city in the world, New York. I went for two reasons: my friend / writing colleague Daphne Carr  invited me to do a reading and participate in a panel at Housingworks Cafe in Soho/Chelsea, and to attend a one-day symposium on the writings of Ellen Willis, a noted feminist journalist / rock critic who passed away from cancer in 2006. 

Both events went well, and sandwiched between the two events was a party for Anne Powers hosted by NPR, celebrating her new position as Pop Music Critic for the station. Overall, it seemed to be a weekend of music criticism and seeing music journo rockstars, like Robert Christagau, Powers, Daphne Brooks, Joe Levy, Donna Gaines, my homegirl, Decibel's Jeanne Fury, Kandia Crazy Horse.... so much that by the time Saturday afternoon came about, I thought my head was going to explode. One of the highlights was not only meeting new people / contacts, but also seeing the elusive Ian Christe, my soon-to-be publisher (Bazillion Points) and metal journalist extraordinare. 

Odd Future - Should We Be Scared?

(UPDATE: Sorry y'all, I realized this morning that the video is no longer available via YouTube so instead of starting at a black screen, I pulled it.)

When I was at SXSW I was talking to someone who had recently seen Odd Future's showcase. "It was crazy, a mixture of Hip-Hop, but the crowd was nuts," he said. "People were stage diving, moshing...there were people puking, blood....it was one of the craziest things I've ever seen."

I was intrigued. I had heard of the LA -based Hip-Hop group by reading an article in Spin a couple of months before, and even though I don't listen to much ( well, any) Hip-Hop these days, I thought that they might be a cool group. I liked the fact that they were young, and had this crazy attitude, even thought I wasn't a fan of their music. Too Eminem-ish, which I don't like (or get) at all. I was interested in their live performance, which to me seemed pretty righteous - a mix between the Hip-Hop scene and a real punk / hardcore aesthetic - Perhaps two cultures mixing together? Cool. 

After all, these are young Black kids who were  influenced by a myriad of music and culture, I hoped, so perhaps their crazy live show was a symptom of that. Who knows? If so, kudos to them, because I really promote the idea that just because you are Black, doesn't mean that you have to ascribe to a specific culture and / or musical preference. A sign of their generation / times? I hoped so.

Stay classy, Texas....well a few of y'all, anyway........*

So I finally decided to write about an incident that happened when I was at SXSW. At first, I really wanted to but then decided that I wasn't sure,  because there has been a bit more traffic here since the Festival that I didn't want new visitors to think that I was a nutjob...or a, ahem, "Victim" but in the past few days I've read a few awesome posts that made me change my mind. 

Here is one from one of my favourite bloggers, Womanist Musings.

And here is one from Depraved Mindset.

This is the one that really compelled me to write: This is Hysterical.

I've previously written about being a POC in the metal scene, not only here, (btw, that relationship is officially dead) but a few times over the years, and while thing haven't been so bad that I've packed up my leather and chains and decided to write about another genre of music, there have been times when I have simply felt so tired of dealing with bullshit, that I seriously contemplated my future. This particular experience isn't really one of them, but it has stuck with me since it happened, and I simply couldn't figure out whether to write about it or not:

SXSW Pictures and Audio for "Are Metalheads Smart Enough to be Online?"

I didn't go crazy with  shooting this year. I just didn't feel like fighting the crowds on this trip. Also, still struggling with my new lens, for some strange reason.........

Also, here is the audio recording of  the Panel. Enjoy! 

 

SXSW Day 3 Recap

I've decided not to talk about the "N-Word - Stay Classy, Texas" story.

Anyway, so the panel was on Saturday and it went pretty well. I was proud of my PowerPoint presentation, and the panelists, my homeslices Phil Freeman and Sean Palmerston, Metalsucks.net's Vince Neilstein and Noisecreep / Buzzgrinder's Sean Cannon were fantastic! Thanks again, guys for agreeing to to do this.

Later in the evening, I headed down to check out Profound Lore's showcase at the Valhalla, and it was great. My review of the SXSW Festival (I admit, very metal-ish) is up at Exclaim!, where I talk a bit  about the show.

Chris Bruni is the man. Perhaps I respect his work because as the owner of Profound Lore Records, he cannot seem to ever make a mistake: Every band on his label is so supremely talented, that even if they are musically your cup of tea or not, it is clear that Bruni has an eye for great talent. But also, he's Canadian, making a huge impact on metal worldwide, which I think is pretty cool. the above sideways pic is of this fantastic band on his label, Grayceon, who I have to check out a bit more. Amazing musicians. 

SXSW Day 1 Recap

Shit I'm getting old, but after a 22-hour day, I realized I have more energy than I thought. 

First day was great. It is hot here and I'm probably a tad overdressed, but after getting my pass at the convention centre I went full-tilt. First thing on the schedule - I went to Full Metal Texas at Emo's to catch the last portion of Kvelertak's  set and meet up with my roomie and Hellbound editor, Sean P. 

After that, I went back to the hotel, changed into some comfortable clothes and headed back down to Emo's to catch Trap Them, and YOB. I'd seen Trap Them before and I think I met a couple of the members last year at MDF, and they always put on a high energy show - their drummer is a hoot. 

YOB? That was a fucking religious experience. Whoa. I actually saw them twice yesterday, and both set lists were different with the exception of performing "Burning the Altar." The first set was pretty interesting, as Mike S. (vocals, guitar) is an interesting fella. Really intense (I'll post more pics up at my Flick a bit later). The only thing was is that they were using another band's equipment, and there was waay too much bass coming out of the speakers and it overshadowed Mike's vocals and guitar. This guy is sensual, mystic and eccentric . His physical movements seemed at times to be so umm, physical and in a weird way vunerable that at times I was compelled to look away. He is a phenomenal vocalist and I'm sure that for the youngsters at the first show, they might have been a bet weirded out at first, but the crowd was totally enraptured by his presence.

After meeting up with (Grim) Kim Kelly and Carmelo Española (who both write for Invisible Oranges , among other places) and chatting, Carmelo and I grabbed a bite, sat down on the disgusting Red River sidewalk and later, headed over to Barbarella to catch a showcase, featuring about at least 7-8 bands. There were some good, some bad and since I'm covering the festival for Exclaim! I'll get into the details later. I purposefully hung around to catch the showcase's closers, YOB perform their second set of the day.

Then the coolest thing happened: So Mike S. walks by me and I stopped him and congratulated him on the earlier set. After asking if they were selling their first CD, Elaborations of Carbon ( I was desperately trying to find it online) He said, 'no problem, I'll give you a copy." A few minutes later, he hands me a copy. I was like, fucking awesome! I told him that one of the tracks, "All the Children Forgotten  blew my mind the first time I heard it, and he said, "I'll play it for you tonight."

And they did! I was grinning and singing like crazy and to see them perform it live was unbelievable. I think that made my SXSW trip. The second set was way more crisp and defined, the sound loud but even and heavy as hell. I went up and thanked him afterwards. It is really nice to find out that someone you admired for their musicianship is actually a really nice guy. Doesn't happen that often.

Today: 

I'm going over to the convention centre to catch at least a couple of panels, and then headed over to meet with Phil Freeman to see Pentagram and later, Wormrot.

Then it is over to see Kylesa, Howl, and check out another showcase with this great band, Year of the Dragon. Later, its Crowbar and St. Vitus! Yeah! 

 

 

 

Off to SXSW!

Yippee! (I think)

Heading to Austin to moderate this panel  and to cover the festival for Exclaim! Once I get off the plane, I'll be off and running, trying to cram in as many shows as possible, seeing colleagues and getting my editor / roomie, Sean P from Hellbound to take me to at least one awesome BBQ place - funny, this will be my fourth year there and I have had some of the best Mexican food, but never BBQ........

So this afternoon, it's panels and then Trap Them and YOB and hopefully later in the evening, Fishbone and Wu Tang Clan! There is some time between those two, so I'll probably wander the streets for awhile. 

I'll be back with regular updates! 

Sharing Too Much Information on the 'Net

This was an interesting week. For a hot second, I almost shut down my blog......and then I thought about it, and said, "nah."

My blog has caused me some problems, recently. Here was the first problem:

1. People who can't mind their fuckin' business:  To make a long story short, someone with an axe to grind read something in an earlier post that I wrote and told a mutual acquaintance that it was about them.

It was not.

Changes...Please Bear With Me.

Hey everyone,

I have been fooling around with the design of this blog and deciding whether to keep it on Typepad or move to Wordpress. I'm not sure if I like the layout changes I implemented yesterday.....thinking I'm going to change it, but trying to find something with a bit of flash and the ability to post more photos.

Also, I'll be moving the URL to www.writingisfighting.com. I will do this before March 15th or so, as I want it rolled out before I head to Texas to speak at SXSW. 

In other news, the last two weeks I've been recovering from more surgery, so I've been out of the game for a minute. What has been interesting over the past few months is how much pain the human body can take. It's been both physically and emotionally brutal and while I've had two weeks to chill at home, because of the nature of the surgery, I've had to spend a good portion of that time lying very still and flat on my back. Outside of the occasional FB/ Twitter ramblings, no blog posts.

However, a few days before I went off work for the surgery, I did take a post - "Being a POC in the Metal Scene" and revamp it for a re-post over at Racialicious, which was really cool. Great comments and I was able to take it from a 'rant' and shape it to a more cohesive post about the book and such. 

Also, I've had a couple of interesting things that have happened in the past few weeks. From commenting over at some other sites, a conversation I recently had with one of my brothers and the realization that I have a hard time towing the 'party line': i.e: I have strong opinions - not a big mouth, per se, but a point of view that tends to differ from the vast majority of others - I'm wondering if this is the time to re-focus my blog content. I don't want to stop being 'me' as I like 'me' - at least 60% of the time, that is - but there is already so much negativity in the world, I wonder if I want to continue to add to it. Just a thought. 

But life isn't that positive right now.....well it is, as I'm looking forward to putting the finishing touches on my book, looking forward to Texas, seeing some friends and checking out some great bands, and later in the year, heading back to Maryland Death Fest (the above pic is from 2010 MDF - Gazelle Amber Valentine from Jucifer) with my homies. But in my 'real,' non-metallish, journalist, photography life, things have been difficult. But is it still appropriate to vomit my issues on a blog? Anyway, over the next few weeks, I have to think about it.

Stay tuned!!!!!! 

 

"Happy Black History Month, Motherfuckers"

Remember how in my last post I mentioned that someone copied by bank card and took out money? Well, the saga continued for almost two weeks and was rectified this morning when the money was returned to my account (and yes, this has to do with the title). 

I'll back up a bit: A couple of weeks ago, I went to a store in a crappy neighbourhood to buy some hair (or as I call it, hurr). Because the last batch I bought was what I thought pretty unmanageable, I let myself get talked into buying a pack of hair that was about three times' more expensive that the previous stuff. The salesperson, a bored Black teenager working in a all-black hair supply store that was run by non-Blacks, people who stood, arms folded,  glaring at the crowds of Black women customers whose hair was in various stages of disarray. They were lined up behind the cash registers that were positioned one level above the sales floor, presumably so they could get a better vantage point to target shoplifters - hence the massive security monitors at the entrance.