IRT Magazine

So I finally downloaded that rare Velvet Underground acetate of demos recorded by former Columbia Records ad exec Norman Dolph that was purchased at a yard sale in Chelsea for 75 cents, but wound up going for upwards of $40,000 on eBay. Thanks once again to former IRT art director Jesse Smith for the link to that jawn!

Sonically, the tracks are a little rough. A couple of the cuts, particularly “European Son”, have some rough patches from poor treatment of the vinyl grooves over the years, but nevertheless sound revelatory. Nine cuts in all, what you have here is a completely unheard take of The Velvet Underground and Nico, cut in one day at Scepter Studio on Chelsea St. in April of 1966 and pressed after hours at Columbia by Dolph.

The best stuff on here includes a wicked alternate take of “Waiting For The Man”, as Lou Reed’s lyrics documenting his routine trips up to Lexington and 1-2-5 to cop resonate clearer and more resoundingly than ever. “Venus In Furs” is killer as well, accentuating the morphine soul walk of the late, great Sterling Morrison’s bass guitar.

The Nico-sung stuff is cool and all, but I was never the biggest fan of her stuff, sorry hipsters, although there will always be a soft spot in my heart for “Femme Fatale”.

If you wanna hear the tracks, just type in Velvet Underground and Dolph on your little Google search engine there, and they are all over the net. -Ed.

The old adage goes something like this, “Comedians are the most unhappy people on earth”. Generally that’s true. But take a guy like Earthquake. I saw him perform at Caroline’s last Friday and.. Yeah he’s a tad surly and more than a little aggravated, but he never looses his cool. He’s always jolly even when he talks about how he’s been “trying to kill my baby mama legally all my life”. Quake can also bring a new adage to light “comedians are some of the smartest people” or at least some of the most witty. He thinks on his feet commenting on Caroline’s ugly curtains messing with the white folks in the from t row. He’s a frequent guest on Howard Stern (Howard calls him his favorite stand up comic” and had a memorable cameo in Clerks 2 as Wanda Sykes husband. Hopefully his star is just beginning to rise and we’ll see lots more of him. -The Quiz Kidd

Story: The Quiz Kidd

Here’s a quick recap of the films I managed to watch over the weekend

Farce Of The Penguins – Any film that is as popular as March Of The Penguins is bound to be parodied. Leave it to potty mouth everyman Bob Saget to bring together some of his comedian friends (including Lewis Black, Dane Cook, Carlos Mencina, Christina Applegate , Monique, Gilbert Gottfried and Penn Gillette) to poke a little fun at nature films. Using actual penguin footage with voiceovers and narrated by Samuel L Jackson instead of uber-narrator Morgan Freeman (which means the narrator says fuck a lot). The talent assembled is pretty staggering and will have you laughing even if the penguin footage used seemed a bit forced at times.

Catch And Release – The Only reason I went to see this was the fact that Kevin Smith is in it. I was pleasantly surprised. Instead of a cheesy romantic comedy Catch And Release was more of Zach Braff-esque drama. Well developed characters that you care about and a hip indie rock soundtrack. A date movie that won’t have men wanting to puke.

The Gathering – A low budget horror flick starring Christina Ricci. She plays an American tourist who winds up in a small English village and starts having visions where she sees townspeople dying in horrible ways. More atmospheric than most Hollywood schlock horror, but still not great. Probably would have worked better as a novel.

Dead Man’s Shoes – A revenge tale. A mans’ retarded brother is killed and he’s back to see his sibling avenged. More of a reflection on revenge than visceral (although there were some pretty violent scenes) fantasy, this is still a sobering look at the consequences of our actions. Probably the best of the films I saw this weekend

Dante’s Inferno – This was a submission to the GenArt film festival which I help to program (checkout www.genart.org). A primitively animated film that shows Dante what hell would look like now. Lots of pot shots at the Bush administration and current society in general. If you can get past the primitive style there’s lots to like about this film.

All Is Normal – Another GenArt submission. All Is Normal tells the story of a young woman who agrees to house sit a secluded Appalachian lake house to escape an abusive boyfriend. She slowly goes a little loopy and hilarity ensues in the form of knuckle bracing paranoia. Not flashy like a lot of modern horror flicks (see also my blurb about The Gathering) and was ten times creepier because of it. A well executed little thriller.

Queens used to have a million record stores 25 years ago. They were as common as laundromats and chinese restaurants in the strip malls of Maspeth and Astoria back in the dizzay.

But one lone giant still stands tall in the county, Breakdown Records on Bell Blvd. in Bayside. 

You can find everything from the Jane’s Addiction Gift video, which is going for mad duckets on Amazon to Julian Cope’s Peggy Suicide on CD to just about every sick rock record known to man, $2 a 12. 

Actually, just as I am writing this, none other than IRT no. 8 superstar J-Zone came through to flip through the stacks.

If you don’t mind, I gotta get home and peep this copy of the old Fantastic Four cartoon I copped from this jawn right about now.

Peace!

Patch Atomz

Sxip Shirey’s Hour Of Charm

Story: The Quiz Kidd

The golden age of the Circus may be well behind us. We are stuck between the animal cruelty of the Ringling Brothers and the New Age cheesiness of Cirque Du Soleil. But experimental artist and all around fun guy Sxip Shirey is trying to revive it thanks to his Hour Of Charm shows. Showcasing up and coming comedians, musicians, performance artists and assorted oddballs, Sxip’s Hour Of Charm reminds you of when the circus felt otherworldly and just a little bit dangerous. The artists who joined in the festivities when the circus rolled into Joe’s Pub on Jan 31 included

Corn Mo – He’s opened for Ben Folds and They Might be Giants and plays music that sounds like Andrew W.K. jamming with Tiny Tim. Accompanied only by his accordion and cymbal he hit with his foot, Corn Mo rides the thin line between outsider music and genuine pop spectacle. His hair metal lip-synched version of Hava Nagila had the crowd in stitches.

Red Bastard – A red suited monstrosity (huge bulging butt and belly prosthetics) bringing back the tradition of the buffoon. No one in the audience was safe from him as he hopped in to the crowd and demanded audience participation. One lucky, or unlucky - depending on your point of view, audience member even got to give the bastard mouth to mouth.

Curtis Eller – A man, his banjo and tales of presidents gone mad and dead movie stars. Curtis Eller plays apocalyptic folk music that sounds like it comes form the depths of the great Depression, dusty with the drought and ash of dead dreams. But he still managed to make us laugh. Gallows humor at its best.

Scotty The Blue Bunny – Big. Blue. Sparkling. Gay. Rabbit. In huge heels. Donnie Darko by way of Liberace.

Reggie Watts – Hip Hop, Soul, human beat box with a dash of the blues and William S Burroughs. Reggie Watts uses only his voice and a small recorder to create mind warping, textured songs and dense tone poetry. Like Bobby McFerrin if he worshipped Satan and read Edgar Allen Poe while listening to Run DMC.

Greg Walloch – Probably the tamest of all the performances of the evening, Greg is a stand p comic who uses his sexuality and cerebral palsy to point out the funny yet meaningful foibles of life. Comedy with a message.

Sxip Shirey – Using children’s toys, bowls, marbles and broken flutes, Sxip makes some of the most accessible noise/experimental music around today. His music sounds like field recordings from some future time when all musical instruments have been destroyed and society is forced to find melody in the mundane but always beautiful rhythms of everyday life.

Amanda Palmer – Better known as half of the Dresden Dolls, Amanda played some new songs and an impromptu version of “Girl Anachronism”. Her voice is so powerful it almost blew the doors off Joe’s Pub. Always more cabaret than Goth, Amanda sowed her show biz roots by bantering with the crowd about art, My Little Pony and the dangers of Guitar Hero addiction. I just hope the new songs she played are included on the next Dresden Dolls record, they were that good.