The future of music

Caution: the lyrics are nsfw



This is the future of rock and roll.

Henry Rollins is Intense

I'm guilty of overplaying Henry Rollins on WUNH. Black Flag, Rollins Band, spoken word, War Time — whatever, I play it all too much. So when I saw that he was speaking at the Music Hall, I was there. I had never been to the Music Hall before, so I was completely surprised to find out how awesome it was. I like really old buildings, what can I say? Oh, and comfortable seats. Anyways, I dragged Zac from Billy Raygun by the ear, shoved a ticket in his mouth and pushed him into his seat (awesome seats, by the way. Fourth row orchestra! [oh, and if you haven't heard Billy Raygun, hear them. You'll thank me.]).

Henry was set to appear at 8:00, so he naturally hit the stage at 7:59:58. I sat down and prepared myself to be pontificated at for two and a half hours. The last time that I saw Henry was in Boston for his Recountdown tour, and once before that for his Provoked tour. Both times, he presented fresh material that I had never heard. This time, though, he rehashed a story or three from the two previous times that I saw him. While it was a bit repetitive at some parts, he has so much to say that you tend to forget exactly what he said last time so it all feels sorta fresh. Sorta. I still found myself interested and laughing at everything that I'm sure I laughed at last time.

One new story that I was particularly interested in was one about a debate he had with Jack Thompson at UNH. Apparently, Henry and Jack were debating the censorship of music and the banning of hip hop music. While students at other colleges were all for keeping their liberties and protesting censorship, UNH was the only school that greatly favored Mr. Thompson over Mr. Rollins. Since then, he explained to us, "I've always been a bit gun shy of you guys". Understandably.

Throughout the night, Henry Rollins discussed his tendency to visit what the government refers to as "hot areas" like Pakistan, Iran, and Syria. He also encouraged all of us to do the same and not to spend our college educations on ourselves, but rather use it to educate others. I always leave a Henry Rollins show feeling inspired and then not remembering all the great things that I planned to do until I see him again. "Shit, I meant to drop out of school and join the peace corps. Oh well, next semester, definitely."

I'd highly recommend seeing Henry Rollins next time he rolls through the area, which is always and often. He's been in New Hampshire and Massachusetts each twice in the last two years, and I'm sure he'll be back again, seeing as he tours about 170 days out of the year. Consider picking up one of his many, many spoken word or music CDs, books and DVDs. Now to go listen to My War.

AltCom is awesome

Firstly, I'd like to thank Steve Theo and the rest of Pirate for bringing me here. And Brian, who runs AltCom every year. Alternative comedy has been a pretty big part of my life since around 9th grade, so it's great to see a festival dedicated to something so wonderful.

It sucks that Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter had to cancel the first night of the festival, but they're busy in New York working on their new show, Michael and Michael Have Issues. If you're a fan of anything they've done (The State, Stella, Wet Hot American Summer, The Ten......) then definitely keep your eyes open for this new show. I'm sure it'll be great. Despite the fact that they cancelled, Lafta Obscura, a sketch comedy show, were very funny. It was hosted by the founder of 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, Ken Reid, which made it that much cooler.

Last night was the big one; the one I've been looking forward to for a while. There were two shows: Janeane Garofalo/Leo Allen/Myq Kaplan & Micah Sherman and Upright Citizen's Brigade/Rob Riggle/Ian Moore/Eugene Mirman. I got a bunch of pictures and got to meet a lot of cool people.

The funniest part of the evening, though, was before either show had started. I was standing out back and talking to Janeane Garofalo when a cop came up. He just started in, "What's your name?" "Janeane." "Janeane who?" "Janeane Garofalo." "You lost weight." Apparently he was patroling the area because there were supposed to be protests against something she said in April.

Her performance great. I've been a fan of her since I saw her on an episode of News Radio, so I might be biased towards her, but I wish I was married to her.

(apparently I can't rotate pictures! It's okay, it's blurry anyway)

The openers were great, too. Leo Allen had a pretty good quote that we should all remember: Radio: I hope you like Nickelback

The second show was just as much fun. Eugene Mirman, my favorite current comedian, opened. Delta Airlines recently lost his luggage, so he handed out postcards to the audience to send to them.

My name is ___________. I am a fan of comedian and actor Eugene "Horsedick"
Mirman (who you may recognize from his small,recurring role on HBO's Flight of
the Conchords.) Mr. Mirman flew your airline from Seattle to New York, where you
lost his luggage. Quick exposition: you delivered his luggage twice to the wrong
address in Atlanta, GA, refused to pick it back up, then said you would pick it
up, then never came, and then told him to file a claim and wait to hear back
within 10 weeks. Eugene described his traumatic incident with your terrible
airline on stage. As a result, I will never ever ever ever fly with you again.
Your airline is worse than someone dressing up like Hitler as a joke and not
understanding why that's offensive. If your airline was drowning, I would save
you, but give you look like, "I can't believe I'm saving such an asshole." To
make things right, if I were you, I'd formally apologize to Eugene on
television, give him controlling stock in Delta Airlines or $10,000 (whichever
is greater), and lastly make a video of yourself in the balls while going, "Why
am I hitting myself?" and put it on youtube.Yours Truly, _____

I have a feeling I'm going on with this way too long, and there are still two more days of shows, so I'll stop here. Rob Riggle was very funny, both alone and then again with the Upright Citizen's Brigade. Ian Moore was charming and British, and Myq Kaplan and Micah Sherman did an amazing job as the hosts of each show. I'll post more, and if you want to see pictures of me with all the celebrities, then you'll have to become my Facebook friend, because I'm not plastering my pictures everywhere. And I need a lot of internet friends to make myself feel joy.

"Rap Chop" featuring Vince (Steve Porter's Slap Chop remix)

I can't believe how well that is done.
and how poorly he did after

AltCom!

Hey folks! Chris here to let you know that I'll have the privilege of heading down to Somerville, MA early next month to cover the Alternative Comedy Festival (AltCom!). It's a pretty awesome four day event featuring the world's most unique comedians. I just wanted to give you a heads up to keep an eye on the blog, and also to let you know about AltCom.

The comedians this year are Janeane Garofalo, Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black (of MTV's The State), Upright Citizens Brigade, Rob Riggle, Eugene Mirman, Leo Allen, The Onion Live, Myk Kaplan, Jamie Kilstein, The Steamy Bohemians, Brian Longwell, Ken Reid and a whole bunch more.

It kicks off on May 7th and ends May 10th. You can get tickets to each event through Ticketmaster and www.artsatthearmory.org. Also, be sure to visit www.altcomfestival.com.

If I see you there I'll let you buy me a drink!

-Chris Bovio

Mason Proper at WUNH

Mystery LP 3/16

This week's Mystery LP comes from scenic Pittsburgh. The band is Iron City Houserockers. The album cover isn't exactly subtle, nor the music "deep". This one is produced by Steve Cropper of the Blues Brothers band. A great mystery LP, a poor album.

The Mystery LP can be heard Mondays at 850p between Gammalyte & Trance Lab.

Hear it at the end of this hour: Click Me

Cheers,

Lord Bass