this Thursday night the SF Eagle hosts the Homo A Go Go Opening Night Party. Cover without a “big Homo” pass or other higher level passes is $10. Puce Moment, Madame Morte, Piriah Piranha, local sensation (how else can we describe Brontez?) the Younger Lovers and LA’s Hard Place all share the stage. Come out and buy Jeremy Smears a birthday drink!!!
Down about being separate but ‘equal’? Mystified by the new breed of gay unicorns the california supreme court birthed today? Don’t sweat it, come to the gay bar and have a good time with us!
5/28/09
The Eagle (398 12th St)
Brian Glaze
Hard Place
Mon Cousin Belge
Myles
The way California votes may be a total bummer but those bozos aren’t going to be at this show. There will be advance copies of the new Brian Glaze record Green Living (or, pre-order it through this here site). Mon Cousin Belge will continue to inch their way closer and closer to Spinal Tap like absurdities on their endless run of reunion shows! Hard Place will be making a rare San Francisco appearance and this is also your first chance to catch Myles of The Passionistas doing his new, super polished, super professional, super solo project.
Did you know that Freddy Cristy, while not confusing and angering people with his output in Hard Place, makes animations that are so cute you want to hug a puppy to death after watching them?
The World Famous offices have been filled with laughter over the past few days since we saw these two reviews pop up in Still Single: Vol. 5, No. 1 by Doug Mosurak over at Dusted Magazine.
First a review of the BRIDEZ seven inch:
Cruddy no-fi rock aping Royal Trux but getting stuck somewhere in between Be Your Own Pet and bratty trust-fund kids slumming it. Singer Liza Thorn was once in So So Many White White Tigers, a decent enough band that should have stuck around for longer, for they were far more interesting than either track presented here. If you were DYING to hear some rock music, like you were about to expire due to dehydration and this record was the antidote, then I suppose you’d have an excuse to jam it. Not me. What did anyone hear in this that made them think “hey, I’d better press this up?”
And now the review of the Hard Place/Passionistas split EP:
Bay Area split single combines harmless, innocuous, passable bedroom pop by teen neons, the Passionistas, with the tacky, slick electro-crap of Hard Place (the poor man’s Ssion, maybe a homeless man’s Sparks). Never would there have been a point in my life where I would have considered purchasing such a record as this, so if you think like I do, best to bail out, now.
At World Famous we believe that Love and Hate are two sides of the same coin and a review is good whether it moves you to sing its praises or to spew bile all over the place. In fact, we love a bad review, and these were particularly entertaining (seriously, we may refer to Hard Place as “the homeless man’s sparks” from now on). Thanks Doug!!
We mentioned that Love and Hate were two sides of the same coin, so here’s some very nice reviews from our friends over at Aquarius Records
First the BRIDEZ seven inch:
Bridez front woman, and the cover star of this here 7″ single, is none other then Liza Thorn, who was responsible for unleashing a thrilling and damaging whirlwind of fierce energy here in the Bay Area with her previous band So So Many White White Tigers. While Bridez is a much more song based endeavor, there is still that reckless energy and dirty quality to their songs that makes this such a fun, fiery and righteously sleazy debut. We hear healthy doses of Pussy Galore, early Hole and the early recordings of The Runaways. Bringing a much needed element of danger and drunken passion to fucked up rock n’ roll. So good!
Now the Hard Place/Passionistas split EP:
The Passionistas have been gaining some well deserved attention here in SF with their super catchy and colorful pop hooks, dipping their musical toes into both power pop and glam, providing the missing link between Big Star and Sparks. Speaking of Sparks, Hard Place open their side of this split with a very Sparks influenced and triumphant sounding pop nugget. There’s a very early ’80s larger-than-life, arena-ready aesthetic to their sound, yet it’s delivered with such earnest spirit. We suspect there is some Van Halen, Andrew W.K. and maybe even a Jefferson Starship record in their collections. We lean a little towards The Passionistas on this split, but pop enthusiasts will find lots to like on both sides of this little piece of wax.
Also, the folks over at The Bay Bridged liked “Righter’s Block” block by The Passionistas enough to include it in their monthly mix, so be sure to check that out as well.
But why rely on reviews? Take a listen below and make up your mind yourself. If you like it, the records are available from Aquarius or can be ordered directly from us:
This is going to be so much fun. Work off those turkey day pounds dancing till your feet bleed!! The Over 40 Gay Man’s Beauty Contest was a total success, men over forty really want to show you their beauty! We’re doing it again, start getting your outfit and talent together. You have to do better than this awesome push up that won last month:
Three new songs from The Passionistas, lovingly recorded by JR from Girls: Righter’s Block, Ashlee Simpson, and French. On the flip two from Hard Place: a Totally Radd!! remix and a new one called Heroes of Dawnbreak.
Two new nuggets from BRIDEZ: Rolling Stoned b/w Heart. You’ve blown your speakers playing these to death on YouTube, now blow your speakers playing them to death on your stereo.
Have you ever crushed the hopes of a Squire? I’ve seen it happen. It went down something like this: Elton Tom and I went down to Lake Arrowhead to help with a new Hard Place video. Have you ever been to Lake Arrohead? If not you totally should go because its totally gorgeous and who knows how long nature is going to hold out. Driving in with Elisha, we could see the charred remains of what used to be tree covered mountainsides. A haunted forest that managed to make the Norwegian black metal (Emperor, if you’re one of those) blasting from the speakers sound good for more than one song.
We met up with bozo savant duo Freddy and Ashley at the Chateu de Huizenga who had their lovely friend Pilar in tow. Costumes were donned by some and then we set off to a Renaissance Faire on the shores of the big bear lake (also gorgeous) for some pre-shoot inspiration (I think). Have you ever been to a renaissance faire?? If not you should go because it is hilarious and frightening all at once. Its more of a medieval fair than a renaissance faire but its exactly what you think its going to be; people too geeky or too into history for dungeons and dragons. I kind of couldn’t believe they were actually saying things like “M’lady” or “thou doth lookst” or “ye” while all around you D-cups overrunneth. Nor could I believe “Ye Olde ATM” when I saw it even though I was joking about it the whole way there. Maybe I’m not telling you anything new, but as I said, I’d never been.
So there we are: Freddy in his ill fitting peasant shirt and over-sized boots and cutoffs, Elisha in a toga and skinny black jeans, and Ashley with a fresh flame on top of her head in a dancers outfit, cut somewhat too high, leopard skin print with bright rainbow streaks. (Elton and I looking pedestrian in our street clothes. Pilar walking the line with some gypsy kinda shorts on) Unsurprisingly, Ashley is a hit at the faire and we learn pretty quickly that the renaissance crowd is a pervy one. Again, probably not that surprising, there’s curvy women everywhere in corseted dresses designed to use the least amount of fabric possible to yield the shapeliest breast (with limited results, some of them jiggled like melting gelatin). It was still surprising how the way “m’Lady” could be said to make the skin crawl or the way men would ask if Ashley was a “wood nymph” while eying up her birthing hips. All in good fun I’m sure, but I’m convinced they were having orgies with each in the forest after the faire closed it’s gates. Or key parties in their hot tubs at home.
So we wander into the ring of the bawdy juggler who told ball jokes for a half an hour and then invited Ashley on stage as an assistant where he molested her. I believe this guy actually licked her neck. Ashley is a good sport though and you might have thought she was a plant based on her performance. I’ve never seen Freddy laugh so hard.
Afterwards we’re laughing and talking about the juggler and his, uh, juggling stick when a lusty wench rushes over! “Oh… he’s very good. Very good…”, but then she glared at us and hissed “But he has a child you know! And a wife!”. She scurries off and we’re confused because she has a shot glass shoved in between her tits. Actually, we look around and most of the ladies have shot glasses between their tits. WHAT IS THIS? Are we in a medieval fraternity? How have we missed body shots going on all around us? Another lusty wench scurries up to us and disdainfully corrects us “They’re bodice chillers m’Lady, to keep us cool in the heat. See?” And she smugly pulls from her breasts a long glass horn which fits snugly against the breast bone. But you know they’re doing body shots out of it.
I’m off topic. The Squire! So we end up at the jousting match. Jousting! Actually its entirely boring for a long time while they torment us by not jousting. Luckily, Pilar’s young fresh face caught the eye of ribald elder who explained to us in detail how the men wish women would carry pickles between their breasts so they could eat from between the bosom and also how the jousting ritual works. He wanted us to realize that the job of the squire was perhaps the most important of the whole fair. I can believe this because they are basically first response for these men in armour charging at each other full speed on horses with lances pointed at each other. At one point we saw both men knocked from their horses and one landed squarely on his head. The squire rushed over to make sure the knight was ok “Are you alright m’Lord?” he said without breaking character. It was pretty impressive. This guy was all business.
After the match we were allowed to pet the horses. The Squire was tending to the horse and laid eyes on Ashley and earnestly asked “Are you a Fairy, m’Lady?”. “No, uh… I’m a wood nymph” she said. “Oh…” he looked to the distance with great sadness and then rushed off to take care of his duties.
That is the story! I’m not sure it provided any inspiration for the video shoot or not. Take a look!
