Mann's World

Currently listening to: Nothing because my computer’s sound card is screwed up.

So, I decided to try I Tunes, but to do so I had to upgrade my computer’s OS from Windows ME. I ordered a copy of Home XP and installed it, only to find that my sound card’s driver needed to be updated. I managed to get it working, and should have left well enough alone, but this morning I went ahead and tried to install Itunes, which screwed everything up again. In attempting to re-fix the problem, I somehow uninstalled the driver for my CD-Rom drive, and now can’t reinstall it because the system restore disk tells me the driver is missing. Well, no shit.

All this would have been bad enough, but two things have made it a borderline crisis in my life: My turntable is also screwed up, and I realized that in order to download anything from Itunes I would need the security code from my credit card – which I long ago cut up in order to prevent myself from using it. Have you ever been so angry you couldn’t see? That happened to me today. At one point I thought I might actually pass out from rage.

On a much brighter note, I saw an absolutely awesome band this evening: Stinking Lizaveta from Philadelphia. The best way I can think to describe them is Middle Eastern math rock. They’re instrumental, the bass player plays one of those proggy electric stand-up basses, and they’ve got one bad ass female drummer. The two guys look like Yanni, which is weird because, if you believe their Web site, the guitar player is named Yanni. I kept wanting to bang my head, but kept getting thrown off by their odd stop-start time signatures. They remind me a lot of Richmond’s Breadwinner, who put out some amazing singles on Merge back in the early ‘90s. Jessica took some photos with her new camera phone, so I’ll upload them when she e-mails them to me.

Tonight’s show was part of Kings’ new Sunday matinee series. They came on around 7:30 and played till 9 p.m., which got me home in plenty of time to relax, write this, play catch with the dog, stress some more over my computer woes, talk to Mr. X and finish reading the Sunday times before going to bed. There were about 15 people there, which is about what they’d get on any weeknight for an unknown band. I hope it catches on. Truthfully, I’d like to see Kings (and other clubs) start all their shows early and have the bands play two sets.

I should mention Drunk Horse, who I saw at Kings just before Halloween. The buzz was that their guitar player had been in The Fucking Champs, but, other than being heavy, the two bands really don’t sound much alike. That was good for me because, even though I love metal guitar theatrics, The Champs have never really done much for me. I think they actually shred too much --- if you can believe such a thing – and don’t pay enough attention to the foundations of their songs. Listening to them is like eating a cake made of nothing but icing.

Drunk Horse doesn’t have that problem. They are straight-up, balls out rock ‘n’ roll, tight as hell with a lead singer/guitar player (not the Champs guy) who evidently spent his childhood studying Ted Nugent, but thankfully not taking him too seriously. On the advice of their merch guy, I bought the new CD, “Adult Situations,” which is good, but doesn’t begin to capture what they’re really like live.

On a completely different note, I think Mr. X is succeeding in getting me to like dancehall. One of my current obsessions is Jamaican dancehall star Sean Paul, who can currently be heard backing up Beyonce on her single “Baby Boy.”