|
Links if you're going to waste more time on this old internet, and you've already seen the hamsterdance, here're a few sites tris considers more than worthwhile. none of these has interactive screens asking for personal information in exchange for consumer products, and none will offer you any fabulous services if you transform your browser into a rotating billboard. back de la soul: four albums, four masterpieces. has anybody else ever done that? don't say the beatles; as great as they were, there were duff tracks on every album they did. and john and paul were sharp, sure, but nobody's ever been as sharp as this -- at least not on record. click here to catch the latest news, and to pay homage to plugs one, two and three. (www.bestweb.net/~acurrier/dela/index2.htm) back denver zest: jersey kid jesse fuchs -- he's from newton in the frozen north -- picks apart consumer culture, communicative relationships and baseball legends in minute-long recontextualizations of the best indiepop and punk of the past twenty years. his musical erudition is staggering, his commitment to rock and roll is inspiring, and he knows more about card games than anybody you know. click here to learn how to play spooneye, a card game of jesse's own invention. (www.spooneye.com) back eml synthesizer: for the music-store geekazoid deep inside you, here's a list of the analog synths used by tris on *bottles*: korg mono/poly, korg electric organ, juno-104, roland sh-101 (red), casio cz-101, crumar orchestrator, moog rogue, and last but not least, the mighty eml 101. for pictures and descriptions of this uncanny guest -- designed to be used by schoolchildren, but revered instead by synth-punk wackos, click here. (www.synthmuseum.com/eml/eml10101.html) back fixations: dan madinabeitia is the new roger miller. his songs, both with jersey city's phenomenal fixations and now fronting his own combo, are depressive jazz in the truest sense. it's only a matter of time before his project blows up, but until then, click here to send him e-mail, tell him how much you dig his piano playing, and gently implore him to get on the fucking stick and establish a web presence so tris can have something cool to link to here. (dan_madinabeitia@iirny.com) back jersey beat: jim testa, an honest-to-god rock and roll hero, has been faithfully covering the new jersey underground music scene for the past twenty years. tris is proud to be a contributor to jim's legendary jersey beat, desktop published every few months right here on top of the palisade in weehawken. click here to check out the web version of the zine. (www.jerseybeat.com) back jersey city: so you want to know more about new jersey history, but you don't know where to turn? don't pester tom kean at odd hours of the morning with your questions; instead, allow tris to direct you to the new jersey room of the jersey city library on montgomery street. seek there and you shall find: old maps, old documents, old books and records -- click here for directions and further (somewhat wooden) explication. (www.ci.jersey-city.nj.us/docs/njroom.htm) back lolita nation: gospel according to tris mccall: michael jackson, joni mitchell, peter townshend windmilling, carole king knocking out the piano chords at the end of "it's going to take some time," prince be's kick drum programming, "black steel in the hour of chaos," everything morrissey/marr, liz phair, richard and linda thompson harmonizing on "walking on a wire," *blood and chocolate,* the native tongues posse, ray davies' memory and sense of place, roger waters' righteous wail, and, oh yes, this, the greatest and most meaningful album in rock history. (www.loudfamily.com/lolita.html) back loud family: scott miller doesn't just rock; he's also a lucid prose stylist. the official loud family website, hosted by sue trowbridge, has given miller a narrowcasted forum for his essay writing, and he's taken full advantage of it. the "ask scott" column, updated weekly, is fully archived by trowbridge, and makes for some dazzling reading. of course, you'll also want to explore the rest of the comprehensive loud family site, including a full lyric file, interviews and reviews from the past decade, and some very nice tablature for hard-to-play songs from *days for days.* (www.loudfamily.com) back matrix: a poetic prodigy, matrix's written work is perhaps most conceptually comparable to that of the young howard stern -- a revulsion at the material conditions of human existence that can only be expunged or muted by indulging in grotesqueries. but while stern was always content to ramble, matrix developed a rhythmic sensibility and bizarre discipline and hammered his observations into hideous stanzas. it isn't for the fainthearted, but if you're ready for an honest-to-god demented new jersey voice, click here and ask the poet for a sample of his lyrical bravissimo. (doudie@aol.com) back momus: george bernard shaw never, alas, had a website, but in the late nineties, we can content ourselves with the next best thing: the rapidly expanding homepage of nicholas currie, who performs behind the distrurbing/hilarious mask of momus. when he's not touring, spreading new classicist ideas throughout the free world, currie writes critical essays almost daily. a magnificent whiggish voice for technophilia, momus has, himself, created the very best testament to the power and potential of the new technologies he champions so articulately. (www.demon.co.uk/momus) back pere ubu: before *the modern dance,* synthesists were supposed to be either funky dance-groove merchants or keith emerson-inspired virtuoso wannabes. but allan ravenstine struck a blow for everybody too antsy and angular to find themselves fulfilled by neatly sequenced soundscapes. still the most genuinely experimental group in rock history, a good overview of post-industrial cleveland's pere ubu -- plus many valuable sound clips -- is available here. (www.net.yu/~merser/another/not80913.htm) back straw man special: over the past six years of songwriting and performing, many lovable paranoid cats have approached tris and asked him whether a particular scathing song/line/essay/play is secretly about them. after countless reassurances, gentle attempts at persuasion, and firm denials, tris would now like to say that if you have to ask, the answer is probably yes. (www.chem.ufl.edu/~schreib) back vintage synths: a special message from tris: "please do get this straight once and for all. a *keyboard* is the object i am now typing on. there's no such thing as a musician who is a *keyboardist.* both pianos and synthesizers might have things called *keyboards* by paul mccartney and stevie wonder, but the piano and the synthesizer are musical instruments as different as the bassoon and the theremin. if you can play the former, you're a pianist. if you can play the latter, you're a *synthesist.* now go learn more about the instruments you've nominally maligned for so long by clicking here." (www.synthmuseum.com/dir.html) back wfmu: just as the best rock club in new york is actually located in hoboken (it's maxwell's), the best radio station in new york broadcasts from jersey city. wfmu, the former college radio station of now-defunct upsala university, is that rarest of things in this industry-saturated cultural climate: a true free-form radio station. if you didn't know anything about fm 91.1, here's your opportunity to make up for lost time. don't blame tris if you never make it back -- it's for your own rocking good. back |