My Laptop is Hot

So, I got bored and started reading through my old gchat transcripts. I've been involved in some hilarious conversations with people. Anyway, if you don't know me from school, I was a sound tech for my collegiate career (and probably should still be doing it because I was pretty good at it). When I wasn't watching money-grubbing speeches, I was watching bands hammer away in various basements across the town of Oberlin and engineering for some of them. I saw a ton of super good shows. I saw just as many bad shows that weren't campus shows, which weren't uniformly awful as you might believe. Kids did have really good bands. For a long time, there was always a show; it was just a question of where it was. Anyway, this sendoff is dedicated to two of the better openers I saw during my time in Oberlin.

There was this dude YACHT who came to campus twice. If you have never seen YACHT, I highly recommend that you do. I've gone to hundreds of shows. His shows are two that completely stand out to me. The first time I saw him was in an apartment. Place was packed and everyone was completely into it but still trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Like, he straight up put the place on blast. He danced around and threw himself into the audience over these fractured art-dance beats. Like, I'm at a loss of words for it. It really can only be experienced. I can't find a good version of his live show, so you will have to be left in the dark about how awesome his show is until you experience it for yourself. I also saw Barrington Levy, which was just mindblowing. But, I'm getting nostalgic instead of leaving...

The two videos that I'm going to post I have experience with because I mixed both of them.
The first video is from a band named 54-71. The jury's out on this band. I'm into them though. This is a four-piece coming straight out of the land of the rising sun. They are like a groove band with a terrible emcee, but the low quality of the emcee only adds to the charm of the band and, surprisingly enough, the groove. When I saw them, they were opening for Deerhoof and the drummer's snare was only 10 inches instead of 12, so it had an extra pop. As Patrick Richardson said, every time you hit a 10-inch snare, it's like someone flicking your nipple. And he should know because he's a drummer. But, this show is infamous in my mind because the lead singer had a stream of snot coming from his nose and put his hand over the microphone to avoid getting his nose juice on it. As well, the whole band aside from the lead singer wore full body spandex suits. When they stopped, everyone was confused about whether that was the worst thing they'd ever seen or the best. I clearly thought it was the best. This is the video for 69 My Pheremone Up.



This second band opened for Sleepytime Gorilla Museum although they probably could have held their own show and gotten it well attended. The band is Old Time Relijun. I tend to rant and rave about them a lot, but that's primarily because they remind me of my favorite form of post-punk: no wave. OTR is a three-piece band. The drummer rotates (It was a nice woman named Jamie when I saw them), the bassist plays a stand-up bass, and the lead singer is a renowned throat singer. They were easy to work with, and they were the type of band that I like. They put it all out on the stage and were super professional. Sleepytime had a huge setup. Even though they were late, they took out a corner of the stage, set up in like 15 minutes, didn't sound check, and killed it. I love bands that operate like that. It made my life as a tech super easy. This video is from their most recent album "2012". The song is Wolves and Wolverines.



Have a good night everyone. Internet, I love you, but you would be better if you were a skyscraper.