The Audiozine

Took a sick day on this rainy Thursday as the cold virus I've been nursing all week seems to be blossoming into a bouquet of sinus headache, fatigue, and gross nasal congestion. Passing the day with failed attempts at long naps, long meals, financial aid forms, reading for work and non-work. Came across this little gem of an article re: my friend and musical comrade David Baker Benson. The funniest part is that last week Brendan Fitzgerald (the author of the piece and my buddy/semi-boss at C-Ville Weekly when I occasionally wrote for them) called me up to ask if the rumors he'd heard of a DBB Plays Cups show at Random Row were actually true and if maybe I could pass on David's cell number so he could verify the gig's time/place/lineup. Called back and let him know that David's got pretty much no digital or telecom presence. Anyway, props to Brendan, his article does a nice job of summing up a number of the salient, unique, weird, wonderful features of David's ongoing project.

Tonight at the Teahaus:
DBB Plays Cups
CJ Boyd
The Don't Tell Darlings
cover is probably $5, show probably starts around 9 PM, we probably go on at 11 PM.

Thanks to you wonderful people for coming out to all the shows we've been playing over the last year and for sticking with us [because of vs. despite] our oscillation between tunes and chaos. We were just as confused and lucid as you were.

Two shows on Friday 04/17/09:

Early show:
DBB Plays Cups w/Caninos @ the Garage (250 N 1st St), show starts 9 PM, no cover.

Caninos play really upbeat pop songs with a dash of country and silly humor thrown in. DBB Plays Cups will feature Caninos plus myself as the backing band. This time you can expect me to mostly play keyboards (!!!) and, thanks to the Caninos, this show will probably be a lot more melodic, tight, and structured than the last few. I promised that last time, but this time I really really really mean it.

Late show:
Order, Buck Gooter, Accumulator Syndrome, La Mere Vipere @ DUST. Head to this one afterwards, it's guaranteed to be quite the opposite of the one we're playing -- loud, loud, loud.

Ugh, sleepless weekend. MEN on Friday was excellent -- great crowd, killer tunes blended expertly, and somehow Gravity Lounge turned out to be a far more dance friendly venue than I would've expected. And then last night I ended up catching Invisible Hand at the Tea Bazaar while drinking chai and eating pumpkin cheesecake pie (thanks Michael!) for dinner, then missing Caninos at the Laundromat, trying to DJ the afterparty but the booze had dried up, then trying to relocate to another party where tunes were wanted only to find that the kids were less interested in bass than in blasting, uh, Sonic Youth, Hanson, and Blink 182 out of a busted stereo. After nearly giving up, Jack/Andy/Jack/Andy and our extended crew overran the place and by 2 AM we had a small but healthy dance party going. Justice, James Brown, !!!, Juan Maclean, Estelle, Wu Tang, Mary J. Blige, Tribe Called Quest, and a 50 Cent/Nine Inch Nails mashup got dropped before it became way too late and we all finally called it a night. Fun!

Now emerging to let you know that DBB Plays Cups is playing yet another set at The Box on Monday night alongside this Bmore band, Scary River. If you caught our set last week at Preston + 10th, you can probably expect a retreat from the gaping maw of noise and back into the simple comforts of tunefulness. No cover, as usual.

Tuesday night, 9:30 PM, cover = unknown, venue = house on Preston and 10th across from McGrady's. DBB Plays Cups will be opening for a Scandinavian metal band called Arabrot. Myceum (Scott Ritchie's solo noise handle) will also be on the bill. This DBB set should be special as we'll likely have some synth and noise capabilities and a bare minimum of advance practice, even by DBB standards. More info at Nailgun.

Sunday:
OFFscreen presents short films by the Red Bucket Collective. The films were made specifically for this screening. More info here per Taylor of the Dec.

Monday:
DBB Plays Cups is performing live at The Box in downtown Cville, where Atomic Burrito used to be. I believe the show is free and we are playing before or after Jameson Zimmer, whose music I know nothing about. New lineup (as usual) for this show features our buddy Taylor playing obliquely disco basslines over David's songs and my beats which seem to be ranging this time from afro-cuban to spare clapping alternating with this Sun Ra mallets-on-toms vibe.

Kind words, much appreciated.

Check check 1 2 1 2:

A) Interview with David Benson of DBB Plays Cups. I've played a few shows with David; people who've seen more than one have a hard time believing it's the same band. The last show we played was at Gravity Lounge and featured Rob Froetscher (who conducted the above interview) and Gary Canino, both of whom David invited to play with the usual minimal preparation. Thanks to all who came out!

B) Mildred Pierce #3 -- third issue of a zine put out by John Bylander, an all-around great guy and artist who once called Cville his home. I need to order this and the other issues.

C) No more NIN?

Hey folks, exciting news. DBB Plays Cups will be opening for Birdlips and La Strada at Gravity Lounge this Thursday and I'll be playing drums that night. DBB Plays Cups is the brainchild of David Baker Benson and a rotating, open-door cast of musicians who play his songs in varying arrangements, tempos, etc. I think James Ford pretty much nailed David et al's strengths on a recent-ish Nailgun post:

"David clearly needs a structured musical backing that he can wander around over top of, but the only-partly-rehearsed band were always watching him for cues about where the lengthy, sometimes complicated songs were going, so they ended up in this weird catch-22 where he and the band were sort of clumsily following each other in a circle, making fun sloppy indie-/bar-rock while David solemnly intoned his brilliant songs over top. From the back of the room it sounded like a mess, but from the very front it was brilliant."

Ok, details:
Birdlips, La Strada, and DBB Plays Cups
Thursday February 12th
Gravity Lounge
8:30 PM
$8

If you are reading this --

AND --

you are in Charlottesville tonight (Monday Dec 22nd):

You Should:

Go See Invisible Hand and DBB Plays Cups live at The Box. DJ Lincoln Doolittle (aka John Ruscher) will be spinning afterwards.

If I were in Cville tonight I would: 1) be playing drums for DBB Plays Cups; 2) enjoy the hell out of an Invisible Hand set and 3) dance all night when John hits the decks.

More DBB Plays Cups related stuff to follow soon -- watch this space!