Mojo Nixon’s back baby, bigger than life and twice as crazy.

In perhaps the best news of 2009, Amazon has made most of Mojo Nixon’s albums available as free .MP3 downloads.  If you enjoy crazy rockabilly music, then look no further. Mojo does not disappoint. Heck, he even gets a shout out in the song Punk Rock Girl by the Dead Milkmen.

Oh and you might also remember him as Toad in the Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Or maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, most of his albums are hard to find in stores or online (at least in my experience), so do take this opportunity to enrich your musical library with such classics as Elvis is Everywhere or Don Henley Must Die.  I had the sheer luck of finding a new copy of Whereabouts Unknown at Flat Black and Circular in East Lansing about a year ago, and quickly purchased it.

I read this is in support of Mojo’s new release, Whiskey Rebellion, which is a neat concept–but given that Mojo hasn’t been in the eye of the mainstream for…uh…awhile, I can see why this happened.

Or better yet, in the man’s own words:

“Can’t wait for Washington to fix the economy. We must take bold action now. If I make the new album free and my entire catalog free it will stimulate the economy. It might even over-stimulate the economy. History has shown than when people listen to my music, money tends to flow to bartenders, race tracks, late night greasy spoons, bail bondsman, go kart tracks, tractor pulls, football games, peep shows and several black market vices. My music causes itches that it usually takes some money to scratch.”

Mirrored from Daniel J. Hogan. If something doesn't look right or show up, view the original blog post. Feel free to comment here or on the original post

It interesting where the Internet leads us some times.

I saw a Twitter update by @gmcalpin (writer and artist of one of my favorite webcomics, Multiplex) about the metal band Mastodon allegedly scoring the upcoming film Jonah Hex (based on a comic). It lead to an article on Ain’t It Cool News (movie rumors and such).

I read the article and was amused, I enjoy Mastodon but realized I don’t own nearly enough of their music. I hopped over to YouTube and watched a few music videos and also listened to some other songs, sampling cuts from the albums Leviathan and Blood Mountain.

Realizing I still had an online gift certificate from my birthday, I decided to buy a Mastodon album (along with Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon on vinyl). But I couldn’t decide which to get–then a friend commented on my Facebook page that Crack the Skye was nothing short of amazing (a friend whose opinions I hold in high regard).

So, I ventured back to YouTube to listen to a few cuts from Crack the Skye and read a few online reviews. I quickly decided on ordering the album–and when it comes to bands like Mastodon, I really prefer having the original CD over .MP3s (because the music is complex and/or layered–things that can get lost when compressing music to .MP3s).

After clicking Finish My Order, I sat back and thought “What the heck just happened?” Over the span of maybe twenty minutes, I went from reading about Mastodon scoring an upcoming film to buying one of their albums, mainly on a whim.

It was an interesting string of events: I read the article, listened to songs online/watched videos, got a recommendation from a friend who lives in another city, read reviews and purchased an album. All without leaving my seat.

I guess this shows you can’t underestimate the advantages of people talking about your stuff on the Internet.

Also: My latest article for Lansing Capital Gains is now online.  It is about the Soup Spoon Cafe, a very tasty restaurant (good coffee too).

Mirrored from Daniel J. Hogan. If something doesn't look right or show up, view the original blog post. Feel free to comment here or on the original post

Last week, I had the joy of being a judge for the first ever Delta Township District Library Battle of the Bands (say that five times fast). I shared this honor with Lansing-area musician Ryan Knott, and we both had a great time. There were four bands–Alumenium, SOULvation Band, Don’t Ever Tell, and Commodore Cosmos. Ryan and I were tasked with deciding which band won the grand prize–8 hours of recording time at a local recording studio.

The bands ran a very eclectic gauntlet, from latin jazz to indie rock to worship Christian rock. Thankfully, there was an excellent turn out, a bit over 200 people–which was great for a library on a Thursday night. Ryan and I each had score sheets and took notes while each band played, and we were also told to base our choice on crowd reaction (partially, anyway).

After the four sets, we made our choice–Alumenium, the latin jazz band. This was actually a pretty easy choice, because Alumenium just knocked it of the park from the get-go. They were a young group, which I think caused us (at least me) to underestimate them, but they were all great musicians.

My second choice was Commodore Cosmos, because I really enjoyed their lead singer’s presence and lyrics. Don’t Ever Tell was a decent pop-punk band (great drummer) and honestly, they were severely hurt by the lack of a quality sound system for the show (this event was the first of its kind, so that will be handled better if they decide to have another battle of the bands…and given the 200 or so folks that turned out, I think there’s a good chance there will be). I don’t really get worship music/Christan rock at all, so SOULvation Band, while good performers, wasn’t really my thing (although my favorite part of the evening was when the lead singer told the audience to “Get down with your GOOD self!”). And given the amount of fans singing along in the audience, SOULvation Band didn’t look like they were hurting for exposure.

What Ryan and I tried to base our final choice on was, which band would benefit the most from the studio recording time? Alumenium was definitely a band we could see doing some great stuff in the studio–especially since they were all pretty young and would only get better–and the type of layered music they did would work better in studio than live, I think.

This got me thinking: how many big bands/musicans have had a moment like this in their lives? I don’t know if it is me being egotistical or something, but I couldn’t help but wonder what effect I’ve had on the course of music history, for better or for worse. Likewise, say that by coming in second place, Commodore Cosmos decided to hone their chops even more and end up becoming the next big indie rock band (rejection is a great motivator, ask any writer with a stack of rejection letters. Or this other guy).

It makes you wonder (ok, maybe just me).

Mirrored from Daniel J. Hogan. If something doesn't look right or show up, view the original blog post. Feel free to comment here or on the original post

Our band, Shanghai Butchers, has our first show at the famous (to some, infamous) Macs Bar, June 22nd (Monday) at 9 PM. Cover is $5 and we’re opening for Portland punk band, Vampire Lezbos. We’ll also be joined by Tahquamenon Falls. This is an 18 and up show.

For those that don’t know, I play drums in the band. This is our first gig at Macs with me behind the drums and our first gig at an actual venue ’round Lansing (our first being at a charity event in Grand Ledge last month). Enjoy the lameo online flier I made.

Mirrored from Daniel J. Hogan. If something doesn't look right or show up, view the original blog post. Feel free to comment here or on the original post

Friday night I attended the EP release party for the Grand Ledge band, Jason Alarm (full disclosure: my cousin is the bass player).  They are a group of talented high school kids that I've watched start out in their parents' basements and evolve into the darlings of the Grand Ledge indie rock scene.

I've probably seen them at least a half-dozen times and they just keep getting better.  To celebrate the release of their EP, Engage, they held a show at the always charming Sun Theater in downtown Grand Ledge.  This is not the first time this movie theater had held rock shows, I've seen Jason Alarm play there before as well as a great Pink Floyd tribute band.

The line up for the show on Friday also included Cheap Girls and the Plurals, both great bands that I'm glad I got a chance to seen.  Cheap Girls were fresh off a European tour and rocked the place--loudly.  Plurals kicked out the jams as well (and helped with the release of the Jason Alarm EP, via their Good Time Gang label).

I arrived a bit early and got to watch the band names being added to the marquee outside.  It was amusing, and endearing because all of Jason Alarm was helping the theater get ready for the show, either by selling tickets and cleaning up after the last movie let out (Star Trek) of the single screen theater. Heck, even I pitched in at one point by helping assemble the last of the CD jewel cases.

The $8 admission also included a free copy of their hot off the presses EP, which was recorded in Lansing at Deep Pink studio.  I listened to it on the drive home and was blown away by the quality. The mix was great--especially the guitars--and I felt it captured the band's energy really well.

After Cheap Girls and Plurals finished their sets, the lights dropped down and Jason Alarm took the stage. It is easy to see why they have such a large following in Grand Ledge, their energy and originality draw you in (and their synth player adds a whole other fun layer).

A great show and a great EP, a heck of a way to spend Friday night in Grand Ledge.

Here are the promised photos from our gig a couple Saturdays back, click the cut to see 'em. View even more on my Flickr page. ( click to see photos )