Mika Miko ---- Sex Jazz

Last night, Steven and I went to see LA-based girl punk band Mika Miko here in town. After four or five decent opening bands, we were all a little tired, but Mika Miko played such a fun set that I walked out with a large bump on the back of my head, a gash in my thigh, and now it hurts when I open my mouth really wide; and Steven left the place with his glasses slightly crooked.
The band is really quite a charmer: Full of girls (and one guy) who look hardly tough enough to play softball get up to stage with their cute dresses and microphones and you feel like they are your sister's friends playing around with your gear. Then they start playing and immediately feelings of jealousy, lust and pure joy fill your body and you can't help but wiggle your tush and start throwing elbows at the punks in the room.
About halfway through their relatively short time on stage, one of the singers pulls out the saxophone. Before I even noticed, Steven turned to me and put his hands in front of his body and wiggles his fingers, indicating that this was a wood song, and we were gonna love it. I wiggled my way up to the front, so that I was standing inches from the sax player and couldn't help but doing the twist while occasionally turning to push anyone near me as hard as I could into the kids against the wall.
The song they were playing was "Sex Jazz" from their newest album We Be Xuxa. On the album, the song is organized back and forth from high sliding guitars, a deep bass groove, steady woodblock hits, and of course the simple, yet killer sax honks and wails. The tough-girl vocals are short, sweet, and hard to decipher. In concert, it was just a fucking bad-ass punk song with a saxophone. This band manages to pump out hard punk tracks and cause kids to punch each other in the head, while still maintaining the cutest stage-presence I've seen since Love Is All . One guy took off his pants (and his underwear), and I will admit it was hard not to do the same.

here you can listen to "sex jazz"
http://www.20jazzfunkgreats.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/mika_miko-sex_jazz_extended1.mp3

- Kimmy Gibbler

Setlist #5 7/25

Chase - Cronos (Saturn)
Sun Ra - That's How I Feel
David Bowie - Starman
John Zorn - Jazz I
Black Sun Ensemble - Leviathan Song
Alice Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Blue Aeroplanes - Spitting Out Miracles
Miles Davis & Gil Evans - Blues For Pablo
Phillip Boa & The Voodoo Club - For What Bastards?
Tower of Power - What Is Hip?
Bongwater - Too Much Sleep
Frank Zappa - Dupree's Paradise
Blurt - Aboule Ton Fric
Les Tubadours - The Sass Philosophy
Boys Life - Happy Days
El Topo Theme - A Veces
The Blasters - Keep A Rockin'
Sharpshooters - Massacre
Elliot Sharp - Fundamentia
Marion Brown - Dinki's Grorer
William Burroughs - Sermon The Mount 2

Setlist #4 7/18

Bill Chase - Bowica
Nico - Chelsea Girl
3 Mustaphas 3 - Maldita Kurida
The Kinks - Tin Soldier Man
Steve Reich - Section 8
Talking Heads - Slippery People
Artie Traum - Riptide
Sufjan Stevens - Mistress Witch
Bill Laswell - Purana
Duke Ellington - Caravan
No Trend - Fred Reality
Architecture In Helsinki - Do The Wirlwind
Roxy Music - Chance Meeting
Miles Davis - E.S.P
Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle - Circus Girl
The Ordinaires - Grace
Cass McCombs - Prima Donna
Jon & Vangelis - Back To School
Brian & The Mississippi Valley Dutchmen - Muziky Musiky Polka
Lawrence Welk - Baby Elephant Walk/ Theme From The Brothers Grimm
Paul Horn - Agra
George Shearing - Samba Da Borboleta
Tim Buckley - Accross The Border
Wayne Shorter - Someplace Called "Where"
The Beatles - For No One

Gay Beast --- Second Wave

As a concert tuba player for eight years, a jazz trombone player in high school, a (really bad) clarinet player for four years, and a frequent groper of many other various instruments - I am a musician. Though my only on-stage time is while I am in a tuxedo, I have always imagined creating my own music and starting a band that plays kick-ass shows. I know that this is not an unusual dream, and it may someday come true, but it is certain that Gay Beast's new album Second Wave has proven to me that I have a long way to go.
The other curse that musical training has granted me is that almost anytime I hear music I imagine the actual notation, the process it took to compose it, and what its like to play it. I have heard lots of music, and seen lots of bands that have made me think, 'I could do that'; Second Wave makes me think something more like 'What the fuck?!'. Explosive, complicated, loud. sharp, Gay Beast has been called "manic alt-alt-electronic", "the perfect soundtrack for a post-apocalyptic discotheque", and they refer to themselves as "Minnesota's premier agit-prog queer band". Whatever it is, it's really rad. The first track "Beach" certainly agitates, but surprisingly turns out in the end to be the most tuneful and song like of all the tracks. Then track two, "Revolt Revolt" bursts in with bitter saxophone mirroring screechy guitar licks, suddenly the album becomes a wind album and the testes tingle. The song then introduces deep almost funky bass lines and distantly powerful and confident melodic lyrics; it feels like a familiar hip-hop song, and the first signs of subtle dance urges arise. The ultra-fast anthem like "Aspirin" includes a little sax solo that will make any horn lover weak at the knees. My personal favorite "White Diamonds" remembers early Danny Elfman explorations with Oingo Boingo: honky sharp horn lines and stop-go rhythms make this song the kind of song that would make your mom throw up (I believe it also contains an ABBA cover). This is also the song that makes you realize the incredible musical talent these three have. The drummer, Angela Gerend, must be the scariest woman in the world. The amount of focus and stamina she needs to be the backbone for the most manic feminist band ever, is outrageous. Yikes! The frantic yet clear guitar of Isaac Rotto and of course the killer sax playing, keyboarding, and singing from Daniel Luedtke makes Gay Beast the kinda band that should be recognized as incredible talent, but never will reach great fame because of the pure dissonance poured all over it. Nonetheless, I think it's the shit, and it uses horns, so I am pleased as a peach. In another favorite track "Eeexxxpppaaannndddiiinnnggg", the lyrics go "Your boots got you shaking in your boots. Who's the he-she? Who's the urge? / My shoes, my enormous high heeled shoes / Match my lipstick, match my gun." This album is just incredible, and will make more than a few Morning Wood appearances. Their label Skin Graft says "The nuclear family explodes into a psychedelic mushroom cloud of writhing, urgent vocals set against the precise, premeditated clatter of guitar, drums and keys. Add a dash of electronic psych, and a spoonful of sax--and your goose is cooked." Now thats what I'm talking about.

This is the band's website (you can download "Eeexxxpppaaannndddiiinnnggg")
http://www.skingraftrecords.com/bandhtmlpages/gaybeast.html

- Kimmy Gibbler

Setlist #3 7/11

We have not recieved last weeks setlist yet, but we will now enter in the songs as we play them durring the show. This is from show #3 on 7/11/09

Bill Chase - Weird Song
Weather Report - Will
Mustaphas - Shaka Shika
Stan Kenton - Peanut Vendor
New Birth Brass - Ms. Lollipop
Kate Bush - The Saxophone Song
Gay Beast - White Diamonds
The Band - Rag Mama Rag
Les Miserables Brass Band - Manic Depression
Terry Riley - Dorian Reeds
Phillip Boa - Make You See The World
Tom Waitts - Such A Scream
The Bohemians - 8th Avenue Zoo
Pepe Kalle & Nyboma - Zouke Zouke
Marion Brown - Afternoon At A Georgia Faun
Poopshovel - African Bees
Captain Beefheart - Tropical Hot Dog Night
Dave Brubeck - The City Is Crying
Taj Mahal - Cakewalk Into Town
Unknown - Overature To The Sun
Blood, Sweat & Tears - Sometimes In Winter
Prince - It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night
The Beatles - Penny Lane

Setlist #1 6/27

I (DJ Gibbler) hosted the pilot show on 6/27, and this is what I played:

Gunter Hampel Group - Hericredophysionomystery
Michael Jackson -It's The Falling In Love
Love Is All - 19 Floors
Dizzy Gillespie - Lorraine
Nick Drake - I Was Made To Love Magic
Laurie Anderson - Example #22
McCoy Tyner - 13'th House
Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules Theme
Camera Obscura - Honey In The Sun
Sonny Simmons - Ballad For My Friend
St. Vincent - Black Rainbow
Air - Ce Matin La
Don Ellis Orchestra - Alone
Akron/Family - Gravelly Mountains Of The Moon
Antony & the Johnsons - Shake That Devil
Bennie Maupin - Mappo
Architecture In Helsinki - Debbie

Morning Wood

This is a blog to accompany the radio show on KCPR 91.3FM in San Luis Obispo, Ca. The show is hosted by DJ's Kimmy Gibbler and Belloq, and is dedicated to all music that has included woodwinds a brass into it's instrumentation. From the faintest flute lick in a rock track to a full fanfare brass song, the show excludes nothing: except ska... and Kenny G. The show is intended to give you a boner in the morning. This blog will hopefully be used to display the playlists from our show, and specially showcase certain artists, albums and songs that give us a hard on.
The show is currently on Saturdays from 8-10 am, but may change soon.