bands | Mike Cane's Blog

What Could Have Been…

December 12, 2007

Update: As of August 16 2008, when I happened to peek in here, the fake Rolling Stone magazine cover I’d created was shown to be expired. Expired?!!? WTF is that?! How absolutely stupid is that!? FAIL! I should have done a screensnap. If I knew this was going to happen, I would have — and replaced their eejitastic version.

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com
Subscribe to Rolling Stone Magazine at an 86% discount!

Rachael Cornick, Heather Fairlight, Liz Kelly

Girls Don’t Cry <//3
(In English: Girls Don’t Cry broke my heart…)

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Posted by mikecane

Never Never Never Never Never Never Ever Quit

December 8, 2007

I never thought I would write this.

And it has to appear here.

Because it’s about Girls Don’t Cry.

They no longer exist. They’ve disbanded.

They’ve quit.

Girls Don’t Cry as they were on June 21, 2007:
Sora An, Rachael Cornick, Hannah Fairlight, Liz Kelly, Caitlin Gray

Don’t Quit!

Charles Bukowski

Having failed to hold a job, and now fast becoming a failed student, there was increasing tension at home. When his father discovered he had been writing stories on the typewriter they bought to help with his college work, Henry tossed the manuscripts, the typewriter and his son’s clothes out onto the lawn. Bukowski took $10 from his mother and caught a bus downtown where he rented a room on Temple Street before moving to a ‘plywood shack’ on Bunker Hill. He dropped out of college soon afterwards, In June, 1941, and, after working manual jobs for six months, in the Southern Pacific railroad yards and at the Borg-Warner factory on South Flower Street, he set out to explore America so he could write about ‘the real world’ of rooming houses, factory jobs and bars, like John Fante.

He caught a bus to New Orleans and worked in a warehouse there, saving his money until he had enough to quit the job and pay his rent in advance so he could stay in his room all day and write. When he ran short of money, he tried to live on candy bars to postpone getting another ‘eight-hour job of nothingness’. The only friend he made in New Orleans was a near-senile old man, and the only place he went was a depressing bar near Canal Street, ‘the saddest bar I was ever in’ as he wrote in his poem, ‘drink.’

In Atlanta, Georgia, he lived in a tar-paper shack lit by a single bulb. He was still trying to write, but the stories kept coming back from the New York magazines and he allowed himself to starve rather than get a regular job, believing that writing would save him, like the deluded hero of Knut Hamsun’s Hunger, another favorite novel. Atlanta was the nadir of Bukowski’s time on the road, almost the end of him. Sick with hunger, he wrote to his father asking for money and, after getting a long letter of admonishment by reply, he considered committing suicide by touching a live electric wire. Then he noticed the blank margins on his newspaper and began writing in them. Looking at his life in retrospect, he said this was the moment that proved he was a writer. Although nobody would ever read what he had written, he felt compelled to scribble something.
— Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life – the biography – Howard Sounes

Nicole Griffith

I read somewhere that someone once said that in order to make one’s living in any field of creative endeavor one had to be almost psychotic. You have to believe in yourself so strongly, to sit there day after day with your computer or your pen or your piece of paper or guitar, and think “I can do this. 999 billion people before me have failed, but I can do this.” It’s quite a psychotic state of mind to have to hang onto year after year. It takes years. Nobody does it overnight.
— interview printed in the eBook, “The Reality Break Interviews: Volume #0” – Dave Slusher

Don’t quit!

If you are going through hell, keep going.
–Winston Churchill

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Posted by mikecane

Band: Venomentality On Radio Tonight Sunday September 23 2007 At 10PM EDST

September 23, 2007

Go to Albany Edge’s audio stream to hear it live tonight!

Warning: This sites requires registration to access the stream (stupid, stupid, stupid!). Ordinarily, I wouldn’t blog something because of that (stupid, stupid, stupid!) requirement, but I think it’s worth the effort to hear Venomentality tonight. Do it early in case there are other requirements relating to compatible media player and/or codec.

Previously in this blog:
Photo Album: Venomentality At Virgin Megastore Battle Of The Bands (Thursday)
Band: Venomentality @ Virgin Megastore Union Square NYC Tonight September 20 2007 At 7PM!
Photo Album: Venomentality At Virgin Megastore Battle Of The Bands (Sunday)
Photo Album: Virgin Megastore Battle Of The Bands In New York City
Band: Venomentality, Today Sunday September 16 2007 @ Union Square Park NYC
Band: Venomentality, Tomorrow Sunday September 16 2007 @ Virgin Megastore Union Square NYC
MySpace Music: Feh!
Why You Should Be On MySpace

Leave a Comment » | bands, greatness, music | Permalink
Posted by mikecane

Photo Album: Venomentality At Virgin Megastore Battle Of The Bands (Thursday)

September 21, 2007

Venomentality participated in the next round of the Virgin Megastore Battle of the Bands last night. The outcome at the end of this post.

But first, the action pictures!

The Virgin Megastore Stage. Where Juliette and the Licks played too!

The band gets last-minute advice from Valerie’s Mom.

Last-minute tuning and checking…

…and it’s on!

Venomentality in full rock effect!

Kristin on bass, Valerie singing

Ben drumming, Valerie singing, Peter guitaring

Ben makes way for Valerie’s power guitar!

Kristin doing her bass guitar thing

Peter doing his guitar thing (with color correction added!)

Valerie using her power voice on the crowd

Valerie pondering her next vocal maneuver (with color correction added!)

Peter making that guitar work!

Valerie bending the guitar to her will!

Ben guilty of beating up his drums again!

Valerie: That weird guy with the camera is here again!
Peter: Oh noes! Will we have to pose again?

Yes! Peter Kansas, Ben Zeigler, Kristin Hoeg, and Valerie Webb

Uh-oh! Ben has that Pre-Scream Look on his face again!

Valerie: I can feel that weird guy behind us!
Peter: Ben, you should have screamed!
Ben: Don’t worry! Kristin is calling the cops.

And the outcome?

I will let Venomentality speak for themselves in today’s MySpace Bulletin:

We’re so excited to announce that Venomentality won first place in the Virgin Megastore Mashup at Union Square in NY!!! Although we didn’t win the grand prize to L.A., we did win a consignment deal with the NY Megastore and we had the experience of a lifetime!

We also had the privilege of meeting some amazing bands…one of which we’d like to give a shout out to…

Please go check out MINK at www.myspace.com/mink. They are on tour with Satellite Party right now and they were super cool to us. Go friend them and tell them Venomentality sent ya!

We represented upstate as best we could and it was a blast! Thanks to Shane and the entire staff and Virgin, and to everyone who came out to watch the bands!

Congratulations! It was a great show by them!

When their CD is available, I’ll let everyone know!

In the meantime, sample some of their tunes on their MySpace Page.

And if you look at their new photos, no, you’re not seeing double. I gave them a copy on CD-R of all the photos I took last time and they’ve posted some of them.

Previously in this blog:
Band: Venomentality @ Virgin Megastore Union Square NYC Tonight September 20 2007 At 7PM!
Photo Album: Venomentality At Virgin Megastore Battle Of The Bands (Sunday)
Photo Album: Virgin Megastore Battle Of The Bands In New York City
Band: Venomentality, Today Sunday September 16 2007 @ Union Square Park NYC
Band: Venomentality, Tomorrow Sunday September 16 2007 @ Virgin Megastore Union Square NYC
MySpace Music: Feh!
Why You Should Be On MySpace

Leave a Comment » | bands, greatness, legends, music, photos, social, The Real Life | Permalink
Posted by mikecane

Photo Album: Venomentality At Virgin Megastore Battle Of The Bands (Sunday)

September 17, 2007

Photos taken Sunday, September 16, 2007

Venomentality is a band of four I came across on MySpace by stealing Friends from others. They are: Valerie Webb (songwriter, guitar, vocals, saxophone, piano, ASCAP Member), Peter Kansas (lead guitar), Kristin Hoeg (bass), and Ben Zeigler (drums).

And this is what it was like to see them play live!

Valerie Webb carrying her magic guitar to the stage.

Lead guitarist Peter Kansas follows in shades

Checking, connecting, tuning

Valerie introduces New York City to Venomentality!

They begin with Behind Black Eye Liner

Playing

Getting into it big time!

Close up: See Valerie’s hair move!

Close up: See Ben’s hair move!

Valerie just singing…

… impressing the audience

They move with their music!

Two portraits of Kristin Hoeg, bass guitarist…

Two portraits of lead guitarist Peter Kansas…

Two portraits of drummer Ben Zeigler…

Valerie on guitar — and her voice!

Battle of the electric guitars!

Music ecstasy!

Valerie moving

Kristin watches Valerie mesmerize the audience

And then it’s all over! Too soon! Peter leaves the stage first.

Valerie with her hot guitar

Kristin with her cool bass guitar

Ben with his beaten drums!

Kristin shares a moment with her Mom

They pose for Virgin photos …

… too far away from me!

Ben has a fan!

Valerie happy!

Kristin passes by

My specialty: Photos without faces!

Kristin and Valerie hydrating

Valerie looking towards the future?

Hurrah! I get all four to pose for me…

… but Ben figures out who I am …

… and screams in sheer terror!!!

But I’ve been screamed at before, so it doesn’t work!

Kristin, Ben, Peter, and Valerie

Venomentality: Remember that name!

“Valerie, who was that guy?”
“I don’t know, Peter. Some creep with a camera!”

My specialty: Backs, no faces!

The audience loved them. Mink, the band they opened for, loved them too! Hit their MySpace page to listen to their tunes. They just added a new one: Losing Control.

Great news! If you missed Venomentality Sunday, you have another chance to see them this Thursday!! They’ll probably be on the same stage I saw Juliette and the Licks!

Union Square Virgin Megastore
14th & Broadway NYC
Sept 20th
7pm
FREE/All Ages

Additional:
Venomentality MySpace Page
Union Square Park (it has free WiFi!)
Virgin Megastore Battle of the Bands

Previously in this blog:
Photo Album: Virgin Megastore Battle Of The Bands In New York City
Band: Venomentality, Today Sunday September 16 2007 @ Union Square Park NYC
Band: Venomentality, Tomorrow Sunday September 16 2007 @ Virgin Megastore Union Square NYC
MySpace Music: Feh!
Why You Should Be On MySpace

Leave a Comment » | bands, greatness, legends, music, photos, social, The Real Life | Permalink
Posted by mikecane