DIY Surgery

Hello. My name is James, and I’m reviewing myself.

This is what happened when my band, Surgery Dot Com, played at Comet Ping Pong on 11/19/11 with Booze Riot and Replicant, pushing our agenda of broken amps, wrecked minds and ruined lives.

This was only Surgery Dot Com’s second show. The first one was in September at the Corpse Fortress with At The Graves, the Coits, and two bands from Olympia, WA, that ruled. So, we were very eager and amped for this show.

We worked hard to write a sick set of new tunes which we couldn’t wait to subject an audience to. With that in mind, we warmed up in the parking lot. My former job is a few doors away from Comet and I barely suppressed the urge to vandalize that basement bookstore coffee-shop piloted by a Napoleon complexioned swine which shall aptly remain nameless.

My original plan was to send every member of Booze Riot and The Coits into the place right before closing time and have them order complicated and expensive drinks only to proclaim that their drinks sucked while demanding reparations. But since one Coit couldn’t make it to this show, the potential for the destruction of property and a brawl was severely reduced and that put a damper on the whole evening.

Anyway, back to reality for ping-pong and pizza. The Com has one of the best vegan pizzas I have enjoyed inside the Beltway. While munching a slice, I started getting into that nice whoa-where-am-I-what-the-hell-is-going-on-who-am-I-why-am-I-here-whoa-man-whoa-rock-n-roll state of mind that generally sets in before a gig.

Replicant opened the show with what could aptly be termed “some good, heavy, post-hardcore-influenced metal. The ‘Cants seem to be nice guys who are enthusiastic about what they do. Fun fact: They had, by far, the nicest gear of the three bands on this bill, and accordingly they sound far more professional than yr humble Dot Commies. They reminded me a little bit of Zao, but are more “musical.” I eventually learned that the guitar player used to be in a band with one of the Zaoists. Let’s just say he that didn’t have any fond things to say about him. Yeow! Whoa! Hey! Alright!

While Booze Riot was setting up, somebody plugged an ipod into the PA and played Black Flag and Minor Threat and noisy ’90s alternative rock, which ironically put me in just the right mood for the Booze Riot. I’m very intimate with this band – a little too intimate, some might say. Their guitarist and vocalist, Brain Riot, is one of my (and Ross Dot Com’s) roommates, so the Riots is at the house often (a little too often, some might say), and we all share gear and booze and food and stuff – it’s kind of like we’re all members of the same tribe, or, to be more specific, like we’re all a mottled collection of flies, united by our position inside a tangled spider’s world wide web, vibrating frantically, arrhythmically, and pathetically.

Speaking of Booze Riot, I’ve heard like a million of their practices. They keep getting heavier, tighter, crazier and, in a word: better (Editor’s note: I  too like my bands like I like my women ftw).

This show was the best I’ve seen yet. What I love about this band – in addition to the Riot’s straightforward and catchy old-school punk/hardcore rock – is BR’s attitude. Far too often, bands give me the impression that they’re running down a checklist of requirements for whatever genre or scene they’re trying to fit into.

The Riot does not give me this impression.

Rather, the Riot gives me the impression that they are insane motherfuckers (literally) who aren’t out to impress you, me, or anyone else. BR’s mass of confidence, energy and good old fashioned audience harassment made their’s my favorite set of the night. …

… My spazz-o-meter ticked up another notch as Surgery Dot Com prepared to hit it.

I was planning on using Booze bassist Aus Doyle’s amp since mine blew out at practice the night before (not the first (or second or third or fourth) time I’ve pulled that off); then Doyle’s amp blew a fuse at the end of their set. Luckily, Replicant’s bass dogg was cool enough to loan me his rig. It’s always chill to use other people’s stuff that’s way nicer than anything I could ever afford.

Before I’d even had time to attempt to figure out how this amp worked, Ross was surfing waves of feedback and Dan was slaying his drums, setting up the intro to our first song. I “got it together” just in time.

What happened next is what usually happens to me during a gig that doesn’t suck: As soon as I started playing, the spazz receded and was replaced by total immersion in the music.

I love playing in this band. I love Ross’ twisted and gnarled, yet pretty, layers of guitar and the way he sings mellow melodies on top of it, and I love how Dan plays choppy off-beat (yet also on-beat) rhythms with understated tastefulness.

I hope my bass playing, with its hardcore and Black Sabbath influences, sounds good with what they do.

I’m not sure how to best describe what we do, but we’ve been compared to Sonic Youth, Placebo, Swans, Q And Not U, and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah zzzzzzzzzz.

What I know for sure is that the three of us tore it up at this show. The songs sounded tight, the stage banter was almost as awkward as a Lemonheads gig, the crowd was decent-sized and seemed into it, and we were way into it. Everything was going great until the last song. Ross and I were so overly distorted that we got lost in the sauce. At one point I looked at Dan and then at Ross and realized that we were each playing different parts of the song. I guess they caught this at the same time, because the next thing I know, Ross is flailing across the stage and throwing his guitar on top of a speaker to let it feedback and Dan and I jam our way out of the mess. The audience, of course, is largely unaware that we arguably made a mistake — they’re loving it!
Thanks a bunch to Rep, Booze, Ross ‘n’ Dan, Comet, vegan pizza, jobs that fire me, gullible audiences, DayAfterDay and whoever’s reading this.

In order of importance, the morals of this story are:

A) Always play from the heart.
B) There’s a sucker born every minute.

Editor’s note: A

Bradley Manning Supporter Ron Paul Takes Second in New Hampshire Republican Primary

Paul, a prominent supporter of accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower Bradley Manning, claimed second place in tha New Hampshire Republican primary contest.

Paul, who has called Bradley Manning a “true patriot” and a “hero” also is in second place in the delegate count for the Republican nod.

During a speech at a campaign rally last year, Paul said that he supported for immunity for whistle-blowers:

“What about giving immunity to the whistleblowers? They’re the ones who need immunity. We have a few brave souls, especially in the foreign policy area; it came up in Vietnam, it’s come up more recently: Wikileaks. Technically yes, they’re breaking a rule, but what is the government doing?  They’re breaking the law!”

Political observers note the contrast between the major Republican candidate who supports PFC Manning and a Democratic administration that has subjected him to abuse and now threatens him with the death penalty.

“There is a wide base of support for Bradley Manning across the political spectrum - not only from progressives, but also many libertarians and conservatives,” said Kevin Zeese, a legal adviser to the Bradley Manning Support Network.

“Ron Paul’s support for Bradley Manning is indicative of the fact that the true dividing line in American politics today is no longer between Republicans and Democrats. The real division is between a corrupt political establishment and those who seek a democracy that respects the rights and aspirations of the American people. Americans of all stripes are standing up for Bradley Manning because they know that the dangerous precedent set by these extreme abuses of his civil liberties threatens all of us.”

According to chat logs that have been attributed to PFC Manning, the accused whistle-blower himself identifies as a libertarian, and several close friends have privately told representatives of the Bradley Manning Support Network that they consider PFC Manning to be a libertarian.

Scenes from the Scene – November, 2011

Death Rats vocalist Christine Cuniff at work at the Black Cat

David Combs working at the Black Cat

Surgery Dot Com’s BETA Launch – By Ari Ross

Ping-pong tables flank the concert stage, and two yards in front of me the singer announces through the long ropes of curls binding his face, “Occupy the nest. Lay eggs and occupy the nest.”

“This has been kind of a weird show,” someone standing nearby comments.

It wasn’t the interstitial rants of Surgery Dot Com’s singer Ross Camp K that supplied the weirdness, but the show’s lineup was kind of weird. Surgery Dot Com were playing their first headlining show, at Comet Ping Pong, with openers Replicant and Booze Riot. The opening bands would fit comfortably together on another bill: Booze Riot’s thing is Black Flag influenced aggro on the punk tip, while Replicant plays scary-growl metal.

While Booze Riot and Replicant aggress in an immediate, physical way, Surgery Dot Com expresses aggression by standing behind purposely intelligible lyrics attacking less traditional topics such as morality and the transition from adult-adolescent to adult.  Rather than literally striking the audience in the gut, Surgery Dot Com sticks it to them by eschewing the caveman routine to connect directly. Not all bands can get away with this, and it was striking how this approach pushed Dot Com out of the wheelbarrow of the show into their own fiefdom. Some of this can likely be attributed to the band members’ history and the development of the band’s sound.

Singer-guitarist Ross Camp K and drummer Dan Sachs came to form Surgery Dot Com with bassist James Haitchwai after playing together in the alternative band True Womanhood. While Dan left TW after six months, Ross spent about a year locked up with the band, experimenting and coming up with new sounds. As True Womanhood’s current sound bears little resemblance to its Ross-era stylings, Dot Com retains no cognizable relation to old or new True Womanhood.

At least three Dot Com songs started as riffs in the old band. “At least they’re as I remember them,” Ross says. His job in True Womanhood involved scraping his fingers up and down his guitar like noodles slapping the strings, creating as much noise as melody. Writing songs for the first time, Ross now holds together this “power trio,” and has acquiesced to a much more solid rhythm role in Dot Com.

There’s always the risk of cliche, boredom, and a lack of options with any guitar-bass-drum trio. It’s been done to death and, without more than the central instruments, or at least a shtick, there is the danger of doing what countless other three-piece rock bands have done.

Watching Surgery Dot Com, one can imagine that Camp K’s  songs would be freed to wander across more dangerous territory with a fourth pair of hands available to throttle the guitar and handle noise duty independent of the singer’s focus. Camp K is locked to his guitar as he sings, and this self-imposed limit inevitably shapes the band’s performances.
The result of the members’ history with music that is more confessional and refined than pugnacious has led the group to songs that shift from mid-tempo grooves with clearly enunciated lyrics to blazing Hüsker Dü-style rockers.

While the band’s audio dynamite lumps them in with No Wave-inspired new rock, they gig alongside metal and punk bands that evoke words such as “nihilism” and “beer.” The former group defines itself against the world through the content of the delivery and a disinterest in the thoughts of the audience. The latter offers singers who define themselves against the world by raging shirtless, pelting the audience with (mostly) spent beer cans and belittling all within the point-blank range of whoever holds the mic at a given time.

Performers, and people, can’t simply will themselves toward social status. It comes with comfort in one’s own skin. Justified confidence makes concern and fear disappear, and then Ross K is just looking at the ceiling, playing with toys in front of people. He knows there is an audience out there somewhere. The audience likes this.

11/3/11 at Asefu’s: Guilty, DOC, Laughing Man, Boom Boom Kid

This was my first time seeing a show at Asefu’s and my first time seeing Boom Boom Kid. I’d been meaning to check out this spot for a while, and I’d been hearing glowing praise about Boom Boom for years so I was eager to see what the Kid was all about. On the way to the show, I had Chinese food with my aunt (copious Chinese food consumption is the only aspect of my Jewish upbringing that’s lasted since getting expelled from Hebrew school when I was 12) and told her I had been right around the corner from one of the Halloween shootings on Georgia Ave. She got all Jewish mother on me, like, “What the hell were you doing on Georgia Avenue?!”

I wanted to say, “Gettin’ ignorant with Sepultura!” That would have gone over her head, though.

This show was legit. Asefu’s is a cool little joint. They were playing an old-school R and B radio station throughout the night, even while bands were playing, so between songs you’d hear traces of The Temptations or Stevie Wonder or whatever in the background.

Guilty started things off and they ripped. They’re still in high school, but in true Minor Threat fashion are nonetheless some of the illest musicians in town. I been playing guitar for as long as this dude’s been alive and he shreds circles around me. Their drummer, moreover, pummels the living shit out of those drums. Normally I’m not interested in musicianship in and of itself, I’m much more concerned about the energy and emotion of the music, but Guilty pulls musicianship off with taste. I dug their style: punk/core with Sabbath-meets-Metallica riffing, technical / math-y parts, and harsh, yet tuneful, vocals. If this kid starts smoking and drinking, the sky’s the limit (j/k). They played as a 2-piece at this show, but apparently they usually have a bass player and keyboardist too. I’m curious to hear what they sound like with the complete lineup.

They’re nice guys, I chatted with ’em after their set and made sure to give them words of encouragement. I remember when I was that age starting to play in bands. A bit of support can go a long way.

Next up was D.O.C. – the District of Columbia’s Disciples of Christ – the local scum-grind pushers supreme. Tim, Nolan and Chris are three of the hardest, meanest motherfuckers I’ve ever met, and they channel their malevolence into an ear-splitting sets.

The last couple of times I saw them, the sound was an indistinguishable blur of fuzz and feedback and I was frustrated that I couldn’t hear what they were doing, but this time the acoustics served them well and they wrecked my already-damaged eardrums with clarity.

All three members of the band share vocals and they each bring a distinct style to the table, which keeps things sounding fresher than the average grindcore band. I found Chris’ vocals particularly guttural and intense. The guitar and bass are tuned down to Satanic lows and are massively loud, distorted and feedback-infested, the drumming is hard as fuck, and they make really gnarly faces as they’re playing.

All of this, combined with frenzied yet tight jams, creates a brutally visceral vibe. It’s a suitable soundtrack to losing one’s mind or dabbling in occult practices (not that I would know).

Hey, let’s talk about Laughing Man!

This was the first time I heard/saw them, but I hear they’ve been playing around DC for a while and their sound has changed a lot in that time. I saw some vids of an earlier show where they had this bluesy thing going on, but at this particular show they played spacey indie rock with cool guitar and bass interplay, minimalist drumming with odd-time tendencies, smooth vocals and catchy tunes.

I had mixed feelings about their set. Sometimes I got into it, but sometimes they were too monotonous and repetitious for me, and at other times they seemed to me like they were trying a little too hard to sound weird and quirky. There was at least one song that was a blatant Fugazi ripoff, a totally clichéd cop-out move in D.C. indie rock that’s especially disappointing coming from a band like this – one that’s talented enough to create an interesting sound of their own. However, they played well and had a good energy about them, ftw.

Boom Boom Kid. Holy. Shit. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody bring it as hard as this guy.

The Kid is a very short, very flamboyant and, from what I’ve heard, very sketchy Argentine man with a beautiful voice who is a star in his home country, yet is so obscure in the States that he has to play his super-tight, super-catchy, hardcore-influenced pop-punk in basements and Ethiopian restaurants in front of a few dozen sketchy punkers.

The Kid and his band put on one of the most inspiring shows I’ve ever seen. BBKid is an incredibly energetic and enthusiastic performer, jumping, whirling, twirling, contorting, kicking and thrashing all over the goddamn place, whipping his long bleached dreads in the audiences’ faces while singing his ass off flawlessly.

I don’t mean any of that to sound negative or angry or destructive. On the contrary, he radiates charisma and is so passionate – every note out of his mouth and every movement of his body seemingly comes from the bottom of his heart – that everyone in the audience gets swept up in his energy.

At one point he reached over and pinched my nose. It was a moving moment for me. Afterwards, I went up to BBKid, slapped him 5 and told him how much I loved the show. He thanked me profusely, with this awed expression on his face like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, then gave me a sweaty, stubbly kiss on the cheek.

It was a sick show even though there were no drunk and/or tweaked-out degenerates, no vandalism, no senseless destruction, no fights, no awkward public sex, and no gun play as far as I know. It was still worth the price of admission, I guess.

- By James Dot Com