Incubus at La Zona Rosa- more photos... photo by jeff barringer - staff photographer

by jeff barringer
club kingsnake staff

It seems like I have hardly recovered from yet another miserable Delta Airlines experience flying back from Daytona when I have to gear up to travel again. After having to share half my seat, literally, with a morbidly obese woman on an over-sold flight out of Atlanta, who could have figured that Delta's policy(according to my flight attendant Micheal Lamb), was to ask ME to take a later flight or squeeze in between my seat mates. While they continued to board stand-by passengers, I found it odd that I should have to either donate half the seat I paid for or suffer. The seat frighteningly almost collapsed under our weight on take off.

After Delta left me stranded on the tarmac in Atlanta for 4 hours last year and for 8 hours in Dallas the year before that, you'd think I'd have learned my lesson by now. Come to think of it of the last 7 flights I took on Delta, 3 of them qualify for listing in the "worst flights of my life" category. I would sooner pedal a unicycle naked to Florida than fly Delta again.

After spending almost 2 hours crammed into half a seat either between or upon my 2 seat mates, it's no wonder I came down with a monster head cold. It left me floored and unable to see ANY shows for the last week, even missing Perry Ferrell's Satellite Party when they came to Emo's over the weekend. I am still not 100% but luckily my first show back, September 1st, only requires that I travel to San Antonio. I will be heading down on Saturday to check out the Slayer/Marilyn Manson show at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, courtesy of Kerry King and the boys in Slayer. I may get lucky and if Kerry has the time we might just squeeze in an interview. If not, see below...

If Slayer/Manson wasn't playing on the 1st it would be a tough call on who to go see. The Goo Goo Dolls are playing at The Backyard on September 1st as well, and UK based "trance-core" punk musicians Enter Shikari are playing down at Emo's. Tickets are available for both. One thing tickets are NOT available for is the sold-out Incubus gig out at The Backyard on September 3rd, but tickets are still available for The Black Crowes on September 5th, also at The Backyard. We have requested passes to both so we may get lucky and have some great pictures from those shows.

On September 7th I will board another great silver bird and will fly out to California to cover the NARBC expo for our reptile web site. You can bet that I will NOT be flying Delta.

While I am in Anaheim I MAY get Kerry King to let me film his reptile collection, and I am for sure going to cover a neat indie band called the Hymns playing out in West Hollywood on Saturday Sept 8th. I should be doing stills, an interview and some live performance footage. I had hoped to cover Black Rebel Motorcycle Club on their home turf on Friday September 7th, but haven't been able to hook up with them.

Ok so that covers the FIRST week of September. If I survive that I might try to squeeze in a little of ACL fest, but the rest of September appears to be just as busy. Thanks to Kerry for the Slayer hook up, to Jason Roberts of the Hymns for getting me a music gig while I'm in in California, and as always thanks to the whole team at Direct Events and The Backyard. It's been a great summer concert season and it's not even over yet.

Talk about your pre-release copies...

Sorry guys I can't wait anymore, and certainly not until October 15th when The Zico Chain's Food releases! I have been sitting on my hands since Chris, Paul, and Ollie burned me a copy of their mix back at SXSW in the spring. Now that a final release date has been announced I feel pretty safe in telling you this disc "bleeping" rocks end to end. It's spent more time in my disc player than any other CD in the last 6 months.

Building on the metal meets grunge sound from their debut EP, this scaldingly hot disc on the Hassle Records label out of the U.K. may be tough to find on this side of the pond until the band lines up a north american label but if you can, get your hands on it. My favorite tracks are "Anemia", "Where Would You Rather Be" , "Pretty Pictures", hell the whole disc is great. Recorded in L.A. with producer Joe Baresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Tool), this is almost a perfect snapshot of the bands frenetic onstage energy and presence. Joe did a fantastic job of capturing the sound without beating the life out of it in the edits. This is probably my favorite CD release of all of 2007. It's pretty amazing these guys still aren't signed onto a major label and headlining in the states yet.

Ray Wylie Hubbard is still touring in support of his last CD release Snake Farm, and we sat down with him and the band for a nice chicken fried steak supper an Austin's world famous Threadgill's. Known for it's chicken fried steak and it's "Janis Joplin started here" legacy, Threadgill's is an excellent place to grab a great big glass of tea and beat Austin's oppressive summer heat.

After their sound check on Friday, Ray divulged that he has plans in the works for a "live" snake farm release. He also chatted with us about working on the next studio album, sailing the high seas with Cross Canadian Ragweed, his son Lucas and his upcoming film work. Ray was gracious enough to let us interview him so check out the video, or if you would rather listen to the podcast. see the audio link under the page fold.

Not even Simon Cowell's criticism is as painful as that of Seattle's Lindsey Lawrence. Lawrence, who apparently has a problem with songs by the band Coldplay, pummeled an "unnamed victim" in a karaoke bar with more than just harsh words when the victim chose to sing Coldplay's song "Yellow". After telling the singer that his "singing sucked" that the song "fucking sucked", Lawrence grabbed the mic and then began punching the vocalist in an effort to get him to stop singing. (This sounds a lot like my brothers wedding reception.)

While we empathize with her sentiments regarding some of the music emanating from the Isles of late, we can only wonder how long before she gets her own show on FOX as well. For more on this see the complete story and police report at The Smoking Gun.

Gee whiz, didn't we do this story back in February?....

Haven't checked the with the Vegas odds makers on this yet but after The Police reunion's big payoff a Van Halen reunion is probably certain at this point, and reports are that tour dates will be announced Monday. Expect them to visit a huge stadium nowhere near you in the near future with ticket pricing nearing the stratosphere.

Willie Nelson is headlining Austin's Freedom Fest today along with Asleep At The Wheel, and his daughter Paula Nelson. Freedom Fest. A fund raising concert that focuses on the benefits of marijuana and supports four different policy reform gorups, will be at Austin's Backyard. Tickets are still available, but they have already run out of Doritos and they haven't finished the sound check yet. Lots of other munchies will be available for sale in the concession area and rumor is that Woody Harrelson will be there demonstrating a Segway made entirely of hemp. Hey, is that Matthew McConaughey on the bongos? Ask him if he's seen my car keys...

Isn't it ironic? Eddie Vedder is mad as hell and he's not going to take it any more. Pearl Jam's singer is miffed at AT&T's accidental editing of anti-Bush statements that he made at this weekends Lollapalooza. While AT&T, who provides web casts of major concert events through their free Blue Room service, admitted it occurred, was a mistake and not intentional, Eddie wasn't satisfied and took the opportunity to rail against the "increasingly consolidated control of the media". Of course the irony is that he did this using his BLOG which was picked up by every major wire service on the planet, as well as just about every music blogger in the world. Eddie if the internet has taught us anything its that any idiot, even me, can be a journalist and not even Dick Cheney can block us all.
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news, rumors, and buzz compiled from around the web by the club.kingsnake staff

Chris Wing of Sharon Tate's Baby - more photos... photo by jeff barringer - staff photographer

by jeff barringer
club kingsnake staff
Sharon Tate's Baby
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Sharon Tate's Baby Concert Photos
Thursday, Aug 2nd, 2007
Gallery Lombardi (Austin, Texas)
Also: Adrienne Anemone

Chris Wing has always marched to the beat of a different drummer so it was no surprise to me that he showed up to play at Gallery Lombardi last week wearing a Connie Francis T- Shirt. Wing, and his bandmates in Sharon Tate's Baby, have always pushed the boundaries of taste, style, and decorum, and 30 years or so after they first performed it should be no surprise that their odd perspective on life hasn't changed that much.

Arriving at the Gallery Lombardi to celebrate the launch of their Radical Nautical art show, I made just in time to catch Adrienne Anemone's acoustic set. Starting late after a brief, light rain that seemed to do nothing more than increase the sweltering temperatures, her set was relatively short and I only caught glimpses as I prepped my video gear for STB, who were to follow her. Originally from Brooklyn, now based in Austin and part of the Tunahelpers, Adrienne was an obvious choice for a nautical themed avant garde art show just based on name alone, and accompanied on guitar by a cellist and a banjo player, she has an interesting folk sound. Less classical than say Rasputina, but in that same vein, kind of goth, kind of east village, far far from the mainstream.

Kevin Dubrow of Quiet Riot at Antone's - more photos... photo by jeff barringer - staff photographer

by jeff barringer
club kingsnake staff
Quiet Riot
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
http://www.myspace.com/quietriotrehab
Quiet Riot Concert Photos
Sunday, July 22nd, 2007
Antone's (Austin, Texas)
Also: Rubber Monster, Broken Teeth

Rounding out my eighties weekend I had a chance to catch Kevin Dubrow and Quiet Riot over at Antone's. I heard Antone's had a new light kit I was dying to try out, and had already contacted the band and gotten a promise of a press pass so I was good to go. Or so I thought.

Arriving early I found that my name wasn't on the list. Not knowing if the band had just not submitted it yet or whether it had gotten lost in the shuffle, I was fortunate to have run into the promoter at the L.A. Gun's show a few days before and was able to get it worked out. Good thing too because the first band was starting just as I set my bag down.

Vaden Todd Lewis - Celebrity Judge First Place Winner - photo by Jay West Second Place Winner - photo by J. North-Lewis Third Place Winner - photo by Jay West

This month our celebrity judge is Vaden Todd Lewis, frontman and vocalist for The Burden Brothers and The Toadies. Vaden took time out of his busy schedule touring and promoting the new Burden Brothers disc Mercy, to help us out with this month's contest. Thanks Vaden!

Here are Vaden's picks for this month's contest winners..

1. Joe Sumner - fucking air.
2. These Arms Are Snakes - nice moment captured here.
3. John Frusciante - I can almost hear the "weedly-weedle"...or is that "now-nee-now-nee"?

~Vaden Todd Lewis~

club kingsnake is now accepting submissions for its 2007 concert photo contest. Last year's contest attracted over 500 photo entries. This year we timed the announcement to occur during Austin's SXSW festival and handed out about 1000 flyers to music photojournalists from around the world.

The 2007 contest will be handled a bit differently, with monthly winners instead of weekly, and with larger prize incentives to the winners. This year's contest prizes are as follows:

Monthly Prizes: (selected at the first of each month)
1st Place - $100 B & H Photo Gift Card
2nd Place - $50 B & H Photo Gift Card
3rd Place - club kingsnake T-Shirt

Year End Prizes: (selected at the beginning of 2008)
1st Place - $2000 Camera Shopping Spree at B & H Photo
2nd Place - Fuji F31 Point N Shoot Camera
3rd Place - $100 B & H Photo Gift Card

So how does it work? Simple - just upload a concert photograph that you have taken yourself (with a camera, not off someone else's web site!) to our photo contest gallery. Make sure to include the artist's name and any other pertinent details such as the camera and lense used in the description. Every month 3 winners will be chosen, and at the end of the year the 3 best will be selected from all the photos submitted throughout the year. This is kind of like American Idol for pictures except our contest judges have been told to keep their rude snickering to themselves.

The 2007 club kingsnake concert photo contest is now live! Post your images at http://clubpix.kingsnake.com/index.php?cat=521


Contest Rules

• You may enter as many concert photos as you like AS LONG AS THEY ARE PHOTOS YOU HAVE TAKEN!
  
• Entries must be posted before the end of the day on the last day of the month, according to the clocks on our systems.
  
• You must include a valid email address on your post for it to qualify.
  
• Staff and volunteers of OnlineHobbyist.com, Inc. and its associated sites are ineligible to participate in the contest although they may certainly post their photos as well.
  
• Anyone may enter, regardless of age, although for persons under 18 a parent or guardian must claim the prize.
  
• No purchase is required to participate.
  
• You must have a physical address somewhere on the planet earth that can receive parcels sent through the U.S. postal service.