Sometimes, I enjoy being wrong.

I’d been bitching to Holly all last week about how I needed some drama in my life. I’d been overcome by a certain. . . I guess you could call it malaise.Things had been going really well. The job was good, home life was good, I thought I was really catching my stride with this whole “single” thing. I’d even taken a vacation, which is something I hadn’t done in recent memory.

The only problem was, there was no conflict, and I was getting really bored.Personally, I need a little kick to get me going every day — and I can’t really get that kick without a little conflict.

That’s why I was bitching to Holly. I need drama, I told her. Give me some drama, I whined. Holly is a kind-hearted sort, and she selfishly offered to put me in a headlock and throw me into the street. I bet none of you have friends who would commit Grievous Bodily Harm upon you if you asked. Aren’t you jealous?

Anyway, after I graciously declined her offer to indulge her homicidal tendencies, she suggested that what I really needed was patience, and not drama.

Just wait, she said, something will happen.

And it did.

I heard lots of music last weekend: Chris Brokaw (ex-Come) J Mascis, Chris White, The Mendoza Line, Jenny Toomey.

Friday was J Mascis. I’m an idiot and didn’t get a ticket until the day of the show, but I had a plan — go get a ticket and then kill a few hours at the record store. So, I’m the Black Cat talking to Weirdo Strung-out Dude and who bumps into me but J “Holy-Fucking Shit” Mascis. For the uninitiated, J Mascis was Dinosaur Jr, and the last great guitar god of the Twentieth Century. We chatted for a few minutes and I managed not to turn into a total fanboy. I screwed up my courage and invited him to go to the record store, but he had sound-check. Can you imagine going to the record store with J Mascis? I would freak out! “Hey J, have you heard the new one from Vibrating Sandbox?” Anyway, I picked up Sneaker Pimps, Caitlin Cary, Teen Idles, Polvo.

Friday night was also “Night of the Living Ex-es”. That’s all I’m gonna say about that.

Sunday night I saw Chris White, The Mendoza Line and Jenny Toomey. I’d never heard Chris White before. He was kinda blues-y mope-rock, closer to Lou Barlow than Joe Pernice. Good enough I guess, but don’t expect me to stand in line.

Jenny Toomey was Jenny Toomey. You know you’re gonna hear a solid set that’s going to make you enjoy music. More importantly, she hasn’t lost a step.

The suprise of the night was The Mendoza Line. By far the best show of the weekend. I’d heard some of their stuff from either Epitonic or Insound, I forget which. Six people crammed onto the Black Cat Backstage. They played their hearts out. “If Ryan Adams were smarter, his breakup songs might be this good.” — MAGNET.

If you have not heard them, you are commanded to go purchase We’re All In This Alone right now.

Last night, I went to a panel discussion about the economics independent music. The panel was bsed around a discussion of the book R&B (RHYTHM & BUSINESS): The Political Economy of Black Music.Basically, how can independent artists (especially black artusts) continue to release good music when all of the channels of distribution and promotion are comtrolled by five mega-corporations. The panelists were Go-Go band manager Doug Carter; DJ Rudy from 93 KYS, a local Go-Go station; Ian MacKaye; Michael Bracy from the Future of Music Coalition and Johnny Temple from Girls Against Boys.

It was a great panel mostly, with lots of talk about the business of music promotion and distribution, One question that kept coming up was why no one outside of DC had heard of Go-Go music, and how hard it was for Go-Go bands to book venues for shows. Most of the Go-Go people kept talking about the importance of getting radio airplay. They lamented the lack of black-owned radio stations, black-owned record labels, black-owned magazines, and said that these were the reasons why local Go-Go, R&B and jazz artists could not get national airplay or book local venues.

Then Johnny Template handed the microphone to Ian MacKaye . . .

Have you read Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991? Ian told the story of Minor Threat that he told to Michael Azerrad. Ian talked about how Minor Threat worked to build the scene. How in the early days he just put out records to document the music that he and his friends were making. Ian talked about how the problem with local musicians was that so few of them were willing to put money back into the community, so few were willing to build the scene, so few were willing to do all of the hard work required to create a career. He chided local Go-Go musicians, black record label owners, black radio stations owners for being so willing to sell out to the major corporations instead of growing their businesses and keeping the money in the community. It was absolutely amazing.

The moral of the story is that Holly was right.

more later. . .

Ok, I’ve been back at work for two days, now, and I’ve gotta say, work is for chumps. I walked in yesterday morning, and within 30 minutes I was all jittery with a headache. I told you I was on vacation, don’t send me a voice mail asking where I am. On top of that, I have a big project due in a week, and I am in no mood to get it done. Whatever, I’m sure I’ll figure something out.

In cool show news, I found out that Hey Mercedes and Piebald are coming to the 9:30 Club, on August 14th, my birthday. That’s gonna be awesome. The last time I went to a Hey Mercedes show, I made the mistake of taking a girl with me who I was trying to impress, so I couldn’t spazz out and act like the fanboy that I am. I will not make the same mistake twice.

More cool show news, and on the J Mascis front, J and the boys are playing at the 9:30 Club next weekend. I am so very excited .. well, I’m just very excited. Hopefully, the actual Fog will be playing with him — Mike Watt and Kevin Shields. Chris From New York said he saw J at NYU, and that the show was lame — J just phoned it in. I guess Chris From New York doesn’t want me to get my hopes up.

One wrinkle in the DC show though — SHE will probably be there, which could be awkward. Of course, SHE already knows that I am a spazoid fanboy, so there are no cool points involved there.

HT says she doesn’t believe in cool points, but I saw her sporting some fresh Steve Madden’s today, so it may be a front. We’ll see how that shakes out.

One story related to shows on my birthday, and then I’ll be out. . .

Michael hates this story.It’s about my sixteenth birthday, my first car, and the first time I ever drove at night.

For my sixteenth birthday, my parents gave me a car. Sure it was my Mom’s old silver Chevrolet Celebrity “Eurosport”, but it was mine, and it was cool. The day before my sixteenth birthday, I drove to Greenville to pick up Michael. On the morning of my birthday, we went off to Columbia to see Jawbox play with The Belltower at (the Lengendary) Rockafella’s. About half way through the show, Michael asks me for my car keys, he wants to go to another show across town. So, I gave him the keys, thinking that we would all hook up after the show at Scott’s. Which was a great plan.

When the show ends, it raining. Sczott, Anutron (?), Gary (?) and I go out to Sczott’s car. The battery is dead — which sucked. Luckily, the guys from Jawbox were at the Circle K, and even more luckily, Gary was pen pals with Kim Coletta (bass player for Jawbox). So, the Jawboxen help us push the car to the Exxon for a jmpstart. . . blah blah blah, and every one gets home safe and dry.

Except for Michael.

[Special note: All of the guys from Novelty era Jawbox (Kim Coletta, J Robbins, $3 Bill Barbot, Adam Wade ) are a great bunch of guys. Jawbox made some of the best music ever to come out of DC. If you haven’t heard Jawbox, let me know. Also, check out J’s band, Burning Airlines. Finally, check out ThreeSpot Media, Bill Barbot’s New Media company.]

Anyway, back to the story.

6pm turns in 7pm, skips right over 8pm, and goes straight on to 9pm. We’re all sitting around Sczott’s apartment, watching Cops and waiting for Michael to return. Around 10pm, he sticks his head in the front door and pulls Sczott into the hallway. After a few minutes, Michael walks in, sits down next to me on the bed, and in a very quiet voice says, “I’m OK, but don’t be mad.”

Friends and neighbors, I’m sure you can guess the rest of the story. Michael had indeed wrecked my car. Totaled it. Rear-ended some guy at a stoplight. I was , indeed, terribly angry.

My parents had to drive down from Cheraw at midnight and pick us up from Sczott’s. I drove back to Cheraw that night. For two hours. In silence, except for when my parents were taking turns “talking” to Michael. It reminded me of that DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince lyric,

“It was a tough ride home,
I don’t know how I survived it
They took turns
One would beat me while the other one’s driving”

So, that’s the story of my 16th birthday, the first time I ever drove at night, and the wreck that took my car.

For me, listening to a Hey Mercedes song is a lot like eating an Blow-pop: I know exactly where I want it to go, and while I want to get there fast, I also want to savor every moment.

The place I want Hey Mercedes to go — the bubble gum center, you might say – usually occurs around three-quarters of the way through a song, when the guitars and voices drop out and Damon Atkinson and Todd Bell lay down the rhythm. In only a few short bars, they build a tension which is released after a suitable interlude, when the guitars crash back in and Robert Nanna looses a howl combining equal parts longing and elation that somehow simultaneously crushes and re-invigorates my spirit. Bells, Every Turn, Eleven To Your Seven — I know it’s coming and it gets me every time.

It gets me again on their newest release, the four-song Vagrant Records release The Weekend EP. This newest recording picks up where there 2001 full-length debut, Everynight Fire Works, left off. While their debut EP (Hey Mercedes, released on Polyvinyl Records) seemed to be a direct refutation of the Braid legacy, Everynight Fire Works seemed more confident and self-assured, as Hey Mercedes grew comfortable in their own skin. With The Weekend, Hey Mercedes has finally solidified as a band worth listening to in its own right, and can finally lay to rest the ghost of Braid.

Featuring one track from Everynight Fire Works, the joyous Our Weekend Starts on Wednesday, and three previously unreleased tracks, The Weekend contains just what you’d expect from Illinois’ favorite punk-pop/emo band - soaring guitars, intensely personal lyrics and boundless energy. In addition, Robert Nanna continues to improve as a frontman. His subtly strong and increasingly mature voice serves as a perfect complement to the familiar foundation of energetic syncopations of drums and bass laid down by Damon Atkinson, Todd Bell, and Mark Dawursk — Michael Shumaker (ex-Sheilbound) has since replaced Dawursk).

While Hey Mercedes has yet to turn into a Top 40 rock band a la Creed — these guys are never going to deliver a mid-tempo rocker – they do seem to have largely escaped the confines of punk’s “harder, faster, louder” ethos. With the songs on The Weekend, Hey Mercedes concentrates less on whipping listeners into punk frenzy and more on building harmonious melodies that the audience can sing along with – witness Wearing A Wire. In fact, the central strength of The Weekend EP is that is feels less overtly aggressive than their earlier work, which only serves to highlight the sheer unfettered joy with which they perform.

Over the last 24 hours I’ve watched two movies taken from books — Bogey and Bacall in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep and Pamela Anderson in Barb Wire, taken from the Dark Horse comic of the same name. Stop sniggering, I had insomnia and it was on.

For the uninitiated, The Big Sleep was Lauren Bacall’s third film, following To Have and to Have Not, which put her on the map, and some forgettable film with Charles Boyer, which was so horrible it almost took right back off of the map. The plot of The Big Sleep is too convoluted to explain here, but it’s your basic Phillip Marlowe detective story: a gumshoe, a big galoot, two patsies and a broad with great gams. The screenplay was written by William Faulkner, and it is in my opinion, some of Bogart’s best work. The only strike against it is that it doesn’t have a voice-over. You know, “She walked into my office and I knew she trouble with a capital - T. A crazy-eyed dame with a hard edged mouth and a set of go-sticks that stopped at her neck.” You get the point. I just want to make sure you understand how very good the movie is. Got it? ok .. moving on. .

To Barb Wire. Um. . . not a whole lot to say here. Your standard mid-1990s post-apocalyptic B-movie with big explosions and a horrible techno soundtrack. Yes, the soundtrack has a few songs by Tommy Lee and the Masters of Mayhem. Thanks for asking. Thanks for making me re-live the suck. Rae Dawn Chong is also in it — but of course, she is in every B sci-fi movie. It’s in her contract. And no. . . Pamela Anderson doesn’t get naked. At least not that I saw — but the movie was on UPN so if she had gotten naked they would have shown it.

“UPN turned into a hard-core porn channel so gradually that I hardly even noticed.”

Which brings me to today’s topic, the latest comic book to movie crossover. . . Batman Versus Superman. Yes, Warner Brothers has decided to unleash this idea on an unsuspecting public. Are they totally out of ideas over at the WB? I mean really — make a Dawson’s Creek movie, or a Roswell movie. . or even a Charmed movie — anything but this. There are so many things wrong with this, that I feel compelled to make a list:

• There are three great philosophical debates of the 20th Century: The nature of perception, the existence of a supreme being, Batman versus Superman. Who do they think they are to try to answer that question definitively? Don’t toy with the eternal verities. It’s blasphemy at best and heresy at worst.
• The last Batman movie sucked. The last Superman movie sucked. Christopher Reeves can’t play Superman. George Clooney won’t play Batman. Do the math. (Sucked + sucked) / (paralysis x idiot) = Box office bomb.
• They already fought, remember! Batman kicked Superman’s ass. Shot with a Kryptonite bullet.

The better fight would be Batman against Spiderman . . with Kirsten Dunst as the prize.

Just so you know my stance on the B vs. S debate . . . Until Superman decides to fight dirty like Batman does, Batman will always kick Clark Kent’s butt. If The Man of Steel ever decided to really unleash on Bruce Wayne. . . well .. two words. .. heat vision. Holy Bat Toast Batman!

I think that Hollywood should take a cue from the British. The British make movies, the British make television . .and never the twain shall meet. Honestly, can you imagine an Are You Being Served? movie? Anthony Hopkins as Captain Peacock. Or an As Time Goes By movie? Or a Keeping Up Appearances movie? Who would play Mrs Bucket?

I think those questions are better left unanswered. However, feel free to submit any ideas for great Brit TV to film crossovers. I’ll select the very best one, and post it here. And I’ll throw in a copy of the book The Mothman Prophecies just to make it interesting.

In other news, the new Hey Mercedes EP is coming out on Tuesday. A review will follow on Tuesday night.