May 20-26, 2004

hearhere

by Patrick Rapa

Tune In, Turn On, Sit Down

Picnics rarely have ulterior motives, but this Saturday is different. The Downtempo DJs -- Timothy B and Keith Brand, host of WXPN's "Sleepy Hollow" show -- are hosting an outdoor awareness-raiser for the plight of low-power radio.

"Basically, Low Power Radio broadcasts on a lower power wattage," explains Timothy B. But such stations, legal ones anyway, are a rare thing because major media giants (such as Clear Channel and Infinity in our area) dominate the dial. Still, thanks to activist groups such as the Prometheus Radio Project, which will be dispensing info and accepting donations at the picnic, some progress may be made in low-power radio's fight for the right to broadcast.

So the DJs are inviting people to bring their FM headphones and boomboxes to a secret outdoor Center City location for a day of listening and lying on blankets. "They bring the sound system, we provide the tunes," says Timothy. The soundtrack will be loungey, mellow electronic music.

"We are hoping the FCC doesn't show up to the party," he says, hoping for a daylong chill out, not a Pump Up the Volume-style showdown with the authorities. The law will be gently bent by an FM transmitter about the size of a lunchbox. "I doubt that they will give us a hassle," Timothy says. "We are just gonna be broadcasting a short distance, maybe a mile at the most."

Sat., May 22, noon-sunset, free, we can't tell you where, but the Downtempo DJs will, if they trust you!For a hint, see Icepack on p. 45. www.bpmmedia.com/bbbi or 215-552-8709.

Re: Mason

Sugar Town hosts one of CP's all-time favorite local singer-songwriters, Cynthia G. Mason. We knew her before the G.! And we put her on the cover of the Music Issue like six months ago. Now she's back after a long tour with Wanamaker, a band from Chicago named after the Philly department store. They took off to conquer the Midwest. I asked her how it went.

"Things were going really smoothly," says Mason, ominously. "But we didn't knock on enough wood when we said it out loud, so a few nights ago Wanamaker and I became stranded in Auburn, Massachusetts, after narrowly escaping death twice as the truck broke down twice and we were towed off of I-90 twice, given bad advice twice, and got stranded in two different parking lots in the middle of the night, with no place to go. Long story. We were rescued by a gaggle of local teenagers. Also a long story. We somehow found a van for the rest of the tour and made it to our Providence show Sunday night without a hitch. Knocking on wood now. Wanamaker still has to run up to Boston after the Philly show to pick up the hopefully repaired original vehicle of the tour and all of the smelly socks and half-eaten bags of trail mix we had to leave behind. We're asking folks to please come out to the last show of the tour on Saturday and give us a hug and tell us it's going to be OK."

Sugar Town, Sat., May 22, 9 p.m., $7, with Trolleyvox, Tritone, 1508 South St., 215-545-0475.

Dr. Spock's Backup Bands

The soundtrack to the "Bitchin' Moronic" night upstairs at the Khyber is an impressive list of punk rock's funniest, dorkiest, nerdiest, geekiest and most slackerist: The Dead Milkmen, They Might Be Giants, Ween, Camper Van Beethoven, Mikey Wild and so on. "You probably never got laid in high school if you were into these bands," says the press release.

Well, that was then, right? Now that we're all grown up, won't "Bitchin' Moronic" be a great place to score? "I'm banking on it," says DJ Julia Factorial, who co-hosts with Greg C. "We all know that the dweebs in high school turned to hot shit when they got out into the real world. And now within the safe confines of the Khyber we can revel in it once more, in the company of other dweebs. Or it could just be one huge group of ugly motherfuckers. But it will definitely be fun either way."

Factorial's thematic DJ nights (last Wednesdays of every month) started with that Jonathan Richman tribute last month. Look for a "Calvin Johnson vs. Doug Martsch Battle" next time.

Bitchin' Moronic, Wed., May 26, 9 p.m., free, upstairs at the Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-238-5888.

The End of The Tour

Raccoon hasn't played a show in six months, but the band members are reuniting for what they kinda sorta suspect is their final appearance, maybe. "This is pretty definitely the last show," says Andrew Jones, Raccoon bassist. "But we didn't really want to call it officially the last show, because it's kind of lame when bands do several last shows."

Guitarist Rory Connell would rather bill it as a reunion show. "In this age of insta-nostalgia, come see Raccoon relive the glory days of 2003," he implores. "Original members Scott, Rory, Toby and Andrew plan to stand around in a completely unoriginal manner with conventional instruments playing songs that were difficult enough to pull off the first time 'round. Neat guitar solos, though."

But if this is the end like for real, then it's a sad day for all who enjoyed the band's high-octane live shows. But we should pour a special Pabst just for The Teeth, Raccoon's unabashed biggest pals. The two put out the excellent Christmas City split EP last year and rocked out on stage together. "It will be sad for The Teeth," says Jones. "But they already seem to be moving on with other bands, like National Eye. They are kind of skanky like that."

If, for some reason, you liked the people in Raccoon better than the band itself, fear not. They will play on in other bands, too many to list, really. Jones, along with drummer/guitarists Toby Leaman and Scott McMicken, can be seen in Dr. Dog all the time. That band goes on tour with My Morning Jacket in June (with a TLA date on the 5th). Connell is among the Carolynne McNeel Three.

Speaking of McNeel, her kick-ass but supposedly deceased rock band April Disaster has thankfully risen from the grave. Hopefully Raccoon will follow their lead.

Fri., May 21, 9 p.m., $.7, Raccoon with The Teeth, National Eye and April Disaster, North Star, 27th and Poplar sts., 215-684-0808.