Hokis Pokis – Nowhere

After 20+ years as a DJ, I’m still amazed at how little I feel I know about music. Case in point, Hokis Pokis, who have gotten a much deserved retrospective from the good folks at Ubiquity, but were completely off of my radar until I received a copy of this release. The music is the kind of disco that absolutely no one can dislike and much of it would be welcome on contemporary dance floors regardless of the genre. Who I missed someone spinning “Nowhere” is beyond me. Surely someone must have spun this at a party or a club I’ve been to in the last 20 years, it’s just not possible that I never heard this song. “Nowhere” sounds so familiar and so perfect that it feels like it’s always been a part of my life. I’m just happy that I know it always will be from here on out.

Debruit & Alsarah – Alhalim

Soundway has just about ditched it’s prior identity as a go-to reissue label for music from Africa and Latin America. Instead, it’s rebranded itself as a leader in contemporary sounds from all over the world, redefining the “world” genre. In this case, Parisian producer Debruit is paired with Brooklyn based, by way of Sudan, singer Alsarah. The results are sometimes a mixed bad, the production doesn’t always sync up with the singing but when it does, as it absolutely does on “Alhalim,” it’s absolutely magical.

Bart Davenport – Fuck Fame

It’s strange to think of Bart Davenport living down here in LA, even though his new record, Physical World, just sounds like a very LA kind of record. Bart Davenport had been so associated with the East Bay that many of us called him the “Mayor Of The East Bay.” Those days have now passed, but thankfully Bart still is interested in telling stories and making music. Physical World finds him in fine form, with perhaps a bit more of an influence from the 1980s than previous work that always seemed more connected to the 60s and 70s. While all the songs are pleasant to the ear, it’s this track that you’ll be likely to hear for many years to come on my show. “Fuck Fame” has a nice turn after each verse where Davenport decries the trappings of fame, he’s quick to remind the listener, “that we should talk about money,” as a reminder that the two while often equated together are not actually mutually inclusive. The vast majority of us work without any pretense of achieving fame. We do it for the love, but at the end of the day in this society, we still have to pay the bills. As anthemic as “Fuck Fame” is, apparently it wasn’t written as a statement of Davenport’s feelings on fame or celebrity. Despite the lack of intention, it does work as a fantastic anthem, for those of us who know that while we still got to make our money in this world, it doesn’t mean we have to sell our souls to do it.

Syracuse punk outfit Perfect Pussy will be in our fair town for two nights this week, and we have a pair of tickets for their show Wednesday night at the Bootleg Theater. It’s been a good long while since a band that plays this fast and this loud has kicked up this much buzz. Quite a bit of it revolves around mercurial lead singer Meredith Graves but the Double P (as I’m considering calling them, just in case the FCC wants to come a callin’) are building a sizeable rep not just on her persona, but on a fast and fierce live show. If you go to this show (or the more DIY affair at the East 7th Warehouse on March 20th), make sure you go early cause the band has put out two releases and neither one of them is longer than 25 minutes in total! If you’re interested in bearing witness, e-mail me by 5pm Tuesday at michael[at]meltingpotblog.com!!!

For a taste of what to expect, see the below. Here the band performs “III” from their debut cassette “I Have Lost All Desire For Feeling” at a concert filmed by the good folks at Pitchfork:

Here the band performs in Brooklyn, with Graves showing a bit of Ballerina style in her warm up before things get busy:

Despite their buzz, it’s important to remember that Perfect Pussy is a relatively new band that plays a genre of music that isn’t known for longevity of sound. I reckon that their sets are a shade longer than these twelve minutes, put probably not too much. It will be interesting to see where the band is in another year:

Perfect Pussy – Big Stars

Over the last couple of months I’ve been crushing hard on this Syracuse band. Quite a few people in musiclandia have been equally enamored with this band, fronted by a true force of nature in Meredith Graves. Way back in the 1990s I used to listen to this type of music an awful lot more than I generally do now and while I can’t claim any representative knowledge on where the various streams of hardcore music have gone since the turn of the century, I know quality when I hear it and this band has loads to spare. Musically and lyrically the band deserves every single bit of shine they’ve gotten in the last sixth months or so. And then there’s Graves. Being a hardcore band with a woman singer would be novelty enough in the fairly ultra-masculine world of punk rock. Graves is no novelty. She might just be the real deal, a bonafide star in the making. I hope she and her bandmates are able to develop freely because they got something special right here, with this sound and this style. “Big Stars” is just fine all by it’s own, pulling you in with with those guitars and big drums before settling into a tornado of sound with Graves at the lead. But what it hints at is something even greater. Say Yes To Love is a nice debut, already one of my favorites and something that I can guarantee I’ll feel even stronger about come year’s end, but this band’s best days are ahead.