JOHN’S CONCERT COLLECTION: 2003

TWO WHOLE DECADES AGO

Ah yes, another exciting new feature at John’s Music Blog: John’s Concert Collection. Just trying to make some constructive use out of all the time I have wasted watching old YouTube videos.

Last week, I posted a Neon Hunk clip from 2003. That was 20 years ago. What the fuck? 

A lot of the underground music I was exposed to as a kid in the late ‘90s was serious and middling: Fugazi-informed hardcore, backpack rap, bleak IDM. But heading into Y2K, things were changing. The Faint were playing punk basements with a full light show. Timbaland and The Neptunes were morphing the sound of the radio. “Rock was back.”

By 2K3, the game had shifted. For me, it became about extremes. Top 40 music was a go, and so was noise. Really anything but screamo bands who wrote long lyric explanations in their liner notes and rappers who talked about kicking “rhymes that intertwine down your spine.” Let me set the scene: I was going to anti-war demonstrations, but that didn’t seem to be helping much. Justin Timberlake’s recent singles were making a lot of sense to me. All I wanted to do was roll around on the floor of some DIY space while wearing a blue Carhartt jumpsuit. 

Over the years, I have seen the musical pendulum swing between “fun” and “political” enough that I question why I continue to stare at that damn pendulum in the first place. When you’re 16, though, this shit hits you hard. It destroys your brain forever.

Andrew WK “Live at The AXE House Party 2003”

The first time I saw the video for “Party Hard” by Andrew WK on MTV, I was confused. It was like he came out of nowhere. Who was this person, and where did he exist in culture? Was this for the nü-metal kids? I had no idea. I even remember talking to a friend about it in school the next day. Andrew WK’s intentions started to slowly reveal themselves; concurrently, I started to dive into Midwestern noise lore. Andrew WK used to be in Wolf Eyes? What was going on here? The man became a hero and also a template for creating confusing culture that existed both inside and outside of the mainstream. Case in point is this video: what is more embarrassing than rocking something called the AXE House Party? It’s not embarrassing if you own it, and if you rock. When those three-car garage doors open, you know it’s time to party.

Wolf Eyes “Live 2/7/2003 Birmingham, MI”

From the AXE House Party to an Actual House Party. Here is a video of WK’s former band playing in a suburban basement. The vibe here is pretty much the opposite of what most would associate with self-serious experimental music. It’s noise music and it’s party music. The energy in this video and the energy in that Andrew WK video are not dissimilar. It’s a matter of scale and sonics. But the spirit is the same. It’s a spirit that says one thing: it is 2003 and it is time to lose your mind in America.

Clipse & Neptunes “Interview & Concert Footage, Smack DVD Volume 3”

If I were a collector, I would collect Smack DVDs. They are still pretty cheap on Ebay, but I bet they won’t stay that way forever. In case you are under the age of 36, Smack DVDs were video magazines with the hip hop enthusiast in mind. They contained rap battles, interviews and live shows. Among other attractions. Taken from the third installment of the series, this 12-minute clip features some pretty good footage from a Clipse Asbury Park gig. It ends with Pharrell beatboxing for the rapper Fam-Lay. When I heard “Grindin’” in the summer of 2002, it was a major strike to my underground rap allegiances. 

Japanther “Live at The Smell 2003”

One of the first shows I ever played was with Japanther, in the winter of 2002, in a basement in Madison. At that point, they were pretty much a noise band. They set up in the corner of the basement, far away from everyone else, and they jammed blast beats out of a tape deck and screamed through a payphone receiver. I thought it was sick. I would go on to play with Japanther many, many times. I witnessed firsthand their slow development from full chaos duo to “Lightning Bolt plays Green Day.” To me, their peak was right at the beginning of this transition into a pop punk band. Here, they play in a rare powertrio formation, with the guitar player Claudia Meza.

Lil Kim “The Jump Off (AOL Sessions, 2003)”

Nothing more legit in 2003 than doing an “AOL Session,” whatever that means. I have vague memories of Weezer doing a similar kind of performance, but I do not have the time or energy to confirm that. Here is what I do have the time to say: “The Jump Off” is a classic song with a classic Timbaland production. At a point in the performance, Lil Kim calls out “hackers” for stealing content. That is one way to use your platform for change.   

XBXRX “Live at Oberlin 10/1/2003”

XBXRX were one of those bands you heard stories about. I never got to see them in high school. I never even saw Hawnay Troof, Vice Cooler’s electroclash-ish side project that my own electroclash-ish project would get compared to over the years. But the XBXRX legend was thick. Banned from every club in Alabama. Crowd control gimmicks that would give Doug E. Fresh a run for his money. The most positive destructive no wave band in the game. I enjoy watching bands play sets at colleges. It’s frequently awkward. I’m sure there are “crazier” XBXRX sets I could’ve picked, but I love it when a band jams out on the quad in the middle of the afternoon.

Three 6 Mafia “Rap City Freestyle 2003”

Is there anything harder than Three 6 Mafia rapping over the T.I. “24’s” beat? Juicy J has a good post-Pimp C line about going to Red Lobster and eating all the shrimp. After some research, I realized it originally came from a song by Da Headbussaz, a 2002 one-off album collaboration between Three 6 and No Limit rapper Fiend. Early 2000s Rap City freestyles: that is my “Golden Age” of hip hop. 

Extreme Animals “Live at The Pink Rabbit Providence, RI December 2003”

Rainbow Rock Ground Zero: Paper Rad house band Extreme Animals rocks a post-Fort Thunder warehouse space on the night before a mass eviction event. The music has it all: scrambled Casio hijinks, trance arpeggios, jacking drums, noise dude delay. Even the drunken humidity blur of the camera captures the DIY rave feeling. Put your neon ski cap on. Put your hands in the air. Let’s go.  

The Diplomats “Live at The Source Awards 2003”

I knew I had to post some Dipset. It was between this clip and a weird freestyle session the crew did for Tim Westwood. In the Westwood video, British radio people hover awkwardly in the background of Slyvia’s Soul Food Restaurant in Harlem. The Source Awards clip won out, though, mostly for its bodega madness intro sketch (a deli guy laces Cam’Ron with a tommy gun) and the stage’s Broadway-esque set quality. I’ll never forget this one old Okayplayer blog post that challenged backpack rap heads: it compared MF Doom bars to Cam’Ron bars, and posited that if you fuck with Doom’s tweaked onomatopoeia, you might have to admit that Dipset is dope, too.

Peaches “Live at W Festival, Sopot, July 2003”

I feel like ending things with two bursts of electroclash-adjacent live carnage. By 2003, the genre might’ve been fading–after a point, nobody wanted to be associated with the name–but that didn’t mean people didn’t continue to keep the spirit of electroclash alive for a long time. Probably too long. Trust me, I know. Peaches is the greatest performer to come out of the whole “2000s hipster solo karaoke freakout” thing. She was and still is the real deal, and I wish I would’ve seen her live back then. Here she shows just how far you can go it alone if you have the right attitude. She’s playing on the big stage at a festival in Belgrade. 

A.R.E. Weapons “Don't Be Scared (Live on Last Call With Carson Daly)”

A.R.E. Weapons could’ve been almost as big as Andrew WK if they were marketed differently. Each got panned by Pitchfork. Each appropriated street-tough headbanger aesthetics and combined that with a nod to the avant-garde. Only WK was going on tours supporting Hoobastank, though. A.R.E. Weapons are now so forgotten that even nü-electroclash kids don’t know who they are. That is a damn shame! They sounded like Suicide station flipping between Hot 97 and KROQ, like Jim Carroll through the Howard Stern filter. For a time, Paul Sevigny was in the band. Underrated!