Tickets to the tenth annual Voodoo Music Experience went on special pre-sale today. From 8am till 8pm Eastern time, the three-day pass to the fest - October 24-26, 2008 - will be only $100, so go snap ‘em up. Starting Monday, the three-day passes go up to $115 (okay, so it’s not so much of a deal, but you’ll feel thrifty) and the schmancy $450 Loa passes, which get you all kinds of VIP seating and premium food and drink concessions, will be available. View the lineup for Voodoo X here. 

THROWDOWN IN BATON ROUGE: SB 672, the pay raise proposal for state legislators, is about to be debated in the state legislature. At the moment, the house is in session, but they seem to have skipped over the bill for the time being in favor of other business….

RON FORMAN’S BUG HOUSE: The Audubon Insectarium opens to the public at noon (see Sarah Andert’s cover story in this week’s Gambit for all the deets). Right now they’re having a block party on Canal Street…

THEY’RE TRYING TO WASH THEM AWAY: Cedar Rapids, Iowa is in a world of hurt as the Cedar River inundates much of the city. Bruce at the New Orleans News Ladder has a wrapup with photos…

TALKIN’ ABOUT NEW ORLEANS: USA Today has features on the insectarium and the new Southern Food & Beverage Museum. (Lots more on the latter in next week’s Gambit.) And The New York Times gushes over Kidd Jordan, oh so deservedly…

FEST FEST FEST: This weekend in the 1/4: the Creole Tomato Festival, the Cajun/Zydeco Festival, and the Louisiana Seafood Festival. On the days you wonder why you live in this place…this is why, baby.

More later on the pay raise.

Over 244,000 views and counting after making the YouTube front page yesterday. As noted during Jazzfest, she loops herself using a dizzying array of sample pedals to create an entire song live. Video taken in her kitchen in Algiers Point.

UPDATE: Now over 400,000 views

STATE SENATORS VOTE TO TRIPLE THEIR SALARIES: SB 672, which passed in the Senate yesterday, recalculates legislator salaries to 30% of what members of the U.S. Congress receive. That triples their take-home pay, and callers to talk radio are losing their religion over it. Noted in the Baton Rouge Advocate’s coverage of the story:

[Gov. Bobby] Jindal’s press secretary, Melissa Sellers, said in an e-mail statement that the governor “strongly disagrees with this pay increase,” but she told The Associated Press that he won’t veto the bill if it reaches his desk.

Flashback to Jindal, May 28:

BATON ROUGE – Today, Governor Bobby Jindal held a press conference to express opposition to creating any new targeted spending mandates or statutorily dedicated funding requirements, which would hinder budgetary flexibility, limit options for spending reductions, and restrict the proper management of the state’s finances during changing economic conditions.

Governor Jindal said, “We must be fiscally responsible with taxpayer money. For too long our state has looked for more and more ways to spend taxpayer money – sometimes before we even had it. Spending taxpayer money in any way possible will never be a way to create a financially sound state that is ready to respond to a changing economy and the true demands and needs of Louisianians.

“We should not be creating any new legislative mandates that lock in state spending for certain projects and in turn lock out choices for budget savings. Any future legislative spending mandate would only further hinder our investments in health care and education during lean budget years when these services are often the first areas targeted for cuts. We must save for the future; we cannot spend our way toward fiscal responsibility or budget savings.”

WE’RE #1! WE’RE #1! Guess whose incarceration rate is the highest in the land?…

THERE’S A JOKE HERE SOMEWHERE: David Vitter wants to require states to collect DNA samples from convicted felons…

GOING ONCE, GOING TWICE: An 800-word “prequel” to the Harry Potter series, written by J.K. Rowling, fetches $48,855 at a London charity auction. That’s $61 per word…

SNAKES ON A CRIB: New York woman discovers foot-long snake cuddled up next to her sleeping infant.

WEDNESDAY AT THE SQUARE: After work today at Lafayette Square: free performances by the Stringbeans and Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue.

The folks at VH1’s blog invited Lil Wayne’s fans to e-mail in their questions about love, sex and relationships. They got over 3,000 queries from lovelorn hip-hop fans. Check out Weezy’s first round of video advice here.

Did I say awesomeness?

We already knew some things about Essence Fest headliner Kanye West’s likes and dislikes. (Yes on Ninth Ward inventor Mr. Quintron’s instrument the Drum Buddy. No on George Bush. Yes on outer space-y, futuristic European synth-pop. No on 50 Cent.)

Checking out his blog today, we learned he is also a big fan of artsy chairs. Lots of artsy chairs. Who knew? He may have collaborated heavily with Lil Wayne on Weezy’s latest, Tha Carter III (out today), but he’s hardly your run-of-the-mill hip-hop blingster. Seriously, could you picture Diddy sitting his bespoke-clad booty on this? Neither can we.

DAWN OF THE BUG: The Audubon Insectarium opened this weekend to Audubon members (it opens to the public this Friday). If the crowd on Sunday is any indication, Ron Forman & Co. have a huge hit on their hands…

THE DOCTOR IS IN, AND HE’S P.O.’D: Jon Pareles profiles Dr. John in The New York Times and finds that the doctor’s still ticked off at the whole Katrina thing. Who knew?…

CHARTER SCHOOLS: The Washington Post’s Jay Mathews examines our charter school controversy….

NOLA 911!: Looky at what WWL-TV found:

Hundreds of documents including police reports, internal investigations of officers and district attorneys files have apparently been sitting in an unsecured and unoccupied former Fifth District Police Station for some time…

Money quote:

When asked why some of the documents were stamped, “Confidential,” [Police Superintendent Warren] Riley responded.

“Because it says confidential on it doesn’t mean it’s for police use only.”

Guess not. At this point, it’s all just scratch paper…

WHAT’S IN YOUR WALLET?: Whitney Bank has acquired Parish National. What does it mean? I dunno. My ATM card still says Hibernia, and it still works fine…

MUSIC: The Chicory has a nice writeup of Clint Maedgen’s performance at the Ogden last week, complete with YouTube goodness. Gambit’s Alison Fensterstock interviewed Clint between sets; in this week’s Gambit, she has a preview of his performance tomorrow night at Zeitgeist.

A panel discussion at this past Monday night’s Industry Influence hip-hop networking event devolved into a shouting match with more than a whiff of gay-bashing about it when the topic of sissies, or gay male bounce MCs who dress in drag, hit the table.

The monthly event, hosted by Q93.3FM DJ Wild Wayne and rapper Sess 4-5, usually draws a couple of hundred New Orleans rappers, producers, video girls and other hip-hop denizens that range from newbies to players with serious juice. (The former Cash Money in-house producer Mannie Fresh, for example, was on the panel: when the squabbling started, he wisely seemed to decide he was too famous to have to talk smack, and stayed mum for the duration.) The two scheduled panel discussions each night can last hours, but usually don’t end in yelling. The controversial issue of homosexuality in the black community, though, which has been a point of contention in the bounce scene since the beginning, heated up the mics - and not in the, you know, fly way. Read the rest of this entry »

THE NEVERENDING STORY: They’re voting in Montana and South Dakota. Will Hillary Clinton give it up tonight? Some say yes; campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson says no. (Would he lie to you?) Meanwhile, my friends, John McCain is coming to the Pontchartrain Center tonight, and, my friends, you can have free tickets…

ANGIE, ANGIE: Entertainment Tonight insists that a certain resident of the Lower Quarter has given birth to her twins. Spokespeople for the Lower Quarter resident says no, no, no and calls ET a big fat liar. Meanwhile, the editor in chief of OK! magazine says: “Essentially you have two of the most beautiful, famous people in the world. We’ve all seen they’ve had one baby, Shiloh, and it is the coolest, most adorable baby on the planet. And this time they’re having two? It can’t get any better.” When contacted for comment, the ravaged ghost of American journalism was spotted in a corner, rocking back and forth and weeping…

HURRICANE PREDICTIONS: You know the ones – they scare us every June, are invariably inaccurate, and get “revised” as they go along? Turns out emergency managers don’t think they’re worth much, either…

SAINTS: The Black and Gold sign free agent cornerback Jerametrius Butler and center Marquay Love…

BUTLER DID IT: NPR profiles Henry Butler. Congratulations, sir…

THE MAGICAL MEA CULPA TOUR: Shy, retiring young Scott McClellan turned up on The Daily Show last night to plug his book. Jon Stewart put some zazz into the tawdry enterprise by having Fred Schneider of the B-52s sing McClellan’s audio book. Nice.

Can a song be considered a living thing? The tracks laid down by A Living Soundtrack — a local instrumental quartet consisting of Rotary Downs alum Matt Aguiluz along with Nick Lauve, Marshall Flaig and Jenn Gosnell — seem to breathe, blossom and bloom rather than verse, chorus and bridge. Witness “Germination,” a disorienting cut off the band’s self-titled 2006 debut, whose four primary voices are an inquisitive acoustic guitar, a Massively Attacking bass-beat hammer, a nervy R2D2 computer and, finally, a reverberating Dr. Who synthesizer that quiets the crowd in preparation for the refracted third-act coda. It’s a lovely kind of auditory decompression sickness, the bends in frequency form.    

A Living Soundtrack performs at the Dragon’s Den, 435 Esplanade Ave., tonight at 9 p.m. 

It looks like Reggie Bush found a good way to escape the unbearable New Orleans summer: head up to the more chic Hamptons summer. That’s Reggie posing alongside girlfriend/reality show star Kim Kardashian at the couple’s white party in the Hampton’s this past weekend.

According to People Magazine, the couple schmoozed for the cameras on the red carpet and on the dance floor but Saints fans might want to take note of this doozy:

As for the sparkling ring she was wearing, Kardashian told PEOPLE, “I’m about two months pregnant right now and we’re getting married on August 8th of 2008.”

Bush appeared stricken until she added, “It’s a joke.” But the possibility is still very real. When asked if she’d like to have kids one day and get married, Kardashian said, “Yes, of course. I’d love to get married.”

And then on cue, for photographers, she and Bush smooched on the lips.

Who wants football season to start already?

(Photo by: Tana Lee Alves/WireImage)

An odd thing about the most interesting experimental bands in New Orleans is that they seem to be better appreciated by just about anyone but New Orleanians. Case in point: Belong, the totally out-there twosome of Michael Jones and Turk Dietrich, is getting to be pseudo-renowned in certain circles for its refined metamorphosing of ambient white-noise sheets into riveting shoegazer swells — and this is likely already the most ink, digital or otherwise, any NOLA writer has spilled about the band in more than five years of existence. Read the rest of this entry »

Our ongoing spotlight on new music in New Orleans this week illuminates a strangely unlit place: the dark, experimental rock of I, Octopus. The four-piece outfit gigs constantly, has been around for years and seems incapable of writing a bad song. Yet it remains among the more obscure groups in the city. Why? These inspired instrumental head trips wouldn’t seem such a steep hill to climb for a region weaned on jam bands, free jazz and circuitous zydeco. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes New Orleans doesn’t feel as southern as other cities, and I am not speaking in respect to the heat but more in regards to our tea isn’t quite as sweet, or “R”’s don’t drawl and I don’t see Vera Bradley bags on every shoulder of every lady. But this Friday’s event at Canal Place always reminds me of our location in the deep south as patrons of the Sippin’ in Seersucker event are dressed to the “T” in their breathable striped attire.

I personally think that men look like handsome gentleman in seersucker suits but a good friend of mine has been known to tell men that she thinks they look like great big giant babies. Regardless of your feeling on the fabric I recommend checking out this event and dressing the part of the southern lady or gentleman. Fashion coordinated parties are always the most fun. Tickets are $35 and entertainment will be provided by Topsy Chapman’s Tribute to Dinah Washington, The Preservation Hall Hot 4 Jazz Band, and The New Orleans BINGO! Show. This event supports the Ogden Museum and light food and summer cocktails will be served.

The cute Chaiken Clothing dress shown is available online on the Saks website. Guys need a suit? Perlis sells them for $250, and it is an investment that will last you for years (my father just replaced his after 25 years, and it was still in adequate shape). And trust me- most women will think you look great, there is just one girl in town that may approach you and tell you that you look like an infant child.

When someone tags you a “scumbag” for criticizing a local institution — and then instructs you to, in less-perfumed blogspeak, consume excrement and expire — it tends to give a guy pause. For example, is the mere disapproval of so many Jazz Fest selections enough to make me a bag filled with scum, or does it take stating that opinion? I would like to think that, at the very least, I am a contemplative scumbag, capable of introspection. In that vein, I’m accompanying my complaints with something more constructive: an ongoing collection of songs from lesser-known New Orleans artists who each deserve their own moment on the main stage. And I’m dedicating this new series to Bob, the pseudo-anonymous, single-named mudslinger who convinced me that brevity and bravado are not mutually exclusive concepts.

“Trebuchet,” Chef Menteur, The Answer’s In Forgetting

Not exactly a festival band — outside of Noizefest, perhaps — but a prime example of the kind of ripe fruit to be found in the city’s fringiest musical groves. A constant, steely guitar strum à la Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” gives way to rippling electronic echoes that expand exponentially, folding back on themselves, churning, swirling into starburst drums and slowly fading away into manmade machine noise.

William Moss, the pianist better known as Billy Ding, died last Sunday evening. Moss was walking between Vaughan’s Lounge and BJ’s Lounge, two downtown taverns where he often played music and visited with neighbors, when a truck turning onto Lesseps Street bizarrely sped up and drove onto the sidewalk, striking Moss and a friend. Moss died from internal injuries at the scene; his companion was hospitalized.

Moss, 42, was the longtime proprietor of French Quarter Bicycles on Dumaine Street (now closed), and a talented boogie-woogie pianist with a dedicated local following of friends and neighbors. He gigged frequently with his band the Hot Wings on Frenchmen Street and in the Bywater.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, May 12 at St. Louis Cathedral, followed by a second line through the French Quarter and refreshments at BJ’s Lounge on the corner of Lesseps and Burgundy Streets.

Is late night t.v. too late for you?  Just in case you missed it, Jindal on Leno:

After a sodden first weekend of Jazz Fest 2008, I have few memories that did not take place in a tent or huddled under the grandstand.

Still, the Saturday Ponderosa Stomp revue was memorable - of course for the standard soul awesomeness of soul shouter Tami Lynn and for the ten-minute version of “Tighten Up” by Archie Bell that he got through before the 6:30 pm shutdown - but more so for the reliable antics of the Texas singer Roy “Is he on something?” Head. In his 60s, Head’s set is still more acrobatic and lewd than anything Britney Spears can currently muster. One particularly shining moment involved Head straddling Stomp producer Ira Padnos’s wife Sam as she played a sax solo. The best, though, was his repeated near-molestation of piano player Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural. The third time Roy leapt onto the piano bench to throw his arms around Buckwheat and aggressively snuggle him, I leaned over to my frend and said, “I hope they knew each other before this.” Read the rest of this entry »

On Sunday, the rain cleared in time for great sets from Big Chief Monk Boudreaux and many other acts including, Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint, Michael Doucet and BeauSoleil, Cassandra Wilson and Al Green. Working though his best known material (I’m Still in Love With You, Love and Happiness), Green looked sharp in a glittery turquoise vest and rained red roses on the front row at the Congo Square Stage.

Fest-goers were unphased by rain again on Sunday at the Fair Grounds. Crocs and shrimp boots were the footwear of choice, but the crowds made the best of it.