I am not for a moment going to pretend I actually know what “rollerderby,” is. Thoughts come to mind of angry girls in kneepads elbowing their way around a track that have catchy names like “Hellhound Harriet,” and “Demon Darcy.” That’s all I know. I also know they aren’t girls I’d fuck with in a dark alley, I’d hope to convince them to be on my side, these are facts I do know for sure. Maybe I have it down, after all?

But what about the actual goings on of “Derby Girls,” or rollerderby as a whole? I’m curious, only because okay, it’s a sport, not something I claim to be an expert in either. But it also looks fun.

Things are about to change, and ignorance turned to experience, because I’m going to a bout.

On February 20th, there is going to be two local teams, the “Bang Bang Betties,” and the “Mafia Mollies,” that are going to duke it out on wheels, starting at 7:30pm. From what I hear, half-naked chicks are going to beat the crap out of each other, the booze will be flowing, and this is all happening for the benefit of Reno Roller Girls’ new location, since they weren’t as free as they’d like to be at Roller Kingdom (…which for you long-time locals was known as “King’s Skate Country,” long ago…)

The new location, at 3080 Lakeside Court (…kind of behind Ben’s and the fish store… ) is their very own space. I think it used to be the old Scolari’s over there, off of Lakeside. Look for the biggest building there! And angry girls with wheels on.

So what is a rollerderby “bout?” Basically it works like this:

- Reno Roller Girls is a (nonprofit) organization that hosts teams.

- Two teams compete in a bout, skates on, elbows primed, we watch boobs and bottoms bounce off the track.

- Bouts have themes, in this case, it’s “Punch and Cookies,” which will probably taken in all contexts.

- There is food and liquor (…to be provided by Men Wielding Fire…), games and prizes.

- There will be music, by a one DJ L.A.

- This is an all-ages event (drinker corral available).

- Tickets are $10 at the door and $5 presale (locations to be announced here, so check back), doors open at 6:30pm, bout is at 7:30pm.

The goal of it, if not chaotic, is a team is going to derby for a “win,” and there are no real rules to be had. It’s basically a demolition derby for people. There are penalties for certain things, mostly for fun, I assume, one called “Spank Alley,” shall be interesting, because it involves bystanders reaching out to one poor soul and spanking the shit out of her.

How rad is all of that?

I’m going to find out, and so should you!

Not convinced? Have questions? Go here, here and here:

www.renorollergirls.com
http://www.myspace.com/therenorollergirls
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=51998098443&ref=ts

I’m excited to go, something different to do! Stoked.
GR

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Do you find yourself, especially in these cold winter months, sitting around sometimes thinking to yourself, “Damnit, I wish Reno was as cool as San Francisco or Portland where there was something to do, some cool bands to see!”?

If this is the case, it may be worth calling to your attention (and we do so sorely apologize for the lateness of this dispatch), to the impending performance of French electro-pop group Phoenix.

For it must be noted that this group of musicians, who are touring on a continent not of their own, have played at the time of this writing, sold out shows in Seattle, and Portland, and will have also played another sold out show in San Francisco. 

So if you like this kind of music, and are ordinarily kicking yourself for not having the scratch or the hours in the day to make it to far away bustling metropolises to see this kind of stuff, fear not.  At 8 PM you can show up at The Kniting Factory downtown (that’s Second and Virginia), and rock out like some sort of sophisticated, um, PBR-swilling, big-city hipster. The VIP section is apparently sold out, but will-call general admission tickets are $24 here.Note: this event appears to be sold out. Should be quite a show!

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I sort of did a “fireside chat,” last year about this time, pondering what the new year will bring, what kind of fun and excitement, or shoddy disappointment, may impact us this year. This decade even!

Let’s start with us, because we’re important, too. In the depths of the bowels of GHR there’s a churning. We’re hungry, we’re interested in purging… in the with the new, out with the old, all of that. The fine folks that make us up (all of two of us, regularly at this point) are planning on seeing how we can make God Hates Reno a little more readable, user-friendly, informative, while making sure we aren’t dedicating too much money and time on something that will only yield us a few snotty trolls and comments.

Yet, I know this isn’t true. Our numbers are up, they double almost every month, and hence, every year. People are reading. But WHAT exactly are they reading? This being a particularly slow time of year, it’s a good time to put hands on thine hips, and see what kind of advantages can be taken with our little spot in the world here.

The way I see it, I’m going to be voting for a visual overhaul (which will probably resound unanimously amongst the split votes), because as much as I like this current visual layout, there’s too much going on, too much stagnant text, and a few more brilliant readers suggested this was a the case. I cut up a lot of it, but I think we can do better. I also think we’re going to make sure shows get automatically highlighted, as if they’re “first page news,” instead of only having them simply in “We Recommendeth.” Our layout, in my mind, should be a bit “wider,” physically, so we can read a little more, and maybe get some flash interactions that will visually stun you (probably not) but also clean up our text mess here. Don’t worry, we’re not getting rid of the Harold’s Club font headline logo.

…or are we?

We’re also pondering the stance we have. Keep in mind, it’s usually yours truly, Daddy Rodeo, doing this exclusively for the site. We have other powers that be that are quite good at shuffling the WordPress crap around in a pretty way (something I should learn one day), and our contributing, yet infrequent, writers filling in the gaps here and there. I don’t mind doing it like this, but we think there could be more.

Reno is NOT an idea town. Ideas are either shot down, or they are just not formed. That’s how we roll here in Reno, so honestly, I don’t know if asking you, the reading public, if of what you’d like to see here, is a good idea or not. Regular writers are impossible to find. Very few people have what it takes it seems to do something like this even once a month. Which shocks me, since I know so many writers, especially ones that love Reno.

Reno is our theme, and will be until the day you get a “Server Not Found,” warning here, or the Westboro folks say, “See? Patience got us what we wanted, now let’s draw up some ol’ fashioned fear!!!” — and you get a very different site existing here. One that would make you say, “Shit, I sure liked the other one better.” Reno has been known to take pretty much everything for granted, do nothing about something, and then spend a decade bitching …”…bout how’it us’d to’be!”– especially when something is gone.  No harm done, life goes on, but seriously, that’s fucking stupid.

With or without you, Reno, we’re going strong, and plodding on. Random shows will appear here. Your show could too, if you realized how widespread and free we are, you can’t find more spread for free this side of 4th street, you know. We’re simply twiddling our thumbs. Something’s going to happen, and you’ll pretty much be forced to look at it. Because you do all look at it, to the sum of 2,500 people a month. There has to be someone with a bright idea.

What about the rest of the town? We have a few new show-bars and some entertainment venues opening, and with El Neen-yo (tildas are for suckers~) pounding the west, we’ll be seeing cloudy skies for a bit. I suspect we’ll have another normal year of the big events as per usual, but nothing really is striking me as super-important. The baseball stadium is a huge success, and I watch as much as I can the retail popping up nearby, and hope it will be in time for this Spring/Summer 2010. Legends in Sparks is open already, we haven’t had a building to blow up or implode for a while, and with all the new stuff that came in 2009, maybe it’s just a year to mature and grow into our new digs. We’ll see what the promoters and developers have for polishing their new product.

I’m not one on numerology, specific years or decades, but sometimes it’s nice to have a milestone to say, we’ll, it’s time to do something new. Our economy continues to slowly try to stabilize itself, people are still hurting for work and the kind of easy cash to throw at non-essential things, so maybe we’ll keep doing what we’ve been doing but with a new attitude.

Last year I saw three things that disturbed, intrigued and amazed me. The river downtown last summer was shoulder to shoulder with probably 1,000+ people. The bars and nightlife all around town was uncommonly busy. Businesses, especially retail, closed at an alarming rate around town. We can speculate, figure there’s a for-sure reason, but is it reactive or is it simply trend?

My money is on a little project south of downtown known as MidTown. The signs are on tons of businesses there, shops, bars, restaurants, and the vacancies are filling up there. New thrift stores, places to eat, and a sense of neighborhood is establishing in an area that was the “poor motel district,” of the glory days of Reno some 50 years ago. Along goes the theme that all money is green and spends the same in Reno, MidTown is probably the biggest little gem the area has to offer right now, if you like it local.

Beyond that, I’m keeping neutral this year. 2009 was personally a terrible year for me, and I had high hopes for it to be the bad-ass year of the decade, and it wasn’t. It was limbo. This year could be, too, but I suspect there’s going to be more time for planning and upstarting than anything, so by the time we read this again in 2011, I’ll be all excited again and give lots of good things for you to check out. This is a construction, building and “ideas,” year, and if I’m wrong and it’s a fun one, all the better.

Yours with saddle sores,

Gay Rodeo

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The Lincoln Lounge… Memories serve me well last summer being attracted by some thin-voiced lad chortling interesting lyrics from up the street, noticing a bar, to then walking in past a pile of bikes, entering said bar, being scanned from head-to-toe (red-warning “unsexy,” lights going off in the minds of those much cooler than I…) and yet, what a neat place. Another Renoite called it “Satellite Exiled.” A rather okay renaming for a bar, if not apropos.

Luckily, the people that run the place extend a bit deeper than what shows on the surface. You can’t judge a bar by its patrons, just visit there a different day of the week if you aren’t convinced. Seriously. Businesses are like people, you can’t always judge it on a first-time experience. Or if you do, go in and simply not give a fuck if you like what you hear. You’re probably not there for the quid-pro-quo fashion show anyway.

On that note, I present you this:

Dead Meat and Idle Screamer, happening live with jive on Sunday, January 24th

9:00pm (Doors)/10:00pm (Show) $3 Cover

Where is this place?

Lincoln Lounge
306 East 4th St. (…Google Maps are wrong, it is not west 4th…)
Reno, NV 89512
(775) 323-5426

For more information, please direct your mouse pointer:

http://www.myspace.com/deadmeatdredbeats

http://www.myspace.com/idlescreamer

http://www.myspace.com/thelincolnlounge

http://www.myspace.com/killsoundsproductions

GR

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Dark & stylish, cinematic, operatic, mystery envelops the four piece avant-rock combo:  Schizopolitans.  These boys fancy themselves creators of  “high art, disguised as music,” but artsy or not, it’s that eerie voice, it’s that looming sound, it’s that doom they bring, and Xtevion being the front man, it seemed appropriate to deconstruct this guy.  Lets see if we can dispel some mystery here; the public must know.

Like many artists, Xtevion has a day job waiting tables. His birth name is Stephen Patterson and he bears a passing resemblance to Morpheus (ala “The Matrix“), tall, black and bald, but it’s that same theatrical and assured kind of voice that booms more believable saying “creme brule” or “aperitif” than saying “White Russian” or “PBR.”  His voice would suggest you take the red pill, and you would.  He’s not pretentious, and like his band, he just has a confident voice.

Schizopolitans are four members, and the band is five years old.   Currently in Version 7.2, according to Xtevion,  they are 2 drummers and 2 bassists, and three studio albums have been produced.  The four members are Xtevion - Vocals, percussion, stick, Andrew Jorgensen - Bass, Synth, backing vocals, Christos Andrews - Drums, Hector Urtubia- fretless bass, synth, programming.

“We’re a rhythm section with no guitar to ride over everything.”  Xtevion xplains, “It’s about exploration of guitar-less works ’cause no one knows where my notes are supposed to be.  We’re a constant work in progress.. imposing a song on something and always engaged in a search for structure.”

The singing/moaning leadman is also inventor/operator of “The Big Black Stick,” but I’ll let Xstevion xplain again:

“The Big Black Stick is approximately six feet, three inches tall and is a PVC pipe with 6 acoustic drum triggers attached and then running into a Roland drum module and from there into an Akai MPD24 drum pad set which goes out via MIDi to my black Macbook laptop where it can play any sound or set of sounds available through Logic Pro or Apple’s Mainstage.  I supposed it was ‘inspired’ by Futureman who plays with Bela Flek.  He has made several trigger contraptions as well as a suit he played.  I’m still hoping to make a suit one day.”

He continues,  “Originally I thought about making it out of a coatrack, but this would have required lots of drilling and… a coatrack. I  sat on the idea for a couple of years before actually doing it sometime in 2006.  At the time I was the only drummer and wasn’t able to use it much.  With some modifications I should be able to play it like a drumset, but I do find it works better as a percussion instrument.  And I found it difficult to keep the beat standing up as well as getting it to play at a consistent velocity.  I think its more effective at producing bursts of sound instead of keeping time.  I still need a better way of playing the bass drum which I have hooked into a pedal on the floor.  I am working on this.  It is still in the original prototype stage and I have been developing a more “user friendly,” configuration.  I will one day make another one from scratch, but I’ve been hesitant about dismantling the other one because it works.  It is ugly.  I like to say, ‘it was constructed by monkeys in the 30’s and I have modified it for my personal use.’  It has no significance.”

Promoting this band’s January 15th NadaNite show, I had problems quickly explaining their sound.  What do Schizopolitans ‘feel’ like?  Sound has texture, a feeling, a vibe if all goes well, and theirs is congealed somewhere in the range of a space odyssey coming down from peyote. Sometimes little bits of vague memories or paranoia are scrambled in as well.

Let’s look at a few of their tunes and feel their textures:

• ‘Drowning In Public’ is epic, BIG like a war chant.
• ‘All Hands’ features a swaying, nocturnal, nautical beat and lyrically explores what might happen if your hands were dismembered from you to take on a life of their own.
• ‘Gotham’ & ‘Ides of March:’ Pop tunes. Gotham is an aptly named track, like a spree in a sports car with fog lights, featuring a tightly clipped string beat. Ides features marching percussion and a reggae beat weaving through a dark twisted circus world.
• ‘Caligula’ roils in dramatic like, conjuring scantily clad performers with fire and death defying blades, tigers, 20 drummers bouncing with no shoes imported from African tribes to entertain the well-heeled Roman Senate.
• ‘Domino’: showcases a swirlingly lyrical Xtevion in high keys rockin’ a strong delectable canned electronic beat.
• ‘Bonus’, at 14:54, this track shows exactly what the Stick is good for, with waving tones, commencing after 1 minute of silence. Cinematic moans and a cough in the background, door opens/closes, birds chirping, etc. If you pay attention, very specific images are conjured. Great how it takes 12 minutes to finish with hints of an overtly musical and placid tune behind psycho layers of voice and piano, rounding out the drama taken place involving gun shells, a briefcase, running water, sinister laugh and a snoring guy.
• the ‘Podcasts’ from www.Schizopolitans.com are worth a close and uninterrupted review.
• The album ‘Sick People’ makes more sense to talk about wholly. With many instrumentals, the sonic bits make up one piece. Percussion tends to be rollicking. This seemingly haphazard, meandering album spirals in on itself and belies the knowledge and skill of the best progressive jazz. Raw with hallucinatory sounds, distorted lyrics and harmonic verbal soundings. Dissonant flares, bobbling beats and pounding rhythm fight to be classified as ‘noise’ instead of music.

A little about the band’s front man, Xtevian:
• Started playing drums at age nine
• First band he played in was in high school
• Started theatre at age 13
• Attendend North Carolina School of the Arts for 3 yrs.
• In ‘94 was in Deleware performing music, theatre & skits including Shakespeare
• Performed in Texas & on tour, then the company came here to Reno area
• Schizopolitans started as an ad in the paper for ‘experimental musicians’
• They started as a 3 piece

Xtevion shares these priceless soundbites:

“Most bands play music. We’re Schizopolitan, no one knows what to expect.” and “When we have become consistent, it’s over.”

NadaNite is the 3rd Friday of every month and is always $5 for cover.  (Related to the NadaDada Motel is in June.) Schizoplitans play the event at Amendment21, January 15th.

See http://www.Schizopolitans.com for the new stuff and extended podcasts.

Also see them on MySpace,YouTube & Reverb Nation
See http://www.SorgSorg.org for more words of winsome and http://www.NadaDadaDingdong.net to get in good with the artists.

- El Cortez

(Editor’s Note:  I’d like to take a small moment to welcome new guest writer, Chad Sorg, as “El Cortez.”  Chad Sorg has been a prominent Reno artist for quite a while now, and between his “Artist Fishbowl,” exhibit at the ground-floor of the Bank of America building downtown and new venture, “Nada Nite,” where he’ll host a local music and performance showcase, we’ll look forward to more of his writ– and so should you!  - GR)

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Seeing this band for almost free (just tip donations) is a gift this time of year, if anything else.   By “free,” you should consider they are broke musicians (I can relate) and want to record themselves, which isn’t cheap, either.   Your money won’t be going to the bar (door money, that is) but will be helping out a group that wants to head up to Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City in January to archive their sound for all time!  They might consider making songs for you to purchase for your own future enjoyment, as well.

So on December 26th and St. James Infirmary on California Ave, bring a generous spirit, have some libations and enjoy one of Reno’s most original eclectic rock bands around!    You’ll be helping them take the next step.  The show starts at 8pm.

And no, they won’t be playing on the roof.  This would be terrible for all involved this time of year.

See you there!

GR

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