Click the image for more shots from last night's show. All photos by Christopher Victorio.

Review by Reza Allah-Bakhshi

Better Than: Not going to see a rad band.

Download: "Keep Your Eyes Ahead" off the Helio Sequence Myspace page.

I arrived at Detroit halfway into Modern Memory's set. The L.A. rockers did their best to work some energy into the room, but sometimes standing still just doesn’t work. Some ginseng would do wonders for this band.

Musically, Modern Memory had their shit together, however, and I guess that’s what really counts. And they get brownie points for a way sick setup: an illuminated drum set and blue lights reflecting off their amps. All I could think about was how good some acid would be. Light trails galore! I tried to replicate the effect with my camera.

The Weekly has received reports and the Chicago Tribune has confirmed that Avalon Bar owner Mike Conley was found dead early Thursday in a hotel parking lot in Leyden Township, Illinois.

From the Tribune:

Michael Conley, of Costa Mesa, Calif., was found unresponsive at 5:40 a.m. by a person staying in the hotel in the 2300 block of North Mannheim Road, sheriff's police spokeswoman Penny Mateck said. He appeared to have suffered head injuries.

Conley was taken to Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park, where he was pronounced dead at 6:25 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Conley was staying in the hotel while working on a construction project, Mateck said.

The vocalist for '80s punk band M.I.A., Conley was an important figure in Orange County's music scene, as Costa Mesa's Avalon Bar became one of the county's premier venues for high-quality DJ nights, including Double Fisted, Dirty Money and 41Dub.

UPDATE: Nostalgia on Wheels says: "According to Goose, one of Mike's closest friends, the Chicago police have arrested two males in connection with Mike's untimely death."

UPDATE 2: From a MySpace bulletin making the rounds:

There will be an event on Sunday night at the Avalon Bar in Costa Mesa at
5:30 pm to help raise money for his family. We would really appreciate it if you all could attend to pay your condolences. [Mike's family members] are really having a tough time and need all the help, love and support they can get. There will be food and lots of friends.

Please come and tell everyone that knew him.

UPDATE 3: Fox News Chicago has a report on Conley's death, including interviews with his close friend Ross Morgan and the hotel clerk who was working on the night Conley died.

UPDATE 4: Detroit Bar is hosting a memorial to Mike Conley Sun. March 9 at 6 p.m. To make donations to support Conley's family, go here.

Photo Credit: John Gilhooley

It was inevitable—the “Yes We Can” video by will.i.am has prompted a humorous (one supposes) response vid from the Latino-Jewish group Hip Hop Hoodíos called “Shalom Obama!” (Perhaps Gustavo can translate the Spanish lyrics.) The song's a funked-up “Hava Nagila” that is—oy vey! ¡ay, caramba!— maddeningly catchy.

Local musician/DJ/rekkid collecta übermensch John Basil (a.k.a. Heru Avenger) has a "pop"-oriented podcast up over in this dusty corner of the 1nterw3b.

Odds are you haven't heard most of these odd ditties from the man's deeper-than-hell crates. I'm listening to it now and it's hitting my sweet spot from all sorts of crazy angles.

Adriano Celentano—who was unknown to me until a week ago—is something akin to the Italian Serge Gainsbourg. This bonkers song is on some Busby Berkeley-esque, proto-glam-disco-rap shit—with a harmonica solo! WTF?! After one listen/viewing, it catapulted into my pantheon of favorite songs ever. Sadly, nothing else I've checked by Celentano comes close to matching the riveting charm of “Prisencolinensinainciusol.” (Carrà is the striking blonde dynamo, of whom I know nothing, except she's a star in this vid.)

This video is madly kinetic and camp as hell and I am hopelessly enthralled with it. The day I discovered it, I must have watched it a dozen times. Other people who have viewed it liken the video to a drug and an aphrodisiac. Warning: Click PLAY on this thing and you will get very little work done today.

[If you're having trouble getting the video to play, go here.]

Christopher Victorio shares snaps from Manson's weekend L.A. jaunt:

More behind the cut.

Brian at catsandbeer.com has bestowed what he thinks is the definitive list of rap tracks that are closest to the hearts of honkies [he posted this in Oct. 2007, but it's just come to my attention through a friend's tip].

Bri's right on right on most of the time, but I have some bones to pick. For example, this statement: "[Vanilla Ice's 'Ice Ice Baby' is] one song on the list that White People pretend to only like ironically. Don't be fooled: deep down White People still think Ice is 110% gangsta." Load of shite, mate. Plenty of Caucasians dismiss this track (ever see the video to 3rd Bass' "Pop Goes the Weasel"?) and even whiteys who like it wouldn't consider Robert Van Winkle 10% "gangsta."

Here's another dubious claim: "If you've ever seen Black People comedy, you'll be familiar with the notion that White People have no rhythm and can't dance. This is true." This is false—unless you never go to clubs (some of the best breakdancers I've seen have lacked melanin and just last night this ofay who looked like a plump plumber bust some incredible double-jointed, funky-robot moves at Avalon Bar's dubstep biweekly)—and if you conveniently forget about the hundreds (thousands?) of history' s great white drummers, many of whom were sampled by black hip-hop artists. Ah, but don't let reality get in the way of cheap racial humor, right?

As for the list, where's the Geto Boys' "Mind Playing Tricks on Me"? Where's Public Enemy's "Bring the Noise"? Where's anything off De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising? Something off Definitive Jux, say, El-P or Atmosphere or Aesop Rock, perhaps? Nada. Dude, Brian, your stereotyping skills are tight, but they could be sharper.

De La Soul's "Eye Know" (with that FAT Steely Dan sample)

I wasn't quite sure what to expect as my shoes scuffed over the wet asphalt toward Kat Von D's first annual MusInk tattoo and music festival on Saturday. But at the very least I figured as long as I didn't walk out of there with a black eye or a tramp stamp it was gonna be a good day.

The trail of cigarette smoke and fishnet stockings led me to to the front entrance. Despite the biting wind and the sprinkles over head, the tunes blaring from the KROQ DJ booth and hoards of anxious ticket holders helped lighten the mood while the yellow-shirted safety police checked my bag.

I walked into the festival to find quite a setup; the place was packed by the entrance of the main tattoo hall as a diverse mix of tatted punks, cholos, hip hoppers and decked out pin-up girls crossed paths with eight dollar beers in hand. If nothing else, this was the kind of scene that could make anyone appreciate of the over-lapping appeal of tattoo culture. However, I imagine most of the guys there were busy appreciating the sea of under-dressed femme fatales proudly displaying their. . .tats for all to see. Overall, it was a pretty mellow scene outside. I would have planted myself out there longer if the wind wasn't such a frosty bitch that afternoon.

Review, video and photos by Patrick Chavis.

Ludacris, Pacific Division
Walter Pyramid, Cal State University Long Beach
February 23, 2008

A night of protests, hos and intellectual conversation in the LBC: isn’t that what hip-hop’s all about?

The opening act—Pacific Division from Palmdale, California—have created a large MySpace buzz. The hip-hop trio were humble and when they weren’t talking about music, they talked about their old jobs working to make it big in a town they wanted to escape. When asked what their music sounds like, Mibbs replied, “It sounds like microwave burritos and dirty carpets.” You can hear their music at www.myspace.com/pacificdivision.

Before Ludacris even appeared, the DJ played an old Snoop Dog record to represent Long Beach, and asked the crowd if the song offended any of the protesters standing outside.