Author: illnoise

Scoot 2 Go Podcast

scoot2go-av.pngPodcasts, for all their hype, are generally pretty dissapointing, but Scoot 2 Go has a lot in common with 2strokebuzz: Rob, the Australian host, doesn’t have the world’s best speaking voice, his two-year-old regularly distracts him, and what he lacks in scooter-specific knowlege is balanced by, well, the fact that he was bright enough to be the first person to do it. After 7 quality episodes (well, the first is a bit shaky, ha) Rob has become the self-effacing champion of scooter podcasting, and good for him. He covers the same broad range of scooterdom you’ll find here. Newish scooterists will find the show informative and valuable, and oldtimer know-it-alls will just be happy to know that no one expects them to make a podcast now (whew). In any case, the show’s a must for long drives to rallies. Note that the show can be downloaded directly from the Scoot 2 Go site (where Rob helpfully posts links to everything he mentions on the show), from Apple Music Store (it’s free), or many other podcast directories.

Waxon7 Headlines Double Door Thursday

Waxon 7 at Double Door flyerAs any longtime 2strokebuzz reader can tell you, Waxon7 is pretty much the house band of Chicago scooter parties. Abe (the “singer”) leaves his desk at Scooterworks every night to become the Patrick Bateman of Rock and Roll, stripping it down like a Lincoln Park Trixie layered-up in JCrew for a Chicago winter. Guitarist Vee Sonnets crashed my wedding in a red velvet suit. The other guys in the band, well, I’ve never heard them speak, they’re barely human, just some vaguely hispanic mutants Abe brewed up in his crawlspace to help him spread the word. Add some barely-legal go-go dancers and a crowd full of scooterists, and any basement shithole they play is magic. Thursday night just might be their definitive show, they’re headlining the Double Door, the biggest venue they’ve ever played. Cover is $7, or $5 with this flyer, and they’re handing out W7 t-shirts to their fans. Don’t miss it.

Springtime in Chicago

Ah, the Jewel bags are stuck in trees, the melting snow is revealing fossilized dog poo, illnoise shaved his beard, it must be springtime in Chicago! And so even though the thermometer is showing a balmy 39° and we still have our annual May blizzard to look forward to, Chicago is gearing up for scooter season with several rides:

  • Saturday April 8 Chicago Area Scooterist Motorcycle Ride (for scooterists w/motorcycles or 60mph+ scooters), 3-hour ride through Southwest Chicago, meet at Pontiac Grill, 1531 N Damen Ave., at noon.
  • Sunday April 9 South Side ride to Top Notch Beef Burger at 2116 w 95th Street. Departs at 11:30 from Ranch de Nitro
  • Saturday April 22 Scooterworks ride and open house, details to come.
  • Sunday April 23 Walneck’s Motorcycle Swap Meet, Woodstock Illinois
  • Saturday May 13 Stock Car Racing at Sycamore Speedway, Sycamore, IL. Racing starts at 8, ride leaves Chicago from Atomix at 6:30 PM

RSS Feed is back

Along with the move to the new server, we’ve cleaned up the RSS feed and moved it to a new home. Read our feed in your newsreader, or add our news to your web page. We’ll be adding category-specific RSS feeds soon, once we get all the archives added and reorganize our categories. Sorry that the last ten posts have been self-referential, but things are moving and shaking.

Amerivespa 2006 registration starts April 1

The Amerivespa 2006 site has been updated with a more-or-less final itinerary. Amerivespa is the official national Vespa Club of America rally, and will take place July 27-30 in Denver, CO. Online registration opens on Saturday. Registering online gets you more swag for your money, joining VCOA saves you $10, as well as four issues of American Scooterist and other good stuff.

What Rocks Us: Stereolab

Super-ElectricStereolab:
“Super-Electric”
from the Black Sessions (French radio?)

Alfredo and I went to see Stereolab last week (thanks Alf!), and while the show was really really great, it was the first time I’d seen them without guitarist/backing vocalist Mary Hansen, who was killed in a bicycle accident in London in 2002. The band bravely and wisely went on without her, replacing most of her vocals with french horn and trombone, which works amazingly well. I only recognized a few songs they played, it was heavy on the newer stuff, which, again, is all very good, but their spiffy professional musicianship now lacks the slacky, noisy indie charm of their first few records, in the same way that today’s Belle and Sebastian just isn’t the same as “Lazy Line Painter Jane.” Both bands have always been tight and densely layered, but both have mellowed out sonically with age.

So in tribute to Mary and the concert last week, here’s a great live version of their first Too Pure single, “Super-Electric,” with Lætitia and Mary on vocals, from French radio circa 1993. It was my favorite Stereolab song until Vina and I decided to get married while “Jenny Ondioline” happened to be playing.

This post is hidden from unregistered readers. It will only be available for one week (Friday to Thursday). Right-click to download, don’t overload our bandwidth by playing it online. If you’re somehow related to the existence of this great song and you’re angry we’re posting it, please let us know and we’ll gladly remove it, but first consider that this is free exposure to a very small group of real music fans who frequently buy records.

Best… Bust… ever.

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Nestled within the usual ads for yarn and alternative menstruation products, the April/May 2006 issue of Bust features a story about “biker gangs” for women. Though it covers bicycle, motorcycle, and scooter clubs, the Secret Servix SC monopolized the bulk of the text and photos, along with the Baltimore Bombshells and a couple other girls’ clubs. If that’s not enough to get you running to the newsstand, you also get Gretchen Mol convincingly dressing up like Bettie Page, and a story on comics artist Julie Doucet. Nice! Janel clearly made the right choice hiring Vina as her publicist.