Kurt Vonnegut 1922-2007
Vonnegut once said that the only proof he needed for the existence of God was music.
Recommended reading: Mother Night, Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions...just for starters. The old jester may be gone, but his words and convictions will always permeate our culture, our greatest hopes, our darkest fears. Here's a review of Slaughterhouse-Five, run originally in the NY Times 38 years ago.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Four Strange Ones...
The One Ensemble Wayward the Fourth (Secret Eye) - Had this one a while and been trying hard to summon the words to fully capture it's strange beauty. Daniel Padden is one fourth of the always fascinating Volcano the Bear. He's also released some delectable solo albums under the One Ensemble of Daniel Padden name for the last four years. What he did then was a kind of minimal free jazz/prog folk response to what folks like Robert Wyatt and Brian Eno were doing early in their careers with multi-tracks and instruments all performed by Padden. As with the recent Live at VPRO CD-R (Brainwashed), Wayward the Fourth is the work of a genuine ensemble, quartet to be exact, captured in a studio. The songs are gorgeous, twisted amalgams of European and American ethnic musics, free jazz, chamber music, minimalism and experimental plateaus rarely glimpsed in the western world, dispersed with just the right emotional -- ranging from giddy to somber -- intensity. There's vocals on a few tricks, a few bizarre deconstructions on some others, but what strikes me most about this is the sheer musicality, the deliberate attention to space, detail and compositional structure. One Ensemble albums have always sounded like this, but just as with Volcano the Bear's brilliant Classic Erasmus Fusion (Beta-Lactam Ring), the ensemble approach has reached new depths of cinematic, multi-hued brilliance. Easily one of the best '07 has coughed up so far.
Aufgehoben Messidor (Holy Mountain) - Shit yes, son! Aufgehoben tosses the ethereal ladder down the old dusty staircase and revels in the resulting dissonance. Lotta bands out there like to ride the no-wave boogie train into the cosmic night, but I'm not sure any does it with such bewildering intensity as Aufgehoben. Their fourth album is a mechanical flurry of percussive splatter, discordant guitars, jarring distortion and live mixing that further alters the doors of perception into a kind of abstract-expressionist interpretation of the line between chaos and order. Think This Heat, Sightings (only better), Wolf Eyes and the like. Hell they even drop Scott Walker's "Tilt" into the influence blender, but there's no vox here, just sheer aural torment that tickles the cortex like an army of metallic cactus spines. This is live sound that you could almost bang your head to if they'd ever get over their difficulty and just fucking jam! But then...that wouldn't be Aufgehoben now would it? I still want to see this live someday, even if these guys don't play live. Invite me to a rehearsal!
Absolut Null Punkt Metacompound (Important) If you dig Aufgehoben, you'll really dig ANP. This is apparently an old ensemble (duo?) from master of noise-grind KK Null that recently reconvened to conjure another (s)platter of their free jazz/industrial/noise and man it's fucking coool! Three extended tracks that sound like a flurry of miniature flying machines, small kitchen appliances and prehistoric dinosaurs howling in revelry around a gigantic cosmic bonfire. A different kind of motorik noise sprawl that's actually more digestible than Aufgehoben, while being quite "out" and difficult in its own right. Highly recommended.
In Camera In Camera (Some Fine Legacy) - This newish duo project from Christoph Heemann and Timo van Luijk, as well as the multiple recent releases of fine solo albums from Andrew Chalk, suggests that Mirror may be in hibernation or even finished. Hope not, but as evinced on this '05 vinyl offering (downloaded via slsk), Heemann's still got some magic up his sleeve. This extended track is less mixed and layered than Mirror recordings, instead focusing on a kind of aural vérité exploration of composition and environmental sound. Tone generators, lone piano strikes, electric hums, creaks and cranks are dispersed with subtle acuity that seems kind of random and formless at first, but reveals its own strange logic in time. A fine opening salvo from this promising duo.
The One Ensemble Wayward the Fourth (Secret Eye) - Had this one a while and been trying hard to summon the words to fully capture it's strange beauty. Daniel Padden is one fourth of the always fascinating Volcano the Bear. He's also released some delectable solo albums under the One Ensemble of Daniel Padden name for the last four years. What he did then was a kind of minimal free jazz/prog folk response to what folks like Robert Wyatt and Brian Eno were doing early in their careers with multi-tracks and instruments all performed by Padden. As with the recent Live at VPRO CD-R (Brainwashed), Wayward the Fourth is the work of a genuine ensemble, quartet to be exact, captured in a studio. The songs are gorgeous, twisted amalgams of European and American ethnic musics, free jazz, chamber music, minimalism and experimental plateaus rarely glimpsed in the western world, dispersed with just the right emotional -- ranging from giddy to somber -- intensity. There's vocals on a few tricks, a few bizarre deconstructions on some others, but what strikes me most about this is the sheer musicality, the deliberate attention to space, detail and compositional structure. One Ensemble albums have always sounded like this, but just as with Volcano the Bear's brilliant Classic Erasmus Fusion (Beta-Lactam Ring), the ensemble approach has reached new depths of cinematic, multi-hued brilliance. Easily one of the best '07 has coughed up so far.
Aufgehoben Messidor (Holy Mountain) - Shit yes, son! Aufgehoben tosses the ethereal ladder down the old dusty staircase and revels in the resulting dissonance. Lotta bands out there like to ride the no-wave boogie train into the cosmic night, but I'm not sure any does it with such bewildering intensity as Aufgehoben. Their fourth album is a mechanical flurry of percussive splatter, discordant guitars, jarring distortion and live mixing that further alters the doors of perception into a kind of abstract-expressionist interpretation of the line between chaos and order. Think This Heat, Sightings (only better), Wolf Eyes and the like. Hell they even drop Scott Walker's "Tilt" into the influence blender, but there's no vox here, just sheer aural torment that tickles the cortex like an army of metallic cactus spines. This is live sound that you could almost bang your head to if they'd ever get over their difficulty and just fucking jam! But then...that wouldn't be Aufgehoben now would it? I still want to see this live someday, even if these guys don't play live. Invite me to a rehearsal!
Absolut Null Punkt Metacompound (Important) If you dig Aufgehoben, you'll really dig ANP. This is apparently an old ensemble (duo?) from master of noise-grind KK Null that recently reconvened to conjure another (s)platter of their free jazz/industrial/noise and man it's fucking coool! Three extended tracks that sound like a flurry of miniature flying machines, small kitchen appliances and prehistoric dinosaurs howling in revelry around a gigantic cosmic bonfire. A different kind of motorik noise sprawl that's actually more digestible than Aufgehoben, while being quite "out" and difficult in its own right. Highly recommended.
In Camera In Camera (Some Fine Legacy) - This newish duo project from Christoph Heemann and Timo van Luijk, as well as the multiple recent releases of fine solo albums from Andrew Chalk, suggests that Mirror may be in hibernation or even finished. Hope not, but as evinced on this '05 vinyl offering (downloaded via slsk), Heemann's still got some magic up his sleeve. This extended track is less mixed and layered than Mirror recordings, instead focusing on a kind of aural vérité exploration of composition and environmental sound. Tone generators, lone piano strikes, electric hums, creaks and cranks are dispersed with subtle acuity that seems kind of random and formless at first, but reveals its own strange logic in time. A fine opening salvo from this promising duo.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
A few SXSW recollections:
Almost didn't go this year, so I actually only caught Saturday's festivities. Missed too many great bands to list, biggest regret missing Blues Control. Arrived just in time to catch a cpl songs by MV/EE/SL/JM at the End of an Ear record store on south 1st. The version of "Canned Happiness" was just about the most clangy, detuned mongrel boogie I've ever heard from 'em. Halfway through the first song some poor guy went into an epileptic seizure right there in the cramped space. Bad omen. Never saw so much drool in one place. Then again, maybe he was just really into it...
I then booked ass over to the Lakeshore amphitheater to catch half a BORIS set, which was closer to their pop set compared to the monolothic drone jams they played the night before. Fun but underwhelming. Are they on MTV yet?
(Womblife's first instance of product placement, sweet)
Next up, waited in line and was lucky to get in and up close for JANDEK, who along with Tom Carter on burly bass, Shawn McMillan on pump organ and a swell Aussie fellow on drums (sorry!), played the heaviest goddamn Jandek set ever. It will likely drop on Corwood someday.
...more men in black...
The following night we made it down to The Salon Mijangos art gallery in San Antonio to catch three incredible sets: Tetuzi Akiyama (guitar), Tom Carter (guitar) and Chris Cogburn (percussion) trio, the Warmer Milks acoustic trio with Shawn McMillan sitting in and Charalambides delivering the most dynamic and all-encompassing set I've ever seen/heard from them. It was a real revelation and re-affirmation in my faith in this incredible duo. No pics from this night, but here are some youtube vids my friend Nari took of most of the involved, including a clip of the Charalambides gig:
Boris
Jandek
Charalambides
Had a blast meeting new and old friends and heard some amazing stories too. SXSW is all about free beer and great stories, but that's all going in the novel -- sorry folks!
Almost didn't go this year, so I actually only caught Saturday's festivities. Missed too many great bands to list, biggest regret missing Blues Control. Arrived just in time to catch a cpl songs by MV/EE/SL/JM at the End of an Ear record store on south 1st. The version of "Canned Happiness" was just about the most clangy, detuned mongrel boogie I've ever heard from 'em. Halfway through the first song some poor guy went into an epileptic seizure right there in the cramped space. Bad omen. Never saw so much drool in one place. Then again, maybe he was just really into it...
I then booked ass over to the Lakeshore amphitheater to catch half a BORIS set, which was closer to their pop set compared to the monolothic drone jams they played the night before. Fun but underwhelming. Are they on MTV yet?
(Womblife's first instance of product placement, sweet)
Next up, waited in line and was lucky to get in and up close for JANDEK, who along with Tom Carter on burly bass, Shawn McMillan on pump organ and a swell Aussie fellow on drums (sorry!), played the heaviest goddamn Jandek set ever. It will likely drop on Corwood someday.
...more men in black...
The following night we made it down to The Salon Mijangos art gallery in San Antonio to catch three incredible sets: Tetuzi Akiyama (guitar), Tom Carter (guitar) and Chris Cogburn (percussion) trio, the Warmer Milks acoustic trio with Shawn McMillan sitting in and Charalambides delivering the most dynamic and all-encompassing set I've ever seen/heard from them. It was a real revelation and re-affirmation in my faith in this incredible duo. No pics from this night, but here are some youtube vids my friend Nari took of most of the involved, including a clip of the Charalambides gig:
Boris
Jandek
Charalambides
Had a blast meeting new and old friends and heard some amazing stories too. SXSW is all about free beer and great stories, but that's all going in the novel -- sorry folks!
Friday, March 16, 2007
If I was anywhere near Wstern Mass next week and had a beard, I know where I'd be goin'...
GLADTREE!!!
GLADTREE!!!
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Back into the fold, or breach as it were... Got some stuff here that I think you folks may find interesting, mostly falling on the folky/acoustic side of things.
First off though, RIP Charles Gocher of the Sun City Girls and Cayce Lindner of Flying Canyon and The Golden Hotel (Flying Canyon reviewed here). Two fantastic musicians who checked out way too soon.
Niagara Falls/The Clear Spots (Deep Water) This split CD-R is one of those releases received toward the tale end of '06 but not fully digested till now. Niagara Falls, huh? Got some nerve naming yourselves after that raging natural wonder, but then maybe these Pennsylvania natives are onto something. There is a gorgeous shimmer in these cascading waterfalls that refracts its tonal light fragments in every direction at once. Formless, bottomless stuff that murmurs and trickles in small streams that build to expected tidal waves of singing luminescent noise. One of the few bands I can think of as a distant kindred to San Francisco's great Thuja, but Niagara Falls is more upbeat and uh...watery! The Clear Spots track is a fried up-tempo blast of Canned Heat meets Can that ejects the Roadhouse vibe into deep space and just happens to be one of the coolest things I've heard from the 'Spots to date. Thumbs heavenward.
Daniel Higgs Ancestral Songs (Holy Mountain) This is an amazing album. The Lungfish singer/guitarist enthralls with six songs that fall somewhere between songwriter-ly psych folk and mind-expanding drone noise. Without a doubt it's Higgs' enlightened and honest explo ration of human/cosmic spiritual concerns and more that reels me in and leaves me speechless as nodding in agreement to repetitious recitations of masterful mind-trips such as opener "Living in the Kingdom of Death." Sample lyric: "See the devil in the Christ if its the true Christ that you seek. It abides in you and it abides in me." Simple, it is, but it's also true in a way, no matter what you may or may not believe. Otherwise we get a stunning banjo raga in the Sandy Bull vein (with birdsong accompaniment), a phenomenal instrumental of phased jew's harp and vibes, an 11 min blast of sacred droning electronics cum raga and a couple more fine guitar/vocal workouts. Higgs' voice is a beauty, and this album is simply timeless. One of the best of 2006 according to this hippie.
Birch Book "Fortune & Folly" (Helmet Room Recordings) Another life affirming piece of work from Be'irth (of In Gowan Ring), here exploring his love of the classic songwriter with tender folk tunes lent a somewhat downcast, or simply honest, air. Leonard Cohen, Jackson Frank and Dylan come to mind on those tracks that are each fully contained little song worlds--a couple bookending instrumentals and a good number of unforgettable songs that delve intimately into the lonely life of a young soul today (including "Young Souls," "New Song"--reminiscent of a recent Marissa Nadler tune, "Whisper in the Pine" and more). A few trippy bits but mostly straightforward and genuine.
Anvil Salute New Crusaders of the 11th Commandment (Maritime Fist Glee Club) This OK (as in Oklahoma) unit's transformation is now complete. I've not heard their earliest albums, but it appears they've evolved into full-on psychedelic roots folk ensemble with this excellent CD-R meandering its way through a thick tangle of thorny branches and colored foliage, stripping away all the artifice of life to reveal shimmering undeniable aural light. Meditative and completely handmade in the same breath. "A Word With Every Apple" is the most soaring, hair-standing-on-the-back-of-the-neck instrumental I've heard in at least a three weeks. And just in time for Spring too.
Eastern Fox Squirrels Eastern Fox Squirrels (Last Visible Dog) A fine trio recording of Brad and Eden Rose with the one and only Robert Horton, unleashing their own take on ethnic blues, drone, folk, jazz.... Lord I have no idea how to classify this record, but if you've heard Rose's work as the North Sea and Horton's solo work, shouldn't be too surprised. And hey there's even a Charalambides cover in their lovely take of "Hours" with a dancing sax line standing in for Christina's haunted vocal, and the way the cover phases into the Market Square original is FUCKING BEAUTIFUL! Wow...wow...wow... Very nice. Excellent artwork too from Mr. Pumice.
Michael Tamburo and His Orchestra of Pituitary Knowledge Ghosts of Marumbey (New American Folk Hero/Music Fellowship) Mike Tamburo asked me to write a one-page for this record back before it came out, so I was slightly reluctant to review it myself. Now I'm not at all, because this is simply an incredible album, and in retrospect probably his most accomplished work to date. Definitely his most diverse and all-encompassing blast of avant folk raga, electronic drones, full on kraut-space rawk'n'roll. Don't think enough people have heard this one. Another one of my top o' the pops in '06.
Richard Youngs and Alex Neilson Partick Rain Dance (VHF) Oh yeah...It's been fun watching Masters Youngs and Neilson emerge as one of the most thrilling and bizarre duos in sonic history, and this recent collaborative offering is as good a reminder as any as to why these guys can't be ignored. 5 tracks that go from spastic percussive synth rumbles to piercing free noise splatters, Robert Wyatt vocal segues and beautifully shimmering percussive drone splays. Acoustic/electric sound generators entwined with layered vox to reveal glorious sky-high chaplets of sound. Absolutely essential...to me.
MV & EE with The Bummer Road Green Blues (Ecstatic Peace) "Can't pay the rent...with happiness. Can't pay the rent with looooove..." so says one of the mantras of a song deeper into this masterfully gorgeous burst of blurred sunshine. Green Blues is sweet. It's like The Bummer Road's stab at pop stardom, so a few hipsters will hate it, and a few emo kids will scratch their heads, but the rest of us, who remember simply what it's like to just escape from it all for a bit and burn one, to drive, to love Neil Young, to bow at the Altar of Canned Head, and never forget the mysteries that Sun-Ra imparted upon our embryonic souls will have a blast on this trip. Absolutely beautiful. GUEST MELLOTRON BY J. MASCIS! Epic closer "Solar Hill" in particular captures a particularly vivid and inescapable psychedelic dream state and burns her to a crisp. Fun music for weird people.
The Giant Skyflower Band Blood on the Sunworm (Soft Abuse) Glenn Donaldson likens these recordings made with Shayde Sartin as his answer to "bummer psych," which can be traced from Syd Barrett and Skip Spence on up through the Television Personalities and to modern day oddball masters like Nagisa Ni Te and Maher Shalal Hash Baz. I can't help but think of the Incredible String Band in their prime too with the exotic melange of ethnic instruments backing these mostly minimal, semi-stumbling folk-pop arrangements. The star of this show is Glenn Donaldson's pristine high croon, and the songs themselves easily rival the best work with the Sky Green Leopards, but these are a tad more clunky and poppy at the same time via slightly off-tempo percussion. The perfect soundtrack for drifting a hazy afternoon away wearing nothing but torn jeans and an old grass-stained t-shirt. Thank you, soft folk gods'n'goddesses for shining this starlight my way.
That's all for now. Namaste, my friends...
First off though, RIP Charles Gocher of the Sun City Girls and Cayce Lindner of Flying Canyon and The Golden Hotel (Flying Canyon reviewed here). Two fantastic musicians who checked out way too soon.
Niagara Falls/The Clear Spots (Deep Water) This split CD-R is one of those releases received toward the tale end of '06 but not fully digested till now. Niagara Falls, huh? Got some nerve naming yourselves after that raging natural wonder, but then maybe these Pennsylvania natives are onto something. There is a gorgeous shimmer in these cascading waterfalls that refracts its tonal light fragments in every direction at once. Formless, bottomless stuff that murmurs and trickles in small streams that build to expected tidal waves of singing luminescent noise. One of the few bands I can think of as a distant kindred to San Francisco's great Thuja, but Niagara Falls is more upbeat and uh...watery! The Clear Spots track is a fried up-tempo blast of Canned Heat meets Can that ejects the Roadhouse vibe into deep space and just happens to be one of the coolest things I've heard from the 'Spots to date. Thumbs heavenward.
Daniel Higgs Ancestral Songs (Holy Mountain) This is an amazing album. The Lungfish singer/guitarist enthralls with six songs that fall somewhere between songwriter-ly psych folk and mind-expanding drone noise. Without a doubt it's Higgs' enlightened and honest explo ration of human/cosmic spiritual concerns and more that reels me in and leaves me speechless as nodding in agreement to repetitious recitations of masterful mind-trips such as opener "Living in the Kingdom of Death." Sample lyric: "See the devil in the Christ if its the true Christ that you seek. It abides in you and it abides in me." Simple, it is, but it's also true in a way, no matter what you may or may not believe. Otherwise we get a stunning banjo raga in the Sandy Bull vein (with birdsong accompaniment), a phenomenal instrumental of phased jew's harp and vibes, an 11 min blast of sacred droning electronics cum raga and a couple more fine guitar/vocal workouts. Higgs' voice is a beauty, and this album is simply timeless. One of the best of 2006 according to this hippie.
Birch Book "Fortune & Folly" (Helmet Room Recordings) Another life affirming piece of work from Be'irth (of In Gowan Ring), here exploring his love of the classic songwriter with tender folk tunes lent a somewhat downcast, or simply honest, air. Leonard Cohen, Jackson Frank and Dylan come to mind on those tracks that are each fully contained little song worlds--a couple bookending instrumentals and a good number of unforgettable songs that delve intimately into the lonely life of a young soul today (including "Young Souls," "New Song"--reminiscent of a recent Marissa Nadler tune, "Whisper in the Pine" and more). A few trippy bits but mostly straightforward and genuine.
Anvil Salute New Crusaders of the 11th Commandment (Maritime Fist Glee Club) This OK (as in Oklahoma) unit's transformation is now complete. I've not heard their earliest albums, but it appears they've evolved into full-on psychedelic roots folk ensemble with this excellent CD-R meandering its way through a thick tangle of thorny branches and colored foliage, stripping away all the artifice of life to reveal shimmering undeniable aural light. Meditative and completely handmade in the same breath. "A Word With Every Apple" is the most soaring, hair-standing-on-the-back-of-the-neck instrumental I've heard in at least a three weeks. And just in time for Spring too.
Eastern Fox Squirrels Eastern Fox Squirrels (Last Visible Dog) A fine trio recording of Brad and Eden Rose with the one and only Robert Horton, unleashing their own take on ethnic blues, drone, folk, jazz.... Lord I have no idea how to classify this record, but if you've heard Rose's work as the North Sea and Horton's solo work, shouldn't be too surprised. And hey there's even a Charalambides cover in their lovely take of "Hours" with a dancing sax line standing in for Christina's haunted vocal, and the way the cover phases into the Market Square original is FUCKING BEAUTIFUL! Wow...wow...wow... Very nice. Excellent artwork too from Mr. Pumice.
Michael Tamburo and His Orchestra of Pituitary Knowledge Ghosts of Marumbey (New American Folk Hero/Music Fellowship) Mike Tamburo asked me to write a one-page for this record back before it came out, so I was slightly reluctant to review it myself. Now I'm not at all, because this is simply an incredible album, and in retrospect probably his most accomplished work to date. Definitely his most diverse and all-encompassing blast of avant folk raga, electronic drones, full on kraut-space rawk'n'roll. Don't think enough people have heard this one. Another one of my top o' the pops in '06.
Richard Youngs and Alex Neilson Partick Rain Dance (VHF) Oh yeah...It's been fun watching Masters Youngs and Neilson emerge as one of the most thrilling and bizarre duos in sonic history, and this recent collaborative offering is as good a reminder as any as to why these guys can't be ignored. 5 tracks that go from spastic percussive synth rumbles to piercing free noise splatters, Robert Wyatt vocal segues and beautifully shimmering percussive drone splays. Acoustic/electric sound generators entwined with layered vox to reveal glorious sky-high chaplets of sound. Absolutely essential...to me.
MV & EE with The Bummer Road Green Blues (Ecstatic Peace) "Can't pay the rent...with happiness. Can't pay the rent with looooove..." so says one of the mantras of a song deeper into this masterfully gorgeous burst of blurred sunshine. Green Blues is sweet. It's like The Bummer Road's stab at pop stardom, so a few hipsters will hate it, and a few emo kids will scratch their heads, but the rest of us, who remember simply what it's like to just escape from it all for a bit and burn one, to drive, to love Neil Young, to bow at the Altar of Canned Head, and never forget the mysteries that Sun-Ra imparted upon our embryonic souls will have a blast on this trip. Absolutely beautiful. GUEST MELLOTRON BY J. MASCIS! Epic closer "Solar Hill" in particular captures a particularly vivid and inescapable psychedelic dream state and burns her to a crisp. Fun music for weird people.
The Giant Skyflower Band Blood on the Sunworm (Soft Abuse) Glenn Donaldson likens these recordings made with Shayde Sartin as his answer to "bummer psych," which can be traced from Syd Barrett and Skip Spence on up through the Television Personalities and to modern day oddball masters like Nagisa Ni Te and Maher Shalal Hash Baz. I can't help but think of the Incredible String Band in their prime too with the exotic melange of ethnic instruments backing these mostly minimal, semi-stumbling folk-pop arrangements. The star of this show is Glenn Donaldson's pristine high croon, and the songs themselves easily rival the best work with the Sky Green Leopards, but these are a tad more clunky and poppy at the same time via slightly off-tempo percussion. The perfect soundtrack for drifting a hazy afternoon away wearing nothing but torn jeans and an old grass-stained t-shirt. Thank you, soft folk gods'n'goddesses for shining this starlight my way.
That's all for now. Namaste, my friends...
Monday, February 19, 2007
Fear and Trembling
I was able to attend my first real Daniel Johnston show last night, as in Danny and the Nightmares, that is Johnston's full fledged chamber garage punk band. The Nightmares may not be the most adept ensemble, but they're just fine for what Johnston is doing these days, a sloppy, loose garage punk/glam/Beatles obsessed indie pop that actually deserves the rapt attention it received last night at the Granada Theater. I hope you've seen the movie, as it will only make you love him more, and it's a cool chronicle of the American underground rock scene of the 80s to boot, but I must admit what's the nicest about all this is the guy is simply up to the task these days, playing mostly compelling new stuff and a few old gems when appropriate. Making a little more money, maintaining a good schedule, not flaking or flipping as he has so famously in his more tormented past. Daniel really is a national treasure, a Texan treasure, a fractured genius even...but not so much in that his mind is impaired, because it appears when he's on his meds the manic episodes are kept at bay, and he's obviously a fucking genius. As to his heart and emotions? This is the stuff of mythical discontent and endless longing. Johnston is up there with Nick Drake and Townes Van Zandt when it comes to such gaping wound emotionalism, though he's definitely got a loose, sloppy approach that's all his own. He also played a perfectly destroyed version of "Band on the Run." Was struck by his trembling arms during most of the set and hope this was merely a negative manifestation of stage-fright, but who knows...
A shot of Daniel engulfed in the Holy Light of Immaculate Performance Perfection:
And a scan of the image I asked Daniel to draw after the show as a replacement for the one he drew me 5 years ago in Austin and I promptly lost. My friend James insists I will find it in the pages of an old magazine or the spine of a CD sometime in the next five years 
And exactly one week previous I was able to view MV/EE at Shawn McMillen's house in Austin, and it was simply one of the most magical, drunken evenings of my meager existence. Also saw McMillen play a solo set (absolutely gorgeous ethnic drone power minimalism as evinced on his excellent "Catfish" LP) and Ralph White unleash his own kind of primitive Americana, and I recorded almost all of it to minidisc! No shit...my God I was so drunk. I love all of you and hope we can do it again real soon. The Bummer Road's Green Blues is fucking beautiful solar blues of the highest order and Zuma didn't even bite me! I'm in...oh Sweet Jesus am I in. Here's the cover of MV/EE's new CD-R, Goodbye Moonface on Wabana. I'm honored to call them my friends. 
I was able to attend my first real Daniel Johnston show last night, as in Danny and the Nightmares, that is Johnston's full fledged chamber garage punk band. The Nightmares may not be the most adept ensemble, but they're just fine for what Johnston is doing these days, a sloppy, loose garage punk/glam/Beatles obsessed indie pop that actually deserves the rapt attention it received last night at the Granada Theater. I hope you've seen the movie, as it will only make you love him more, and it's a cool chronicle of the American underground rock scene of the 80s to boot, but I must admit what's the nicest about all this is the guy is simply up to the task these days, playing mostly compelling new stuff and a few old gems when appropriate. Making a little more money, maintaining a good schedule, not flaking or flipping as he has so famously in his more tormented past. Daniel really is a national treasure, a Texan treasure, a fractured genius even...but not so much in that his mind is impaired, because it appears when he's on his meds the manic episodes are kept at bay, and he's obviously a fucking genius. As to his heart and emotions? This is the stuff of mythical discontent and endless longing. Johnston is up there with Nick Drake and Townes Van Zandt when it comes to such gaping wound emotionalism, though he's definitely got a loose, sloppy approach that's all his own. He also played a perfectly destroyed version of "Band on the Run." Was struck by his trembling arms during most of the set and hope this was merely a negative manifestation of stage-fright, but who knows...
A shot of Daniel engulfed in the Holy Light of Immaculate Performance Perfection:
And a scan of the image I asked Daniel to draw after the show as a replacement for the one he drew me 5 years ago in Austin and I promptly lost. My friend James insists I will find it in the pages of an old magazine or the spine of a CD sometime in the next five years 
And exactly one week previous I was able to view MV/EE at Shawn McMillen's house in Austin, and it was simply one of the most magical, drunken evenings of my meager existence. Also saw McMillen play a solo set (absolutely gorgeous ethnic drone power minimalism as evinced on his excellent "Catfish" LP) and Ralph White unleash his own kind of primitive Americana, and I recorded almost all of it to minidisc! No shit...my God I was so drunk. I love all of you and hope we can do it again real soon. The Bummer Road's Green Blues is fucking beautiful solar blues of the highest order and Zuma didn't even bite me! I'm in...oh Sweet Jesus am I in. Here's the cover of MV/EE's new CD-R, Goodbye Moonface on Wabana. I'm honored to call them my friends. 
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Welp...I'm missing a Steven Stapleton DJ set in Austin at End of An Ear today. Bummer! There will be other opportunities. I have the faith (fuck the fear!) I was going to post more best of '06 stuff, like best vinyl and reissues, but fuck that too! '07 awaits.
MV/EE are touring currently with Charalambides. I hope to attend the Austin gig; sorry none is happening in North Texas.
Dates:
Jan 31 2007 8:00P iron horse northampton, MA
Feb 1 2007 8:00P PA's lounge somerville, MA
Feb 2 2007 8:00P uncle paulie's greenpoint/brooklyn, NY
Feb 3 2007 8:00P first unitarian church chapel philadelphia, PA
Feb 4 2007 8:00P the dust warehouse space charlottesville, VA
Feb 5 2007 8:00P harvest records asheville, NC
Feb 6 2007 8:00P ruby green nashville, TN
Feb 7 2007 8:00P eyedrum atlanta, GA
Feb 8 2007 8:00P bottle tree birmingham, AL
Feb 9 2007 8:00P hi ho lounge new orleans, LA
Feb 10 2007 8:00P rudyard's pub houston, TX
Feb 11 2007 8:00P shawn mcmillen's house austin, TX
Feb 14 2007 8:00P the smell los angeles, CA
Feb 16 2007 8:00P hotel utah san francisco, CA
Feb 17 2007 8:00P the attic santa cruz, CA
Feb 18 2007 8:00P the accident gallery eureka, CA
Feb 20 2007 8:00P reed college chapel portland, OR
Feb 21 2007 8:00P gallery 1412 seattle, WA
Feb 27 2007 8:00P the hall mall iowa city, IA
Feb 28 2007 8:00P empty bottle chicago, IL
Mar 1 2007 8:00P the mecca lexington, KY
Mar 2 2007 8:00P museum of contemporary art cleveland, OH
Mar 3 2007 8:00P the music gallery toronto, ON
Mar 4 2007 8:00P la sala rossa montreal, QC
Mar 11 2007 8:00P sundazed @ BAR new haven, CT
And here's a review of Mother of Thousands I wrote a few months ago that never got published anywhere:
MV & EE with The Bummer Road Mother of Thousands (Time-Lag) 2LP
When I asked Erika Elder if The Bummer Road was a full fledged psychedelic jug band (sans the jug) compared to the more minimal flavor of her duo recordings with Matt Valentine, her response was simple: “It’s just the big band.” Indeed it is. Flip open the gorgeous gatefold double album package, and there are six white washed faces greeting hazy afternoon sunlight: Mo’ Jiggs, Nemo Bidstrup, Samara Lubelski, Sparrow Wildchild, Tim Barnes, the ubiquitous Valentine, Elder and four legged Zuma, all vital participants on this transcendental music farm. “Mother of Thousands” is the grand statement from these cosmic folk/blues troubadours, and it’s undoubtedly one of the most memorable psychedelic albums of 2006.
First off, the cover image is a kind of sun-kissed twist on the iconic “American Gothic” painting. Matt and Erika are closer to American Bliss in this portrait. They are living in the dream, at least in the moment captured. Of course, images tend to come with their own exaggerated meanings. Maybe it’s a random off-screen rustle that has Elder distracted while Valentine looks directly into the camera; maybe it’s intentional. Either way the image conveys what I believe is at the heart of MV & EE and The Bummer Road—a willingness to look directly into the eye of the perceiver and look away too. Familiar folk melodies and old blues riffs manifest in this aural soup, but there is just as much distraction and dissonance too. A great deal of chance is left between the notes. At times The Bummer Road’s off-kilter melodies are so buried in droning reverb and shifting instrumental chaos that the listener could get confused or lost in the murk. Mo Jiggs’ harmonica is heard as haunted squawks and groaning trills. Guitars are obliquely plucked and shook to reveal new alien overtones, but through it all there remains ever the faintest murmur of something traditional.
Gentle folk pop spirals like “Cold Rain” and “Sunshine Girl” are among the most accessible things to bear the MV/EE stamp to date, joyful slices of psych roots bliss that hearken back to golden moments by such exploratory blues psych hall-of-famers as The Grateful Dead and Canned Heat. Anyone ever notice how much Valentine sounds like Al Wilson these days? To bring home the point, one song is called “Canned Heat Blues.” But it must be said the Bummer Road goes further and deeper than any of their ancestors ever dared (but Sun-Ra of course). Some might even say they go too far. There are more than a few moments that lend credence to the suggestion, but then whoever said that psychedelia was just about sunbeams and pretty flowers?
As if the first disc of song based numbers wasn’t enough, the second disc explores vividly the group’s proclivity for more epic meditative journeys and imploded free jazz arrangements. “Meditations on Payday” is a workout of the immortal John Hurt classic that glides on the ether for a good 15 minutes with Jiggs’ harmonica and Valentine’s acid guitar dancing over a shifting bed of percussive clatter and wind-instrumental whoosh. The sidelong closer, “Death Don’t have No Mercy” (another cover, this time by Reverend Gary Davis), is broken apart to the most abstract fundamentals before voice and piano slowly come to the fore, and then an abrupt shift to harsher swamp-land noise worthy of Throbbing Gristle before another transition leads to the fade.
I recently saw someone refer to “Mother of Thousands” as the rightful descendant of Royal Trux’s immortal skronk blues epic “Twin Infinitives,” and at the time I didn’t really hear it. “Twin Infinitives” is a howling crawl through the most damaged post industrial void, but it’s also alive with detail and vivid vitality every second of the way. “Mother of Thousands” is a mellower, more blissful glide, but it emanates its own dark menace. Death crawls through this microtonal universe with no mercy, but then so does life. It’s a little broken down, but it’s nothing that isn’t entirely indicative of what it is to feel hope, love, pain, fear and the whole mess of living this life.
MV/EE are touring currently with Charalambides. I hope to attend the Austin gig; sorry none is happening in North Texas.
Dates:
Jan 31 2007 8:00P iron horse northampton, MA
Feb 1 2007 8:00P PA's lounge somerville, MA
Feb 2 2007 8:00P uncle paulie's greenpoint/brooklyn, NY
Feb 3 2007 8:00P first unitarian church chapel philadelphia, PA
Feb 4 2007 8:00P the dust warehouse space charlottesville, VA
Feb 5 2007 8:00P harvest records asheville, NC
Feb 6 2007 8:00P ruby green nashville, TN
Feb 7 2007 8:00P eyedrum atlanta, GA
Feb 8 2007 8:00P bottle tree birmingham, AL
Feb 9 2007 8:00P hi ho lounge new orleans, LA
Feb 10 2007 8:00P rudyard's pub houston, TX
Feb 11 2007 8:00P shawn mcmillen's house austin, TX
Feb 14 2007 8:00P the smell los angeles, CA
Feb 16 2007 8:00P hotel utah san francisco, CA
Feb 17 2007 8:00P the attic santa cruz, CA
Feb 18 2007 8:00P the accident gallery eureka, CA
Feb 20 2007 8:00P reed college chapel portland, OR
Feb 21 2007 8:00P gallery 1412 seattle, WA
Feb 27 2007 8:00P the hall mall iowa city, IA
Feb 28 2007 8:00P empty bottle chicago, IL
Mar 1 2007 8:00P the mecca lexington, KY
Mar 2 2007 8:00P museum of contemporary art cleveland, OH
Mar 3 2007 8:00P the music gallery toronto, ON
Mar 4 2007 8:00P la sala rossa montreal, QC
Mar 11 2007 8:00P sundazed @ BAR new haven, CT
And here's a review of Mother of Thousands I wrote a few months ago that never got published anywhere:
MV & EE with The Bummer Road Mother of Thousands (Time-Lag) 2LP
When I asked Erika Elder if The Bummer Road was a full fledged psychedelic jug band (sans the jug) compared to the more minimal flavor of her duo recordings with Matt Valentine, her response was simple: “It’s just the big band.” Indeed it is. Flip open the gorgeous gatefold double album package, and there are six white washed faces greeting hazy afternoon sunlight: Mo’ Jiggs, Nemo Bidstrup, Samara Lubelski, Sparrow Wildchild, Tim Barnes, the ubiquitous Valentine, Elder and four legged Zuma, all vital participants on this transcendental music farm. “Mother of Thousands” is the grand statement from these cosmic folk/blues troubadours, and it’s undoubtedly one of the most memorable psychedelic albums of 2006.
First off, the cover image is a kind of sun-kissed twist on the iconic “American Gothic” painting. Matt and Erika are closer to American Bliss in this portrait. They are living in the dream, at least in the moment captured. Of course, images tend to come with their own exaggerated meanings. Maybe it’s a random off-screen rustle that has Elder distracted while Valentine looks directly into the camera; maybe it’s intentional. Either way the image conveys what I believe is at the heart of MV & EE and The Bummer Road—a willingness to look directly into the eye of the perceiver and look away too. Familiar folk melodies and old blues riffs manifest in this aural soup, but there is just as much distraction and dissonance too. A great deal of chance is left between the notes. At times The Bummer Road’s off-kilter melodies are so buried in droning reverb and shifting instrumental chaos that the listener could get confused or lost in the murk. Mo Jiggs’ harmonica is heard as haunted squawks and groaning trills. Guitars are obliquely plucked and shook to reveal new alien overtones, but through it all there remains ever the faintest murmur of something traditional.
Gentle folk pop spirals like “Cold Rain” and “Sunshine Girl” are among the most accessible things to bear the MV/EE stamp to date, joyful slices of psych roots bliss that hearken back to golden moments by such exploratory blues psych hall-of-famers as The Grateful Dead and Canned Heat. Anyone ever notice how much Valentine sounds like Al Wilson these days? To bring home the point, one song is called “Canned Heat Blues.” But it must be said the Bummer Road goes further and deeper than any of their ancestors ever dared (but Sun-Ra of course). Some might even say they go too far. There are more than a few moments that lend credence to the suggestion, but then whoever said that psychedelia was just about sunbeams and pretty flowers?
As if the first disc of song based numbers wasn’t enough, the second disc explores vividly the group’s proclivity for more epic meditative journeys and imploded free jazz arrangements. “Meditations on Payday” is a workout of the immortal John Hurt classic that glides on the ether for a good 15 minutes with Jiggs’ harmonica and Valentine’s acid guitar dancing over a shifting bed of percussive clatter and wind-instrumental whoosh. The sidelong closer, “Death Don’t have No Mercy” (another cover, this time by Reverend Gary Davis), is broken apart to the most abstract fundamentals before voice and piano slowly come to the fore, and then an abrupt shift to harsher swamp-land noise worthy of Throbbing Gristle before another transition leads to the fade.
I recently saw someone refer to “Mother of Thousands” as the rightful descendant of Royal Trux’s immortal skronk blues epic “Twin Infinitives,” and at the time I didn’t really hear it. “Twin Infinitives” is a howling crawl through the most damaged post industrial void, but it’s also alive with detail and vivid vitality every second of the way. “Mother of Thousands” is a mellower, more blissful glide, but it emanates its own dark menace. Death crawls through this microtonal universe with no mercy, but then so does life. It’s a little broken down, but it’s nothing that isn’t entirely indicative of what it is to feel hope, love, pain, fear and the whole mess of living this life.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Top Limited CD-Rs of 06
20. The Friday Group Wet Fur CD-R (Wholly Other/Twilight Flight Sound)
19. The Kitchen Cynics Hoodie Craw CD-R (self released)
18. The Floating World River of Flowers CD-R (Foxglove/Digitalis)
17. Amon Düde Amon Düde (Ikuisuus)
16. The Dead Notes The Dead Notes CD-R (Kindling)
15. Raglani Man Myth Magic (Pegasus Farms Records)
14. Heavy Winged Echoes of Silence CD-R (Deep Water)
13. Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice Town on the Edge of Darkness (Freaks End Future)
12. The North Sea Summer Decays Into October's Alchemy (Foxglove)
11. John Henry Calvinist King Solomon Hill (Foxglove)
10. GHQ La Poesia Visiva (Heavy Blossom)
9. The Golden Oaks Paradise CD-R (Barl Fire)
8. The Clear Spots Mansion in the Sky CD-R (Deep Water)
7. Tom Carter Sun Swallower (Wholly Other)
6. Jazzfinger Winter's Shadow Between Two Worlds CD-R (Curor)
5. Charalambides Strangle the Wretched Heavens CD-R (Wholly Other)
4. Agitated Radio Pilot Your Turn to Go It Alone 2x3" CD-R (Rusty Rail)
3. Valerio Cosi The Thee Faces of Moongod (Ruralfaune)
2. Adam Bujag Wave of Tears (Deep Water)
1. Pefkin Pingle Pangle (Pseudoarcana)
20. The Friday Group Wet Fur CD-R (Wholly Other/Twilight Flight Sound)
19. The Kitchen Cynics Hoodie Craw CD-R (self released)
18. The Floating World River of Flowers CD-R (Foxglove/Digitalis)
17. Amon Düde Amon Düde (Ikuisuus)
16. The Dead Notes The Dead Notes CD-R (Kindling)
15. Raglani Man Myth Magic (Pegasus Farms Records)
14. Heavy Winged Echoes of Silence CD-R (Deep Water)
13. Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice Town on the Edge of Darkness (Freaks End Future)
12. The North Sea Summer Decays Into October's Alchemy (Foxglove)
11. John Henry Calvinist King Solomon Hill (Foxglove)
10. GHQ La Poesia Visiva (Heavy Blossom)
9. The Golden Oaks Paradise CD-R (Barl Fire)
8. The Clear Spots Mansion in the Sky CD-R (Deep Water)
7. Tom Carter Sun Swallower (Wholly Other)
6. Jazzfinger Winter's Shadow Between Two Worlds CD-R (Curor)
5. Charalambides Strangle the Wretched Heavens CD-R (Wholly Other)
4. Agitated Radio Pilot Your Turn to Go It Alone 2x3" CD-R (Rusty Rail)
3. Valerio Cosi The Thee Faces of Moongod (Ruralfaune)
2. Adam Bujag Wave of Tears (Deep Water)
1. Pefkin Pingle Pangle (Pseudoarcana)
Thursday, January 25, 2007
(better late than never???)
26 in '06
CDs/LPs:
26. Oakley Hall Gypsum Strings (Brah/Jagjaguwar)
25. Six Organs of Admittance The Sun Awakens (Drag City)
24. Anton Barbeau In the Village of the Apple Sun (Four-Way)
23. Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood Goodbye (Digitalis)
22. Om Conference of the Birds (Holy Mountain)
21. Alastair Galbraith/Alex Neilson/Richard Youngs Bellsayer Time (Time-Lag)
20. Circle Miljard (Ektro)
19. Bardo Pond Sublimation (Three Lobed)
18. The Spires That in the Sunset Rise This Is Fire (Secret Eye)
17. Wooden Wand and the Skyhigh Band Second Attention (Kill Rock Stars)
16. Fern Knight Music For Witches and Alchemists (VHF)
15. Camera Obscura Let's Get Out of This Country (Merge)
14. The Akron/Family Meek Warrior (Young God)
13. Flying Canyon Flying Canyon (Soft Abuse)
12. Charalambides A Vintage Burden (Kranky)
11. Nether Dawn Outer Dark (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon)
10. Mike Tamburo and His Orchestra The Ghosts of Marumbey (Music Fellowship/New American Folk Hero)
9. Aethenor Deep Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light (VHF)
8. Warmer Milks Radish on Light (Troubleman)
7. James Blackshaw O True Believers (Important)
6. MV/EE & The Bummer Road Mother of Thousands (Time-Lag)
5. Sunno)))/Boris Altar (Southern Lord)
4. Ashtray Navigations Four More Raga Moods (Ikuisuus)
3. Daniel Higgs Ancestral Songs (Holy Mountain)
2. Volcano the Bear Classic Erasmus Fusion (Beta-Lactam)
1. United Bible Studies The Shore Fears the Sea (Deserted Village)
26 in '06
CDs/LPs:
26. Oakley Hall Gypsum Strings (Brah/Jagjaguwar)
25. Six Organs of Admittance The Sun Awakens (Drag City)
24. Anton Barbeau In the Village of the Apple Sun (Four-Way)
23. Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood Goodbye (Digitalis)
22. Om Conference of the Birds (Holy Mountain)
21. Alastair Galbraith/Alex Neilson/Richard Youngs Bellsayer Time (Time-Lag)
20. Circle Miljard (Ektro)
19. Bardo Pond Sublimation (Three Lobed)
18. The Spires That in the Sunset Rise This Is Fire (Secret Eye)
17. Wooden Wand and the Skyhigh Band Second Attention (Kill Rock Stars)
16. Fern Knight Music For Witches and Alchemists (VHF)
15. Camera Obscura Let's Get Out of This Country (Merge)
14. The Akron/Family Meek Warrior (Young God)
13. Flying Canyon Flying Canyon (Soft Abuse)
12. Charalambides A Vintage Burden (Kranky)
11. Nether Dawn Outer Dark (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon)
10. Mike Tamburo and His Orchestra The Ghosts of Marumbey (Music Fellowship/New American Folk Hero)
9. Aethenor Deep Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light (VHF)
8. Warmer Milks Radish on Light (Troubleman)
7. James Blackshaw O True Believers (Important)
6. MV/EE & The Bummer Road Mother of Thousands (Time-Lag)
5. Sunno)))/Boris Altar (Southern Lord)
4. Ashtray Navigations Four More Raga Moods (Ikuisuus)
3. Daniel Higgs Ancestral Songs (Holy Mountain)
2. Volcano the Bear Classic Erasmus Fusion (Beta-Lactam)
1. United Bible Studies The Shore Fears the Sea (Deserted Village)
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
"The difference between a great writer and a minor one is fundamentally this: that the minor writer always has answers -- glib answers, slick answers, memorably-worded answers, resounding and pretentious answers. The great writer dares to stand before you naked, armed only with the questions."
Robert Anton Wilson
1932 - 2007
And then there was this:
Dream Magazine number 7 features a wonderful archival interview with the late great Ivor Cutler conducted by John Cavanagh (Phosphene/BBC), Mats Gustafsson talked to Lanterns and Antony Milton of PseudoArcana. Steve Sawada interviewed the legendary Linda Perhacs, Lee Jackson wrote about and chatted with Josephine Foster, Ned Raggett covered Yellow6, I interviewed Henry Flynt, Larkin Grimm, Turkish band Ayyuka, Loren Connors, Mayo Thompson of Red Krayola, Bert Jansch, Absalom, P.G. Six, Function, The Left Outsides, The Moon Upstairs, Sharron Kraus, St. Mary’s, Tor Lundvall, Powell St. John (songwriter for 13th Floor Elevators, Mother Earth, Janis Joplin, etc.) , Mark Brend of Fariña, and Frans de Waard and Freek Kinkelaar of Beequeen.
The complimentary CD features previously unreleased music by: Function, Lumeny, Tor Lundvall, Adrian Crowley, Crashing Dreams, Mike Tamburo, Keenan Lawler, Sharron Kraus, the Kitchen Cynics, the Left Outsides, Yellow6, Fariña, the Moon Upstairs, St. Mary’s, Freiband, and Absalom.
96 pages $8 cover price, $10 postpaid in the U.S.
George Parsons
Dream Magazine
P.O. Box 2027
Nevada City, CA
95959-1941
geo@gv.net
www.dreamgeo.com
Dream Magazine number 7 features a wonderful archival interview with the late great Ivor Cutler conducted by John Cavanagh (Phosphene/BBC), Mats Gustafsson talked to Lanterns and Antony Milton of PseudoArcana. Steve Sawada interviewed the legendary Linda Perhacs, Lee Jackson wrote about and chatted with Josephine Foster, Ned Raggett covered Yellow6, I interviewed Henry Flynt, Larkin Grimm, Turkish band Ayyuka, Loren Connors, Mayo Thompson of Red Krayola, Bert Jansch, Absalom, P.G. Six, Function, The Left Outsides, The Moon Upstairs, Sharron Kraus, St. Mary’s, Tor Lundvall, Powell St. John (songwriter for 13th Floor Elevators, Mother Earth, Janis Joplin, etc.) , Mark Brend of Fariña, and Frans de Waard and Freek Kinkelaar of Beequeen.
The complimentary CD features previously unreleased music by: Function, Lumeny, Tor Lundvall, Adrian Crowley, Crashing Dreams, Mike Tamburo, Keenan Lawler, Sharron Kraus, the Kitchen Cynics, the Left Outsides, Yellow6, Fariña, the Moon Upstairs, St. Mary’s, Freiband, and Absalom.
96 pages $8 cover price, $10 postpaid in the U.S.
George Parsons
Dream Magazine
P.O. Box 2027
Nevada City, CA
95959-1941
geo@gv.net
www.dreamgeo.com
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
I Saw Jucifer the other night. It felt as if I was sexually assaulted. It was good. I asked the modified 5-string guitar player/singer if she'd ever heard Boris. She'd only heard a few songs. Jucifer makes me think of a 2 person garage punk answer to Boris, hence the question. The drummer kills--this is true--but the best part was when the cute gal was grinding out some sorta crazy nowave/punk riff and the drummer guy was just sorta rollin' around on the floor as the gal started to almost make out with the huge bank of amps that surrounded her in a half circle, and at one point her hair was electrified and floating around her skull, and yeah that seemed to sum up their set well. A friend got some snapshots and a video clip or two, so maybe I'll add those in here later.
Oh yeah, special honorable mention to opening Houston death doom sludge rockers BOWEL--they lived up to their name. After they were finished I walked up to the singer/guitarist and hugged his bald head and whisper-growled "fucking wretched" in his right ear before kissing him passionately. Their t-shirt said "FUCKED IN THE FACE BY THE DEVIL" in fat weed green letters. Funny.
A few announcements to make. The Foxy Digitalis Digi-fest, Bottled Smoke, happens in LA in about five months.
Digitalis 'Bottled Smoke' Festival - Lineup Announced
since grant capes and i have been working our asses off this week getting a basically-final list of performers for the festival together, i felt it was time to announce it. scheduling is still being done, though grant has basically got it finished (everyone give him mad props. heh!). so without further adieu, i present to you the list of bands that will be making this festival the event of the year (ahem):
tarentel, the north sea (first ever live appearance), brothers of the occult sisterhood, (VxPxC), heavy winged, ghosting, xela (first ever US appearance), valet, dan brown (from hall of fame), gregg kowalsky, the alps, terracid (first ever live appearance), robedoor, ilyas ahmed, white rainbow, alligator crystal moth, fathmount (first ever US appearance), thousands, antique bros, mike tamburo (w/ matt mcdowell), goliath bird eater, ajilvsga (first ever live appearance), new fairfield parks & recreation (first ever US appearance), pocahaunted, & the holy see
a few late additions/changes to the line-up may occur, but this is the bulk of it (and seriously, do you NEED more than that?). also, we'll have the most insane merch-area you've ever seen, including a table full of endless goodies from ed hardy/eclipse. still not enough? the festival also coincides with the opening of the bottling smoke exhibit which will feature artwork, interviews, and all sorts of random pieces and artifacts from the world of CDR labels.
the majority of all this will take place the fabulous echo curio in LOS ANGELES may 25th-27th, except for the saturday night show at mr. t's. everything at echo curio is FREE to the public. yes, you can see 20 or so bands for fucken FREE. because we love you.
you can support our efforts by subscribing to the bottled smoke CDR series.
more news as it becomes available..
ALSO:
Your Womb-master expressed some thoughts on records in '06 along with some other fine folks (Mats Gustaffson, Kevin Moist and Camera Obscura head honcho Tony Dale) over at Deep Water Acres in an article called Nailing Smoke to the Wall. So check it if interested. It's a two parter, so read em both! I promise I will post a few lists of my favorite 06 things here in a day or two. Sorry for the delays, folks. Hey man, Steven Stapleton is apparently coming to Texas! Truly odd.
Oh yeah, special honorable mention to opening Houston death doom sludge rockers BOWEL--they lived up to their name. After they were finished I walked up to the singer/guitarist and hugged his bald head and whisper-growled "fucking wretched" in his right ear before kissing him passionately. Their t-shirt said "FUCKED IN THE FACE BY THE DEVIL" in fat weed green letters. Funny.
A few announcements to make. The Foxy Digitalis Digi-fest, Bottled Smoke, happens in LA in about five months.
Digitalis 'Bottled Smoke' Festival - Lineup Announced
since grant capes and i have been working our asses off this week getting a basically-final list of performers for the festival together, i felt it was time to announce it. scheduling is still being done, though grant has basically got it finished (everyone give him mad props. heh!). so without further adieu, i present to you the list of bands that will be making this festival the event of the year (ahem):
tarentel, the north sea (first ever live appearance), brothers of the occult sisterhood, (VxPxC), heavy winged, ghosting, xela (first ever US appearance), valet, dan brown (from hall of fame), gregg kowalsky, the alps, terracid (first ever live appearance), robedoor, ilyas ahmed, white rainbow, alligator crystal moth, fathmount (first ever US appearance), thousands, antique bros, mike tamburo (w/ matt mcdowell), goliath bird eater, ajilvsga (first ever live appearance), new fairfield parks & recreation (first ever US appearance), pocahaunted, & the holy see
a few late additions/changes to the line-up may occur, but this is the bulk of it (and seriously, do you NEED more than that?). also, we'll have the most insane merch-area you've ever seen, including a table full of endless goodies from ed hardy/eclipse. still not enough? the festival also coincides with the opening of the bottling smoke exhibit which will feature artwork, interviews, and all sorts of random pieces and artifacts from the world of CDR labels.
the majority of all this will take place the fabulous echo curio in LOS ANGELES may 25th-27th, except for the saturday night show at mr. t's. everything at echo curio is FREE to the public. yes, you can see 20 or so bands for fucken FREE. because we love you.
you can support our efforts by subscribing to the bottled smoke CDR series.
more news as it becomes available..
ALSO:
Your Womb-master expressed some thoughts on records in '06 along with some other fine folks (Mats Gustaffson, Kevin Moist and Camera Obscura head honcho Tony Dale) over at Deep Water Acres in an article called Nailing Smoke to the Wall. So check it if interested. It's a two parter, so read em both! I promise I will post a few lists of my favorite 06 things here in a day or two. Sorry for the delays, folks. Hey man, Steven Stapleton is apparently coming to Texas! Truly odd.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Happy New Year, YOU. Let's all--that is you and I--do our part in getting some things right in '07, mmkay? After all, TIME MAGAZINE chose YOU as person of the year in '06. So it's all up to YOU and maybe me to LET LOVE RULE as Lenny Kravitz would say. Seriously. Let it.
Right on... So I haven't seen a lot of the big Oscar contender movies this year. Ya know, the "the..." movies: The Departed, The Illusionist, The Fountain, The Good Sheppard The Scarlet's Web--lame I know. I'll see what I can do about that in the coming days. Did like Jackass #2, for what it's worth.
I'm most anticipating lately Pan's Labyrinth, a dark fairytale that should be one of the more unique things to come down the old celluloid shoot in some time. Director Guillermo Del Toro really impressed a few years back with his somewhat similar The Devil's Backbone.
Otherwise, as amazing and memorable and disturbing and all else it was, I'm just glad 2006 is over. Glad I made if through in one piece. Foxy Digitalis is back in full-swingin' mode and lookin' great. Totally dig that new layout, peeps! There's even some rumbles on the ether 'bout a big ol' festival (or two) happening somewhere soon. Should be just swell.
Also got some fresh material and an updated look happening over at Deep Water Acres. And I finally got together another Bones from the Garden column which might be of interest to a few. There are some more goodies in the pipeline too, including what should be a broadly canvassed '06 wrap-up that might inspire more than a few early '07 impulse buys.
What else? Not sure if I saw one live show in the month of December (Psychic Paramount maybe?), but there's much goodness heading here soon, including JESU and Nordic Viking Metal Gods, ENSLAVED! Can you imagine my fat hippie ass at a black metal show? Prog black metal...whatever. But in all seriousness, I'm very intimidating these days. Thank you to all my friends near and far who made '06 a little bit more tolerable and a lot more memorable. Peace and love to you all.
Right on... So I haven't seen a lot of the big Oscar contender movies this year. Ya know, the "the..." movies: The Departed, The Illusionist, The Fountain, The Good Sheppard The Scarlet's Web--lame I know. I'll see what I can do about that in the coming days. Did like Jackass #2, for what it's worth.
I'm most anticipating lately Pan's Labyrinth, a dark fairytale that should be one of the more unique things to come down the old celluloid shoot in some time. Director Guillermo Del Toro really impressed a few years back with his somewhat similar The Devil's Backbone.
Otherwise, as amazing and memorable and disturbing and all else it was, I'm just glad 2006 is over. Glad I made if through in one piece. Foxy Digitalis is back in full-swingin' mode and lookin' great. Totally dig that new layout, peeps! There's even some rumbles on the ether 'bout a big ol' festival (or two) happening somewhere soon. Should be just swell.
Also got some fresh material and an updated look happening over at Deep Water Acres. And I finally got together another Bones from the Garden column which might be of interest to a few. There are some more goodies in the pipeline too, including what should be a broadly canvassed '06 wrap-up that might inspire more than a few early '07 impulse buys.
What else? Not sure if I saw one live show in the month of December (Psychic Paramount maybe?), but there's much goodness heading here soon, including JESU and Nordic Viking Metal Gods, ENSLAVED! Can you imagine my fat hippie ass at a black metal show? Prog black metal...whatever. But in all seriousness, I'm very intimidating these days. Thank you to all my friends near and far who made '06 a little bit more tolerable and a lot more memorable. Peace and love to you all.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Special Music time, and there's so much of it this year! This past weekend I actually went out to see THE MELVINS live, with a double drummer set up, fuckin' smoked! They didn't play any of the old crawling sludge-burners, but they did pull out "Revolve" from Stoner Witch (best southern fried sludge boogie jam ever), and played a good 90 mins or so of qualified bulldozer glam. It was like Kiss crossed with mid period Swans--amazing. Ok maybe not AMAZING, but I enjoy these weirdos in glam mode more than I thought I would.
Also just got the brand new Aufgehoben album Messidor on Holy Mountain in the mail (their 4th to date) FOR FREE and WOW, definitely one of the finest high energy improv/noise units on this planet. And it is actual rock music too. ON THIS FUCKING PLANET! Wonder if they still don't play out live because they should. Speaking of which, it's an amazing time to be alive; it really is. Hang in there, babies! Hold that ground.
It's good to be rocking and rolling and kicking it with your friends and obsessing over the Rolling Stones and trying to stay warm and make things instead of break things. I could break much shit if I wanted to. On the must see list: "The Devil and Daniel Johnston"--cried a bit while watching this (from all the laughter!). Note to self: Never accept a gift from Gibby Haynes, chemical or otherwise.
A few of my favorite albums to come out in recent months...
Flying Canyon Flying Canyon (Soft Abuse) Precious, dusted folk tunes from the dark side of the desert. The li'l sticker on the package says "doom folk from California" or some such. If that's not some shameless Psych exploitation, don't know what is, but it's also an accurate description all the same. Cayce Lindner resembles a mid 70s Jackson Frank, hair long and sandy, his voice soft and gruff at the same time. I'd like to think a joint was hanging between his fingers when the cover pic was snapped. The songs themselves are tender psych folk chestnuts that capture desolation and beauty with timeless folky textures anchored on reverb-drenched rhythms, especially "Crossing by your Star" with its sweet harmonies. His band features Glen and Donovan from Sky Green Leopards among others. Skip Spence, Jackson Frank and Donovan fans should dig.
Seht Green Morning (Digitalis) Deep drone electronics from Mars--well inspired by Mars and Ray Bradbury and lo-fi sonic constructions in general. This is Seht at his deep drone best, hanging in there with the heavy hitters of the genre and keeping it interesting throughout, even if "interesting" in this particular case is a kind of static textured mechanical hum. It works. Sweet package too. Seriously.
Boris/Sunno))) Altar (Southern Lord) Boris brings the rock and bliss-out sort of edge. Sunn brings the spooky drone; together they make something that sounds like if a heavy progressive rock band had signed to Kranky records in 1994. I think that's praise. I like this myself, though the packaging may be even more impressive than the music.
Mudsuckers Mudsuckers (Important) Super third eye mind meld between Masters Robert Horton, Tom Carter and the D____ Yellow Swans. This actually works really well with searing slide work drowning in a cosmic sea of sci-fi electronic dementia. No big surprise. I expected as much.
Jazzfinger Winter's Shadow Between Two Worlds (Curor) - Travis: I got a head full of it...perhaps even fear...itÂ’s exploration, but riddled with muddled doubt and confusion, by design, of course. Perhaps it's a psychedelic rebirth or a violent ego-death, a stripping away of reality. Me: Tony Conrad goes pop. Wow it's only a CD-R!
Circle Miljard (Ekto) - 2CD behemeth marries Circle's propulsive repetition-to-infinity with quieter, dreamier numbers. Is this post rock? Is this jazz? It's definitely psychedelic, quite enthralling, masterfully produced and a lot more interesting than what one might expect if Circle turned down the volume and upped the sparseness. There's just something about their mesmorizing riff swirls buried in seething electronics that always reels me in, and only more so here. This is quiet, but this isn't light. Me thinks this a definer for these Finnish stalwarts.
Larkin Grimm The Last Tree (Secret Eye) - Sweet pixie dust and fairy butterflies tinkling and dancing through the green yellow fields. Larkin is a star, regardless of if anyone is paying attention or not. She's a good songwriter, and she manages that rare gift of grafting her traditional folky sensibilities with philosophical underpinings that embrace independence and emotional rawness above all else. That she does it and makes her songs so incredibly infectious and accessible at the same time is just the gravy on the chicken fried steak. Delicious.
The Left Jesus Loves the Left (Bona Fide) - How is it possible I never heard of this mid 80s Baltimore hardcore punk groop before now? Feirce, blinding, very capable high energy guitar rock with a strong debt to Stooges (covered here), 13th Floor Elevators (Rollercoaster is referenced in the charred crawl of "R.I.P.") and a few others (including the Gun Club and Radio Birdman). The career spanning "Jesus Loves the Left" is the most convincing punk album I've heard in '06, and it's not dated at all. Superior production and performances all the way around. Who knew?
United Bible Studies The Shore That Fears the Sea (Deserted Village) - Don't think I ever mentioned this here. Sprawling lyserfic acid folk cum free jazz run through a slight post industrial filter. The flagship Deserved Village ensemble truly hits their stride on this, their debut CD release. If you love the fuck out of The Bummer Road's Mother of Thousands, and would like to hear a slightly more gothic, Irish variation on some similar themes, you might just like this more. I do.
Volcano the Bear Classic Erasmus Fusion (Beta-Lactam Ring) - A definiteve 2CD sprawler from one of the finest psychedelic free jazz industrial rock bands on the planet. There was a time when VTB's vision far outshined their technical abilities. Now their chops have caught up. This monster, recorded with a newly added 4th member on electronics, is one of the most vital, creative, alive, REAL albums to come down the pike this year.
End of an Era... 
...Till today, Robert Altman was my favorite living filmmaker. The workhorse and great eccentric who gave us M*A*S*H, Nashville, The Player, Gosford Park, McCabe and Mrs Miller (one of my top 3 favorite movies of all time....) and dozens more has died. He worked till the end. His last film, A Prairie Home Companion, is highly recommended and a fitting capper for such an intelligent, vividly alert and deeply humanistic filmmaking career. There will never be another Altman. It's truly the end of an era for American filmmaking. Even though he's largely considered one of the mavericks who birthed a newer style of gritty realism, old Hollywood dies today. If Kubrick was our Orson Welles, then Altman was our Jean Renoir. Fuck. I'm crushed. Really thought he was going to be around a while longer...
...Till today, Robert Altman was my favorite living filmmaker. The workhorse and great eccentric who gave us M*A*S*H, Nashville, The Player, Gosford Park, McCabe and Mrs Miller (one of my top 3 favorite movies of all time....) and dozens more has died. He worked till the end. His last film, A Prairie Home Companion, is highly recommended and a fitting capper for such an intelligent, vividly alert and deeply humanistic filmmaking career. There will never be another Altman. It's truly the end of an era for American filmmaking. Even though he's largely considered one of the mavericks who birthed a newer style of gritty realism, old Hollywood dies today. If Kubrick was our Orson Welles, then Altman was our Jean Renoir. Fuck. I'm crushed. Really thought he was going to be around a while longer...
Monday, November 20, 2006
I am not a big sports guy or anything, but I was very pleased to see the Cowboys rise up and ultimately crush the Colts yesterday. I was lucky enough to watch the Cowboys become the baddest of the bad (in more ways than one) in the early '90s, as well as the ensuing decade of dribbling mediocrity and failed promise that followed. So let me enjoy this for a few days plz.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
The sad case of Jason DiEmilio.
What would you do if a medical condition impeded upon your ability to hear, play and enjoy music? Like, made it impossible. I never really knew Jason DiEmilio beyond some email correspondence and an appreciation for his work. His drone/noise project The Azusa Plane defined homemade American tone bliss in the late '90s, and he released the first album by respected psych popsters Mazarin on his Victoria imprint on top of exploring other label and musical endeavors. He died recently of an apparent suicide. The facts are cloudy at best, but it seems his failing health was making his life unbearable in some way. It's an especially moving story to some of us because we have such fond memories of this guy, his intensity, his devotion to sound art and the underground community in general--all of the best things about taking chances and following your own muse in this cruel often indifferent world. He must have released over three dozen singles in his time, many of which were splits with drone titans of the era. He also played Terrastock 2 and 3. On an email list people have been discussing him, his music, what his life and death means, the state of underground and the world in general. Be aware of those friends and acquaintances who seem to literally drop off the face of the earth. They don't just drop off. Maybe they go even further underground, look for new routes of travel, new realms of vitality, and sometimes the search may seem in vain. Sometimes hope may seem dead. I wish and hope that Jason knew that his search was not in vain. His myriad singles, splits, live albums, the Azusa Plane's gorgeous "Tycho Magnetic Anomaly" (the second ever Camera Obscura release) all hold a special place in my heart. Rest easy, fellow traveler.
Recommended Listening:
Tycho Magnetic Anomaly and the Full Consciousness of Hidden Harmony CD (Camera Obscura)
Result Dies With the Worker live CD (Colourful Clouds for Acoustics)
Lou, Nico, Sterling, John and Maureen/This Is Not Spacerock 7" (Burnt Hair)
The Azusa Plane/Loren Mazzacane Connors - Split 7" (Colorful Clouds For Acoustics)
The Azusa Plane/Roy Montgomery - Split 7" (Colorful Clouds For Acoustics)
What would you do if a medical condition impeded upon your ability to hear, play and enjoy music? Like, made it impossible. I never really knew Jason DiEmilio beyond some email correspondence and an appreciation for his work. His drone/noise project The Azusa Plane defined homemade American tone bliss in the late '90s, and he released the first album by respected psych popsters Mazarin on his Victoria imprint on top of exploring other label and musical endeavors. He died recently of an apparent suicide. The facts are cloudy at best, but it seems his failing health was making his life unbearable in some way. It's an especially moving story to some of us because we have such fond memories of this guy, his intensity, his devotion to sound art and the underground community in general--all of the best things about taking chances and following your own muse in this cruel often indifferent world. He must have released over three dozen singles in his time, many of which were splits with drone titans of the era. He also played Terrastock 2 and 3. On an email list people have been discussing him, his music, what his life and death means, the state of underground and the world in general. Be aware of those friends and acquaintances who seem to literally drop off the face of the earth. They don't just drop off. Maybe they go even further underground, look for new routes of travel, new realms of vitality, and sometimes the search may seem in vain. Sometimes hope may seem dead. I wish and hope that Jason knew that his search was not in vain. His myriad singles, splits, live albums, the Azusa Plane's gorgeous "Tycho Magnetic Anomaly" (the second ever Camera Obscura release) all hold a special place in my heart. Rest easy, fellow traveler.
Recommended Listening:
Tycho Magnetic Anomaly and the Full Consciousness of Hidden Harmony CD (Camera Obscura)
Result Dies With the Worker live CD (Colourful Clouds for Acoustics)
Lou, Nico, Sterling, John and Maureen/This Is Not Spacerock 7" (Burnt Hair)
The Azusa Plane/Loren Mazzacane Connors - Split 7" (Colorful Clouds For Acoustics)
The Azusa Plane/Roy Montgomery - Split 7" (Colorful Clouds For Acoustics)
They did have a smoke machine! Dead Echoes was by all measures a great success. At one point there was probably close to 40 people in that li'l house, all on the floor wriggling like eels, but thankfully the crowd cleared out as it got later so we could stretch out and really relax for some heavy trance states. Every artist brought something substantial to the table.
Walking in with the mindnumbing gutteral drone of Sunno)))'s "GrimmRobe Demos" blasting throughout the red-lit crypt that the house had been converted into for the night gave me deju-vu, sort of like coming home to hell. Maybe it was because I'd been listening to waaaaayyy tooo much of the stuff lately and pondering, "can I really listen to this crap forever?" and "is there something horribly wrong with me?" and concluding nah. Sidenote: I like the new Sunno)))/Boris super collab album "Altar." A friend commented how he wished it were more evil sounding or at least really mean, but I don't mind, as there is simply enough evil in the world today as is. "The Sinking Belle" is a real beaut me thinks. Sort of like if Mogwai didn't suck. LOL I'm jaykay...Mogwai doesn't suck.
Had an amazing time talking to everyone, making new friends and catching up with old ones. It was also very cool seeing some of the old Austin gang close to home. More to follow on the subject.
Random too-dark-cuz-I-forgot-how-to-work-the-flash phone pix from the evening:
Walking in with the mindnumbing gutteral drone of Sunno)))'s "GrimmRobe Demos" blasting throughout the red-lit crypt that the house had been converted into for the night gave me deju-vu, sort of like coming home to hell. Maybe it was because I'd been listening to waaaaayyy tooo much of the stuff lately and pondering, "can I really listen to this crap forever?" and "is there something horribly wrong with me?" and concluding nah. Sidenote: I like the new Sunno)))/Boris super collab album "Altar." A friend commented how he wished it were more evil sounding or at least really mean, but I don't mind, as there is simply enough evil in the world today as is. "The Sinking Belle" is a real beaut me thinks. Sort of like if Mogwai didn't suck. LOL I'm jaykay...Mogwai doesn't suck.
Had an amazing time talking to everyone, making new friends and catching up with old ones. It was also very cool seeing some of the old Austin gang close to home. More to follow on the subject.
Random too-dark-cuz-I-forgot-how-to-work-the-flash phone pix from the evening:
Monday, October 30, 2006
GOOD PEOPLE! I have missed you. I have missed this glorious blogosphere as well. Back just in time for zombie-wolves-ghosts-goblins-and-witches day. I have a rather perverse appreciation for the macabre, deformed and disturbed, and I'm completely stoked about the happening at The House of Tinnitus tonight, which will feature non-stop drones, performances, projections, costumes and more. Hope they have a smoke machine! 
Tuesday, Oct. 31
7pm
House of Tinnitus
628 Lakey St.
Denton, TX 76201
http://www.myspace.com/deadechoestx
DEAD ECHOES WILL BE THE PRODUCT OF 6 HOURS OF CONSTANT DRONE PROJECTED FROM THE MINDS/BODIES OF THE FOLLOWING TX ARTISTS:
Venison Whirled (Austin)
PURE primitive power dronescapes a la Phill Niblock & La Monte Young, but with a power-metal attitude. Longtime *drummer* for Austin weirdos ST 37 uses bowed cymbals and other unnatural non-percussives
Ethereal Planes Indian (Austin)
Currently on tour with Venison Whirled, Ethereal Planes Indian is B.C. Smith of Iron Kite, ex-Primordial Undermind. Blurry peyote ragas colliding with billowing primitive percussion from the dawn of humankind.
The Zanzibar Snails (Denton)
Three members of Denton incidental improv troupe iDi*amin meld old-guard oscillations and warped, whispery sound sculptures with the unpredictable sax fumigation of Mike Forbes (Notes From Underground)
p.d. wilder (Austin/Denton/parts unknown)
Expansive soundscapy guitarist with a patient mastery of timbre &texture, light & shadow. AKA Pablo St. Chaos, 1/3 of hotel,hotel and caretaker of the lo-bango sound.
OVEO (Denton)
Improvisational collaboration between jamo of Sparrow/Hawk? and Andrew Michael of DentonÂ’s You Are the Universe!. A clattering and seductive medley of feedback, tape loops, and slow-moving horror soundtrack rhythms
S.D.S. (Dallas)
aka Shortwave Death System
Mysterious experimental scene veteran using showtave and loop station; one of the only people in the area to have seen :zoviet*france: live
visual projections by Paul Baker, known for his work with Sub Oslo and at the Strategies of Beauty festival this summer at Rubber Gloves
FREE w/ DONATION!!!
BYOB/ kEG
Kostumz N*couragÂ’d
Here's a preview from the Dallas Observer scribed by Michael from iDi*amin and Zanzibar Snails.
A Special Halloween Playlist of music that goes drone in the night.
irr.app.(ext.) Dust Pincher Appliances (Crouton Music) -- Just the album title sends a shiver down the spine. Something that shouldn't be is wandering about the domestic space. This is the score to a surrealist cinematic nightmare. A strong debt to Nurse With Wound looms, but irr.app.(ext.) infuses its gothic constructions with a unique sense of the macabre meets minimal aural unease and comes off sounding like Bernard Herrmann's (Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds and countless others) classic filmscores colliding with cut-up production and processed electronic noise. You will not hear a more bizarre (or organic) soundtrack album than this. Would likely play well as the score to David Lynch's Eraserhead.
Nurse With Wound Salt Marie Celeste (United Dairies) -- As mentioned above NWW is a pretty heavy influence on what irr.app.(ext.) is up to, but this revolving paranormal investigation unit has been doing it a lot longer and has its own dadaist/cryptic musical inspirations. Trip thing about this 2003 release is it's NWW at their most dreadful and chilling. Don't remember the full story off hand, but the combination here of bizarre, isolated found sounds and menacing low end feedback hums invokes one of the most static, endlessly spiraling minimal nightmares in NWW's long and varied discography. And yep, it's perfect for your next haunted house acid trip. Of course many NWW albums could find their way into a list such as this one, but Salt Marie Celeste reserves its own special place in the world of oozing nightmare drone. And it's creepy.
Spires That in the Sunset Rise This is Fire (Secret Eye) -- Slight tone shift here, but not so much. The Spires' third album is a masterpiece in their already mind-boggling and totally unique musical ouvre. With This is Fire, the all femme quartet takes another step away from the scattered pagan howls and freakouts of their incredible self-titled debut (The Slits plays Comus?) towards the realm of pure psychedelic mysticism. This album has a kind of blissful lost quality that hearkens back to my favorite albums by Nico and Brigitte Fontaine, only these Chigago sirens choose a barrage of ethnic and traditional instruments as weapons of choice within a minimal, dare I say, post punk approach that utilyzes sinister melodies that are as compelling as they are strange. Perfect for hazy candle-lit parlours and spectral meditation. BEST of '06 stuff here, folks.
Sunno))) Black One (Southern Lord) -- Who loves the sun? This is the ensemble's finest and creepiest sonic construction, landing directly in the morass of drone sludge and minimal black metal despair. Truly a beautiful nightmare and a modern classic in terms of haunted pagan ritual cum apolcayptic imaginings. Funny how convincing bottom end nightmares are in the hands of these folks. I hope Oren Ambarchi hangs around a while.
Ajilvsga Blood Nocturnes (Deep Water) -- The first horror punk record from the Deep Water soul psych compound. Ok, that was a joke. This is actually Brad Rose and Nathan Young's ambient doom duo (no idea how the band name's pronounced) and it's not as bleak as most of the albums in this list, though "Caustic" is likely the first slice of "ethnic doom" I've had the pleasure of hearing, and it is fucking heavy, baby. Heavy like on an existential plane. Lots of sludge here too, isolationist production value, and it's even genuinely pretty in spots. Last track "Torched" is my favorite of the bunch--ten minutes of jagged looped distortion and thorazine riffing to infinity.
Boris AbsoluteGo [Special Low Frequency Version] (Southern Lord) -- Thee uberdoom nightmare sludge metal behemoth. Strange to think this is the album that started it all. AbsoluteGo remains a pinnacle of disturbed, steamrolling, bottom-end mayhem that actually rocks. A source document in the genre of satanic drone and a direct blood relation to what Sunno))) and their myriad black cloaked followers would take to new heights of grimness in the '00 void.
Ghoul Raping Soul (Battlecruiser) -- 20 mins of looping, lurching aural menace and cavernous, subterranean drones that I once described as "black oil shat directly from Satan's asshole." I'm a sick fuck. Ghoul reels in the noise and ratchets up the creeping-crawling tension and makes me think of rats festering in the corner of a dark cellar in an old castle situated near the edge of Fangorn Forest, among other things. A fine soundtrack for tormenting the neighborhood kids and cute baby animals.
Xasthur Nocturnal Poisoning (Blood Fire Death) -- Xasthur is a trip. This is his/their first album. It sounds sort of like early Cure playing black metal. Now black metal is traditionally a fairly ridiculous genre, but Xasthur kicks ass. This is morbid, wasted, mesmorizing riff rock. It's fucking cool. Every song sounds like a drone metal ballad for some witch goddess of the night. It's ridiculous and really cool on Halloween.
Current 93 Dogs Blood Rising (Laylah) -- An oldie but a goodie. DBR plays like a surreal crypto-fascist passion play for the evil that men do, or maybe it's just a kind of sonic exorcism for the soul. Primal, grim, car-wreck industrial torment that you can cut yourself to. Steve Ignorant (Crass), Steven Stapleton (Nurse With Wound), John Balance (Coil), David Tibet on the same record. The year is 1984. You know this shit is fucked up.
Current 93 Faust (United Durtro) -- Why not? The soundtrack to Count Steinbeck's story of the same name, published for the first time in the liners. This is C93 in peak night-time creep-out mode with a shape-shifting barrage of squiggly low drones, shreiks, massed whispers, children's voices, demonic howls and satanic groans coming from all sides. Stapleton's fingerprints are all over the place. This is the kind of record I only dare play once a year, at the demonic hour (3 AM of course) in complete darkness. In the immortal words of Rod Stewart, tonight's the night.
Black Boned Angel Bliss & Void Inseperable (20 Buck Spin) -- Campbell Kneale (Birchville Cat Motel) is also the guy behind Ghoul (and a dozen or so other "black metal influenced" drone/noise projects), but BBA is like what BCM is to his more cosmically atuned sound-scaping persona. This is the dark void from which all of Kneale's most tormented aural tendencies emanate. Bliss & Void is a definitive slice of ominous bass minimalism cum doom slowly divulged across one unforgettable hour of subharmonic dread and drone. Kneale has a gift for containing grief and frosted despair as compelling musical odes to the great bottomless nothing. Calm and bleak in the same breath. This is a microtonal void...the 9th circle of hell...cracked shards of black ice...one of the most satisfying dark noise epics of '06.
Wolf Eyes Dead Hills (Troubleman Unlimited) -- For Wolf Eyes Halloween is basically every day, but it's not a Halloween in the zombies and witches sense as much as these lads recognize that we as a "modern, enlightened society" reside in a kind of hell on earth where decay, exploitation, domination and death are the rule more than the exception. Wish it weren't so kids, but just take a closer look without flinching. Wolf Eyes comes from the same classic socio-critical perspective as early Napalm Death and Negative Approach, but they run their distorted hate shreiks through a warped prism of oozing, pulsing early industrial drones. Nurse With Wound, HNAS, SPK to name a few are possible influences on the primitive electronic murk of Dead Hills. Barren wastelands for the dying soul in us all.
Tuesday, Oct. 317pm
House of Tinnitus
628 Lakey St.
Denton, TX 76201
http://www.myspace.com/deadechoestx
DEAD ECHOES WILL BE THE PRODUCT OF 6 HOURS OF CONSTANT DRONE PROJECTED FROM THE MINDS/BODIES OF THE FOLLOWING TX ARTISTS:
Venison Whirled (Austin)
PURE primitive power dronescapes a la Phill Niblock & La Monte Young, but with a power-metal attitude. Longtime *drummer* for Austin weirdos ST 37 uses bowed cymbals and other unnatural non-percussives
Ethereal Planes Indian (Austin)
Currently on tour with Venison Whirled, Ethereal Planes Indian is B.C. Smith of Iron Kite, ex-Primordial Undermind. Blurry peyote ragas colliding with billowing primitive percussion from the dawn of humankind.
The Zanzibar Snails (Denton)
Three members of Denton incidental improv troupe iDi*amin meld old-guard oscillations and warped, whispery sound sculptures with the unpredictable sax fumigation of Mike Forbes (Notes From Underground)
p.d. wilder (Austin/Denton/parts unknown)
Expansive soundscapy guitarist with a patient mastery of timbre &texture, light & shadow. AKA Pablo St. Chaos, 1/3 of hotel,hotel and caretaker of the lo-bango sound.
OVEO (Denton)
Improvisational collaboration between jamo of Sparrow/Hawk? and Andrew Michael of DentonÂ’s You Are the Universe!. A clattering and seductive medley of feedback, tape loops, and slow-moving horror soundtrack rhythms
S.D.S. (Dallas)
aka Shortwave Death System
Mysterious experimental scene veteran using showtave and loop station; one of the only people in the area to have seen :zoviet*france: live
visual projections by Paul Baker, known for his work with Sub Oslo and at the Strategies of Beauty festival this summer at Rubber Gloves
FREE w/ DONATION!!!
BYOB/ kEG
Kostumz N*couragÂ’d
Here's a preview from the Dallas Observer scribed by Michael from iDi*amin and Zanzibar Snails.
A Special Halloween Playlist of music that goes drone in the night.
irr.app.(ext.) Dust Pincher Appliances (Crouton Music) -- Just the album title sends a shiver down the spine. Something that shouldn't be is wandering about the domestic space. This is the score to a surrealist cinematic nightmare. A strong debt to Nurse With Wound looms, but irr.app.(ext.) infuses its gothic constructions with a unique sense of the macabre meets minimal aural unease and comes off sounding like Bernard Herrmann's (Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds and countless others) classic filmscores colliding with cut-up production and processed electronic noise. You will not hear a more bizarre (or organic) soundtrack album than this. Would likely play well as the score to David Lynch's Eraserhead.
Nurse With Wound Salt Marie Celeste (United Dairies) -- As mentioned above NWW is a pretty heavy influence on what irr.app.(ext.) is up to, but this revolving paranormal investigation unit has been doing it a lot longer and has its own dadaist/cryptic musical inspirations. Trip thing about this 2003 release is it's NWW at their most dreadful and chilling. Don't remember the full story off hand, but the combination here of bizarre, isolated found sounds and menacing low end feedback hums invokes one of the most static, endlessly spiraling minimal nightmares in NWW's long and varied discography. And yep, it's perfect for your next haunted house acid trip. Of course many NWW albums could find their way into a list such as this one, but Salt Marie Celeste reserves its own special place in the world of oozing nightmare drone. And it's creepy.
Spires That in the Sunset Rise This is Fire (Secret Eye) -- Slight tone shift here, but not so much. The Spires' third album is a masterpiece in their already mind-boggling and totally unique musical ouvre. With This is Fire, the all femme quartet takes another step away from the scattered pagan howls and freakouts of their incredible self-titled debut (The Slits plays Comus?) towards the realm of pure psychedelic mysticism. This album has a kind of blissful lost quality that hearkens back to my favorite albums by Nico and Brigitte Fontaine, only these Chigago sirens choose a barrage of ethnic and traditional instruments as weapons of choice within a minimal, dare I say, post punk approach that utilyzes sinister melodies that are as compelling as they are strange. Perfect for hazy candle-lit parlours and spectral meditation. BEST of '06 stuff here, folks. 
Sunno))) Black One (Southern Lord) -- Who loves the sun? This is the ensemble's finest and creepiest sonic construction, landing directly in the morass of drone sludge and minimal black metal despair. Truly a beautiful nightmare and a modern classic in terms of haunted pagan ritual cum apolcayptic imaginings. Funny how convincing bottom end nightmares are in the hands of these folks. I hope Oren Ambarchi hangs around a while. 
Ajilvsga Blood Nocturnes (Deep Water) -- The first horror punk record from the Deep Water soul psych compound. Ok, that was a joke. This is actually Brad Rose and Nathan Young's ambient doom duo (no idea how the band name's pronounced) and it's not as bleak as most of the albums in this list, though "Caustic" is likely the first slice of "ethnic doom" I've had the pleasure of hearing, and it is fucking heavy, baby. Heavy like on an existential plane. Lots of sludge here too, isolationist production value, and it's even genuinely pretty in spots. Last track "Torched" is my favorite of the bunch--ten minutes of jagged looped distortion and thorazine riffing to infinity. 
Boris AbsoluteGo [Special Low Frequency Version] (Southern Lord) -- Thee uberdoom nightmare sludge metal behemoth. Strange to think this is the album that started it all. AbsoluteGo remains a pinnacle of disturbed, steamrolling, bottom-end mayhem that actually rocks. A source document in the genre of satanic drone and a direct blood relation to what Sunno))) and their myriad black cloaked followers would take to new heights of grimness in the '00 void.
Ghoul Raping Soul (Battlecruiser) -- 20 mins of looping, lurching aural menace and cavernous, subterranean drones that I once described as "black oil shat directly from Satan's asshole." I'm a sick fuck. Ghoul reels in the noise and ratchets up the creeping-crawling tension and makes me think of rats festering in the corner of a dark cellar in an old castle situated near the edge of Fangorn Forest, among other things. A fine soundtrack for tormenting the neighborhood kids and cute baby animals.
Xasthur Nocturnal Poisoning (Blood Fire Death) -- Xasthur is a trip. This is his/their first album. It sounds sort of like early Cure playing black metal. Now black metal is traditionally a fairly ridiculous genre, but Xasthur kicks ass. This is morbid, wasted, mesmorizing riff rock. It's fucking cool. Every song sounds like a drone metal ballad for some witch goddess of the night. It's ridiculous and really cool on Halloween. 
Current 93 Dogs Blood Rising (Laylah) -- An oldie but a goodie. DBR plays like a surreal crypto-fascist passion play for the evil that men do, or maybe it's just a kind of sonic exorcism for the soul. Primal, grim, car-wreck industrial torment that you can cut yourself to. Steve Ignorant (Crass), Steven Stapleton (Nurse With Wound), John Balance (Coil), David Tibet on the same record. The year is 1984. You know this shit is fucked up. 
Current 93 Faust (United Durtro) -- Why not? The soundtrack to Count Steinbeck's story of the same name, published for the first time in the liners. This is C93 in peak night-time creep-out mode with a shape-shifting barrage of squiggly low drones, shreiks, massed whispers, children's voices, demonic howls and satanic groans coming from all sides. Stapleton's fingerprints are all over the place. This is the kind of record I only dare play once a year, at the demonic hour (3 AM of course) in complete darkness. In the immortal words of Rod Stewart, tonight's the night. 
Black Boned Angel Bliss & Void Inseperable (20 Buck Spin) -- Campbell Kneale (Birchville Cat Motel) is also the guy behind Ghoul (and a dozen or so other "black metal influenced" drone/noise projects), but BBA is like what BCM is to his more cosmically atuned sound-scaping persona. This is the dark void from which all of Kneale's most tormented aural tendencies emanate. Bliss & Void is a definitive slice of ominous bass minimalism cum doom slowly divulged across one unforgettable hour of subharmonic dread and drone. Kneale has a gift for containing grief and frosted despair as compelling musical odes to the great bottomless nothing. Calm and bleak in the same breath. This is a microtonal void...the 9th circle of hell...cracked shards of black ice...one of the most satisfying dark noise epics of '06. 
Wolf Eyes Dead Hills (Troubleman Unlimited) -- For Wolf Eyes Halloween is basically every day, but it's not a Halloween in the zombies and witches sense as much as these lads recognize that we as a "modern, enlightened society" reside in a kind of hell on earth where decay, exploitation, domination and death are the rule more than the exception. Wish it weren't so kids, but just take a closer look without flinching. Wolf Eyes comes from the same classic socio-critical perspective as early Napalm Death and Negative Approach, but they run their distorted hate shreiks through a warped prism of oozing, pulsing early industrial drones. Nurse With Wound, HNAS, SPK to name a few are possible influences on the primitive electronic murk of Dead Hills. Barren wastelands for the dying soul in us all.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Hey, everybody! I'm sure I'll pick up on writing something here someday. Just the other day on the way home from a Kool Keith concert, I had this GREAT IDEA for a blog subject, but promptly passed out upon arriving--lost forever. I also could say Awesome Color is Awesome! But you probably knew that... or that The North Sea's "Summer Decays Into October's Alchemy" (Foxglove) is a brilliant ethnic trance drone symphony for the soul, but you probably knew that too. I could say that The Proposition is now on DVD, and you all need to rush out and buy a copy, but you probably knew that too. Could also say the end is very fucking nigh, again...See above. We know. One good thing: How I do love the Fall.
Something kind of tragic happened today. And I want to comment on it here because it bums me out and fills me with rage and makes me think A) The Dallas Police are still assholes and B) The mainstream media are money hungry chumps whose concern for the real facts is the last thing on their minds. Terrell Owens, the noted Dallas Cowboys wide receiver with a history of problems (none chemically related), had an adverse reaction to some painkillers and health supplements last night, which was very possible given he was recovering from surgery seven days before and in pain. The story leaked almost instantly that it was a suicide attempt. It was not a suicide attempt. His career has likely been incalculably damaged as a result. Now I'm not a big sports fan or anything else, but nothing gets me more chapped than the willful spreading of bogus rumors. And to see it done on a national level all over the world in a matter of hours is completely inexcusable. A lawsuit or two may very well be in order.
Something resembling the actual facts of the story can be found here. And yes, there's more to the story too. Apparently Owens said "yes" to some fairly pointed questions while in a very groggy state, so who knows? Maybe it was just an unfortunate series of events. Very unfortunate, though... In the end I'm just glad he's okay.
Something kind of tragic happened today. And I want to comment on it here because it bums me out and fills me with rage and makes me think A) The Dallas Police are still assholes and B) The mainstream media are money hungry chumps whose concern for the real facts is the last thing on their minds. Terrell Owens, the noted Dallas Cowboys wide receiver with a history of problems (none chemically related), had an adverse reaction to some painkillers and health supplements last night, which was very possible given he was recovering from surgery seven days before and in pain. The story leaked almost instantly that it was a suicide attempt. It was not a suicide attempt. His career has likely been incalculably damaged as a result. Now I'm not a big sports fan or anything else, but nothing gets me more chapped than the willful spreading of bogus rumors. And to see it done on a national level all over the world in a matter of hours is completely inexcusable. A lawsuit or two may very well be in order.
Something resembling the actual facts of the story can be found here. And yes, there's more to the story too. Apparently Owens said "yes" to some fairly pointed questions while in a very groggy state, so who knows? Maybe it was just an unfortunate series of events. Very unfortunate, though... In the end I'm just glad he's okay.
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