CLAP
AND COUGH (Random
ramblings on pieces of recorded goods and minimal input on misc.
happenings).
James Fella - jamesfella@hotmail.com - on "myspace" - and here: Gilgongo Records -
Gilgongo Records PO Box 7455 Tempe, AZ 85281 USA
6/09 == SUMMER
VACATION???
Temporarily,
this is on hold. For plenty of reasons! If you are interested in
short random writings of non-musical relation, for themost part
at least, please try here instead: http://www.jamesfella.blogspot.com
Thanks!
5/12/09 - ZzZzZ
PARTIAL UPDATE / MISSING LINKS / MISING SOUNDS
Things have been busy / time restraint and then also, who wants
to type all the time? Not me.
Here’s
some rambling non-sense on some new things and so on.
Not touched on yet: Just how great it was to see Nic / Shearing
Pinx’ side band POMPOIR, and to do a Soft Shoulder set as a
duo with him on drums. ShPx and Teenage Jesus covers, improv SS
pieces too. Felt wonderful, and I think that guy is just about
the most awesome there is.
Anyway:
New AMERICAN TAPES are always a treat,… this time around I
grabbed some copies of a new PAUL FLAHERTY + NOISE NOMADS LP, a
one-sided live LP, with my instinctual reaction being: “How
cool is it that a 70-somthing (?) year old free jazz musician is
down for this style of release in general? They guy’s been
doing tons of work with young / younger musician (C Spencer Yeh,
Thurston Moore, Chris Corsano) but the gunky mutated regurgitated
realm of American Tapes? That’s neat! And yet even still, I
was generally shocked by how completely listenable this would be
on almost anyone standards. At most point, the pools of noise are
largly subdued and secondary, with Paul’s simultaneously
skronky and adventurously / secretly melodic playing taking 80%
of the audible realm of this LP clear up to some unsuspected
drumming towards the end. Say what you may about American Tapes,
this is a completely valid piece of modern American free jazz,
and is well worth your time. Limited to an insane 100 copies. I
think I have 5 or 6 of them.
Grabbed a new WOODS 7” on Mike Sniper’s CAPTURED TRACKS
label. I had been planning on grabbing a bunch of these for the
distro, but had no interest in doing so after the dude kinda
spazzed on me, message board style while I was just straight up
for real / respectful, just trying to help out a big ol’
ugly situation. …no biggie, time’s proving me right as
I type this on that one, so what’s the point? These were
costing too much anyway, I guess, $7 in the local shop here.
Regardless, beautiful, aesthetically, as well as in regards to
the couple of soulful folk songs that line each side. Ultra short
though, but worth it if you’re into them.
Unbelievably good new DESTRUCTION UNIT 7”, one of the many
on-going projects of Ryan Rousseau (Tokyo Electron, Earthmen and
Strangers). Destruction Unit, which I think might be all him here
/ at times, through down a side of a split LP with Black Sunday
last year that I was not into and bummed on, but there’s a
couple of full lengths that are not easy to come by, but well
worth the hunt. Lo-Fi noisy garage rock with some synth thrown in
and tons of skuzzy attitude, if you’re into Jay Retard and
don’t know this guy, you must have missed a memo. Both were
in Retards for awhile, and I think Lost Sounds actually used to
play one of these tracks. This was a huge pleasure to pick up, I
hope he’s planning to keep doing this regularly, even though
Earthmen and Strangers may be the best current project in the
state of Arizona.
I can’t remember why I missed this band THE FRESH AND ONLYS,
I am almost positive I was at one of the million shows in March
from SxSw traffic and that they were supposed to play. I was also
exhausted for most of that time, and it was also when I hurt my
back, so who knows. Memory loss. Regardless: great supper poppy
and slightly tripped out 60s garage. “Feel good”
without being cheesy (or maintaining the current level of
“hype garage”, but goodness, this second song is a
beach party protest song, without a doubt. “I saw me,
see-ing you!!!” // on the blanket, soaking up the sun,
probably inebriated in one way or another.
Couple of new SACRED BONES singles. NICE FACE threw down and
awesome grungy Make-Up sorta stuff, a different kind of nu-soul?
(nu-soul, re: Zola Jesus, but in a completely different manner,
thank you very much), though the B-sides a bit more of a straight
forward piece, plenty of tasteful shredding, might I add. Simple
packaging, looking great like all Sacred Bones records do.
…the other Sacred Bones rec was a very honed in / fine-tuned
NAKED ON THE VAGUE, well less murky and “out there”
(well more so the A-side). By no means “normal band”
sounding, but still very much like some pseudo industrial, moody
Hall of Fame, or something equally as obscure / random. Also some
expensive price tags on these ones too.
Kind of weird, doing a label, I fail to see the need to have
these things be $7 in stores, but I’ve got plenty of friends
and aquatences doing labels that are operating like that. I think
the $5 and change realm is fine, $6, fine, especially when
it’s a weirdly packaged or limited press, but doing 500 or
1,000 7”s with normal sleeves, I just don’t get why
they’re winding up costing just a few dollars less than most
LPs.
Seeing TWIN CRYSTALS was an obvious treat. Jesse Taylor is one of
my favorite people out there that I only unfortunately
fringe-“know”, but adore, through and through. Not only
did they play the best set I’ve ever seen them throw don on
any of their trips coming through from Vancouver, but he also
toss me one of the split 10” acetate / lathes with NIGHT
WOUNDS, which was an honor seeing as there’s a whole 15 of
them, though I shower Jesse with equally rare, and sometimes even
more rare gifts. It’s a give and take thing. Maybe we love
each other, or: maybe it’s all business. …I’m
kidding, but you know never know.
That being said,
both tracks on the Night Wounds side are easily my favorites of
there’s, or two of four, so getting it in full overblown
live fury was appreciated, since that’s always where that
band impressed me the most. It didn’t matter which group of
new folks Toby had assembled, it was always crushing and
strangely angular, like in a way, some messed up Unwound trying
to sound like The Contortions. Plus, we have a pretty similar
style, regardless of wether or not either of us would like to
admit to that. (what does it really matter anyway? What matters
is when it gets to the thumpy bass driven, bridge mangled guitar
portion of that second song, it always hits hard.
The Crystals were coming through with fellow Vancouver kids
MODERN CREATURES, who were again excellent. (We did a show with
them and Mutators a year or so ago over at the Bike Co-Op).
Excellent, double bass guitar, driving spooky / gothy / moody
punk, local Bay Area transplant Matt tossed out a pretty right on
Swann Danger comparison. There is something extremely
“cool” about Modern Creatures, in how normal they are
aesthetically. That, and the fact that their split CDr with Twin
Crystals for tour was also great. I think they have an LP out
now, but they were picking it up somewhere on the road AFTER
Phoenix, unfortunately.
PAUL FLAHERTY + NOISE NOMADS – live LP (American Tapes).
WOODS – “Sunlit” (?) 7” (Captured Tracks).
DESTRUCTION UNIT – “Let’s Lie” 7” (Lo-Fi
/ Disordered).
THE FRESH & ONLYS – “I’ll Tell You
Everything” (label?).
NICE FACE – “Mnemonic Device” 7” (Sacred
Bones).
NAKED ON THE VAGUE – “Chitty Chat” 7” (Sacred
Bones).
NIGHT WOUNDS / TIN CRYSTALS – split 10” acetate / lathe
(Deer + Bird)
TWIN CRYSTALS / MODERN CREATURES – split tour CDr.
4/11/09 - SHOWERS
April, April,
go away. …work this month has been, is, and will be very
hard on me,… not that work is actually hard or stressful,
but the volume of it is making it hard to stay on top of things.
(such as, the label and specifically knowing that there’s
four jobs that are (or are about to be) going, though also not
that big of a deal – playing shows here and there and so
on,… I can’t find a few minutes to e-mail people
regarding personal things until the weekends get here, which I
ironically enough, is when I am working the most, though
it’s in a setting that is very low stress and allows me time
to do this sort of thing: wepjgepjgkrgeqpkelgedgj. That’s
nice, isn’t it?
Specifically since last writing, which I think was last week,
I’ve only been to / played a couple of shows. One was
opening for Talibam! And Jerkagram at the Ruby Room in Phoenix, a
small strange / weird vibed show, but I played as a dup with
Chase Kamp, and that was just about as comfortable and perfect
feeling as it could be. I must note: Talibam! Played a set that
was equal parts absurdity / commodity, Sun Ra (absurdity, also)
and hyper/spastic dance / rock – a bizarre combination that
has been on my mind all week. I know that I prefer their
free-form “jazz” work, but think that the appreciation
for whatever it was they were doing that there too.
The other was
with a band called Human Quena Orchestra. Myself and Pigeon
Religion opened, and that one was something I threw together at
the bike co-op and went verywell, in all ways possible. I
was taking a gamble on Human Quena Orchestra, as I had never
heard of them before being contacted and they weren’t
friends of friends or anything. In most scenarios such as that, I
wouldn’t have bothered doing something, but there was
something too compelling about their deconstructed take on
“doom” or whatever one might want to call it, that I
felt like I had to do it. Not only were the couple people that
comprise the band two of the nicer folks I’ve met coming
through town in a long time, but their set was unbelievable.
Extremely high volume, snail’s pace sludge / noise, falling
somewhere between the parameters of Sunn, Dystopia and Wolf Eyes.
Understandably / potentially unlistenable to many, but a
completely wonderful work or art to those that “get
it”, Human Quena have a disc coming out on Crucial Blast,
and I urge you to check them out if it sounds like something you
would even remotely be able to appreciate. They are worth your
time, trust me.
On the record front? Blah blah blah. Gay Beast, Tradewinds,
Wounded Lion 7”s on the way (2 months eta), helping with a
Pigeon Religion single as well. …got a ton of stuff for the
distro in the past wek or two, but waiting for a couple more
packages to arrive before updating the site.
THINGS:
Sometime in March, JIMMY EAT WORLD did a 10 day tour, playing
(and celebrating the 10th anniversary of)“Clarity”,
their amazing 1999 full length, from start to finish, with
sporadic “early to mid 2000’s hits” afterwards.
Locally, the show was at the Marquee in Tempe, which I was
initially excited about, but pretty bummed on once it processed
how small it might be in relation to what the show might draw
(and it ended up selling out). Not realistically liking the idea
of being squished into a gigantic sold out venue, I was not even
planning on trying to go until the day of, when Jon Quintos
pretty much demanded that I did. He still had an extra guest
pass, and besides, who would be better company to watch that with
than him? So we took a short bike ride over our lovely fake lake
and got there about 15 before they played.
The show was great, exactly what anyone would / should have
expected from the buzz, Clarity played from start to finish,
though the big surprise to me was that the first song they played
afterwards was not one of the many singles from the following
LPs, but their song “What I Would Say to You No”, from
their split 7” with Jejune, which has always been a favorite
of mine. …I can’t stress enough how could they were
sounding. I’ve only seen Jimmy Eat World maybe twice in the
past 8 years or so, but maybe 15-20 between moving here in 99 and
when they just blew up (which was an insane process to watch,
jumping from small shows at the Green Room, pretty packed outside
at Bostons, more packed outside Nitas and then boom, all over the
world / radio with the release of “Bleed American”,
just like they should have been when Clarity was initially
released.
I put off on buying the reissue of the double LP. I have the
original, and feel like I should be content with that, but
sometimes you just have to succumb to your inner conflict and
play the side of caution, so when Eastside grabbed some copies, I
did as well for myself. Staying fairly true to form, though not
identical to the version that was on Big Wheel way back when, the
new version has a couple of extra songs, Christmas Card and the
great original “demo” version of Sweetness, which holds
up more to the overall vibe of Clarity than Bleed American. I
still love this record a lot, despite it’s obvious cheesy
moments, but geez, for an “American rock band”,
it’s up there with later Jawbox (for me).
Finishing up a trade with Troubleman, I grabbed some wholesale
copies of the Tamaryn and Zola Jesus LPs for the distro (since
both are pretty much perfect, through and through), and was
treated to the other TMU’s that I had not picked up. Most
excited to spin through THE O VOIDS s/t LP, simply because I had
never heard of them at all (as opposed to Vivian Girls or
Pocahaunted, who are quite familiar). Not knowing what to expect
is fun sometimes, and in the case, I was presented with a sound
that to me conjures late 90’s / early 2000’s AZ indie /
garage music (and so if you live here, perhaps a strange
combination of Tri-City Thundercats and Half Viscante might
somehow make sense). Though most people don’t live here, so:
poppy and relaxed garagy tunes with the occasional discordant
guitar and overall 90’s sound in a lot of ways. Maybe
somewhere between Wipers and Warmers? WW / Whatever / Who knows?
It’s good.
The VIVIAN GIRLS LP was a shocker too. Having never seen them,
but only about how supposedly horrible they are live, this LP
begs to differ the complete opposite and in a way has much more
oomph and substance than the more “angsty” moments of
their records, though admittedly, it’s not entirely too
different. Recorded on WMFU, this might be pretty close to how
they recorded that infamous LP in the first place, sans vocals
I’d assume. Pleasant and real , I like this recording /
release a lot. Nice / simple tri-color screened covers too. Head
over to the TMU site if you want one, because there’s only
500 of them and it’s not going to be in stores as far as I
know.
The POCAHAUNTED LP was a mature exploration of MV/EE, WWVV-style
psyched drone with plenty of realized individualism. I think
these two (though expanded here) are coming into their own grown
up self very well, though I’ve missed on a few releases, so
maybe I am late on the game with such a lush / developed sound. I
really liked most of this one a lot, and the art is a bit over
the top and perfectly appropriate in my opinion. Everything about
this one is nicely done (especially the last track,
“Veil”, loved that one).
Grabbed some new stuff from NOT NOT FUN, and got copies of each
for the distro as well. …WET HAIR’s full length
“Dream” was good, very close to their set from when
they came through town with Peaking Lights. Left field downer
synth music that conjures a weird Joy Division vibe in a way, the
way that it would be if you took half of Raccoo-oo-oon and gave
them the right tools (as this is Ryan and Shawn’s newer
project). Obviously not as instantly visually stimulating as the
one-sided screened LP that Shawn did on his own Night People
label, I think the art is fantastic on this as well, as it’s
a little bit of a departure from what one would more than likely
expect at this moment.
”Scales”, an LP from MYTHICAL BEAST is confusing! Get
Hustle meets Black Sabbath? Not nearly as weird, but much more
loud than when I accidentally caught them years and years ago
here in Phoenix. I remember everything being off kilter and
quirky, like some abstract Nick Cave style approach, but this is
a bit more straight forward. Bands change, that was forever ago,
this was now. I love the cover of this record, and it’s
refreshing to see an LP that’s colored but not
“crazy”.
Also new from Not Not Fun is the fairwell double LP from
RACCOO-OO-OON, which show cases a manic improvised series of
compositions that offer a healthy amount of all things you would
have come to expect from this much loved Iowa City unit. Free
from sound that is equally as comfortably occasionally falling
into some sort of groove, or spending an entire side just
meandering through fields of unknown electronics / percussion and
vocals (Side C, thank you very much)! I was happy to release a
7” for this band a few years ago, though after the tour that
came afterwards (coinciding with the release of the “Behold
Secret Kingdom” LP), they started doing their own things in
other places, virtually of which are valid or completed wrecked
(in a good way) and beyond. (See: Wet Hair (above), Pukers,
Trashdog). There is something extremely triumphant about the
final side of the record that seems to be a fitting goodbye. (I
must add in, even if it makes me sound like a jerk: I played a
week of shows with them on that last tour, and was very happy to
hear how all over and adventurous this final release was. Their
live sets on that string were good, but a lot of heavy jamming,
and while still enjoyable, this is where Raccoo-oo-oon
flourishes: strange adventures into the abyss. Perfect art on
this one as well.
Another band that I had the pleasure of releasing a 7” for
slightly earlier, WOODS, just release a new LP as well, called
“Songs of Shame”, which is much more along the lines of
their first couple of full lengths, and not so focused on the
abstract and “out their” like the recent Woods Family
Creeps LP was, though still has a more developed and sprawling
sound to it, with a bit of a haunting and eeriness too. The
production on this sounds more appropriate than the way “At
Rear House came out, hard to explain, this one feels like it
inherently has more soul to it. The Little Wings influence is
back in full force here too, which I for one, can appreciate a
lot. I liked the cover on this one too. (That’s a ton in a
row this week, or whatever).
Picked up a 7” from WHITE HETEROSEXUALS on BREATHING PROBLEM
PRODUCTIONS, which was a weird trip. I was expecting, and could
have sworn I’ve read harsh power electronics, but felt like
it was much more of a spoken (okay, shouted) word style release
with fairly non-“wall of noise” electronics / sound
underneath. Some of the weirder Lydia Lunch recordings instantly
came to mind. Very strange project, I’d be interested in
hearing what the LP is like. Also from BPP was an excellent /
damaged 7” from a band called FRESH MEAT, who tossed down a
quick couple of sides of overblown guitar driven malarque,
definitely reminding me of The Hospitals or New Flesh perhaps,
maybe even a tad bit of Clockcleaner (when they are being
“serious”!), and then I wouldn’t be shocked if
this band had never heard of any of those groups before.
It’s not a specific sound that’s being conjured,
that’s just what comes to mind. (great tape meltdown on the
last 1/3rd of the second side). I’m going to have
to remember to figure out what this band’s all about,
I’d like more.
Thanks to that great chance of timing, I happened to stop in to
Eastside right as Jon Quintos threw this single on, though thanks
to the intriguing and simple / simply awesome cover art – I
would have asked him to toss it on anyway. I think this is in
Spanish, I’m not sure, but the band name at the very least
is: SILLA ELECTRICA (which I am unsure if it is supposed to
directly translate to electric seat or maybe is supposed to be
electric chair?). Regardless, fast angsty punk dished out in four
quick dosages,that reminds me of the Death Wish Kids, a
lot, though I am sure this is similar to an infinite amount of
other things that are just not coming to mind. First release on a
label called Blind Owl, and very nicely done. I loved this one a
bunch.
things:
JIMMY EAT WORLD – “Clarity” 2xLP (reissue)
(Western Thread).
THE O VOIDS – s/t LP (Troubleman Unlimited).
THE VIVIAN GIRLS – “Live on the Radio” LP
(Troubleman Unlimited).
POCAHAUNTED – “Passage” LP (Troubleman Unlimited).
WET HAIR – “Dream” LP (Not Not Fun).
MYTHICAL BEAST – “Scales” LP (Not Not Fun).
U.S. GIRLS – “Me + Yoko” 7” (Not Not Fun).
RACCOO-OO-OON – 2xLP (Not Not Fun).
WOODS – “Songs of Shame” LP (Woodsist).
WHITE HETEROSEXUALS – “My Thesis / My
Dissertation” 7” (Breathing Problem Productions).
FRESH MEAT – s/t 7” (Breathing Problem Productions).
SILLA ELECTRICA – “Hundir” 7” (Blind Owl).
LASSE MARHUNG + JOHN WIESE – 7” (A Dear Girls Called
Wendy).
4/6/09 - THINGS ARE MOVING //////// RIGHT?
What
happened to March? Well, I worked. Where will April be? In work,
also. Here's a copy / paste of something I posted yesterday on THEE OUTERNET (CHECK THAT PLACE OUT)!
It offers a fairly impersonal explanation for my lack of writing!
(And tunes to match)! ______________________________
I was
recently asked to be a guest DJ for an hour on the Arizona State
University's college radio station (they were doing a week of
guests who run label,s play in bands, etc), so I compiled a bunch
of mostly noisy punk / garage / and the such - as well as a few
upcoming releases from my label) and threw them down for an hour
or so. Here is the set in it's entirety!
March is pretty insane, living in central Arizona. We get a
million incredible bands coming through on their way from the
west coast to SXSW. Regardless of what you think or don't think
of the event, there is a pretty healthy "unofficial"
festival that is auto-leeched and provides an interesting meeting
point for like minded people, not just "music industry"
people, because I don't think any of us on here would be too
concerned with or stoked on that. Still though, it's weird, no
one will say it's not.
Regardless, Texas traffic brought through Blank Dogs, Eat Skull,
Naked on the Vague, These Are Powers, Wavves, Abe Vigoda, Thee Oh
Sees, White Mice (or perhaps it was just when they were touring),
and countless countless more. There's no point in trying to
remember at the moment, and I don't want to go into details and
highlights.
what I am ACTUALLY doing, is tossing out a mild excuse for my
like of contribution for the past month. I'm very excited about
this entitity, but on top of working a 60-80 hour a week job,
running a label, playing shows often and seeing even more, the
time just wasn't there in March.
So, hope you dig the radio set! Expect some "real
words" soon! ______________________________ M’LADY’s has
been my new “crush” lately. 7” after 7” of
simply perfect tunes, a tradition carried on with arrival of the
MUTATING MELTDOWN single, which has this strange garage / Slant 6
/ Bush Tetras (maybe?) vibe to it. It sounds ancient in the best
of ways, worthy of early ZE, 99 sorta “cred”.
“Fantasy” is the track to dance to at a nice calm pace,
“Six Minute Underground” is actually only a little over
1/3 of it’s assumed length, and a little more hyper. Such a
great little record, can’t wait to hear more! I also
can’t wait till I can finally manage to correspond like less
of an idiot with this label on a personal level. (It’s hard
when you always have “two seconds”, but I try –
sorry Mr. M’Lady’s! I love you)!
I grabbed a new WAVVES single from European label YOUNG TURKS,
but, hopefully without sounding too negative, it’s just a
song from the new (old) LP on Fat Possum, with a fairly
too-mellow-in-my-opinion B-side, that I just didn’t enjoy at
all. Like some improper mid-period Animal collective. Wavves
works best when it’s over blown and in a bedroom if you ask
me, but no one is asking me, are they? Perhaps in the context on
an LP, this wouldn’t bug me, but when the A-Side is already
on one, “How Are You?” is not the song, nor question
for me. I didn’t get the 7” on Fat Possum, but that one
at least has that great looking Wipers rip-off sticker / logo,
though I enjoy that most in the context of PUKERS. (I also picked
up the new / old LP referred to above, I think it was recorded
before the one on Woodsist, which I actually prefer. It’ll
be interesting to see where the hype takes this kid, it’s
weird how sometimes something / someone just blows up. Heavily
layered, processed, moderately Janes Addiction-influenced beach
punk must be what’s in)!
Great little bubble gum garage pop single from NO BUNNY.
“Give it to Me” and “Motorhead with Me” are
both smooth and simultaneously rough and catchy songs. However, I
maintain that there needs to be a live LP, because besides seeing
this guy pull off the bunny mystique live, there is this insane
energy that makes it a completely different thing, and in a
bedroom, basement, house, venue, bar, whatever – that’s
where he hops the hardest.
Gladly picked up some copies of a new DRUNKDRIVER 7” from
new label FAN DEATH, who’s first release,
Clockcleaner’s 20 minute Negative Approach cover (as a
one-sided 12”) had me sold on them as a record releasing
entity! Anyway, an excellent couple of overblown noise / rock
songs, some sorta microwaves splice of what Mayyors and The
Hospitals do? Angry and disgruntled and recommended, this is what
most bands should sound like with the way the world is going
these days. Right?
Picked up an impressive compilation of Detroit bands called
SHIFTLESS DECAY, which could also be a finely tuned In The Red
sampler if it wanted to, sans the Odd Clouds track at the end,
which perfectly / inappropriately ends this comp, as otherwise
it’s all nasty, skuzzy, off-beat punk from the likes of
Terrible Twos, Human Eye, Tyvek, Little Claw and a slew of
others.
New one-sided 45rpm LP from Limp Wrist, that I dug slightly less
than Martin’s recent projects Needles and N/N (or whatever
that one is supposed to be). I actually didn’t even know
Limp Wrist was still active, and ironically had just heard about
all of these Crudos shows. Regardless, high quality, fast /
pissed hardcore punk, hell-bent on bring the straight and
machismo to their side of the world, excellent art, from the full
color homo/drugged collage on one side of the jacket to the
simple black and white photo of them on the opposite side
(featuring them upside down on their neck / shoulders, and I
think it’s Martin wearing jean short-shorts with suspenders)
, to the awesome fold out post / insert, that other than a few
minor details, looks much like an insane show I caught them play
at the infamous Long Beach Warehouse years and years ago.
Perhaps one of the greatest things I've heard in awhile is the
debut 12" from TAMARYN, which is technically a reissue of
the CD that came with the 7" which featured two songs from
this (and was another great M'Lady's release). Beautiful /
depressed and moody tunes with a heavy 4AD vibe throughout, both
in sound and sight. God, the cover to this is incredible, one of
the nicest I've seen. Ultra matte blak border around an ultra
gloss photo of her half underwater with flowers, with the
lettering on the front back in embossed gold. Reminds you of one
of those Orchestral Movements In the Dark LPs, it does! I have a
hard time bring words to this, when I wrote about the 7" I
said it was a "4AD / My Bloody Valentine / Blondie"
hybrid. I supposed that fits how I feel still. Though in some
Siouxsie and the Banshees? I'm getting a chunk of these for the
distro because it's not really turning up in stores here, and is
likely to be one of my favorite releases of the year - I want
people here to have it (even though I imagine they'll all sell
though mail-order).
Also from TROUBLEMAN, and of similar appreciation and
pseudo-vibe,... a debut LP(ep?) after a couple of beautidul
7"s that I've already glorified on this blog. New school
"weirdo" take on sould music, if you ask me. The next
phase of the U.S. Girls, Grouper, Ince Ore, breed? except that's
what everyone else says, it's just like those. I can't stress
enough: soul music. Not every moment, just many. Also grabbed a
bunch of these. How could I / Why would I not?
MUCH MORE NEXT TIME, I'M TRYING TO CATCH UP!
THINGS:
MUTATING MELTDOWN – “Fantasy” 7”
(M’Lady’s)
WAVVES – “So Bored” 7” (Young Turk).
WAVVES – s/t? LP (Fat Possum).
NO BUNNY – “Give It To Me…” 7” (Hozac).
THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART – “Young Adult
Friction” 7” (Slumberland).
DRUNKDRIVER – “Knife Day” 7” (Fan Death).
LIMP WRIST – s/t(?) LP (Waiting / Lengua Armada).
v/a – “SHIFTLESS DECAY” LP (X!). TAMARYN - "Led Ashtray Washed Ashore" LP
(Troubleman).
ZOLA JESUS - "Tsar Bomba" LP (Troubleman).
2/22/09 - NO TITLE
I have
been slacking on this, and ultimately forgetting to write about
occasional things, it's bound to happen / a complete fact.
...that being said, I'm going to try and stay on to of this, but
it's not the highest thing on the list of priorities, it's
honestly pretty low. However, I should mention: I am also
writing, just sporadically, on a group blog with other weirdo
band / label folk, called THEE OUTERNET / http://www.theeouternet.blogspot.com/ - which has an emphasis
on damaged punk / weird stuff that's on the more decomposed
"rock" sort of vibe, if that makes any sense at
all.
Also, I implore you to read into the effects of a mandated budget
cut to AZ's DES (Department of Economic Security), and the
effects it is having on CPS, programs like the ones I work with,
assistance for the homeless and beyond. Below is something I
posted around a bit. Please feel free to skim through if you
don't care.
______________________________
DES (homeless / developmentally disabled / etc services) cuts in
the state of AZ
For those of you that don't know (and don't care), when I'm not
putting out records, playing stupid noise and punk bullshit, and
all of that jazz, I work a 55-60 hour / week job with a
non-profit, supervising a sheltered workshop mon-fri and at a
group home on sundays, both with the developmentally disabled
population.
With Obama becoming president, he took Janet Napolitano (a fairly
supportive governor for the state of AZ) into his cabinet,
allowing for Republican Jan Brewer to succeed. She's done a grand
job of "making things work" for our state by pushing
massive massive, unheard of and honestly, insane cuts to DES,
which directly funds thousands of programs.
The cuts are at state level, with layoffs and forced time off
(unpaid) each pay period, all the way down to the elimination of
so many staff and hours at CPS, that 100% of child abuse reports
will no longer be able to be looked into. Other great states:
elimination of 100% of services for 850 children who are / at
risk of developmental disabilities, and rehab, respite, therapies
for 4,000 individuals, completely.
As for me, I supervise a site that was already under-ratio /
under-staffed, and we were forced to cut too. Every program like
myself has a minimum of 10% less coming in because of this,
though it is ultimately more, because we aren't 100% state
funded, much more come from individuals who attend the sheltered
workshop through other means, which are also being cut /
eliminated.
To be clear: a sheltered workshop is a program where
developmentally disabled individuals who are able to work, but
not in the community, come and do contract work. The functioning
levels range from non-verbal and wheelchair bound, to people that
function better than many people in general (really), and the
work is all contracted and done on a piece-rate level. (stuff
like collating mailers, simple production work, some go in groups
to grocery stores (1 staff to 4-6 individuals),... I've even
contracted the assembly of some Gilgongo releases over the years
(Foot Village LP, French Quarter LP/CD, Little Women, and so on).
Here's a link to the DES site with a detailed pdf that gets into
the ugly details. I applaud them for taking a shitty tone
"the division will be unable to meet the requirements"
appears a few times, and essentially says "fuck you Jan
Brewer, you'll be answerable to the shortcomings later".
Sorry for the length. Fuck you if you've got an issue. Take me
off your internet.
James
______________________________
Things are pretty bad here. Thanks.
Anyway:
Towards the end of last year, one of the best new punk bands out
there (culled from the remains of Regulations and The Vicious),
MASSHYSTERI, released an LP on European label NY VAG, and even
though it contained most (if not all) of their two debut
7"s, it was impossible to not be extremely excited to grab
it. There was going to be a United States version on Feral Ward,
but it was delayed a few times, so I picked up an imported
version from 16oh label honcho Jeff Lewbowski, who was nice
enough to toss in a few 7"s from his label, "new
slabs" from BOOKBURNER, SOJOURNER and LEWD ACTS, the first
two of which both played some heavy / thick grind / hardcore
(Bookburner on the most spastic side and Sojourner on the more
"tough" sorta side). I think Bookburner would probably
be a blast to see live. Lewd Acts' single was weird, sorta snotty
punk / hardcore that flirted heavily at times on drawn out build
ups in a 90's emo (or early 2000's revivalist "emo) sorta
was: you know, like Page 99 of something, all of which sounds
completely wrong. Is there something wrong with my ears? I am
almost positive I caught these guys locally a few years ago, and
maybe even played with them in Soft Shoulder, and I don't
remember anything "sensitive" about their set,
definitely not at all. Lots of excellent crowd confrontation that
was making even the most seasoned jerks feel a little
uncomfortable.
The MASSHYSTERI LP, called "Var Del Av Stan", is
excellent, but I enjoyed the aesthetics of the Feral Ward
pressing, which showed up no more than a couple weeks later, much
more. The covers are extremely thick, and at a glance almost look
like intricately screened cardboard and match they classic look
perfectly (this could be from anytime in the past 30 years, in
both sight and sound, and pales ONLY in comparison to their first
single which was also on Feral Ward. (LP's on the left, 7"
is on the right). I feel like I haven't shut up about this for
the past year or so, and yet it still eludes me how to accurate
describe them. IF you're familiar with their previous bands, it's
very much a continuation, though at this point, these songs are
crafted with such perfection that they are stuck in the head for
days. Excellent, early X almost style sing/songy punk, mostly
with a total downer vibe, but while still being incredibly
anthem-like simultaneously. I don't think "punk" and
get much better than this, I really don't. Eery single song
sounds like "the hit". Does that make sense? Check them
out? - http://www.myspace.com/masshysteri
Also in the package from Feral Ward was the new LEBENDEN TOTEN
LP, "Near Dark", which is sadly / seemingly not going
to be readily available in the United States, out side of a CD
version (and what fun is that?). I've dedicated too much time and
energy on trying to get other people interested and excited by
this band, but will probably write about it / them in THEE
OUTERNET instead, though please know that while the new LP may be
a little cleaner than their previous feedback drenched, awful
boombox style 7"s and LPs (you know, "bad but
perfect" sorta stuff), it still sounds completely destructed
and makes their hyperspastic crust punk all the more enjoyable.
(I usually liken them to Dirt being covered by Melt-Banana. Dirty
Dan actually can be quoted as saying it's "took clean",
however: Trust me, this will still sound worse than most any
record you own, but god it is good, I can't stress it enough.
Crust for art / spastics + noise enthusiasts alike.
Okay, it doesn't sound as bad as the new hit from TRASHDOG,
"Live in Brazil"! A one-sided document that is
documenting, something, somewhere,... real, staged? Ryan from
Raccoo-oo-oon? Maybe, maybe not? Jeff from Deep Jew / Secret
Abuse? I don't know. There is no point in trying to be in on
something that is this stupid / genius. Completely wrecked
hardcore noise, the instruments sound broken /
malfunctioning, the high-fidelity recording was definitely
captured on a walkman that had been in a pocket, but probably was
knocked out and kicked across the floor and stuck under a pile of
beer bottles and trash for a minute. This becomes more of a
voyeuristic feeling experience, you get more of the
"crowd" and overall room sound than you do the band.
The kind of bootleg no one would put out unless they knew how
tongue in cheek "incredible" it would come out. The
kind of record that could potentially not even exist. Arbror's
got copies in their distro, so does Fusetron. Trying finding out
anything else with the internet, you'll be out of luck. Perhaps
on your most lucky day, you'll stumble across an internet radio
stream that throws down a few minutes of their modern classic,
"Buddah" - which crawled from the mid-west filth in the
form of a cassette on Deathbomb Arc last year. Maybe I don't even
have this. Come over and check? It's in the T section.
No really, I grabbed it when I also picked up a new DEAD MACHINES
LP that Mike / Arbor just finished. "...plays Invasion of
the Body Snatchers" is a great excursion into the sonic
abyss of the Wolf Eyes / Graveyards off-shoot / husband and wife
team of John and Tovah Olson - who consistently offer demented
chunks of basement / broken electronic / creeped out dungeon
ambient bliss in CDr and cassette additions as low as like 10.
It's always refreshing to see any of the AM-TAPES get a nice
proper issue treatment, here in the form of beautiful pro-printed
jackets with one of the best / most intriguing collages of his
I've seen in awhile. Glitched signals, sputtering tape which once
captured the mutterings of home-made reads, reel to floor
classical samples, the far off knocking of the chamber door, the
kind of stuff that might not be loud and harsh, but will be much
more effective in keeping the neighbors away. Heads up on the
lock at the end.
Finally got around to grabbing another recent SHEARING PINX
release, this time in the form of a split with another Vancouver
band, STAMINA MANTIS (who here remind me of a Mikaela's Fiend /
Wives sorta thing, and while I think their contribution is good,
I feel like you can tell it's not capturing how great they
probably are live. I could see this easily pulling off a
Hospitals sorta vibe when done right in front of you). I've got
to say, when Shearing Pinx are on, they are so so on. They've got
the tendency and right to cut lose and jam all they want, but
it's their short noisy songs that have intense "catch"
to them that drive me so crazy, which is exactly why I got them
to let me reissue their "Poison Hands" full length a
few years ago. ...that being said, their two songs on here got me
extremely excited, as they have a very distinct quality to them
that I think is most akin to that of the stuff from "Poison
Hands", thick and messed up, no-wave and adventurous, but
still almost like Unwound underneath it all. Listening to this
again right now, god it's great. And you know, it does nothing
but help to know that the three kids that make up this band are
super sweet in general and are all completely and absurd,
prolific to the most expansive degree you can imagine, probably
in about 40 side-projects between the three of them, and they
almost all have their moments of being legitimately incredible.
Vancouver appreciation as always. Can you come visit again soon?
Great little lock at the end of this one too, would sound great
in conjunction with the one from the Dead Machines LP mentioned
above.
On a slower night at Eastside Records, local pusher and
recent-father (congrats again!) Jon Quintos pointed out a new
Siltbreeze release that had apparently just flew out and went
directly under my radar. He hadn't listened to it yet, but the
horrible bad / good collage on the cover, the fact that there
were twenty something songs and was again, on Siltbreeze, tripled
with the fact their their name is RATAS DEL VATICANO, really just
made it sell itself. Apparently a Los Llamarada spin off (great
overblown psych garage stuff that S-S did an good LP for), RATAS
have more of a completely de-evolved sound to them. Somewhere
between classic garage punk stuff and modern "careless"
/ "too cool / too bored", you know? - complete Killed
By Death style - as is thrown down by every distro and record
store that is trying to sell this. Snotty and secretly almost
aggressive underneath the appropriately crummy recording (you
know you're doing it right when the tape can't sustain the signal
on the guitar solos - that's good), and to stress - the approach
and overall tone is varied enough that even with song after song,
it doesn't get old or annoying, it just makes you smile and tap
your foot sideways while your sitting on the floor, cross-legged
style, chatting about "real life" business in your
bedroom. This thing was a very pleasant surprise, it's hits the
spot and is highly recommended.
Picked up the debut LP from GOLDEN TRIANGLE, a band I've been
very hyped on since first hearing about it as it's Alix from the
Lids and Angry Angles' new project. She's two for two and I was
very happy that after grabbing the two 7"s they've done that
it was bounced up to three for three! Excellent splatter /
cross-style of modern garage pop and 60's psych, and the
alternating vocals are always the perfect focus or minor
accompaniment to anything they are a part of. Soulful but not
silly, though the label's own description of it being something
along the lines of a cross-bred Cramps / The Fall / B-52's is
quite accurate. My only complaint is that this 7 song record is
pushing pretty close to $20 after taxes, though it's not so much
a rip-off as much as it is the fact that it's been done extremely
pro for a run of only 500. Extremely thick full cover covers and
extra thick mixed vinyl (clear with opaque strewn through - a
Pirates Press job (boo) for sure, but a nice one at least, and
well hidden by the fact that it's not in the default flimsy
jackets that most people opt for through their service. Comes
with a download thing too. ...I guess the deal is that it's
actually meant to be a mail-order / subscription release, but
some stores are getting copies regardless. I was quite surprised
to see a huge stack of them at Stinkweeds as I think I am the
only person in town that has a working knowledge of their
existence at all. So much talking / typing: the point is that
despite the cost, this thing is good enough that I'd say it's
worth it. Can't wait to grab this other tour 12" they
did.
Without going into it, since apparently the rest of the internet
already does (I had no idea), I also happily picked up the new LP
from THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART, a great early 90's
shoegaze throwback that is a nice sedative 30 minutes, ironically
enough, released on the once again active Slumberland Records. I
haven't checked out a shred of hype, but whatever good words are
out there, I'm tempted to say you should believe them. Nothing
that will blow your mind, but a non-contrived, inspired
remembrance that I thought was very welcome. (I'm sure lots of
people site the fact that it may as well have been an LP from one
of many numerous bands of that era, and tear it down in
conjunction with that, but I think that's silly. If something is
good, it's good, and I think this one is wonderful.
Backed up on a bunch of stuff that I haven't been able to go
though yet. Hopefully sometime in the nightmare that is going to
be known as "this week", I'll be able to just lay down
and do nothing. Till then, goodbye!
things:
MASSHYSTERI - "Var Del Av Stan" LP (Feral Ward).
MASSHYSTERI - "Var Del Av Stan" LP (Ny Vag).
LEBENDEN TOTEN - "Near Dark" LP (Wicked Witch).
TRASHDOG - "Live in Brazil" LP (YNG).
DEAD MACHINES - "Plays Invasion of the Body Snatchers"
LP (Arbor).
SHEARING PINX / STAMINA MANTIS - split 7" (Reluctant).
RATAS DEL VATICANO - "Mososos Pateticos" LP
(Siltbreeze).
ROBEDOOR - "Rancor Leeper" LP (Seacave - already wrote
about the origional when it was a CD on Release the Bats).
GOLDEN TRIANGLE - s/t LP (Mexican Summer).
BOOKBURNER - s/t(?) 7" (16oh).
SOJOURNER - s/t(?) 7" (16oh).
LEWD ACTS - "Lung Patrol" 7" (16oh).
ABE VIGODA - "Reviver" LP (Post Present Medium).
THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART - s/t LP (Slumberland).
1/11, 1/18, 1/25/09 (posted 2/1/09)- winter wind-down fast
approaching.
I've been doing a bad job of keeping up with things since New
Years. Oops!
We set up a show for SYRUP and GAY BEAST in the first week, which
went pretty well. Gay Beast were great as always, and Syrup blew
everyone away with a much more direct / focused / aggressive
sound than what we all we able to sample on the cassette that I
picked up from Philip on tour this summer. Monitr Batss methods
with Sleetmute intensity. Simple, to the point, irritating and
good.
Checked out two shows out of three, of "SUNDOWN
SHOWDOWN": a pretty cool garage / rock / punk thing set up
by a couple of local guys, Ryan (of Earthmen and Strangers, Tokyo
Electron, etc) and another, who's name I forget, but I can assure
you is extremely enthusiastic about "rock n' roll", he
told me plenty of times, personally. I don't feel the need to go
into details on the shows, though I will say that Garage Shock, a
90's garage cover band consisting 50% Eastside members, was
incredibly solid and caught me off guard by not one, but two
Teengenerate covers! (Awesome)! ...and that there was infinite
laughs during a set later on the first night, I'm not even sue
what the project was, but it was Ryan with one other, and
featured a drum machine pedal that was not working at all, Ryan
drunkenly yelling at it / punting a glass into the crowd, drunk
drunk drunk audience members acting absurd, and at root? -
awesome two minute punk songs. Additionally, and completely
opposite, a well refined and impressive Earthmen and Strangers
set at the third night at the Yucca (first one was at PV -
anything goes there, after all), was heavily enjoyed by myself,
Matt Colgrove, Mike Genz and Dirty Dan, amongst the other 100 or
so folks in there too I am sure - ultra tight and sounded
perfect. I hope that once this band stats putting out records
that people got nuts on them. I can see them appealing to a much
larger crowd than a lot of his other projects, it's solid poppy
song writing at heart. ready to take over, seriously.
Also caught IRON LUNG play an excellent set at the PHIX, a Grand
Ave gallery that I rarely rarely ever head over to, but does have
an occasion decent punk or hardcore show going on, such as this
one. Incredibly tight and powerful, with a perfect sense of
humor. Extremely glad I caught them this time around. Grabbed a
couple of self-released records (a collaboration with HATRED
SURGE (which looks and sounds great - nicely done on all levels)
and a pretty cool lofi EDDY CURRENT single as well (with a B-side
that I think blows away most of their recent LP).
things:
I picked up a copy of the GONERFEST 5 LP, at the third day of the
Sundown Showdown, aka: for $15 instead of $40 online, a much more
appealing price, though honestly, I wasn't into much of the
compilation (curated around the fest hosted by the store label,
obviously). Highlights were good ones though, a super short Black
Time song, the best Mouserocket song I've ever heard, an Earthmen
track and one from a band I'm not familiar with called AV Murder.
Related by content, sorta, I picked up the ROB'S HOUSE
compilation 7" , which you can grab at Eastside for a beyond
reasonable price of $6, and has a tack each from Black Lips,
Carbonas, Gentleman Jesse and Predator, as well as a DVD of the
entire last show there. Great little comp, though it's over
before it starts. I haven't checked out the DVD yet, but I bet
the Black Lips and Carbonas sets are awesome. Why wouldn't they
be? Picked up a new CARBONAS record at the same time, a split
with a band called DIE ROTZZ, who threw down some pretty thick
rock n' roll infused punk that reminded me of The Candy Snatchers
a little bit, while Carbonas offered a Zero Boys cover that while
good, pales coming directly after a new track on there of their
own, "Satisfy Me". Really good, I'd love to see this
band. Odd lock grooves at the start of each side. Weird.
Got some copies of the "POST ALARMIST DRACULA SAFARI"
LP on Oms-b from label head Philip (he was in town as a member of
Syrup), though I refer to the release as a four way split between
the various members of the alluded band (Alarmist): Inca Ore,
Tunnels, Arguementrx and Ghost to Falco). Great vocal based
(sounding) collage / droney tracks from Eva / I.O., bizarre
spaced out and mehanic / weird beats-style, angry poetic
Arguementrix work?? (bouncing my needle), hilarious ode to
Alarmist by M. Remy, dark singer / songwiter doom folk from Ghost
to Falco, that had a pretty Mount Eerie feel to it this time
around, and a variety of strange / tripped out Tunnels songs.
Still waiting on the best dance record of 2008 from this guy,
maybe 2009 will be the year instead!
Excellent new GRAVEYARDS LP on French label Sergent Massacre,
called "Cinders", percussion + chimes + bells /
electronics / reeds - high end sliced metal drone, borderline
psych oscillation noise and periodic full frontal sax parts.
Schizophrenic but seemingly restrained and possibly slightly
calculated. I always love when one of these bands get a nice
proper issue treatment for a record, in this case - nice printed
covers with art by Wouter Smeraldina-Rima - check his work out
here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smeraldina-rima/ ... another great
LOOSERS release, and nothing at all like the "Natives Are
Restless" double LP that recently was given birth by the
always great Qbico Records. This new one-sided LP, "Love Has
Come Around" is more along the lines of psyched out jamming,
perhaps like This Heat, at times Can or even King Crimson (as
opposed to the recent string of more tribal sounding work they've
been doing). One of those too obscure for it's own good sorta
releases though, doesn't have the label name, or even Looser's
name, anywhere on it. I can't justify it's price, either. Maybe
they only made 100 or something, but even then, this was too
steep, and I only grabbed it because Loosers are a project I've
been following from their start, and couldn't feel good about
purposefully passing on something.
Speaking of QBICO: I recently got the other two (of three)
"creatures" LPs, which are all art / sound projects of
Tasty Soil label head Chris Pottinger (see "Best of
2008"!!!). I picked up the Slither one awhile ago, but
finally got my hands on the ODD CLOUDS and COTTON MUSEUM ones as
well. The Odd Clouds one is truly perfect. It's a picture disc
that looks great (if you love his cute / vomit fiendz!! - I do!),
and has a great free-form noise / loose jam sound to it, some
messed up Smega style sounds in there, much like recent
(summertime) Tent/City performances. Tons of parallels in here,
but also totally different too. Probably my favorite release of
theirs, actually. Astounding recording quality too, especially
for having so many people / things doing so many different /
fucked up things at the same time. (Relistening to this as I type
this, I can't stress enough how awesome this is - one of the best
things in this realm I've ever heard). Ask to see / hear this
when you come over. (Don't be shy)! ... The COTTON MUSEUM LP is
also good, though much less busy / minimal - which would make
sense seeing as it's just one human cranking out the damaged
mosquito drone / tone mangled movements on this one. (Obligatory
mention of a really melodic feeling ambience over about 1/3,
middle portion, of the B-side - it's not all insect rambles, but
I must declare: this absolutely sounds like the perfect
soundtrack / language for these monsters that her illustrates!
Extremely happy to see that the BLATZ / FILTH split LP is back
for a third time! Hopefully you are well versed on this fucked up
East Bay punx classic, if not, you're missing out on the best
example of adolescent absurdity (Blatz). Story for me: This was
always a Lookout Record, but had fell out of print when all the
crazy Lookout stuff went down, and copies were selling for a ton
ton ton. I didn't care about having my "original" copy,
which was not even - I am sure Lookout had to repress it 100
times. ...but the rights for the LP was given to Life is Abuse,
and I was content with having a reissue version if someone wanted
to buy a Lookout press for $50. Makes no sense to me, but does to
others. However, I took too long to buy the Life Is Abuse
reissue, and in turn have been without a copy for like 4 or 5
years now. Caught word that Alternative Tentacles were getting it
for a third-go-round, and here it is, looking and sounding great
and with an $11 price tag. Awesome and eternally valid. TONIGHT
WE'RE GONNA FUCK SHIT UP! + THE LIST IS STILL THOUSANDS
LONG!
Grabbed a reissue of an OUTLAW ORDER 7" called
"Legalize Crime", that was originally one of the
Southern Lord singles from a few years ago (that were all ultra
hyped, and good, and disappeared ultra fast (see: Graves At Sea).
Anyway, available again, with an extra live song as well.
Excellent sludgy, riff heavy hardcore from most of the members of
Eyehategod. Similar vibe, for sure, but this actually sounds more
like Cavity to me, at least right now. The live song sounds
alright, I think it's mostly on there to urge some of the 1500
people that have the original to consider picking this up too,
makes sense. Really weird 30 seconds of tuning and random between
song stuff at the end, weird.
I also finally picked up some stuff that I had been lagging on
but already dug a lot. (I don't like writing about stuff on here
until I actually have it // just a personal thing, seems silly to
talk up shit when you don't even have it in you hands // and
packaging + art is half the fun / legitimacy of many many many
release). -- blah, so both ZOLA JESUS 7"s and the WAVVES LP
on Woodsist. Zola Jesus is fucking awesome. I never wrote her
off, but had been given descriptions of "a lot like Grouper
and the U.S. Girls stuff" when in actuality, it's bedroom /
damaged industrial soul music, at least in my opinion, though I
can absolutely acknowledge U.S. Girls similarities at various
points. Both 7"s are excellent, and I assume there's a
ton more on the horizon, or at least I would hope.
Shorts:
Weird double 7" from AHLZAGAILZEHGUH - harsh and
unexpectedly intricate, great on headphones, honestly. Personally
dug the A/B infinitely more than the C/D, but that's nothing:
this is a solid release and done very well / nicely. Mail ordered
a double CD of BASTARD NOISE collaborations, appropriately titled
"Joined At The Skull" - incredible stuff - lots of
sparse and fairly peaceful portions, continuously raising the bar
and pushing boundaries, there's hours worth to talk about within
the frame of these two CDs. Part of a set that will be wrapped up
with a 3" CDr and I believe proper issues of these - I'll
probably write about them at that time. In the meantime, limited
to 100, so if you know - grab it (via House Pig). Wish these were
LPs. Couple of great CDrs on TOVINATOR, Tovah Olson's American
Tapes offshoot sorta thing. DEAD MACHINES' "Look Twice"
collects three recent live sets, heavy on the low end reeds on
the first 1/3, high end mutilated animal excrement - damaged bird
call samples? Tent/City did this back when, similar idea / style.
The other was a TOVAH D-DAY disc, "Artificial
Satellite", which fell somewhere along the lines of the Evil
Moisture stuff I've heard, though with a more blown out
"noise" approach, tons of hard panned separation makes
this one a blast to listen to. No tape deck in the back corner
here. I'm a sucker for stereo with this realm. Same exact case
MANSLAUGHTERS recent s/t AMERICAN TAPES CDr, a band who I
confused with Wasteland Jazz Unit when I grabbed some of their
stuff awhile back. THIS is the unit that Paul C (Murder Murder,
Total Shutdown, etc) is part of, though if I had to guess which
one it was based on sound, I still would go for Wasteland. Also
on the AM-TAPES front, a lengthy double LP from AWKWARD SQUAD,
with varied approaches using circuit bent tones, damaged signals,
fluttering feedback, crackled ambience and speaker torture tests.
Feels incredibly personal / intentional / focused, in a weird
sort of way.
Excellent new LP from JOHN WIESE, called "Dramatic
Accessories" on Tyfus label ULTRA ECZEMA. Long, solid
collage of small sounds some more decipherable than others, lots
of organic percussion sounds, small guitar sounds, voice or
breath sounds, street or room sounds strewn around, lots tape
samples being stretched and warbled (assumptions). I can't
understand how anyone can not listen to this sort of work and not
thing it's simply incredible. Arguable not even "noise"
at all, and on a sheer volume level, a lot of this is fairly
quiet or silent (though when it hits hard, it hits hard).
Honestly, impossible to put into words how much I enjoy what this
guy does, and this is one of the most definitive / perfect
examples of the specific style of his that I dig the most. I love
this, and I think so so so so many more people would too if they
gave it a chance.
Gigantic box of new ISOLATED NOW WAVES releases! // I really
loved the LES BEYOND portion of a three way split CDr with MONGST
and RACKETBALL, 20 minutes of drawn out ambient guitar work that
is truly sedative. Awesome CHANNELS 3x4 live CDr from 2003,
sounds like a handhelp tape recorded style - not nearly as
gripping as their later / "real" recordings, but
totally awesome. Gilgongo releases in 2009 (I am ecstatic). 80
minute long, one track collaboration between MONGST and BURROW
OWL - honestly the most engaging (beyond) extended drone / wall
of noise / gargling electronics piece I've heard in awhile.
Intimidating in content, but accompanied some sandwich making and
eating nicely. Another MONGST one, "The Music of Mongst
Parts I-VI" is an incredible 40 minute string of pieces,
hushed dungeon folk and decay, occasional bouts of stuttering
harsh noise. I truly love that this is one long 40 minute
recordings, it makes it all the more intimidating. This is going
to be enjoyed during a long car ride on tour, middle of the night
/ wide awake style. Great spaced out sounds and appropriate
spraypaint cosmos art on the inside of the AEROSOL CONSTELLATIONS
CDr, by the way - I caught it, if it was even intentional).
Traded a couple LPs with the label FEDORA CORPSE, got a couple of
nice self titled LPs from a drone project called COMOROS and the
couple that does the label's project, GOTE - which was a pretty
neat collection of heavy thick guitar drone and noise, with more
serene / peaceful tracks as well. Parts even had a strange
overblown black metal hint to them. Reminds me of something Not
Not Fun would release.
Grabbed some new AMERICAN TAPES goods as well, including one of
he most absurd / awesome yet, the "NO STATE NO SOUND"
compilation LP, featuring one minute of silence from a ton of
area noise artists, though the tape machine is so loud and the
hiss is through the roof, making for the loudest
"silence" ever. Ridiculous idea, ridiculous record.
Crucial or pure vanity? You decide. Non-arguable, another great
release from UNEVEN UNIVERSE, called "Exiti Human",
starting out with a thick meditation inducing drone, and then
spirals of "slow moving read and lurch galore", as the
AM-TAPES description puts it, I though this one was great. Very
tense, nervous and confused sounding.
THINGS:
V/A - GONERFEST 5 LP
V/A - ROB'S HOUSE 7" + DVD (Rob's House).
CARBONAS / DIE ROTZZ - split 7" (Die Slaughterhaus).
INCA ORE / ARGUEMENTIX / TUNNELS / GHOST TO FALCO - split LP
(Oms-b).
TOVAHAUNTED (Tovah Olson + Pocahaunted) - collab LP
(Tovantor).
GRAVEYARDS - "Cinders" LP (Sergent Massacre).
LOOSERS - "Love Has Come Around" - LP (Troglosound)
BLATZ / FILTH - "The Shit Split" LP (Alternative
Tentacles).
ODD CLOUDS - s/t LP (Qbico).
COTTON MUSEUM - "No Face In The Bag" LP (Qbico).
ZOLA JESUS - "Soeur Sewer / Odessa" 7" (Sacred
Bones).
ZOLA JESUS - s/t 7" (Die Stasi)
AHLZAGAILZEHGUH - "Misinterpreted Injury" double
7" (Razors and Medicine).
MONGST / RACKETBALL / LES BEYOND - split CDr (Isolated Now
Waves).
CHANNELS 3x4 - untitled / Johnny Jewel demos? CDr (no
label).
CHANNELS 3x4 - "Coma Dosed" CDr (Isolated Now Waves -
old one from 2003).
MONGST AND BURROW OWL - " Two Gather Again" CDr
(Isolated Now Waves).
MONGST - "The Music of Mongst Parts I-VI" CDr (Isolated
Now Waves).
ADULT BOOKS - "Smash The Sun" CDr (Isolated Now
Waves).
AEROSOL CONSTELLATIONS - "Stellations #6 June 2008" CDr
(Isolated Now Waves).
WOODEN WAND AND THE VANISHING VOICE - "Phases in Meticulous
Orbit" CDr (Blackest Rainbow).
WOODEN WAND AND THE SKY HIGH BAND - "From The Road Vol.
7" CDr (23 Productions?).
THE VANISHING VOICE - "Daze on Days" CDr (self
released).
BASTARD NOISE - "Joined At The Skull" (collaborations)
2xCD (House Pig)
THE DEAD MACHINES - "Look Twice" CDr (Tovinator).
TOVAH D-DAY - "Artificial Satellites" CDr
(Tovinator).
MANSLAUGHTER - s/t CDr (American Tapes).
AWKAWRD SQUAD - "Solo Performance for Oil, Violin and
Arm" 2xCD (American Tapes).
EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING - 7" (Iron Lung).
IRON LUNG + HATRED SURGE - collaboration 7" (Iron
Lung).
OUTLAW ORDER - "Legalize Crime" 7" (Deep
Six).
COMOROS - s/t LP (Fedora Corpse).
GOTE - s/t LP (Fedora Corpse).
v/a - "SUN, SMOG AND HATE" LP (Folktale).
v/a - "NO STATE NO SOUND" LP (American Tapes).
UNEVEN UNIVERSE - "Exit Human" LP (American
Tapes).
JOHN WIESE - "Dramatic Accessories" LP (Ultra
Eczema).
1/18/09 - back to normal next week, for now:
BEST OF
2008!!! (TOP
10's, SORT OF)! (copy /
pasted (after some spelling / grammar fixes, ha, from the
physical zine layout.
if you're interested in having a physical copy, which comes with
a mix-CDr, just get in touch.
they will cost you a whopping $1.50ppd via mail).
____________________________________________________
2008 // FAST PAST // JAMES FELLA // JAN 2009
I – INTRO
II – LIVE
III – RECORDED
(((INTRO)))
2008 is gone! What’s another year? I am 26 now, 26 years
young. But this isn’t a bio, it’s an introduction with
small explanations: For example, I am in two groups, Soft
Shoulder and Tent/City, so often in these writings there’s
something that may say “we played with… ” or
something, but without elaboration. On the same exact page, I
also play music alone, so sometimes “I played
with…” happens, same thing. I also do a label called
Gilgongo, so similarly, I might reference that but not in clear
terms. Etc and so on.
Parts of these, mostly just in the “random notes”, are
pulled from a blog that I attach to the label site, called Clap
and Cough (which is a lyric from a discount song). You can find
that here: gilgongorecords.com/blog
Hope your year was enjoyable!
James Fella
Gilgongo Records
PO Box 7455
Tempe, AZ 85281 USA
gilgongorecords.com
0. FRENCH QUARTER / STEPHEN STEINKBRINK
(up and down the west coast in June, throughout central AZ all
year long).
I finished this list and realized there was no set from Stephen
on here, and that’s probably because there is no way to pin
down something special or specific about one in particular,
there’s too much of a consistency in his heartfelt
performances of guitar and vocal songs. His voice is beautiful
and his songs stick with you for days at a time, and there’s
this strange, almost falsely seen as detached vibe, that is so
insanely sincere feeling when seeing him play, that hearing him
rework his friends songs can bring you to tears, and no one else
could make you like the Replacements any more than he can. I feel
truly fortunate to be around for Stephen’s coming of age as
a musician, and am infinitely proud of him and feel privileged to
have released the French Quarter LP last year, and the first full
length under his own name, “Ugly Unknowns”, this one. I
love this guy, so should you.
1. THE OKMONIKS / NO BUNNY / WAX MUSEUMS
(@ The Poblano Hot Sause Factoy / Tucson, AZ (August)).
Summertime pizza party / show that could not have been more
enjoyable. I like that despite listening to so much odd / bizarre
/ absurd music, my favorite live experience was with a bunch of
garage / punk bands playing to a packed space full of drunk kids
and debauchery left and right.
The buzz on No Bunny had been huge, especially after the mishap
involved with the first press of the LP, which I was not that
concerned about, because despite thinking it was really good, it
didn’t really move me much overall. Live though, was a
completely different story. Wax Museums were the backing band,
and everything was much more fast and loud. Nudity, crowd
surfing, scary people “dancing” and drinks being poured
all over everyone. The bunny mask is nasty, but the set was truly
perfect.
Okmoniks, who are secretly one of my favorite bands in Arizona,
and actually, in general, were my main pull for heading down to
Tucson. I haven’t seen them lately, though used to drive
down to Tucson to catch them at complete random. Their short,
double-one-sided LP from earlier in the year was perfect, and I
had been dying for an opportunity to see them. Helene on organ /
vocals is probably one of the most legit “front” people
for a band, and their energetic and addicting garage / pop is
perfect, and anyone that even remotely enjoys things on Crypt /
Estrus / Sympathy / Rip-Off and so on, should already know and
love them. Completely under-rated, and just waiting to take
over.
Much like Wax Museums from Denton, TX, who I had only heard by
name, not sound. Snotty catchy punk with absurd and arbitrary
lyrics (about war documentaries, getting locked in the mall,
collecting glass miniatures), coupled with a totally exaggerated
and ridiculous vocalist made their set both fun and hilarious on
all levels possible. Their performance made me anticipate their
LP like no other, and thank god it was great.
I couldn’t have been more impressed by all three bands at
this show. If I could see anything from this year over again
(5-20 more times) it would have been this one. Great pizza
too.
2. MOM
(@ The Firehall / UC Davis / Davis, CA (June), @ house show /
Sacramento, CA (August)).
Touring with French Quarter was weird in theory, but not in
practice. With him doing singer / songwriter style music and me
doing improvised noise / sound pieces, I was often wondering what
a bulk of the crowds were thinking about what I was doing. Davis
eradicated that question when Mom played.
Armed with samples from surf and women’s etiquette records,
and a pitch shifter and reverb unit for her vocals, Mom sings
tortured pop songs. Can’t understand a word she is saying,
but I am willing to bet the content is profane. As far as
aesthetics? Little girls Minnie Mouse costume, panties with huge
“muff” patch that she’s sewn to them, maracas,
which she often uses to rub against her panties while shrieking,
and then various other props and antics, milk being poured down
her legs while propped up on a folding chair, eggs coming out of
her underwear and smashed who knows where, and other performances
have involved dead fish and her limbs inside of dead chickens.
The second time of the two I saw her this year, she seemed pretty
unfazed by the rose thorns that were slicing up her legs.
…and as wild as this all seems, it’s probably pretty
normal behavior for Sacramento. Refreshing and mildly
uncomfortable!
3. KEVIN SHIELDS (LA noise artist, not the MBV guy)!
(@ Echo Curio / LA, CA (June)).
On this particular occasion, Eva’s set was simply incredible
and perfect. I’ve been having a hard time trying to pin
point exactly what it was, and the video I took not only is of
not assistance, it doesn’t even capture the sound well. The
sheer volume of the disgusting, churning, mechanic noise was
enough to make anyone in the room tense, and so when it reached
parts where it would crackle and break apart, it had a very
dramatic effect, even more so when seemingly out of nowhere,
there was harpsichord in the gaps as well. I absolutely loved it
and it was an absolute treat to play with her / see her.
4. PEAKING LIGHTS
(@ Boo Berry Fort / Tempe, AZ (November)).
Indra from Number and one of the Rah Dunes’ new project,
completely over stimulating visually, with countless EQ racks
re-wired into synths and other ancient / reclaimed electronics
forming a gigantic wall of circuitry, churning out thick, low-end
drone / sludge, with Indra on vocals and conjuring a Goslings
sorta vibe, or a filthy sloth’s pace Get Hustle, who knows.
It was incredible, and there’s an LP on Night People on the
way that will be documenting what they were doing on this tour.
Also awesome to see Wet Hair and play this one myself, as
well.
5. JAY REATARD / EARTHMEN AND STRANGERS
(@ Hollywood Ally / Tempe, AZ (July or August)).
6. EARTHMEN AND STRANGERS
(@ The Manor / Tempe, AZ (October)).
Great sets from all three bands, Earthmen is a new project from
local prolific garage / rock mastermind Ryan (of Wongs,
Destruction Unit, Tokyo Electron, etc). More on the mellow side,
but insanely catchy song writing and a good energy to the sound,
reminds me of Wipers a lot. The Jay Reatard set was incredible,
and probably the last time he’ll tour with such a non-stop
intensity in the playing. Threw down just about all of the Blood
Visions LP at twice the speed, newer songs as well, didn’t
stop a single time, if any tuning needed to be done, he’s
just loop some guitar / feedback, non-stop and full force.
A more recent Earthmen set at one of the local houses was equally
enjoyable. Packed room, kids going nuts, rum being chased by
beer, Devlin dancing like a maniac, I was shocked no one lost any
teeth with that many bottles at head level. It felt good seeing a
ton of people there all at once, honestly: Tempe at it’s
finest if you ask me.
7. SEX/VID
(@ The Chamber / Phoenix, AZ (June or July)).
Kind of all the rage in certain hardcore / punk circuits, and
then seemingly unknown in others, Sex/Vid have been tossing out
some extremely “pissed” sounding records for a few
years, with great bleak art that sums up the energy / sound of
what they do perfectly, and finally seeing these guys tear
through a live set was honestly fucking exciting. Other than Iron
Lung, I can’t think of a modern / newer hardcore band that
just plays with this much sincere force, and the kids watching
them reacted 100%, bodies were flying all over the place, running
up and jumping off walls Spider-Man style even, really. Watching
these guys is something else, you get all of these thoughts and
ideas, or at least I do, and perhaps I am completely off base or
just wrong, but I see some passionate people playing their hearts
out, and it’s loud, ugly and angry,… and really fucking
good.
8. NAT BALDWIN
(@ The Trunkspace / Phoenix, AZ).
Once a member of the extended Dirty Projectors line-up, that if I
remember correctly, was touring around the time “The Getty
Address” was released, I was pretty excited to play with Nat
Baldwin, despite not really knowing what to expect of his solo
work. A poorly attended show, who’s attendance dropped even
more after I played, still felt completely right on when Nat did
his thing, which was a perfectly balanced combination of
borderline drone / drawn out upright bass work with his singing
gently complimenting it and spazzed / crazed / reckless assaults
across the fret board – none of which felt even remotely
contrived, this guy was pouring everything he had into his art /
performance, and it was beautiful and very much appreciated by
me. I would have loved to collaborate with him.
9. CHRISTIAN D (WOODS)
(@ Elise’s house / Tempe, AZ).
The ties and connections to Tempe and Woods are uniquely strong.
Long before I released a 7” for them, and that’s
already got to be 3 and a half years ago or something, I was
dubbing the double cassette of their debut release (that I had
picked up from them when they were playing in Meneguar down in
Tucson) on to a single C-60 for everyone I thought would like it
in town, who in turn, often did the same. So, when Christian was
visiting Elise after they met when Meneguar came through a third
time, he agreed to play a show at her house with French Quarter
and I, I think Splinter Cake too, doing some Woods songs and some
of his newer personal ones as well. …Woods have never played
through here, I’ve never even heard their songs live, and
when he started his set with “Broke”, I think I can
safely bet that there were tears in at least 15 people’s
eyes, instantly, myself included.
10. A.HOHM
(@ Cartel / Tempe, AZ).
Soft Shoulder and Tent/City bandmate, Ashlea, has been having
people bug her for quite a long time to do some sort of live /
solo performance, probably because we all knew that when she
finally did, it would be something extremely good, which her
debut outing (and only one to date!) absolutely was. Ann was
going on tour with her project, Hell-Kite, and was the person who
finally got her to commit to playing (thank goodness)! Quite
obviously influenced by some of her personal favorites (Inca Ore,
Grouper, etc), Ash’s set was comprised of wonderfully dark /
murky / foggy pieces that ended with a more beat / “regular
vocal” lead track that had me about ready to freak out, one
of those moments where you know that any other dork in the room
that has ever even considered putting out a record thought
“HIT SINGLE!!!”. She’ll probably be annoyed that I
am including her on this list, because she doesn’t want to
get pressured into doing a bunch of shows, but I am not
suggesting that she should unless she’s ready to, I’m
just reflecting on my favorite moments from 2008 (so deal with
it, Ash)!
OTHER THINGS WORTH MENTION:
WOMANS WORTH (in San Francisco, underneath a freeway overpass, a
show Tent/City played on tour that I wasn’t too keen on for
financial / touring-related reasons, but thought was, and knew
would be, incredibly cool and unique. Has not seen WW in a long
time, and their brand of free-jazz was a bit more sedate, but
just as adventurous, with the addition of keys being very
welcome). … FERTILE CRECENT (in Phoenix at Trunkspace, they
were on Treasure Mammal’s five year birthday show that Soft
Shoulder also played, and introduced us to their beautifully
damaged minimalist pop, an explanation that is more insulting
than accurate. Somewhere between Deerhoof (who they had been on
the road with for awhile) and Young Marble Giants, with a little
Amps for Christ or Young People in there? Really really good.
… More Canada: TWIN CRYSTALS (at The ‘Yards / Tempe, AZ
– great Vancouver synth punk, what 3am dancehall music
should be, punk dreams, true love, Jesse Taylor, catchy songs
that infected Devlin’s living room).
NU SENSAE and TUNNELS (at I think one of the Intelligence
guys’ house in Portland, OR – Tent got to jump on this
show in a pretty darn hot basement, Nick / Tunnels sound checks
running parallel to ours were fucking hilarious and weird, and
his set of blown out dance music was completely unexpected and
unlike anything of his I had heard, only to be topped by Nu
Sensae’s great Vancouver grungy hyper punk (think faster
early L7?) which included a Channels 3x4 cover that I enjoyed
from the hallway while trying to sell merch to drunk people at
the bottom of some stairs that people kept falling down –
though I have enjoyed it a few times since as it was released as
a split tape with Syrup!). AIDS WOLF and ARRINGTON DE DIONYSO
(also at Trunkspace – so wonderful seeing Aids Wolf again,
and their prog take on a Arab on Radar / Harrry Pussy hybrid was
more refined and horrific (especially for being such MMM’s
(duh = mild mannered Montrealites – or whatever folks from
there go by) and Arrington from Old Time Relijun played an
incredible vocal / bass clarinet / etc based set (in front of
projections of his art) that showed a lot of patience and
innovation (and was much loved by me). Almost the entire set has
recently been released as a new LP on K).
Other small things: 1/4th of QUEEN MAE AND THE BELLS set at Echo
Curio in LA (weird / artist / unique), in May when Hell-Kite and
I played a collab set, and also attempted to see NAKED ON THE
VAGUE at The Smell. LUCKY DRAGONS, also at Echo Curio, but in
August when Tent toured. SLEEPWALKERS LOCAL, every time I saw him
out there this year, expansive and good. Foot Village, who just
get better and better every single time played with the tribe a
few times in AZ and CA, the return of Fathers Day! Treasure
Mammal’s incredible new batch of songs (REAL TALK!), My
Feral Kin’s evolution into prog / pop perfection. (ala Dirty
Projectors, “American Don” era Don Cab, still with a
Little Wings style vocalizations, but with great harmonies). And
Tradewinds -Tempe all-stars playing great / legit pop punk.
1. GRAVEYARDS / PINK CHUNK JAZZ BAND – split cassette
(American Tapes).
90 minutes or truly damaged sound. This was on loop in the living
room tape deck for days. Sounds like the tape is twisted in the
case. You feel like you have a fraction of an understanding of
what’s going on and then something punches in or out at half
the volume, and everything is fuzzed over and garbled. (yes,
garbled). Bizarre and bleak, ironically engaging, this is perfect
for packing up record orders, catching some peacefully strange
sleep or enjoying freezing winter afternoons. I have a bunch of
these on the way from Olson, and will attempt to convince you to
buy one. As a bonus confusion, here’s the AM-TAPES
description for it: "Second split of the set. Pink Chunk
Jazz Band returns with two pieces of cardboard drums, plate, high
hat, and reeds in non-synch homemade style. Non sense in a-non
sense jazz kitchen setting. The Grave side is a unique long duo
jam with no percussion, Hell Hall jammin soprano sax, tapes and
feedblack and Thrasher Slowson on Bass Clarinet and pattern
electronics. Very twisting and strange, like one long bad-news
speech stretched out to a 40 min negative space on opposite day
study. Definite Quarter Speed influence. Color
Covers."-American Tapes.
2. TALK NORMAL – s/t cassette (Night People).
On top of seeing and catching up with Shawn from Raccoo-oo-oon
when he came through with his new project, Wet Hair, grabbing a
gigantic batch of cassettes on his label, Night People, is always
something to be excited about. Rather than just talk about all
the new projects / people that he crosses paths with, he throws
their magic on to tape, and in this instance I was introduced to
NYC’s Talk Normal, and their 4 song, 20 minute cassette of
drawn out minimalist no-wave, like Monitr Batss at 16 rpm of Y
Pants on pain killers. Instant addiction! Chatting with these two
girls through typed communication, came to find out they were
opening the first Boss Hog show in 10 years or something. Who
else even likes Boss Hog anymore? I am in love!
3. WOUNDED LION – s/t 7” (S-S).
S-S is one of the most underrated labels out there. Their stuff
sells, because there’s enough people out there who get it,
but at this point in time, I feel like they are one of the only
ones out there that offer a pretty consistent quality stream of
releases, mostly in the weirdo punk range, with fringe releases
in the free jazz realm and other areas as well. (To remotely home
you in, S-S is the label that did the A-Frames stuff before they
got snatched up by Sub Pop). Irrelevant, other than a
recommendation to check out any and all Scott has to offer. I
grabbed the Wounded Lion single locally, picking it up before
knowing what it was / who put it out because of the great
overblown Xerox looking cover art of the band standing in front
of a striped wall with their faces striped out as well (which
ended up being a photo from when they were dressed up for their
video for the B-Side from this thing (look it up))! It just
reeked cool, and seeing S-S on the back essentially sealed the
deal.
So the record? I’ve probably listened to these two songs 100
times in the past few months. “Carol Cloud” is an
infectious / infected lofi Talking Heads style classic, the kind
of song you feel like you’re best friends with before
it’s over, only to be followed up by a more relaxed sorta
Wipers / weird garage pop tune called “Pony People” on
the B-side. Everything about this band and single is great, and
they have some new things on the way (including a 7” on
Gilgongo – yes, I liked them that much – a split label
release with Down In The Ground from San Diego,… but some
stuff on In The Red as well).
4. SLITHER / THURSTON MOORE + PAUL FLAHERTY split 7’ (part
of the Bored Fortress 7” series on Not Not Fun).
The Thurston / Flaherty collaboration was obviously going to be
good, how could it not? Obliterated guitar and wild free-form
sax, sounds like a chunk of something that probably went on full
force for hours. However, what made this monumental was the
Slither side. I’ve been familiar with Odd Clouds for awhile,
but the incredible over-processed reeds/electronics assault from
Slither, and finding out it contained one of the Clouds sent me
into a hunt. There obviously had to be more. So I wasted plenty
of time and money on a ton of related goods, all of which have
proven to be well worth it, both in aesthetics and sound. Chris
Pottinger (who is in both and also makes some damaged tone under
the name Cotton Museum) not only creates all of this mind melting
music, but the art for them in most cases too, and his unique
brand of mutating boiled over creatures can often be seen on the
various releases by these projects and on his label, Tasty Soil.
Excellent stuff // cute messed up monsters.
5. MASSHYSTERI – s/t 7” (Feral Ward).
I think the cover of this record is undeniably perfect, ultra
nice photo of these three Swedish punks sitting in front of a
concrete wall with their name spray painted and dripping down
behind them, which might sound silly, but I assure you, is right
on. Four songs from a new band featuring The Vicious and
Regulations members playing excellent early X style punk rock
that comes across as a Vicous / Gorilla Angreb (who I loved)
cross breed. The dual gendered vocals are honestly extremely
appealing and are a great, if perhaps random, dynamic that I
believe adds a ton to how great this already is. The LP probably
would have made it on here too, but some hold ups on the domestic
press means that it’s not out and I don’t own it, but I
can assure you, it’s a hit as well. Crucial punk!
7. TITMACHINE – s/t 7” (Meeuw Muzak) and “We Build
A New City” 7” (Siltbreeze).
Four girls from the Netherlands, sounding strangely Asian and
playing like The Shaggs meeting the Better Beatles, sounding even
more indifferent and playing more robotic, offering repetitive
annoying and perfect music, including the best / worst /
strangest cover of “Now I Wanna Be Your Dog” that
you’ve ever heard. Ever hear Kim Gordon / Sonic Youth’s
version? Like that but, well, but lots of things. I can see very
obviously why ANYONE might think this is pure trash, because in
away it is, but one persons trash is another freak’s
treasure. Exiled Records in Portland, OR (one of the best shops
out there) not only came through with having the new one on
Siltbreeze, but the debut on Meeuw Muzak as well.
8. GROUPER – “Dragging A Dead Dear Up A Hill” LP
(Type).
Completely unprecedented third LP from Portland’s Liz
Harris, on UK’s Type Records, this one really blew people
away – I don’t know a single person that has heard this
and wasn’t moved. More song oriented / a little less fogged
over than here earlier work, this LP has some of the most
heartbreaking moments of music from this past year, and presents
them in a dreary and beautiful manner, a style which countless
people point to 90’s 4AD style as reference, though no
reference is needed. Liz has truly mastered a craft of her own,
and I can’t wait to hear what comes next. Perfect sleep
music, great for feeling bad along side with, though strangely
uplifting in certain contexts, such as driving in the middle of
the night in pouring rain. I’m not sure if the LP was
repressed at some point, but it sold out almost instantly (I
luckily scored one from a distro). Inferior CD versions are
readily available.
9. TYVEK – “Sidewalk” (?)
(M’Lady’s).
Three more excellent tinny and damaged rock songs from
Detroit’s Tyvek that have previously seen the light of day
as part of the Fast Metabolism CDr, which should have probably
just been an LP, seeing as it’s perfect from start to finish
(see also: last year’s double 7” “Summer
Burns”). Herky jerky and sorta “off” in the most
“on” way possible, the bi-product of industrial city
pollution, and on the verge of being the next big thing (for
years now). Reminds me of something Crypt or Rip-Off would have
done in the mid-90s.
10. THE OKMONIKS – “Party Fever” LP
(Slovenly).
Already raved on them live, why not recorded too: Feel good /
feel great, garage punk driven by Helene’s excellent voice
and organ playing, The Okmoniks finally have something tangible
other than their undeniable cool self-released (and sometimes
mono!) 7” singles, which they’ve done three of since
2001 or so. (Been obsessing and driving done to Tucson when
needed / on occasion ever since)! Excellent pizza party, beer
drinking art for an excellent pizza party, beer drinking, Tucson
storage space dance-a-thon sorta band. There’s a million
groups doing this sorta thing in various capacities, but I tell
you with full confidence that this is more catchy, energetic and
full of soul than most of what comes out of modern, excellent
labels like Hozac, Douchemaster or Goner. Very rarely does an LP
do a band this much justice, and it’s the same nine songs on
both sides, so you have twice the amount of spins to run the
groves down to nothing with. On a personal level, I love that I
don’t know any of these guys / girl at all, nothing that I
am all about, the very rare “band” / “fan”
wall is so appreciated here, it makes my long running crush all
the more sincere.
NOTES ON SOME OTHER THINGS HEAVILY ENJOYED:
U.S. GIRLS - "Introducing..." LP (Siltbreeze). Nice,
simple LP reissue of Meghan Remy’s self-released debut
collection of fuzzed out / tape sampled / overblown dungeon pop.
… ANCESTORS LP (Youth Attack) At The Gates style bedroom
black metal, horrid sounds beautifully packaged). … FOOT OX
- "It's Like Our Little Machine" LP (Distant Colony).
First vinyl release from Tempe singer/songwriter Teague Cullen,
who is an innovative forward thinking musician (think Daniel
Johnston with an Elephant 6 mentality) … NU SENSAE –
s/t LP (Isolated Now Waves). Already mentioned in the live
portion, refer to there, great one-sided collection of songs,
sounds perfect, and on one of my favorite people’s labels).
… TWIN CYSTALS – s/t 7” (SLU) More Vancouver weird
/ punk goodness (see live section here, also) great sounding
couple of songs, dark and dancy, moody hits, full length LP out
soon! … EIAFUAWN - "Birds In The Ground" LP
(Pillowscars). Beautiful, well crafted / developed songs fom a
member of Mohinder? Great through and through. … JU SUK REET
MEATE / OBLIVIA / JOHN WIESE - "Inside and Out" 7"
(Helicopter).pasted from my blog: “schizophrenic ensemble of
controlled debauchery with members of Smegma, recorded (I
believe) at their house in Portland. Lots small sounds, the
moments of two things colliding, cleverly strewn together. Sounds
like there's some liberal improper turntable sampling of other
records, jazz and vocal pieces, some chimes and screeching amidst
countless confusing snippets coming from unrecognizable sources.
Much like much Sissy Spacek material, this is very
over-stimulating, though I would go as far as saying this would
be appreciated far beyond the parameters of "noise
listeners, this is a true art-damaged collage of sound, that
doesn't really stick to any sort of vibe (it's simultaneously a
"dark" and "light" listen), other than the
obscure. I loved it “.
GLASS CANDY - "B/E/A/T/B/O/X" LP + bonus 7"
(Italians Do It Better). Vinyl version of a modern dance classic.
Can’t believe these guys used to be a noisy sassy punk rock
band ala early Siouxsie and the Banshees, here they are well
calculated 3am dancehall crashers, intricate musicianship from
Johnny Jewell and ghostly detached vocals from Ida No. …
GRAVEYARDS + DEAD MACHINES - "Machine Yard in Sound
World" LP (Broken Research). Negative space free jazz /
noise, manipulated by Tovah post recording. Awesome concept,
sparse but gripping. … TARA JANE O’ NEIL - "Wings.
Strings. Meridians" art book and CD (Yeti / Square Root). My
longest running artist crush, here in multi-format bliss –
thick full color book collecting her wonderful paintings / art
with a new CD of mostly spaced out and ambient guitar / vocal
work. .. TEENAGE WASTBAND - “ I Saw What I Wanted To
See” cassette (Hot Sauce?). spazzed out Liliput, out of
control noisey punk, a shame they broke up. … CHEAP ART -
demo tape (self-released) This band reminded me of a fast Dirt,
or like that Recess band Bezerk. Female fronted crusty punk rock
from San Diego. … MENEGUAR - “The In Hour” LP
(Woodsist) – Experimental / weird take on the Meneguar
song-wriiting and recording process, lots of this ended up
sounding like weird psyched out 60’s pop takes on what they
already do, with some great hushed numbers as well. I overdid
this one for sure.
THE GOSLINGS – “Occasion” CD (Not Not Fun). Low
end sludge, nasty guitar work with tortured vocals popping
through here and there, like Sunn covering Get Hustle or Love
Life, absurd sounding description perhaps. … SICKNESS -
"Muddark" CD (Self Abuse / Ninth Circle). Collection of
previously recorded releases, excellent / intricate destructive
noise from an artist that continues to impress / blow me away.
… SPLINTER CAKE - “Bridges” cassette (self
released). Amazing collection of songs from Tempe / Portland
musician who does too much for anyone to keep track of, I’ve
seen acoustic guitar rock that was more like Bad Brains than
anything on Plan-It-X, acoustic black metal, cheers, songs sung
over old jazz music, and old school style hip hop. Beyond
creative, this tape showcased some incredible recordings of
“song” songs, and is well worth your time to hunt down
- most of it is available on his webpage.
JUSTICE YELDHAM - "428 Wein 300708"(?) - cassette (Hate
State). Pasted from the blog: “Justice is pretty nuts, his
performance art / sound project consists of him attaching contact
mics to large panes of glass, which he then makes noises onto
with his mouth and runs through several effects into loud amps.
Perhaps it's not the most amazing sounding stuff in the world,
but it's unique and interesting, and knowing what's going on
makes it all the more entertaining for me. I won't go into too
much more detail - I'd recommend just trying to find some videos
online, but he's great. I decided to specifically pick up the
tape that I did, because it's on Eva (Kevin Shields)'s short run
label HATE STATE, which features hand-knit bizarre creations to
house the cassettes in. This one is woven around and through a
square of plexi-glass, and has an awesome little photo with the
tape, of a crowd of people watching Justice play, which is a
great great captured moment: a few people looking like they are
excited as hell, a few holding their ears like the sound hurts, a
few people making faces that indicate they are wondering
"What the hell is going on?" and my favorite: Ren of
God Willing / Deep Jew / all of that stuff: standing with his
arms folded and a look on his face like he's strangely intrigued
by watching an autopsy or dissection video, which is possibly not
to far off, because when Justice plays with glass, sometimes his
face gets all cut up. Well, you know. “
RUSSIAN TSARLAG - "Community Death Tube" LP (Night
People). From the blog: “If you're not familiar with
TSARLAG, than you're probably not familiar with the mastermind
behind it named Carlos, who is perhaps one of the most bizarre
and incredible people I have ever met. He's rolled though Phoenix
a few times over the past three years, not just as Russian
Tsarlag (previously known as Russian Tsarcasm), but also in the
no-wave death unit Byron House and hardcore noise band (in that
Deep Jew sorta way) called Dynasty. Tsarlag though, is something
of a completely different nature. Broken down minimalist soul
music for the gutter, doo-wop for the criminally insane, music
that would creep up behind you and whisper something in your ear
that would make you uncomfortable, but laugh later when it was
safe to. Maybe that does not properly explain, or explain at all,
just what this LP is like. The problem is that even though I love
this thing, I can't imagine away to attempt to accurately
describe what it sounds like without it sounding like I hate it,
and again, I don't hate it, or think that I was just making a
joke about it. I am in love with it and this is going to be a
favorite of the year, addicting demented and damaged”
FERTILE CRESCENT - "Backwards Beach / The Knife"
7" (Body). Two excellent songs from a couple playing
experimental / gently strange pop (see live section)!
…SEX/VID – “Communal Living” 12’ (Dom
America). (already wrote on them live too, here’s also from
the blog: “This 12" does a better job of capturing
their fury. I'm still not sure why I am so fond of this band,
there's a lot of other thrashy punk bands right now,... maybe
it's the fact that I feel like the finer points of Black Flag and
Crossed Out or Siege are being simultaneously touched on and with
sincere passion, I don't know, that's what I hear, and I love
it”. … BLACK TIME - "ICU + Corpse Life / Doomsday
Parade" (Skulltones). Blog again: “Good new 7"
from BLACK TIME on the SKULLTONES label, who after their Eat
Skull and Naked on the Vague 7"s are obviously a new label
to watch, with this third single drilling that point to death.
Great, almost spooky / spy style garage rock on "ICU",
"Corpse Life" is a great, screamy anthem one with Janie
singing too, the B-Side sounds like a fucked up lofi Fall type
and has an almost GoGoGoAirheat sound to it and is much like a
slightly drawn out version of the two A side's put together -
sounds like what would be the typical "single"
actually! Great record. Haven't checked out much of their stuff
other than a recent LP on In The Red that is also really
good.” … CHRIS CORWIN - 2 Song CDr (Distant Colony)
Beautiful couple of songs from recent San Fran transplant who has
an ancient and mature quality to him, despite being one of the
most wild, youthful, free people that I (unfortunately only
slightly) know, the kind of thing M. Gira would kill himself over
if it was only more dark. I hope this truly is a teaser for a
full length, because he has incredible talent. Seeing French
Quarter play the first track, “The Pen15 Song”, about
30 times this year has been a treat, since Chris hasn’t been
here to do it himself.
12/28/08 - no beats
Coming mid January /// "Best of 2008". (Waiting
for some stragglers that are going to blow my mind and are on
their way to the home base).
No time for talking, sorry, so: quick notes on some new things is
all for now.
After putting it off awhile, I finally grabbed a physical copy of
the recent GANG GANG DANCE LP, "Saint Dympha", a wild
and risk-taking trip of a full length by the constantly evolving
and surprising band that in it's earliest days was almost as
sparse and vague that a Tent/City comparison could have been
appropriately applied, though over time, and especially now, they
create extremely calculated and sonically overwhelming electronic
/ soul expression / rapture pieces. Borderline "dance"
in a way, for years now (see: "God's Money" for the
start), this new LP is the sounds of experimental /
improvising-style artists who think and create something that is
visual despite only coming out speakers. Intricate electronic /
physical rhythms, LZA's vocals sound incredible and are more
honed in than ever, the occasional spaced out riff that sticks
with you for days, guest appearance from a rap artist, a track
that sounds like a My Bloody Valentine interlude. Always
exciting, I love everything this band has ever released, and this
is a welcome edition. Truly unique and reinventing every
time.
Great new double LP from Portugal's LOOSERS, who have been
releasing bizarre records and CDs for years, including on US
label Not Not Fun (but not with the hype!), still seeming to be
completely under the radar for most people (why?). Their most
recent contribution to my life was a great split with Owl Xounds
on sister label in Sweden, Release the Bats: though if I wasn't
lagging a bit in picking things up, I would have nabbed this at
the same time. Expansive live recordings from Portugal / Europe
(2005, 2006). There's not a ton that can be said other than the
short brief descriptions that pop up from others: "free
sound / tribal music", really does sum it up, though no four
words could really clue you in to how valid Loosers output is.
They've yet to document a second of time that I don't think is
"worth it". Though in some cases they can have a real
loud and sporadic sound (loud vocals, the occasional Unwound riff
and bizarre low tone spoken word portions), this double LP is a
consistent run of mostly percussion and the occasional
unknowingly created sound / drone, vocalizations and guitar here
and there too. Really great through and through, though the one
piece with excessive psyched out / wah guitar - while being well
done and in fact, better than most other examples, is not really
my thing. That's just one part though, this is a great release
and I'm glad I finally picked it up (and through a trade no less:
very welcome). Perhaps I am being a bit self-centered today, but
this also reminds me of some (mostly earlier) Tent/City
recordings.
Too long
winded, time to speed things up:
Four new singles from M'LADY'S records, all over the place as far
as sound and look, something I am down with and do myself on the
label front. TYVEK, who have been on the edge of becoming the
next fucked up rock / garage / punk band to "make it"
for a solid year or so. Three great new thin and 'out of it"
gems, a "triple A-side" trio of songs. Reminds me of
something Rip-Off would do, and what I remember the Tantrums
sounding like live. Get savvy on these guys so you can rub it in
people's faces about 6 more months down the road. I was expecting
weird modern dance music from TAMARYN, but got something that
sounds more like a 4AD / My Bloody Valentine / Blondie hybrid. It
didn't grab me by the throat the first time, but on the third
listen, it's sticking a bit more. Came with a CD version that
extra tracks - I'm thinking that I should toss this in on the way
home tonight (not really home, going to play with FINALLY PUNK
actually, who also have a new single out / on the way on this
label, as does their sister band, Mutating Meltdown (news
breaks)).
Back to M'Lady's,... I missed out on the first BAD THOUGHTS
single. It's officially been added to the casual "look for
this" list in the back of my mind, this new one has a great
Gang of Four / Talking Heads style track on the A, which was
enough for me to remain stoked throughout the B, which truthfully
didn't move me even half as much, though much like the Tamaryn
single, is more enjoyable on the second or third time around,
even though it's got that same psych/wah riffage going on that
the Loosers had already handed to me earlier. Fourth and my
favorite of the batch, a new one from ODD CLOUDS, who have
already gotten too much public praise from me on this thing in
the past year (and in related forms, Cotton Museum and Slither).
Broken down warbled vocals, thinned out percussion, sax that
hints at screeching social anxiety, and a great WW/VV style
B-side zone-out. I loved it. Grab these fast if you're
interested.
New, completely damaged collaboration 7" with LESLIE KEFFER
and VALERIE MARTINO (aka Unicorn Hard-On), which is apparently
their project in which they are creating "the best damn
dance music of 2008". If by best they mean absurd and
schizophrenic drum and synth assaults that make you trip as soon
as you think you figured out some sort of fucked up beat, then
yes, the best damn dance music of 2008 indeed! (I am okay with
that). Strangely thin and minimal, I was expecting this to be
weird thick low beats with Leslie's washed out drone going on
over it. This was kind of an awesome, messed up surprise. More to
come?
More next time. Gigantic amounts of tapes to catch up on.
things:
GANG GANG DANCE - "Saint Dymphna" LP (Social
Registry).
LOOSERS - "Natives Are Restless" 2xLP (Qbico).
TAMARYN - "Return to Surrender / Ashoe" 7'
(M'Lady's).
TYVEK - "Sidewalk / Flashing Lights + Future Junk"
7" (M'Lady's).
ODD CLOUDS - "Slow Breath And Red's Heart Beat / Fide Beard
Rising" 7" (M'Lady's).
BAD THOUGHTS -"Non Violence / Night Time is Waiting"
7" (M'Lady's).
LESLIE KEFFER + VALERIE MARTINO - "Prissywillow"
7" (Tusco Embasy).
12/21/08 - no title ("happenings" first,
"things" second").
Really: freezing couple of weeks, front window ice scraping even.
Futon / living room sleeping in an attempt to not catch Ann's
"whoooooping cough". That's worked so far, though
there's been a few days that I was on the edge and just ended up
feeling awful and sleeping a ton, then woke up feeling back up to
par. ...played several solo sets, a similar set / thing which
worked to various extents each time, but did work overall. One
was with SIKHARA, who were great - a strange confrontational / in
you face sort of Sword Heaven approach to music that was much
like my preferred Muslimgauze material, consisting of two
drummers over samples and a third member who played a couple of
home made instruments, one a percussive "bass" stick,
that belted out pulsing low low low octave tones, and the other a
bizarre antler / spring / contact mic combo that was scathing and
abrasive. A well done idea, I enjoyed it a lot. Ultra excited
that CLEW OF THESEUS was on the show, and he had an elaborate
set-up with sound that was fairly different for him: a first
segment that had a lot of vocal based drone that was fairly
peaceful / tranquil, though quite obviously just edging towards
an inevitable onslaught of extremely high volume and heavily
processed keyboard and guitar. That feels like a pretty weak
verbalization for what he did, but I can assure you, it was
great. I was also extremely glad that ADAM MOKAN got to play. He
kept sthings pretty minimal as he just moved back to town and
doesn't have much gear to work with for the time being.
Incredible guy, I hope he plays out often.
Another show was a sort of farewell thing to Teague / Foot Ox and
Bri White, who are moving to Portland after going on tour after
visiting relatives for awhile, which called for an earlier than
expected, as mentioned, farewell show. Ann / Hell-Kite and Aaron
Neber also played, which was extremely welcome - I'd like to see
him play a bunch more before he moves to NYC in the near future.
Weird contrast, as it was essentially myself doing my sound /
noise work, and then everyone else playing "songs", but
for some reason, I have a feeling that that sort of thing doesn't
cross anyone's minds. Tempe has had a real treat of extremely
diverse shows on a regular basis, I think it's made the average
person be more open to different things that most other places'
"average person". (Something I was thinking
about).
The third was one that I had been excited for, with ALAS ALAK
ALASKA and FANCIE, two adventurous projects with extremely
creative women at the core. I've had the pleasure of playing with
and seeing them both in the past, here now and elsewhere before
(Davis), and I was definitely ready. Alas is a strange
combination of so many different styles and origins, and least
when being listened to by me. The guitar playing is very
technical, but the emphasis is on the mood that her pieces make,
it's not even remotely a display of talent or anything like that,
though it could be if she wanted it to. Beautiful but moody songs
that have a thin layer of youthfulness sealing it shut, hard to
put into context perhaps. The first and only person I've ever
heard to really play something that I could compare it to is a
Young God artist named Larkin Grimm, or at least I believe that's
how he name goes. Rubbish though,... I wrote something in regards
to her music along time ago that does it much more justice, and
it's on her myspace. I encourage you to go look, and while doing
so, listening too. ...Fancie, wow,... a complete multimedia, all
over the place 80's pop meets operatic art school / overblown
neon / channel surfing / internal searching ceremony. One of the
most interesting and unique things I've seen in a long time, and
it feels 100% sincere. Hopefully that's good enough for you to
believe it. Also playing was ADRIAN ORANGE, who is attempting yet
another new orbit: this time it was broken down vocal / guitar
music, with minimal drums and flute / recorded / etc from members
of AAA and Fancie. Confused and confusing, and understandably,
something that I think most people who enjoy Thanksgiving would
hate, though in all honestly, is something that if refined and
controlled just a little, would be really interesting, and just
as far out, trust me. STEPHEN STEINBRINK closed, and finished
with the Chris Corwin song that I had the pleasure of hearing him
play ever day for two weeks in June to new rooms of people each
night before or after throwing down a similar mangled symphony of
noise / sax / vocals / and so on.
There's a bunch of things from these three shows that I haven't
gotten to check out yet, an over the top Bizarre Uproar double
cassette and new Clew tape on his own Cathartic Process label, as
well as two other Clew CDs, and finally, the first Alas Alak
Alaska full length!
On the label front, too many things are coming together in the
forms of ideas and solidified projects. Kind of absurd, but
things will work out. I'm going to definitely continue to be
"eating it' as more things are being created as things
slowly sell, but that's "my prerogative!", or however
the song goes. Stephen's new CD is done, time for promo packing /
mailing to begin so it'll have a little umph underneath it when
it's "out" in a few months, though he'll have his
copies on tour when he leaves in a couple weeks. Ann /
Hell-Kite's 7" is done, it just hasn't arrived yet, probably
tomorrow. The Soft Shoulder CD is so close to being complete, yet
still seems so far. This is the week - it needs to get wrapped
up. A second Foot Village collection CD (I didn't do the first,
but this is collection some pretty vital recent things), a Gay
Beast 7", and a few more things that are still having the
details getting hammered down.
THINGS:
Bizarre new 7" (that I hated at first but am into now, from
the newest "been around forever but getting ton of hype
lately" band INTELLIGENCE. Two songs equally damaged and
demented in their own ways, A side's a Black Dogs style downer
piece (meeting the B-side of last weeks' Fertile Crescent
7"). that sounds depressed and suicidal, but keeping it
personal and chill. B side's confusing, sounds like the majority
of Intelligence stuff I love, except that it sounds like it's
playing way too slow (at 45), a good song but man, sounds so
strange and stretched. On purpose or did they master off a
melting cassette? Either way, speed it up to 78rpm and you have
yourself a split 7" with BAYONETTES!
New LP from Bay Area / Berlin mind0binders, DER TPK, also known
as TEENAGE PANZERKORPS, who crank out one of the more coherent
LPs on SILTBREEZE of this year, though that is not to say that
it's accessible or easy to understand. Pre-wave punk that's been
in a dungeon since 78, and is weary of making it's way out.
(Makes sense, their last LP sounded like it was recorded from
inside the stone walls - exactly). A stretch: Kind of like
Interpol if abused from birth, but still trying to make it work.
Sleazy, creepy, catchy and peculiar, but not for the easily
skeeved, though the last track is one of those "feel good
songs of the year". Sorry! Keep an eye out for a 7" on
upstart San Diego label DOWN IN THE GROUND, who already have a
yet to be released but already OOP Altars 7" on the way to
my mailbox!
Extremely excited for a couple of new releases on AZ label THE
BLUE SKY WRITINGS, a project from former roommate Matt Colgrove,
who first graced the world with his presence in label form by way
of an excellent John Wiese 7" called "Winter
Vacation". He just wrapped up a dense one-sided LP which is
a collaboration between WETHER and METHADRONE. Nice opaque green
platter housed in a nice pic disc sleeve with just a white on
transparent large sticker for the cover, minimal and perfect
looking. Feedback symphony into high end wall of noise, with
minor breaks in the flow where there's some smaller glitched out
work that is hard to attempt to place an origin on, could be a
damaged low end horn, could be modular synth torture // amp
abuse, hard to say for sure with out seeing them at work. A solid
block of harsh sound that doesn't skirt the line of monotony.
Every bit as vital as 99% of American Tapes releases.
The other is a beautifully well done CD from French band CELESTE.
Having a bad memory at times and no access to the internet when I
do these entries make me leave out a lot of the obvious perhaps.
In the case of these guys, I know very little about them, though
believe Matt might have mentioned that this is a reissue of
something from a few years ago, "recorded Oct 2006"
makes that seem likely as well. Crushing and heavy hardcore that
style has much style and passion to it, much like Germany's Zann,
with some restrained areas that remind me of the finer moments of
Isis. Gloomy but triumphant with a huge huge sound. Five pieces
that are flawlessly linked together to make what was more than
likely an incredible 20 minute set as some point in their
history. both of these Blue Sky Writings releases come highly
recommended and are available via the Gilgongo distro (hint
hint).
One of the only minor downfalls to the staggering output machine
known as American Tapes, is this automatic assumption I have that
a majority of the projects are shot lived / one offs / bound to
be AM-TAPES only things, though with the obvious exceptions of
Wolf Eyes, Graveyards, Dead Machines, etc. One great example
would be WASTELAND JAZZ UNIT, a great duo who I wrote about a few
months ago, with the false understanding of Paul C (from Murder
Murder, Total Shutdown being in the band - I was confusing them
with Man Slaughter). Due to them contacting me to say hello and
let me know, I wound up being vacuumed to their internet space,
and a few weeks (months?) later finally remembered to pick up to
new LPs that they've done, both splits. One if with a John Olson
/ Haunted Dan / Uneven Universe' Holly trio called Cardboard Sax,
who contribute a nicely recorded reeds / flute? / electronics
negative space style block of sound. Nasty sounding for the
shortest of moments, but mostly a hollow tin chamber channeling
Michigan through your turntable loud and clear (and quiet). The
other split is with a project I know nothing about, TALIBAM!
which is a free-form schizophrenic drums / organ+synthesizer duo
(with occasional vocals - but not much really), definitely sounds
like something that Load Records would have released in the early
2000's - like somewhere between Neon Hunk and Lightning
Bolt.
On both of their sides of these, WASTELAND JAZZ UNIT offer full
throttle onslaught of jazz / noise. Credited as "sax"
and "clarinet', it's obvious they are heavily processed to
the point that the noise and feedback are the forefront of the
sound tons of the time. An interesting idea that is coming from a
pretty simple thought: why not just amplify, distort, and
generally further destroy a pure "free jazz" style
chunk of sound. Thick, textured grime peeled from the depths of
true wasteland environment. Pretty fucking awesome, and I bet
this is wild to see live. I'm glad I picked both of these up, and
there are not exactly boat loads of these sitting around, so if
it sounds interesting,... you know.
Finally got a copy of the NIGHT MARCHERS debut full length, a
double LP called "See You In Magic". I've been burning,
listening to and losing CDrs of this for a few months now,
waiting for this to come out domestically (and not as a CD), so
grabbing this was not perhaps as exciting as it would be
otherwise,... nor is the artwork, which I maintain looks like a
bad novel, or movie-adaptation cover, but I don't want to be
negative, because I like this. (I'd just dig it more if it looked
like any single Drive Like Jehu / Rocket From the Crypt / Hot
Snakes release, as most look pretty good, and this is in fact Jon
Reis' new band (DING DING DING)! I was a little ify at first, but
have enjoyed this a bunch: it's got Hot Snakes style on RFTC's
most accessible type songs, and it woks well, even when it starts
to flirt with rhythms that are undeniably on the very edge of
"rockabilly" (that's okay)! Going into this any more
seems a bit silly. You're pretty much into what this guy does or
not, as he's been doing it for 20 years now, and if you're
unfamiliar, please know that both Drive Like Jehu LPs, Hot
Snakes' "Automatic Midnight" and the last four RFTC LPs
are some of my favorite things ever. Scream Dracula, Scream!
...oh, and I'm not sure if there's only 1000 of these of if
that's just because the one I got is on color, but I think big
labels are pressing conservatively in fear of no one buying, so
as with the stuff in the paragraph before this one,... you
know.
Been grabbing tons of insane used deals lately. Things that are
criminal and unheard off. I don't write up the used stuff I get
in here, but it's been absurd. With so many people strapped for
cash, all selling stuff at the same time, and few people with any
money left to buy anything, it creates this dead market that I
end up feeling guilty for making out in. (Though for what it's
worth, label's been slow). Really though, I'm talking
things like lathe cut 10"s limited to 40 that has a price
tag still on it that says $99.99, for $8ppd. Messed up.
That's all for now, though entirely too much stuff on the way.
Lots of things from late this year that will make a late
"Best of 2008" for sure!
things:
INTELLIGENCE - "Fido Your Leash Is Too Long / Shitty
World" 7" (Plastic Idol).
TEENAGE PANZERKORPS (or DER TPK) - "Games for Slaves"
LP (Siltbreeze).
WETHER + METHADRONE - collaboration LP (The Blue Sky Writings).
CELESTE - "Pessimiste(s)" CD (The Blue Sky
Writings).
WASTELAND JAZZ UNIT / CARDBOARD SAX - split LP (Community
College).
WASTELAND JAZZ UNIT / TALIBAM! - split LP (Thor's Rubber Hammer).
THE NIGHT MARCHERS - "See You In Magic" 2 x LP (Vagrant
/ Swami).
12/07/08 - no title
I feel like crap today, so - no writing really. Just these
things:
Phoenix' own performance art / motivational speaker / electronic
chop//skew//layer artist TREASURE MAMMAL recently hit the
project's 5 year mark, so he threw together a birthday
celebration show at Trunkspace, which Soft Shoulder played. His
set was out of control, hilariously good, and I liked our
contribution to the night as well, but bottom line, a band on
tour from the east coast, FERTILE CRESCENT were overwhelmingly
"it" for me that night. A couple, Sara and Eben, who
play a great combination of minimalist bizarre pop, with the
occasional moment that would have Young People or Amps for Christ
type feels to them. We all loved their set and felt lucky to have
crossed paths with them. They were just on tour with Deerhoof for
awhile, and are on their way home after something like 2 months
on the road. With them was a great self-released 7"
featuring two songs, the first "Backwards Beach" is a
joyous dual vocal driven piece, that essentially just has a
skeleton of overblown drums after a shimmering shoegaze type
drone of an intro, with some hushed guitar that is allowed to
join in during a short break toward and until the end of the
song. "The Knife" on the flipside is a bizarre and
attention deserving piece that combines unconventional methods of
sound; the ingredients being Eben's vocal melody via what sounds
like a ring modulation unit, Sara's breath and occasional
accompaniment on the main vocals, very jabby keyboard and
electronic percussion sounds (reminds me of Young Marble Giants);
to make another great song. I think what this band is doing is
really fantastic and they're a hard working, sincerely nice
couple of people. Recommended completely, I will probably have to
get some of these for the distro. Please check them out!
Good new 7" from BLACK TIME on the SKULLTONES label, who
after their Eat Skull and Naked on the Vague 7"s are
obviously a new label to watch, with this third single drilling
that point to death. Great, almost spooky / spy style garage rock
on "ICU", "Corpse Life" is a great, screamy
anthem one with Janie singing too, the B-Side sounds like a
fucked up lofi Fall type and has an almost GoGoGoAirheat sound to
it and is much like a slightly drawn out version of the two A
side's put together - sounds like what would be the typical
"single" actually! Great record. Haven't checked out
much of their stuff other than a recent LP on In The Red that is
also really good.
Finally got some copies of the ZS / CHILD ABUSE split 7" on
Zum. In my opinion, the most unexpected and out of control ZS
recording I've ever heard. From way back in 2003, this is in the
same vein, but the polar opposite of "Nobody Wants To Be
Had" from the "Arms" LP that I did, as it fast and
has vocals (rare for ZS), but this is extremely aggressive, the
vocals are screamed instead of sung, the music, despite being
highly mathematical / intricate, is violent and explosive, the
guitar is Branca and the sax, a crazed Zorn. Excellent left
field contribution from a band I love. The Child Abuse side is
dirty and peculiar prog / scum that is perplexing, perhaps like
one of the more damaged sounding Luttenbachers pieces. If I
recall, other stuff I heard from this band was more of an
artistic / grindcore sort of vein, who knows, with Zs' side being
so odd for them, maybe this is a departure from what Child Abuse
normally does as well.
Excellent hyper spastic 7" from another Gilgongo band, FOOT
VILLAGE, their new release on TOO PURE (which seems pretty weird
at first, but come on, aren't they just a more extreme version of
the Scout Niblett stuff they did that's just drums / vocals?) The
A-side's "Club Traxxx I-III" is a great example of the
genius / absurdity that these four are capable of crafting, much
more going on here than just banging and screaming. At the same
time, Brian sent over a little stack of new 12"s that he and
Captain Ahab released under the name RAVESPOITATIVE, a Foot
Village (Jason Forrest remix) / Health (Captain Ahab remix)
12". Both their track there and on the B side of the
Too Pure 7" (an Anavan one on there) are some pretty wild
remixes, especially Jason's - a mind-blowing reworking of
"Narc Party" from "Friendship Nation". All of
these are going to be on the second "Fuck the Future"
CD, which will be on Gilgongo early 2009 (collecting these, their
split with Black Pus, the incredible Rock Is Hell 7" and
their portion of the Piss Pounder 3 x LP).
Grabbed a new U.S. GIRLS 7", "Kankakee Memores"
from Zum since the label refused to sell any at wholesale because
they "were not doing wholesale at this (that) time". I
wasn't interested in picking up one for closer to $7 and being
added to a list for possible wholesale later. I don't get it //
who knows. Regardless: great new four song recording, first one
is a serious crusher, a loud piece that eliminates any potential
write-off and loop-in to the whole Grouper / Inca Ore vein,
though mild comparisons in general are appropriate (and more so
on her (thee M. Remy) debut CDr that was recently reissued on
Siltbreeze). The B-side tracks are covers, off hand, I have no
idea of what, but they both sound like they might be 60's / 70's
tunes (no internet for checking right here), and spanning this
side, are moments that make me feel like it could be potentially
perfect if Meghan tries to do a full band line-up, but conjuring
the same sound, sometime. Meghan could pull off a bizarre
atmospheric / noise pop "vocal music" band front-woman
easily, of course.
After just recently finding the Needles 7" are missing on it
when it first came out (and it was only out for a second), I made
sure to grab another new Martin (Crudos / Limp Wrist) band's
single as soon as I could, this time a band called N/N (I think!
I haven't been able to figure it out, there's an upside down
cross between the two N's, so go from there). Martin on vocals
and sounding as pissed as ever, in Spanish again as well, and the
second / third tracks have a fairly Crudos sound to it, the other
are more mid-paced raging punk. Songs of struggle and rage (my
Spanish is awful right now, but we're going off on traps of some
sort, underprivileged communities, terrorism mis-labels (panic??)
and personal-problem "nervous attacks"! no label info
anywhere, inside / outside / on the matrix, nowhere, though from
what I hear this is supposed to be a Lengua Armada record. Get it
while you can!
SEXVID's LP, "Communal Living" is out! Happy that is
showed up in healthy quantities at local shop, Eastside Records.
This band tore through town a few months ago, playing their
aggressive / pissed brand of hardcore at the Chamber. Although I
think all of their singles have been really good, the last one,
"Voyeur" being exceptionally wild, this 12" does a
better job of capturing their fury. I'm still not sure why I am
so fond of this band, there's a lot of other thrashy punk bands
right now,... maybe it's the fact that I feel like the finer
points of Black Flag and Crossed Out or Siege are being
simultaneously touched on and with sincere passion, I don't know,
that's what I hear, and I love it.
Showed up kind of late and missed some new locals that I am 100%
excited about, but just in time for cops to give out noise
warnings and bogus parking threats - so that A.H. KRAKEN were
just lucky enough to have another neighbor offer their shack for
them to play at since Boo Berry was obviously done for the night.
Soft Shoulder was gonna play, but too much police static. We had
just heard about this band, who knows why they were not on our
radar yet - though a week later I got an e-mail about a new
7" they have on SWEET ROT, so it would have been right
there. Same would go for the fact that they have a brand new LP
out on In the Red. From France, these guys play an noisy brand of
punk (like Sonic Youth covering a mid-paced garage rock band,
with an occasional absurdly dancy bet thrown in). Great stuff
that I surprisingly enjoy more recorded (the LP especially does a
better job of letting you hear how truly discordant and messed up
their music is - it was honestly a little lost live), though
impossible to deny that seeing them in this shack where there's
like 40 people crammed in and you can hit your head on the
ceiling (and there's people crowd surfing) was petty wild.
Solid new LP from the BABY SHAKES, a great all-girl trio who
threw down a single sometime in the past year or two that I
thought was great too. Ultra sugary garage / power-pop that would
have easily seen the light of day on Sympathy if not here on
DOUCHEMASTER, the type of stuff that truly could have been
written anytime in the past 60 years or now. My big personal note
on this one is the color combination on the center label giving
me a possible seizure. I know others have this problem, so maybe
it's common, but I have a hard time with combinations of pink /
blue / orange. The first time I remember it happening, I think,
was with a Naked Aggression CD. It's hard to explain, like when
you move the object, one color appears to move faster than the
other. Such is the case with the center labels of this LP, when
it's spinning - it looks like it's doing a constant stutter, like
not smoothly spinning at all, even though it is. Weird optical
illusion / can easily get me to throw up if I check it out for
too long.
I have been slowly trying to divulge into the countless NIGHT
PEOPLE cassettes ever since Shawn Reed past through in his new
post-Raccoo-oo-oon band, Wet Hair last month. The first one that
I got to throw in the deck completely blew me away. A band I
never have heard of before from NYC called TALK NORMAL, instant
crush and obsession. Drawn out and bizarre minimalist no-wave,
for lack of better description. Like Die Monitr Batss at 16rpm,
but with a more broad range, sort of reminding me of
pre-Telepathe band, Wikkid, or even a more deranged Y Pants, but
again, taking it to a more broken down level. Chatting back and
forth with one of them, found out they wee opening the first Boss
Hog gig in 7 years this week. You have no idea how much I'd like
to be there for that.
Some notes on others: sorta spaced out jamming from KNITTED
ABYSS, who are from Australia, and a Naked on the Vague side
project. New edition to RACCOO-OO-OON's "Mythos"
series, "Future Fusion", which has a ton of
indian-inspired light improvisation with slivers of sound and
noise and vocals churning through it. (Think WWVV played by a
"rock band", kinda). Free form, drum carried
trance/drone/experimental-explorative sessions (both live I
believe) from TEETH MOUNTAIN, who Ann and I caught like 6 months
ago to a crowd of, well, pretty much just Ann and I, at the new
Willow House location. (I thought they were great). Some weird,
largly pleak and minimal noise from EARTH CROWN, which do not get
me wrong, does have it's moments of harshness and screaming. Many
more next time around, maybe. Time????
things:
FERTILE CRESCENT - "Backwards Beach / The Knife"
7" (Body).
FERTILE CRESCENT - 3 song CDr (self).
BLACK TIME - "ICU + Corpse Life / Doomsday Parade"
(Skulltones).
ZS / CHILD ABUSE - split 7" (Zum)
N/N - s/t 7" (self? / Lengua Armada).
FOOT VILLAGE - "Clubtraxx I-III" 7" (Too
Pure).
FOOT VILLAGE / JASON FORREST // HEALTH / CAPTAIN AHAB - split
remix 12" (Ravespoiltative).
U.S. GIRLS - "Kankakee Memories' 7" (CBR).
SEXVID - "Communal Living" LP (Dom America).
A.H. KRAKEN - s/t? 7" (Sweet Rot).
A.H. KRAKEN - s/t LP (In The Red).
BABY SHAKES - "The First One" LP (Douchemaster).
TALK NORMAL - cassette (Night People).
KNITTED ABYSS - cassette (Night People).
HARD DRUGS - "Lost It" cassette (Cave Life).
RACCOO-OO-OON - "Mythos Vol. #5 - Future Fusion"
cassette (Night People).
TEETH MOUNTAIN - cassette (Night People).
EARTH CROWN - cassette (Night People).
11/24/08 - no title
Long week, mostly consisting of good things though:
Monday was an incredible show at Trunkspace, AIDS WOLF came
though, meeting up in Arizona with ARRINGTON DE DIONYSO of Old
Time Relijun, who is doing the West Coast dates with them in
support of a new LP he's got out on K called "I See Beyond
the Black Sun". Aids Wolf were incredible, loud and crazed,
an even more precise version of themselves and their dements
noise / prog music (think Arab on Radar meets Harry Pussy or
Scissor Girls), and their new LP, "Cities of Glass" not
only comes in a nice gatefold sleeve and features the best band
photo I've ever seen on the inside, but it also blows their
previous "The Lovvers" LP away (and that one was
awesome itself). I can understand anyone apprehension in taking
what these guys do, though I truly feel that their art and music
is legit and blows away what most of their / our contemporaries
do, and they are hard-working, good people as well. (Check out
Chloe and Yannick's design and print camp: Seripop).
Arrington's set was fantastic, a long drawn out sampling of
mostly atmospheric and drone-based soundscapes, with freedom to
let loose as desired throughout as majority of the performance
was overtop a drone-box, keeping a steady trance like feel to
what is in all actuality a fairly weird and often noisy set,
especially at times while playing bass clarinet. In addition to
that, he also plays mouth harp, I believe there might have been
saxophone, and he did a very great things with his voice using a
snare drum and tin-foil, as well as the harp (and I think one or
two of the reed mouthpieces) in various combinations, mostly
letting the sounds of vibration be the focus at the time. A lot
of it reminded me of things that an old free-jazz artist I used
to try and track would do. His name escapes me, probably because
I eventually gave up, as even though his ideas intrigued me
(singing and moaning while playing multiple saxophones), I was
never really gabbed by much of the recordings. Conversely,
Arrington's performance was something that I loved, and equally
exciting is to find out that this new LP is virtually the exact
set (or the skeleton of it at least) that he was playing on the
tour, which means it's not one of those brilliant things you see
that eventually fades into nothing but a blurry memory. Honestly,
the only thing that really stands out as different on the
recording is that the girl who drums in Old Time Relijun plays
along over the last few minutes what is essentially the entire
previous portion of the record being condensed into a new,
driving, rhythmic version of the ideas, akin to weirder locked-in
grooves of some OTR tangents. (Such a good record, I can't stress
it enough). Packaged well too, a large triple LP sized fold-over
doubled sided print of Arrington's art, hand colored in.
I also grabbed a copy of an LP I've been wanting to pick up for
years now, a record he did on a French Gallery's label outlet
called GALERIE PACHE. I remember at the time it came out, I had
been hanging out with a girl named Nikki who scored a copy from
K. I had intentions of getting 10 of them for the Gilgongo distro
from the label, but whatever reason, that didn't work out, and by
the time I decided to just get one from me, K was out, and as you
can imagine, weird avant-garde free jazz LPs put out by an art
gallery in France and limited to 300 copies don't just show up to
your local shop very easily. Oh, blah blah blah. So: it's good!
Nice pockets of sparse clatter here and there, which has been
something I've been enjoying lately in all eras of noise / sound
/ free-jazz and so on, though the bulk and "sound" of
this LP is essentially Arrington letting it rip on bass clarinet
with another guy named Garth on percussion.
Another small gem from the show is the first record on Chloe /
Yannick's new label called KANKER MONGOOL, a 7" from THE
REBEL, which I believe is stereotypically the solo project of the
front man from the Country Teasers, here with his wife on drums.
The record itself is a weird, mostly in the fact that it's not
exactly that strange, there's something about it that just makes
it had to describe, the only context I can even think to put it
into is with Blank Dogs type stile of "songs", but more
broken down and depressed. Awful job, huh? The shtick of this
label is destined to bring nothing but quality releases, only
bands they love, have seen and met, one time / short run
pressings and wild art, this one comes in an over-sized nice
comic book style silk-screened sleeve, like some of the Ultra
Eczema stuff (those beautiful Cant and Fat Worm of Error 7"s
he did, for example). I can't wait to see what else they
do.
SOFT SHOULDER, TREASURE MAMMAL and MELTED CASSETTES played as
well, and I'm pretty excited for another show we (Soft Shoulder)
are doing with Abe / Treasure Mammal this upcoming weekend (it's
essentially a 5 year birthday party for his project, more or
less, and Fathers Day is playing too).
A note on this show specifically,... these are some interesting
people who are doing some interesting things, and while I would
always strongly urge anyone to see something I think they might
find interesting, this show specifically brought to my attention
the lack of communication a lot of these people get when they
travel around. Sure, you see people you know, Chloe and I have
known each other forever, pre-Aids Wolf even, but it's a weird
thing to think about fucked up music,... or people performing
music in general. They're just other people. I can vouch that
Chloe and Yannick are two of the biggest dork-fans out there in
regards to plenty of other bands, there's no reason to not get
dorky with them. But just in general: people dig interaction and
communication outside of the parameters of their set. Just
saying: say hello?
A little later in the week was great show at the BOO BERRY
FORT(RESS), WET HAIR (Shawn and Ryan from Raccoo-oo-oon playing
spaced out almost goth at times songs that are beautifully
muddled swirls of keyboard, cassettes, drums and vocals - check
out their beautiful one-sided LP on Night People (Shawn Reed's
label and art output machine) and PEAKING LIGHTS (Indra from
Numbers and Aaron from Rah Dunes playing beautiful homemade
synthdrone - constructed out of tape machines and rewired EQ rigs
to great a low-end rumble and sludge with Ingra's vocals and
keyboards kind of floating on top, kind of reminded me of a more
chilled out Goslings) and myself (my set was a sax / feedback /
amp vibration / cord removal / vocal thing - which Shawn
described as "total control style", and was something I
liked (I'm playing three times in December, so I might just sort
of elaborate on the same general idea, I'm not sure). A nice
little show that was attended decently and had great vibes
throughout, and really wonderful to catch up and chat with Shawn,
because after hardly talking when we played a week of shows like
a year and a half ago, and then being bad with keeping in touch
since then, I was worried might have thought I was bummed on him
or something equally as silly and wrong (I love and respect the
guy to death), though because of me, possibly understandable for
sure.
As mentioned above, Shawn does a label called Night People, which
is mostly a cassette operation, though he helped Not Not Fun with
the release of one of the Raccoo-oo-oon LPs, and did a CDr for
Tent/City too. With him this time around he had a giant load of
new tapes (some of which I will try to write on this time around,
but most will probably be "on deck" for awhile), as
well as the long awaited RUSSIAN TSARLAG LP, entitled
"Community Death Drug"!!!! If you're not familiar with
TSARLAG, than you're probably not familiar with the mastermind
behind it named Carlos, who is perhaps one of the most bizarre
and incredible people I have ever met. He's rolled though Phoenix
a few times over the past three years, not just as Russian
Tsarlag (previously known as Russian Tsarcasm), but also in the
no-wave death unit Byron House and hardcore noise band (in that
Deep Jew sorta way) called Dynasty. Tsarlag though, is something
of a completely different nature. Broken down minimalist soul
music for the gutter, doo-wop for the criminally insane, music
that would creep up behind you and whisper something in your ear
that would make you uncomfortable, but laugh later when it was
safe to. Maybe that does not properly explain, or explain at all,
just what this LP is like. The problem is that even though I love
this thing, I can't imagine away to attempt to accurately
describe what it sounds like without it sounding like I hate it,
and again, I don't hate it, or think that I was just making a
joke about it. I am in love with it and this is going to be a
favorite of the year, addicting demented and damaged, and in a
month or so, I'll have a ton of these in the distro to push on
other people (maybe you?).
I was really excited for a DESTRUCTION UNIT / BLACK SUNDAY split
LP that is finally out on FDH, but wasn't super into it. The
other Destruction Unit stuff is pretty aggressive / charged, but
this has more like a weird slow goth-synth sound that's going on,
for the first like 6 minutes or so (and again in the end sort
of), though there's a song I liked a bunch in the middle
"For Malaise". Understandable with the crossbreeding,
but this sounds more like an old Digital Leather recording. I
liked the Black Sunday side much more, but it wasn't doing it for
me the way anything Alicja Trout touches usually does, you can
scroll through this blog and see me go on and on about that on
plenty of occasions. Again though, that is NOT to say that I
don't like this, I do, it's just way tame / chill. Her vocals are
sounding great, but I just am more attracted to the umph that she
usually has in her music. Actually, as I am listening to this
again, I'd go as far as saying that I think this is really really
good. I'd probably would be more approachable to it if it wasn't
under the Black Sunday guise, as to me, that automatically brings
an expectation to what it's going to roughly sound like.
Something else I will say in favor of this record, I think it's
an undeniably cool thing to see two prolific people collaborate
in a setting where each is doing all of their own work on each
side (unless I am mistaken, all of this is done by the artist
alone. I really dislike the art though, a whole ton. It's
incredibly detailed and well done, but just a style I can't get
into.
Alicja related / On the flipside, local nice guy Devlin gave me
an early birthday gift, which is a boot LOST SOUNDS DVDr of a
show that I think was in some little venue in Spain or Italy, and
judging from their line-up and songs, is probably from the
tail-end of their existence as a band, and is a great document of
their live show, which was always, in my opinion, independent of
the crowd: it didn't matter if everyone stood their like zombies,
Jay and Alicja would always just obviously be into what they were
doing. Good sound on here too, though the guitar sounds a little
buried for a band that often had pretty prominent, loud guitar
work. And if you're not familiar: Lost Sounds was a Tennessee
synth-punk band that Jay Reatard / Alicja did in the early
2000's, and in my opinion, blew away most of the other similar
stuff from that time and just before, most specifically: Murder
City Devils? Totally okay, but they can't even compare to these
guys.
I also have been extremely excited for my copy of the FAILURES
LP, which is the first release from a new band that features Will
from Orchid / Ampere and Marc McCoy from Charles Bronson / Holy
Molar / Das Oath, and is released by their respective labels
(Will does Clean Plate and Mark, Youth Attack). Lightning fast
spazzy punk / hardcore, with Marks instantly recognizable vocals
and some pretty good / bleak / amusing lyrics, accompanied by an
essay about the definition and role of the Failure in our society
/ culture, conveniently sealed in a screened envelope that you
have to damage in order to get into. Otherwise the art is direct
and with purpose, ultra matte covers, weird photocopy art/work (I
believe taken from a book of that style that Mark recently
released), and little details that you probably don't pay
attention to unless you are very observant (or run a label and
know how specific this stuff is), such as a black Euro style
inner sleeve and the inside of the covers being printed black
(possibly the only way to make an all black and white project
cost more than a full color one). All of that being said, I don't
feel like this one lives up to the hype I've seen for it, it's a
great record, but it's not blowing me away. I'd sooner grab
something that any of their other projects have done over this
one, but again, it's good, and knowing these guys are doing shows
too, I bet they are absolutely wild live.
Got a couple of things in the mail from Aquarius, a Gang Wizard
3" CDr from earlier in the year that is from the Euro tour
that was right around when the LP I did for them came out, and
features, I think, just about the same line up (Ren / God
Willing, Val / Unicorn Hard-On, Brian Miller, Eva / Kevin
Shields, and so on). Great pulsing noise from the ever changing
Gang Wizard collective, that sounds more controlled than normal
and like it would have been an awesome set to see them play. Lots
of weird vocals on the second half as well. I also grabbed some
new HARRY PUSSY CDr, of a live set from Texas in 1997, which
there's only 100 of, and since I own just about everything else
and can't justify not, I grabbed it. Although it's my favorite
era, the short spastic ultra jazzy and noisy thrash song era, the
recording is awful, and makes it sound more like "Ride a
Dove". In fact, if I didn't know and love so many of these
songs, I probably wouldn't even be sure what was going on at
various points. Oh, excellent band / crowd banter,
absolutely.
things:
AIDS WOLF - "Cities of Glass" LP (LPU).
ARRINGTON DE DIONYSO - "I See Beyond The Black Sun" LP
(K).
ARRINGTON DE DIONYSO - "Casser La Vaissell" LP (Galerie
Pache).
L'AUTRE CAP - "Maher Shala Hash Baz" LP (K).
THE REBEL - "Live Aids" 7" / art sleeve (Kanker
Mongool).
WET HAIR - s/t (one-sided) LP (Night People).
RUSSIAN TSARLAG - "Community Death Tube" LP (Night
People).
DESTRUCTION UNIT / BLACK SUNDAY - split LP (FDH).
FAILURES - s/t LP (Clean Plate / Youth Attack).
LOST SOUNDS - live 4/22/0? DVDr (boot)
DANIEL STRIPED TIGER - short film by Evan Hanlon - DVDr
(self-released).
GANG WIZARD - "Live in Paris" 3" CDr (Abandon
Ship).
HARRY PUSSY - "Live in Austin" CDr (Sister Skull)
11/16/08 - colder
Not
feeling up to writing a ton outside of what's below, so in short:
long, bad couple of weeks, shows everyday, not enough time to
take care of label or life things as each day has been wake up
for work, work, come home, get ready for show, show, go to bed
too late, repeat. I've been feeling awful, but at least
participating in mostly great things: Soft Shoulder played with
KIT (see below), Little Teeth last night, and Aids Wolf tomorrow.
I played, alone, with Aunt Dracula, and in a few days with Wet
Hair (Shawn Reed from Raccoo-oo-oon! Catch up time I hope, if
they guy doesn't think I hate him, I'm glad, but he's got a right
too - I've done a terrible job staying in touch with him). What
else? I know there was so much more - but it's being
forgotten.
I will also say this: the economy is truly in a bad place.
Despite this, and it's direct effect on subculture and
"us", there's a bunch of stuff that's supposed to
happen between now and January on the label. Ann's HELL-KITE
7", a last minute GAY BEAST 7", the new STEPHEN
STEINBRINK and SOFT SHOULDER collection CDs, and around the same
time a new FOOT VILLAGE collection CD,... a lot of money's worth
of projects, and I can guarantee you, with how things have been
lately, the label won't be supporting itself on these ones, it'll
be a lot of me, and "me" needs to be saving right now,
I like to be a couple of months ahead - right now I am not, but I
am doing okay, and I feel like most people around me are too,
which is good. My field of work (as in "normal job", of
working with developmentally disabled individuals) is not really
affected by the financial troubles of the world, but still. I am
feeling pretty exhausted and worn out, with little time for me.
I'm working on it though, maybe this will be the month that I get
back into a rhythm that works for me / though probably not. I'll
say: New Years.
_______________________
THINGS:
When George Chen e-mailed me to let me know his band KIT was
coming through town on tour with Deerhoof and asked if I'd like
him to thro me on the list for it, I immediately got back to him
with a completely unlikely but preferable alternative: "Do
you have a day off before or after? Let's do a house show".
So a week and a half before, we through together a KIT / SOFT
SHOULDER / PIGEON RELIGION thing at BOO BERRY, which was
absolutely wild and fun from start to finish, P.R. brought the
Moss Icon / Black Flag hybrid punk, KIT the shrill and crazed
spazzy dancy riffy punk, and SS the dark thick noise-wave. Feet
on ceilings, people falling on the floor and windows fogged over
from the humidity of human heat, the show was perfect and a ton
of fun. KIT had a couple of new / recent records with them too. I
grabbed their LP on UPSET THE RHYTHM, "Broken Voyage"
awhile ago, but they had a new 7" on the label as well and a
split with Sonic Youth offshoot MIRRORDASH.
This split is a collection of abstract and weird output for KIT,
and Mirrordash offers what would stereotypically be a portion of
a SY song, a flowing extended jam or elaboration, I was glad to
grab this from them, because it's a bit pricey in stores. The
Upset the Rhythm 7" is incredible. Bay area collage artist
extraordinaire Jessalyn (pending proper spelling and a last name,
because as always, I am not typing this with internet access),
who also recently did the inside poster fold out for Foot
Village's "Friendship Nation" (the CD version on Tome,
not the LP version that I did), and if you can find them, her
fliers are always top notch (sincerely),... did a great job on
this. It is, essentially, a visual version of what the MEATE /
OBLIVIA / WIESE 7" (see below / lower). Great songs that are
similar to (and I am fairly sure some of which we played) the set
at Boo Berry, and rumor has it, Mike Watt has a cameo on here,
but don't quote me, I don't know. In fact, this record doesn't
even say KIT on it, anywhere.
Very excited to see a repress of the first DISTILLERS LP at
Eastside this week! I have been trying to tack down a copy of the
first two lately, but not wanting to pay 40-80 after shipping, of
course, as this is just one of those bands / records that I
always dug but just never picked up, because you had the feeling
that you would always feel like you'd be able to. I mean, to put
it into direct context, there wee all these nuts 7"s coming
out from screamy hardcore bands that would be in print for a week
or two at most, and constantly coming out,... how can you justify
picking up something that's on the Epitaph sister label - you
could "always get that later". ...anyway, it's been
gone for years, and is now back out of nowhere, as is their other
Hellcat release, "Sing Sing Death House", which I asked
Michael to pick up for me, and hopefully I can grab next week.
And for those that weren't around for this band, before sounding
more like Hole on their major label full length, "Coral
Fang", they had two excellent Rancid-style straight up punk
rock LPs that are sincere with their attitude, have awesome
aesthetic and are just, well, fucking good.
I don't want to go into how I finally picked up PJ HARVEY's
"White Chalk" and how the LP sounds like complete shit.
I need to read up on it when I am home, because I would assume
it's an issue with how it was pressed. Everything sounds
distorted and damaged, and not in an exciting way at all. Who
knows! Anyone else buy this and have it sound good (correct)? A
much better purchase on the same trip to Zia? the NEEDLES 7"
on LENGUA ARMADA which came out earlier this year, and was out of
print before I even knew what it was (a killer new Bay Area punk
band with Martin of Crudos / Limp Wrist on vocals). I've been
searching for it, moe than casually, and have not even seen one
to try and grab in any context at all, and it's mind-blowing that
someone actually had this / didn't like it / sold it to Zia where
I then got it for $2. My total after trading some stuff in was
$15 that day, I would have gladly paid that alone for this one
7", and especially after hearing it for the first time since
Quintos played it in the store (Eastside) after he grabbed it -
fast, pissed punk that is totally Crudos in style and aggression.
I love this and hope he represses it, even though I think the
project itself was short-lived / done now. (Rounding out that
same trip was another cheap used 7" from RAT TRAPS, who I
know nothing about, other than that the single is on SHATTERED
and therefore should be good by default. Excellent nasty sounding
punk rock / garage, a girl and guy exchange vocals from song to
song, sometimes overlapped, though equally as snotty. Bet this
band is awesome live.
Mike, or as the internet might have it, mike.se of VLV fame, or
as a normal person might have it, "of Pillowscars Records
from Sweden", recently released an LP from EIAFUAWN, which
is an extremely complex and impressive solo project from on of
the members of Mohinder (and later: Duster and El Buzzard), and
everything about record is great, and very "grand". In
a way, it almost reminds me of a more elaborate (though slightly
less gloomy) Circulatory System, though maybe that's is just
completely in accurate, it's what comes to mind. Downer
songwriting, but still very loveable / accessible. The variation
and utilization of countless instruments and slight variations to
overall style remind me a lot of the French Quarter LP,... I bet
Stephen would really enjoy this quite a bit. In contrast though,
even at it's most "poppiest" of moments, there is
nothing very uplifting about this, a feeling that I always (and
probably improperly) refer to as "minor sounding". I'm
extremely glad that Mike sent me a few of these on a recent trip
he made to the states, and I hope that this record finds it's way
to the people that it needs to, because this is something special
that deserves much appreciation.
A few new great releases from JOHN WIESE via his own HELICOPTER
label, the first of which is a 7" of schizophrenic ensemble
of controlled debauchery with members of Smegma, recorded (I
believe) at their house in Portland. Lots small sounds, the
moments of two things colliding, cleverly strewn together. Sounds
like there's some liberal improper turntable sampling of other
records, jazz and vocal pieces, some chimes and screeching amidst
countless confusing snippets coming from unrecognizable
sources. Much like much Sissy Spacek material, this is very
over-stimulating, though I would go as far as saying this would
be appreciated far beyond the parameters of "noise
listeners, this is a true art-damaged collage of sound, that
doesn't really stick to any sort of vibe (it's simultaneously a
"dark" and "light" listen), other than the
obscure. I loved it. It'll be an "end of the year top
whatever" record. Also included in this time around's box: a
one-sided LP reissue of the excellent SISSY SPACEK CD,
"Devil's Come and Palm", which I probably already wrote
about earlier this year when that version came out, and a new LP
that is WIESE + DEAD MACHINES, a long collection of
collaborations recorded three yeas ago, with a lot of range in
sound, but an overall "chill" listen, if by any stretch
of the word / world, you know what I mean. This one's called
"General Assurance", and both LPs are limited to only
100, so if you want them, grab them now.
A 10 years delayed HELLNATION / CAPITALIST CASUALTIES split LP
has finally been released on Sound Idea and Six Weeks, though it
must have just been delayed in idea only, because these are new
recent recordings (07 and 08), and even they were not, it's
release would still be completely legitimized by the fact that
these two still are out there playing shows and touring on
occasion (I just saw Cap Cas a year or so ago). Not that it's a
competition, but I feel like Hellnation really are just as on
fire as they were 10 years ago (when they cranked out some
extremely manic power-violence LPs on Slap-A-Ham), but Cap Cas
have a sound that is sounding tame to me right here and now.
Maybe it's just me, I feel like it's missing a little bit of it's
usual "umph", though this is more intense and well-done
than most modern "fast core" and anything that tried to
lump itself in the proximity. It's pretty insane that all this
power-violence bands still do things sometimes, Despise you and
Crom have been touring and doing new stuff too. ...of course in a
perfect world, it would be Man is the Bastard and Gasp recordings
and touring that would have me freaking out.
One of my favorite things from the past couple of months was this
tape by a guy named JUSTICE YELDHAM. Justice is pretty nuts, his
performance art / sound project consists of him attaching contact
mics to large panes of glass, which he then makes noises onto
with his mouth and runs through several effects into loud amps.
Perhaps it's not the most amazing sounding stuff in the world,
but it's unique and interesting, and knowing what's going on
makes it all the more entertaining for me. I won't go into too
much more detail - I'd recommend just trying to find some videos
online, but he's great. I decided to specifically pick up the
tape that I did, because it's on Eva (Kevin Shields)'s short run
label HATE STATE, which features hand-knit bizarre creations to
house the cassettes in. This one is woven around and through a
square of plexi-glass, and has an awesome little photo with the
tape, of a crowd of people watching Justice play, which is a
great great captured moment: a few people looking like they are
excited as hell, a few holding their ears like the sound hurts, a
few people making faces that indicate they are wondering
"What the hell is going on?" and my favorite: Ren of
God Willing / Deep Jew / all of that stuff: standing with his
arms folded and a look on his face like he's strangely intrigued
by watching an autopsy or dissection video, which is possibly not
to far off, because when Justice plays with glass, sometimes his
face gets all cut up. Well, you know.
things:
THE DISTILLERS - s/t LP repress (Hellcat).
EIAFUAWN - "Birds In The Ground" LP
(Pillowscars).
JU SEK REET MEATE / OBLIVIA / JOHN WIESE - "Inside and
Out" 7" (Helicopter).
SISSY SPACEK - "Devils Come and Palm" one-sided LP
(Helicopter).
JOHN WIESE + DEAD MACHINES - "General Assurance" LP
(Helicopter).
KIT / MIRRODASH - split 7" (NFJM).
KIT - untitled? 7" (Upset the Rhythm).
PJ HARVEY - "White Chalk" LP (Island / Control).
HELLNATION / CAPITALIST CASUALTIES - split LP (Sound Idea / Six
Weeks).
NEEDLES - s/t 7" (Lengua Armada)
RAT TRAPS - s/t 7" (Shattered).
WWVV - "On the Road Vol. 6 - Abundant Life" CDr (label?
- reissue of old tape from a few years ago - "Buck
Dharma"-era) .
JUSTICE YELDHAM - "428 Wein 300708"(?) - cassette (Hate
State).
Listening: Eyes and Arms of Smoke, Hair Police, FYP, Ten
Commandments: The Movie, Slowdive.
11/02/08 - cold
Not a ton to write about at the moment, but I will say that the
Halloween show at the Manor that Soft Shoulder played was
incredibly bloody. Very very bloody.
things:
I luckily scored a couple copies of a JAY REATARD 7" called
"Blood Demos" (one for me, on for the soon to be ready
Gilgongo box at Trunkspace) that was released on Australian label
STAINED CIRCLES, I believe for a tour over there, but was
probably recorded two years ago, as it is demos of four songs
from the "Blood Visions" LP: Blood Visions, Tuning
Blue, It's So Easy, and Oh, It's Such a Shame, easily my four
favorite songs on there, and not weak "demo" versions
at all, perhaps a slightly noisier fidelity, but developed and
well-done. And honestly, if you've listened to that LP
constantly, it's pretty neat to hear these versions and all their
small differences (lyrics in different orders, guitar parts that
are just slightly different, etc). Jay often puts up demos, old
unused things and random stuff on his blog, regularly, and it's
worth going through and checking out: http://www.jayreatard.blogspot.com
A few new things from the ARBOR label, a great looking split
between C. SPENCER YEH and SICK LLAMA, the art being done by
Double Leopards / Religious Knives' Marcia Basset. The C-side is
all violin based material, and is hectic and scattered and
scratchy, my favorite parts being when the swirling sounds of
rough bowing drop off for more minimal and sparse moments. I was
a little thrown off by the Sick Llama side, debating whether it's
supposed to be 33 or 45, which happens a lot with his material. A
faint scream in the beginning sounds fairly right AND wrong at
either speed, but prompted me to just stick with 45. As always, a
great collection of noise / sound here, and like some of my
favorite pieces from him, this covers a ton of ground - at times
reminding me a lot of what I do on my own. I think Sick Llama is
one of the most under-rated artists doing noise, as far as
interesting recordings go. Also new on Arbor is a ZAIMPH, which
is actually the solo work of the Marcia mentioned above, though
despite knowing it's her on this recording, I wouldn't have
guessed the art was. Mystical / misty drone that is on the high
end of things, that in fact - does have plenty going on if you
take the care to listen, it's under a few layers, but there. This
is more apparent on the B-Side, where vocals and feedback take
president over the layers of keyboard. Reminds me a little bit of
a more aggressive Charalambides or something.
I feel like I may be confusing things, and this can happen a lot
when you try and write without the internet to fact check, but I
am pretty sure that the other new Arbor release, an LP from
INFINITE BODY, is a project that I caught here in Phoenix opening
for No Age and Abe Vigoda. This is so mellow and minimal and
hardly there, that I feel like I could possibly be confusing two
things as one. (What I saw open that show was load and pulsing
"ambient" music that seemed to have a few things going
on at all times (and a pretty neat sound-sensitive lighting
set-up as well). This LP has short sections of guitar or higher
pitched tones that enter, dance around the speakers for a couple
of minutes in an early Growing-type manner, then pull back,
letting a constant field recordings (talking / yelling, birds,
some banging around - sounds like downtown Somerville, NJ if you
ask me) take center until the next section starts.
Speaking, of Sick Llama, I just recently stumbled across the fact
that he's one half of SLITHER, named Heath Moerland, the other
being the label head from Tasty Soil and Cotton Museum's Chris
Pottinger, and I was happy to find a copy of their LP on Obico
for a fair price. (One of my favorite labels, everything they do
is incredible, but being short run releases and from Portugal (or
is it Italy? or Spain? - regardless) make them very pricey. This
one-sided disc is a constant delivery of perfect material,
starting off with a very clearly recorded horns / electronics
section with just a moment's delay attached to it, and sounding
much like some of the Tent/City stuff that's supposed to
eventually be a split LP with Binges (also on Arbor). Things
continue with a similar vibe, though more busy and loud, though
without becoming a mess or hard to decipher at all. Interesting
stuff from start to finish, another great example of
free/post-jazz and noise being flawless coupled, highly
recommended group and label in general, really.
The vinyl version of GLASS CANDY's "Beat Box" finally
came out! Although, if I remember correctly, originally planned
to be a double LP, it was cut as just a single LP, though I have
no idea how. Despite the repositioning of a song towards the end
(though the artwork and center labels have the CD's order still)
there is a staggering amount of music on here, and it sounds
absolutely incredible. Comes with a bonus 7" with two
additional songs, the A-side of which, I believe, is one of the
best things Johnny Jewel has whipped out. In the same vein as the
rest of the LP, but there's this dynamic factor that is very
overwhelming. It reminds me a lot of the Chromatics track that I
was writing about from an older 12" a few months ago. The
B-side is ultra synth-heavy, also sounds great. The wait was
worth if for such a beautiful looking release (just like the
Italians Do It Better triple LP comp), but these two extra tracks
are a treat.
Another great release on CRIMINAL IQ: fast and manic, snotty punk
in the name of HOLY SHIT! - who I was first interested in
checking out due to praise from Alicja Trout in her label's
distro listing of this LP, but was happy to find used for $5.
Fifteen songs in what feels like it can not be much more than
that at all, and a perfect sized helping. Wild and ridiculous in
spirit, but not at all a joke, these guys sound like they would
be an absolute blast live. `
I received a whole bunch of new stuff from Sweden's RELEASE THE
BATS for the distro, always a pleasure, always. The NTHnthsthSTH
LP is a correspondence collaboration between Finland's UTON and
New Zealand's ANTHONY MILTON, and the result of a couple years
worth of ideas, loops, field recordings and modern
weirdo/drone/psych sounds is pleasantly complex. There is an odd
sound running throughout this LP, something gigantic and
exciting, and without ever transcending into something that might
not be taken serious, this is surprisingly child-like feeling,...
youthful and adventurous perhaps? Maybe the same feeling you get
when driving to a new place, through strange terrain, for the
first time - tense buy joyous. Looks like it might be more of a
weird psych/pop record judging from the acid-induced, colorful
front cover, but trust me, it's far from that.
The POCAHAUNTED / ORPHAN FAIRYTALE split 7" was good, and
weird. The Pocahaunted side is so sincerely mature sounding,
spaced out folk / chant - but simply put, it's just really good
and focused, perhaps if not only due to the amount of space on
one side of a 7", though "regardless" too. The
Orphan Fairytale side was a trip. I know nothing about the
project, except that they / he / she / it is based in Europe, and
that their spiraling and gurgled composition of underwater organ
was weird. The second of two 7" was a LOOSERS / OWL XOUNDS
split, which has been something I have been excited about for a
very long time, both are favorites of all things modern, though
Owl Xounds are dormant at this time. Loosers, who are often a
wild and rhythm / bass heavy band from (I believe) Portugal,
though there is a huge amount of variation from not only record
to record, but from song to song. Incredibly hard to pin what
they do down, so it rarely accurately is: but, free-form
contemporary - spaced out, tribal and unafraid. Here, the group
plays a very relaxed soothing groove that sedates before the
flipside's operation begins. Owl Xounds, who are a based in
NYC is a constantly shifting entity that revolves around drummer
Adam Kriney, and often features Mario Rechtern on sax. Their
track here consists of the two of them, and Gene Jonas upright
bass, and as is normal, extremely hectic and crazed free-jazz.
The three play a solid block that has several shifts in mood and
aggression and completely gripping throughout. I'm glad that I
was a le to get a stack of these to be able to sell to people
over here.
The menacing looking ATTESTUPA LP is something I also know
nothing about. Matthias put up some photos of the release, and
it's dark and eerie vibe was impressive and intimidating. I chose
not to read any of the info about it, though of course that now
leaves me here with it in front of me, and again, being without
the internet, no way to reference who / what / where / when this
is, though I am nearly positive that it may be something based
out of his own town, in Sweden: Gothenburg, which knowing my
luck, the spelling of which I just butchered. ...the art, god.
Ancient looking black and white prints that remind me a lot of
that Earth LP, "Hex", photos that look like they are
from a scary 1800's / early 1900s era, though why would I assume
that? ...actually, instead of trying to describe this and do an
awful job of it, I will just add the photos online, to here, when
I get home, so you can accurately see what I am right in front of
me. Bizarre and strange music, somewhere between doom / black
metal and outsider folk. That sounds absurd, but that's what I
hear buried in the grooves of this LP. I feel like no matter
what, this will be taken as a joke, but if Noothgrush were trying
to play in the style of Young Marble Giants, this is what I feel
like it would sound like. And yet strangely, enough, the
resulting sound perfectly accompanies these prints. Cult music
for a damned era. I'll be very interested to hear what the story
is with this project when I get home, but I won't bother revising
this, because it's being taken in just like it would have if I
brought it home from a local shop, which after looking through
the LP, I would have - no questions asked.
I got a pack of stuff from NAIL IN THE COFFIN because an initial
box of Aids Wolf / Night Wounds LPs were short a few copies, and
included in this one was a copy of an incredible LP from CLIPD
BEAKS, a band that I actually didn't enjoy very much when seeing
a year or so ago, but am loving here. Dark, gothy, sassy music
that falls somewhere in the crosshairs of The Vanishing and Love
Life,... Vanishing in their earliest time - dancy and kind of
fucked up, though here the bass reminds me very much of Gang of
Four, and the vocals mostly relating to Love Life - a great
combination I am surely a sucker for. I truly don't remember them
sounding like this live, at all, but am extremely grateful that
this LP made it's way to me, I don't think I would have ever
checked anything out otherwise, and that would be me missing out,
for sure. Oh, and excellent gatefold screened covers, and a
gigantic double sided newsprint poster that is easily 24" by
36". Giant.
I heard through the grape-vine that there was going to be a vinyl
version of the DNA discography, so I bugged Michael at Eastside
about getting some, and a week later, it was out and right there
for me to grab. ...overall, absolutely great. For those that
might not know, DNA were in on the first breed of "no
wave", and played minimalist destructed punk - robotic
drumming, punch bass / (and earlier on, keyboards), and Arto
Lindsay's completely absurd vocals just thrown all over while
cranking out some tinny and discordant,... okay, a-tonal guitar
playing. I have only ever owned the "A Taste of DNA"
12" and the "No New York" compilation LP, and
otherwise - the CD version of this discography, and I never
listen to CDs at home, and don't much like listening to DNA in
the car. And so on. It's all here, those things and the first
7", and a ton of live and unreleased (historically) stuff.
My only only complaint? A few really awful looking scans of
fliers on the inside of the gatefold.
things:
JAY REATARD - "Blood Demos" 7" (Stained
Circles).
C. SPENCER YEH / SICK LLAMA - split 7" (Arbor).
ZAIMPH - s/t 7" (Arbor).
INFINITE BODY - "A Series of False Awakenings" LP
(Arbor).
GLASS CANDY - "B/E/A/T/B/O/X" LP + bonus 7"
(Italians Do It Better).
SLITHER - "Venom Injection / Invertebrate" LP
(Obico)
HOLY SHIT! - s/t LP (Criminal IQ).
NTHNTHSTSTH (Uton and Anthony Milton collab) - LP (Release the
Bats).
ATTESTUPA - s/t LP (Release the Bats).
POCAHAUNTED / ORPHAN FAIRYTALE - split 7" (Release the
Bats).
LOOSERS / OWL XOUNDS - split 7" (Release the Bats).
CLIPD BEAKS - s/t LP (Nail In The Coffin).
DNA - "DNA ON DNA" double LP (No More Records).
10/26/08 - october all over. (long).
Table
of contents:
1. - blah + etc
2. - playing / seeing shows (and some "things" (like
#3))
3. - notes on new things
4. - 3 in list form.
Who knows where the time goes, it's strange - you find yourself
at the beginning of a new month, and make all sorts of plans to
get all the ideas accomplished, but often, many don't come to
fruitation. On a very basic level, my initial ambition of doing
this weekly has obviously failed, which is okay, but still - my
goal was / is weekly. This thing is very much for me as it is
anyone else, I love being able to look back on what I was doing /
seeing / listening to - being heavily involved with music is
nothing to brag about, it's a headache - at times a complete
annoyance, and silly things, like forgetting about your new
favorite record, or some wild band you saw two months ago, can
easily happen for me if I don't have it documented for myself
somewhere,... and here is as good as any, because giving other
people a window into things that are going on can encourage other
people to check them out as well,... or at least I'd hope that
would be the case.
So anyway, this specific brick of words are all regarding the
month of October.
There was an excellent string of shows right at the end of
September / beginning of this month, and there were many, so I
feel like it would be silly to try and elaborate all that much on
all of them. There was a SOFT SHOULDER / BLESSURE GRAVE /
HELL-KITE show at Ryan's new house, which on the flie for the
show was given the name BOO BERRY FORT, a perfect label for his
weird old cabin of a place that he shares with two nice people, a
couple named Alex and Kana, and is surrounded by a diy /
post-apocalyptic fence consisting of rotten wood, sheet metal and
chicken wire. Blessure Grave is Toby from Night Wounds' new solo
project, and is great minimal goth / dark-pop, but due to a last
minute transportation issue, he couldn't make it. Hell-Kite ended
up being Ann Marie and Ryan, playing the songs they recorded
together for a 7" on Gilgongo, and we (Soft Shoulder) played
a set that despite sounding great to us, felt a little flat in
the room. Fun though, and people were encouraged to "dress
goth" and corpse paint was provided in the bathroom, but it
was unfortunately all liquid / goo-based, none of the powder
style, so I couldn't take part. Very into Toby's new project, and
the guy behind Wavves and his partner Reyna are playing with him
now as well. ...and each new Night Wounds recording has been
better and better than the last.
A day or two later, even though I said I couldn't play, I had
been added on a show with LAZY MAGNET at THE MANOR,... I had told
Ryan I couldn't play because I had long been planning to see
VITAMIN X / GEORGE MOSHINGTON / YUMA TERRITORIAL PRISON GUARDS
(something like that - and I don't have the internet here to
check right now) and BECKY LEE at MODIFIED ARTS. That show was
really good, Vitamin X, who are from somewhere in Europe, perhaps
Holland, played their 80's throwback ultra fast old-school
hardcore with minimal "brutality" but maximum force
(two very different things) and they had another band from
California out for the show two, who were called SEVEN
GENERATIONS, which I had extremely low expectations for but was
pleasantly surprised by. Playing a style of typically slow, sort
of "moshy" hardcore in a very mid-90's East Coast sort
of way, kind of like Disembodied, and may respect for them was
multiplied exponentially when their singer chose to talk for a
solid five minutes in the middle of the set about some fairly
disturbing Palin facts that he clearly disclaimed was not an
issue of him telling people who to vote for, or to vote at all,
but that it was something to keep in mind (that this person
believe God created dinosaurs and humans at the same time and
that it doesn't matter if a young girl is raped by he father, she
believes abortion is not an option). ...and so on. It was
tasteful but "pissed", much like everything else about
their set. While I probably would have been more excited about
them 13 years ago or so, I thought it was 100% valid / solid.
...George Moshington had two friends drum who had never practices
or played with them before, because their drummer, Mark, was in a
car accident the day of or before,... it was a bit of a train
wreck, but hilarious and awesome, and came to an unexpected close
with an OP IVY cover. YUMA ETC, a current project of Ryan from
The Wongs, Destruction Unit and so on, had to cancel because
their drummer couldn't make it, but he played with Becky Lee, on
an ultra minimal drum set, and it gave Becky's set some real
movement, and her blues singer song-writer material came across
more like an more chilled-out early Gossip, and I loved it.
Since I knew I would still be too busy seeing all of these bands
to play the show over in Tempe, I tried to come up with something
that could be done in my absence. ...so I made 6 identical 30 or
45 second tape-loops, and put them in 6 different cassette decks
placed throughout the room, and drew up some directions
explaining 6 people from the crowd were supposed to each man one
of the decks, pausing, fast forward and rewinding in an attempt
to make them all line up. ...however, I actually made it back to
Tempe before I "played", so I decided to ty and do the
game myself, prefixing the set by making a live loop using the
same set up, and letting that play for awhile while I first
started trying to synch-up the decks, which I was able to
"kind of do okay". It wasn't the most incredible thing,
and not as interesting sounding as I had hoped, but it was
alright.
I played with Lazy Magnet again the next night, he jumped on
Ann's HELL-KITE tour kick-off show. Which was not huge, but went
very well, and we sold plenty of stuff to get her a good amount
of money to leave town with (more than would be normal from a
random show on tour at least / for sure). Ann's set was great and
she played some new songs, and I was really happy with my set. It
was a more elaborate set-up than normal for lately, a ton of
amps, a few guitars, a new tap-oscillator (that I did not hook up
to anything, but rather: kept a contact mic under, so that it
would pick up the tones it would generate clearly, but have much
emphasis on the fact that the small machine was getting jostled
around on the table a good deal. Lot's of drawn out sound that
would spiral around itself, nothing very quiet nor loud,
somewhere in between at most times. The most enjoyable moment of
the night was Ashlea from Soft Shoulder's first solo set ever,
which was a collection of Grouper or Inca Ore or U.S. Girls-like
foggy drone / songs, concluding with one that had a louder beat
that underscored it and took things in a last minute
unpredictable direction. I loved it, and hope she'll do it again
really soon.
In another example of good timing, our show, which was at CARTEL,
ended just in time for us to back up all the gear and merch and
head a street over to catch EARTHMEN AND STRANGERS at The Manor.
Earthmen is another project of them same Ryan mentioned that
played with Becky Lee the day before, and Earthmen are an
excellent power-pop garage band that I first saw a couple months
ago with Jay Reatard down at the Hollywood Alley, and they were
even more enjoyable in a small Tempe living room. Ann took off
for tour the next day, a month of shows starting to the east,
heading though central / west and then hitting and slowly
crawling down the west coast, but I'm hoping she ends up writing
all about that somewhere / sometime, which is something that I
still should have done regarding my last short tour back in
August. Her demo or tour CDr, or whatever it should be referred
to was just barely finished before she left, and it came out
beautifully for being a rushed thing with little time for
tweaking. (And you should get in touch with her for a
copy).
Checked out a QUINTRON / FATHERS DAY show at Trunkspace. Fathers
Day were great, excellent S. Palin and Bail Out banter, and they
had their new CDr EP, "I Gotta Look My Best", which
features human hair on the cover and comes with a comb,... oh,
and offers a somewhat adolescent (I will not say "gown
up") sound from these guys, with the confidence to play a
slower tune here or there and not just slamming as fast as
possible. I'm going to try and nab a few of these for the distro.
...Quintron was incredible, sounded so full of energy and soul,
but it was pretty crowded and they played on the floor, so I
decided to just buy the new LP and head home after awhile. I just
listened through it and love it, every bit as awesome as Swamp
Tech or Are You Ready For An Organ Solo, for sure. If your not
familiar with what Quintron / Pussycat do, go out of your way to
give it a chance: New Orleans organ based garage / soul / dance
party music that's undeniably catchy and still in your face. (I
remember first crossing paths with Quintron forever ago, god
maybe like 9 or so, when he collaborated on one of the Oblivions
LPs! - a true secret love ever since).
I feel like I've hardly had to be responsible for setting up any
shows in awhile, which is a welcome change of events, without a
doubt. I did do one, still in early October, for Vancouver's TWIN
CRYSTALS - and we did it with us (Soft Shoulder) and TREASURE
MAMMAL at Devlin's house, north of University, but in the same
general neighborhood (it just starts feeling different up there).
Nick / CHILDRENS CRUSADE was going to play as well, but he didn't
have some of his vital tools to play with, so he couldn't which
was a bummer. Abe / Treasure Mammal was incredible, all of his
sets have been lately. For a long time awhile back (I'm talking
years), I wasn't enjoying his live shows as much - something I
was usually chalking up to the of quiet PA's, but recently he's
been playing out of his own amps (or having more efficient ones
to use), and it gives what he does a very necessary kick. ...of
course the fact that his newest batch of songs are more quirky /
hilarious than ever helps too. I think we all enjoyed our set a
lot as well, it was definitely fun, great little space for that
show - perfectly sized actually.
Twin Crystals, wow, unbelievable. Jesse from the band, is one of
my favorite people out there, a productive guy that is just
constantly cranking out things on his own, or in not only Twin
Crystals, but Channels 3x4 as well, and he has one of the most
hip labels that few people are privileged to know about, Deer +
Bird Lathe Cut Records, incredibly cool. Last time he came
through, there was just too much going on. Twin Crystals played
with us, but so did Old Time Relijun and Foot Village - so as you
can imagine, it was pretty hectic, hard to keep up on hanging out
with everyone, it was a bit of a disappointment in that regard,
despite being an incredible show (honestly one of my favorite
moments of Trunkspace so far). So, it was nice to be able to just
relax and lounge throughout the show, rather than have entirely
too much going on at the same time throughout.
Another one of my favorite Trunkspace moments, which is a bit
perverse, perhaps, came a week later, when I headed down to catch
DIGITAL LEATHER. ...the show was small, but there were a handful
of kids there. However, by the time Digital Leather, there was no
one left,... I was, in fact, the only person watching them, other
than four or five of their friends, who were sitting in the back
by the piano. It was pretty unreal. I know Phoenix / Tempe can be
weird, but it's odd to see a band that has such hype in certain
areas and scene, play to no one in their own area. ...it happens,
to everyone. Soft Shoulder has the same thing going on. Although
we can play ANY show in Tempe at a house and know there will be a
lot of people there, all having a blast, if you put us in a
venue, it's hard to say for sure what will happen. ...but anyway,
given the bleakness of what I was watching, it did not come as
too much of a surprise when their keyboard amp stopped working 5
or 6 songs in. They tried getting it to work for a little, but I
decided that seemed like a fair time to take off after hanging
out for several minutes and a song played without the keys in an
attempt to kill time in the even of a quick fix.
More recently, SUCKS, which is a band comprising of Sacramento
kids from Terrestrial and Hot Girls Cool Guys, who are now
playing one of the most art damaged violent sounding noise rock
I've heard in awhile. ...falling victim to Friday night
exhaustion, I feel asleep a short while after Soft Shoulder, but
was abruptly woken up by the start of SUCKS. I left Ryan's
bedroom and tried to sneak into the living room, but the BOO
BERRY's got a smaller area to watch, and there were probably 40
kids somehow shoved in thee already, so I hung out in the hall,
confused by some of the sounds I was hearing and wanting to know
what was doing what. I have yet to hear anything these guys have
recorded, but listening to them: one of the best new things I
have heard in awhile, and a really nice group of kids too (always
the best combinations, of course). ...the next night we played
over at TRUNKSPACE, with BOLT, an AZ band that haven't had a
chance to hit a Tempe show yet, and therefore: are missing their
target audience. Playing some damaged art-rock in the vein
of Pink & Brown, I'm excited to see where things go with
them. I absolutely loved our set,... especially after, despite
having fun, having a lot of weird guitar problems at the last few
shows. We nailed a new song too, and hopefully we'll have another
ready for the Halloween show at The Manor.
things:
Another new DEERHOOF LP, this one called "Offend
Maggie". ...although it feels like forever since "The
Runners Four" was released, "Friend Opportunity"
is still completely new to me, and I haven't spent much time with
it. This new LP, to me, gives off the same vibe very much, though
on first listen, grabs me a little more than the last one did. I
feel like this is starting to blur into Blonde Redhead a little
more than I would prefer, though there is plenty about these
songs that is still undeniable unique and genius. I did however,
hate this art, just about everything about it, especially after
how much I enjoyed the last one's.
After the awful hunt it took for me to get a copy of the newest
GROUPER LP, "Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill", I was
really glad that the reissue of her split tape with Inca Ore was
being released by her, herself - so I got a bunch of these for
the distro. ...a beautiful collection of recordings from both
girls, these four Grouper tracks are like a bridge between the
second and newest LPs. Delay heavy and muffled with perfection,
haunting songs that don't touch on anything "drone" at
all, this is an evolving artist at play. The Inca Ore side is a
little less complex than some of her other recent tracks. This is
still great, but I would personally prefer the Birthday LP or
Ballet Chop CDr. ...I'm really happy that they decided to do this
over and in the form of a record.
Walked into Eastside at some point this month to hear some wild
wild wild Captain Beefheat / James Chance type stuff playing that
I was not familiar with, and got a two second education on some
band that apparently has been around forever called BLURT, and
since Michael and Jon Q got two of the three copies of this
7" that showed up at Eastside, I decided to go for it. Not
that the A-side isn't fucking awesome, the B-side "Hat"
is even more so. Entirely too short, I hope they have a ton of
other stuff out there that is as good as this.
Brittany (MARRIED IN BERDICHEV) sent over a brand new and
mesmerizing new CDr + mini art zine, that collects a batch of her
intricate and adventurously weird drawings as well as some newer
/ recent recordings of her vocals / noise layers and loop
project, all of which I vouch for 100%. I suggest bugging the
crap out of her when she gets home from her European tour so that
you can get a copy of this great little package.
Got a GREAT little 7" of noise clanky garage / punk from
LITTLE CLAW on SILTBREEZE, a band that I have always known in
name only. Truthfully, this sounds like earlier Yeah Yeah Yeahs
(on the A-Side) of Mr. Airplane Man (on the B-Side) if played
with less concern in being sassy and proper and more in just
"doing it", and with Siltbreeze fidelity (I think this
could sound terrible if recorded "well"). This
definitely makes me interested in checking out their other
stuff.
One of the most consistently impressive bands to me has always
been Seattle's THE DEAD SCIENCE, a trio that plays dark and campy
Nick Cave-esque jazzy cabaret sort of music, something had for me
to decide. The bass playing is so powerful, the guitar so
incredibly precise and especially live, perhaps the most
impressive drumming I've ever seen. I often wonder if they ever
acknowledge to themselves just how incredible they truly
are.
Although I don't feel like we're the best of friends or anything,
I am always excited for them to come through town, and are one of
the only bands playing together as long as I have been playing
shows, clear back to 2000 or 2001, the first time we crossed
paths when they toured through with Parenthetical Girls, a band
who one of my band mates at the time would later join and still
constantly tours the world in currently. Tent/City's LP was
recorded at a show with them a couple of yeas ago, and just this
pass May, Ann (Hell-Kite) and I did a set together opening for
them at Trunkspace, which was when they mentioned the fact that
they had an upcoming LP on CONSTELLATION, which is beyond
perfect.
It's hard to explain, there are so few labels that are even
remotely appropriate for such a unique band, and Constellation is
such an unattainable label to me, it's hard to explain why I
would think anything like that, but I just do. So to me, it's a
huge deal, and naturally, as is always the case with
Constellation, the record looks great and is a pleasure to listen
to and pick up and touch. This has a lot of songs that I've never
heard before and some of my old favorites at well, specifically
the second track, "The Dancing Destroyer",... such an
incredible song to see them play. This is very very elaborate,
everything sounds perfect and there's horns and strings
accompanying to just a perfect extent, and includes guest vocals
from Katrina Ford, of Jaks / Love Life / Celebration - probably
the only bands (at least the latter two of) that I can feel
remotely comfortable comparing these guys too, and even at that,
it's just a vibe. ...well worth your time, in the sense that you
should buy this if the description peaks your interest, but even
more so, to check out when they come through your town. GREAT
people.
It took me awhile to get to listen to the new TWIN CRYSTALS stuff
that I graciously acquired from the show we did with them in
Tempe. The final / normal version of a 7" that Jesse gave me
a test press of last time they came though (and one of an
upcoming LP this time). This 7" is essentially the perfect
thing for me: my three favorite songs of theirs, together and
recorded really well / tons of energy coming through, easily.
There's a CDr of recordings from KDVS / Sacramento, but despite
being good, they don't have the darkness in the sound or reverb
on Jesse's vocals that add so so so much character to it. I'm
going to have to get a ton of these for the distro, because I
want everyone I know to have this, and realistically, if it
wasn't existing, I'd offer to put it out myself in a
second.
Jesse also had copies of a new 4 way split of Vancouver bands,
including Twin Crystals, SHEARING PINX, STAMINA MANTIS and AHNA.
Looking and sounding great, it's also collaboratively
released between three Vancouver labels: ISOLATED NOW WAVES, DEER
AND BIRD and THANKLESS, and perfectly titled: "BLOOD
KLUB". The Shearing Pinx and Twin Crystals songs are great,
with some heavy poppy bass and drums noise pop from Stamina
Mantis and a good Bastard Noise like track from Ahna (the only
artist on here I'm not even remotely familiar with (one person?
group?). Good, regardless.
Perhaps one of the most annoying / lame label things I've seen in
awhile is this VIVIAN GIRLS 7" called "Wild Eyes"
on a label from NY, PLAYS WITH DOLLS. I ordered a copy back in
June and never got it, so when I got home from the first of two
tours this summer, I decided to just order it again, when that
one never showed up either, I did some investigation, and found
out that the record had been selling for $30-$100 on ebay
throughout summer. More so, word was that it was out of print,
even though this dude who does the label still had (has) the
paypal ordering button on his site. ...so I've e-mailed him and
never got a reply, and then you find out that the same thing has
happened to a ton of other people, and you start to wonder how
much is sitting in this guy's paypal account, because of all the
current HYPE bands, this one is pretty high on the list, and if a
record is going for so much in auctions and you can still buy it
for $5, you can feel safe "knowing" that a lot of other
people are in the same position as you - annoyed!
A few people vouch for the guy, but the band doesn't seem very
happy about the fact that people are paying money and not getting
anything, and he's got funny things to say to others, and word
bounces around that he has all the records and is going to give
them to the girls so they can mail them out, and that the paypal
button is still on the myspace even though it's been out of print
for 4 months because he doesn't know how to take it off (sorry,
bullshit). It's hard to say where people are coming from, but
geez, it reeked of foul play, and maybe the dude will see this
and get all pissed off at me, but if it gets him to e-mail me at
all, that's okay, because like I said: he has never replied to my
messages, nor a lot of other people's. Luckily for me, word was
dropped on VLV that some distro in NYC got a small box of these
from storage (or "something") and were selling them for
$5 - so after months - I at least got one for what, $18 total?
Still less than ebay, and hey, since this guy who does Plays With
Dolls can be vouched for, I am sure he'll refund me and however
many others there are, right?
Anyway, another good and criminally short Vivian Girls release,
the flipside's "My Baby Wants Me Dead" is awesome and
kinda gloom-twee or something while having this sort of 60's
psych-pop feel to it as well. Probably my favorite thing that
they've done so far, though I must say: it's pretty nice to have
a copy of the repressed LP since my original that came to me
cracked in 1/3 - 2/3 had a hard time playing correctly! And I
love that it's pretty much identical to the first press, despite
switching over to IN THE RED.
There must have been some sort of disconnect when I heard that
the band on tour with Quintron dropped off the show because their
van broke down in Texas. It was definitely GOLDEN TRIANGLE, who I
had been waiting to hear or see based on the fact that the girl
from The Lids and Angry Angles is in it, and so when I
reconnected the dots when Quintos asked me about them because a
new 7" came in, I was excited, though also obviously bummed
that I didn't even realize that I didn't get to see them. ...does
that make sense? It's mostly just silly. That Quintron show was
hard to watch, but I am sure it would have been thinner when they
played if they made it.
The 7" is good, a kind of elaborated version of the B-side
of the Vivian Girls 7" I was trying to describe above, sorta
psyched out garage stuff, more minor - not so poppy,... ultra
catchy and memorable though, not so plain, there's more going on
here. Excellent collage on the cover, smooth minimalist back
cover, everything about this is perfect, and I'm excited for
whatever else they end up doing.
While Ann was on tour, she picked me up a new BECK / JAY REATARD
split 7", with "Gamma Ray" from the new Beck LP on
the A-Side, and Jay Reatard covering it on the flipside. I think
it's a tie,... there are things I like about Beck's version more,
but overall, Jay's is just kind more gripping overall. Locally, I
picked up another new single, "Chemtrails", the B-Side
"Vampire Voltage No. 6" is a great driving tune,
ironically enough much like what Jay does, though Beck's
"been there / done that".
Ann had a couple of days to hang out in Portland, so I asked her
to do a silly favor and have Scott from Exiled (and shh: Eat
Skull) pick out a couple of things that he though I would be into
for a surprise or whatever. He sent her home with an ALVA LP, a
band I've never heard of on a label that is usually spot-on,
MENLO PARK. In this case, it's a completely damaged hybrid of
things like White Magic or First Nation or Spires That In The
Sunset Rise, and completely bizarre and twisted, god - with art
to match. The other, is an equally great, though differently
vibed LP from a band called METABOLISMUS - an intriguing
combination of sound - from a long Tent/City style lead in on the
A-Side that eventually builds into a nice thick but high-end
ambient piece with strings, bells, things that sound like they
are playing backwards, a tranquil but uneasy sounding area,
followed by a two short pieces, one that is continuing a layer of
higher shimmering sounds with lower electronic tones underneath
and one that is very animated - a bouncy and more organic couple
of minutes that has what sounds like sax and heavily delayed
recorder, more sound reversal, done well - not silly at all. the
flipside is a little more uniform, the first half being fairly
straight forward and gentle, the second have a bit more
"tripped out" and weird, but keeping things fairly calm
until this unexpected "dark ages" out-tro, perhaps the
only thing on here that I am not 100% loving. ...though some of
these players names look familiar, that only one that I can place
100% would be Samara Lubelski, which makes plenty of sense,
because her old band Hall Of Fame was what first started coming
to mind throughout this LP. I really enjoyed both of these
records - I need to remember to e-mail Scott to let him
know.
Backing up: I was / am extremely happy with the LP version of the
6 JAY REATARD 7"s on Matador. A complete shtick from start
to finish, I just really don't care and completely love how it
all played out. ...basically, the hype on Jay was (is) huge, and
so MATADOR was trying to get an LP going - and he convinced them
to do this insane thing - release 6 7"s in extremely (and
increasingly with each following) limited pressings that by the
second or third one were selling out with in 15 minutes to an
hour after being put up on (and crashing) the Matador web-site. I
managed to score the first 4 for $5 each for three of them, $10
for one. I'll probably pick up the last two when the buzz has
died down a little, because I am not interested in paying absurd
ebay prices for these things, but they are nicely done, very
non-uniform and seeming like they were well planned out - not
just shit that was thrown together and the such.
Anyway, the deal was that once they were all released, the LP /
CD version with all of the songs would come out, and just sort of
sum it all up, and not is has and everything about it makes me
love what Jay is doing 100%. I was very wish washy on some of
these songs in the context of the individual 7"s, I don't
know why, though point most of the blame at the fact that even
though he still plays like a maniac live, these newer recordings
are just fucked up weird noisy pop records - not the style of the
"Blood Visions" LP, which is such an untouchable modern
punk classic in my opinion.
Having these things together on the LP make them feel more
comfortable to me, and a lot of it actually is just sounding like
The Lost Sounds again, and I'm completely okay with that. It's
weird how having things in different dosages can make you hate or
appreciate them. ...but the absolute clincher on this LP is the
aesthetics. The cover and art is okay, silly, but okay - however
there's a 7" by 7" beautiful full color booklet with
all of the front and back covers of the 7"s, the jacket is
ultra thick and nice, as is the LP and even down to the inner
sleeve, it's a nice solid wax / rice paper one, with no die-cut
whole - there's no reason for this to ever get a scuff on it at
all. ...this is an extremely well done record and well worth the
cost. In fact, iit might be one of the most well executed
releases, in all it's insanity, in years. Still 100%
recommended for anyone that likes good early punk / pop - some
Addicts or Adverts or lighter Wipers, and for sure - Lost Sounds
as well.
Fellow "label guy", Brent Eyestone (MAGIC BULLET
RECORDS) picked up a fairly priced LP from me on ebay, but do to
privacy laws in Fredericksburg, Virginia, I am not allowed to
disclose this object. What a Cramp. The point though, is that I
thought it would be nice to send along a few of my recent
releases, and was pleasantly surprised when I got a package back
that I feel far exceeds the parameters of a fair trade. Meaning:
I sent several mass produced - mostly bulk printed
releases, like the ZS, Foot Village and Little Women LPs, and in
return, he sent things that are not only extremely short run, but
extremely intricate and "special" as well, and seeing
these really ups my level of respect for what Brent does.
The AUGHRA LP, it's untouchable. The LP is housed in a recycled
sleeve, painted over with white on one side, black the other -
with a white bleak looking rabbit screened in white over it.
Inside the polybag as well, is an 11.5" x 11.5" piece
of wood which on one side is the "cover", screened onto
it in black, AUGHRA, and a bear on his back in grass, swatting at
a butterfly. On the other side there is a small paper glued onto
the wood: Congratulations - You've landed a very Special edition
of the new Aughra full-length. Limited to 108 copies, I wanted
this version to be as hand-made as possible. I hope that you
enjoy owning it and listening to it as much as I'm truly honored
to be a part of your record collection. Thank you. - and then his
name, signed. ...sorry, call me a sucker, but I truly buy it as
legit, and appreciate it 100%.
It also comes with the CD version, not just a bulk CD, but the
entire CD's art in a zip-lock, and that is an impressive work in
it's own, with a written piece on his world views and the contest
in which these songs were recorded, interesting and great, and
inspired / inspiring. I don't feel like I should type out any
more of it, but needless to say, he has some great ideas /
ideals. All of this talking about things you can't hear,... the
music itself is atmospheric, sometimes in a dark and imposing
sort of way, at other times very light / uplifting - and at times
with these beats that give it a strange electronic shoegaze
feel to me. Perhaps it's because of everything else going on with
this LP, but I feel like there's a good deal of himself heavily
vested into the material on here, and I love how personal of a
release this is, I really really do.
The other LP was a reissue of two short run of two tapes by a
project that he was doing with Mike Haley (label head of The
Electric Human Project, and when making sound solo, is Wether),
called BIG CHINA & LITTLE TROUBLE. the two tapes were
beautiful, and the aesthetic remains here (simple two color
screening that has a looseness to it that is vey intentional, but
conjures one of the more ?"together" looking Wolf Eyes
LPs. I remember buying those two as soon as they came out and
Brent was talking about them online. They were short, 10 and 15
minutes, but that schematic plays out fine onto two sides of an
LP, and like the Aughra LP, this also comes with a CD version,
again, with full art in a zip lock. I blew past this part, but
there was extra material on the Aughra CD, and so is the case
with this one, it includes a short run 3" CDr that the two
of them also did. The sound on this one is all over, from dark
drone to eerie acoustic guitar, to heavily distorted vocals and
noise, this sounds like the soundtrack to a dead future, but is
not buried under some gigantic pile of mud, you can hear what is
going on here, and that's a good thing.
I picked up two great AM-TAPES related CDrs for cheaper than they
were "new", a GRAVEYARDS CDr on MAIM AND DISFIGURE
called "Awake In A Coma", which is a spaced out warbled
recollection of scattered percussion, high end sustains,
occasional reeded bursts, and mumbled lows. The real prize of the
two was a KILL DEVIL HILLS CDr on BROKEN RESEARCH, as I always
assumed they were a one-off project. (They had one of those
incredible American Tapes one-sided 7" w/ full color copies
on colored paper glued over the B-side, and came with CDrs with
an hour or so of other recordings. This disc is also an hour or
so long, excellent recorded minimalist post-"free
jazz", dungeon style. And as with many of the Broken
Research releases, simply packaged with a pieces of printed-on
sandpaper on the cover, a unique / signature style.
shorter words:
A 3" CDr from NAPOLEON BLOWNAPART on GREENTAPE that sounds
as though it's mostly guitar generated noise with some primitive
Deerhoof vibes conjured when the occasional high-pitched spoken /
vocals come in. Sounds like something that would be great live. A
spacey strange NAUTICAL ALMANAC live CDr on 5NAKEFORK that has an
exploring trio on violin, percussion and electronics. A very
"guitar" oriented GANG WIZARD CDr on IMVATED that kind
of meanders around a bit - some stuff that sounds like i would
have been a blast to see. A sludgy extended low-end sound
structure CDr from LEAVENWMORTH on NAIL IN THE COFFIN. A CD from
CHAN SANTA MARIA, which is actually George Chen (KIT, Zum label
head) and Steve Santa Maria (who I believe might be in Grey
Daturas) and is a healthy approach to improvised noise / sound,
using samples, synthesizers, guitars and general electronics to
created computer-free collages and soundscapes, some more of my
style than others,... translation: I loved some of this quite a
bit, "Ping Polo" perhaps the most. And if you know me
at all, sampling Eric / Noggin is an obvious plus. A good
little 7" from a band called BUZZER on DOUCHEMASTER that
sounds like it could be an old UK band, though almost crossing
the "too much rock" line, but I like the edge that it's
on in the meantime. Scored a couple of BUSH TETRAS 7"s that
I didn't have, for reasonable reasonable prices of $5 each.
things:
DEERHOOF - "Offend Maggie" LP (Kill Rock Stars).
QUINTRON - "2 Thirsty 4 Love" LP (Rhinestone /
Goner).
FATHERS DAY - "I Gotta Look My Best" CDr EP (self
released).
MARRIED IN BERDICHEV - art zine / CDr (self released).
NAPOLEON BLOWNAPARTE - "Draft Day" 3" CDr
(Greentape).
NAUTICAL ALMANAC - "Live From Wichita" CDr
(5nakefork).
GANG WIZARD - "Young Money" CDr (Imvated).
THE NEW FLESH - "Filth and Degradation Vol. 1" CDr
(Imvated).
TWIN CRYSTALS - KDVS CDr (Nail In The Coffin).
LEAVENWORTH - untitled (?) CDr (Nail In The Coffin).
WETHER / LZRMTN! - split CDr (Nail In The Coffin).
HELL-KITE - untitled / tour CDr (self-released).
GRAVEYARDS - "Awake In A Coma" CDr (Maim and
Disfigure).
KILL DEVIL HILLS - "The Loneliest Corner in Michigan"
CDr (Broken Research).
CHEN SANTA MARIA - s/t CD (GSSD / Shit On).
TRETETAM - "Free Ashtray 1" CDr (self-released).
TRETETAM - "Free Ashtray 2" CDr (self-released).
BECK - "Chemtrails" 7" (DGC).
BECK / JAY REATARD - "Gamma Ray" 7" (DGC).
JAY REATARD - "Matador Singles '08" LP (Matador)
BLURT - "Cut It!!!" 7" (Orchestra Pit).
BUZZER - s/t 7" (Douchemaster).
VIVIAN GIRLS - "Wild Eyes" 7" (Plays with
Dolls).
VIVIAN GIRLS - s/t LP repress (IN THE RED).
LITTLE CLAW - "Race To The Bottom" 7"
(Siltbreeze).
GOLDEN TRIANGLE - s/t 7" (Robs House).
TWIN CRYSTALS - s/t 7" (SLU).
v/a - "BLOOD KLUB" 7" (ISOLATED NOW WAVES /
THANKLESS / DEER AND BIRD).
GROUPER / INCA ORE - split LP (self-released).
THE DEAD SCIENCE - "Villainaire" LP
(Constellation).
AUGHRA - "Proof of Dark Matter / Light The Lights" LP
(Magic Bullet).
BIG CHINA & LITTLE TROUBLE - "Black Blood of the Earth
Pts 1 & 2" LP (Magic Bullet).
used / old things:
ALVA - "Slattery For Ungdom" LP (Menlo Park).
METABOLISMUS - "Terra Incognita" LP (Black Jack).
BUSH TETRAS - couple of old 7"s, one on 99, one on
Fetish.
9/28/08 - painth, frontyard
Weird week, it just sort of came and went, I feel like I am
constantly completing things in slow motion. The MARRIED IN
BERDICHEV 7" is finally all done, and came out great.
There's 300 of them I'm curious how long they are going to last.
...I haven't talked to Brittany in forever, it's pretty
silly. Honestly though, there's never the obvious time to really
do it. I'm never just hanging around by myself, not doing
anything, to be able to pick up the phone and chat. ...and truth
be told, I am sure it's often the same case for her, she's a very
busy / productive person. In the same vein, I am truly trying to
make time to spend with people, but being caught up, at least
remotely, is #1 priority. I don't even know how to describe it -
it's not that I like being so occupied with projects, it's that I
am constantly two or three days behind where I am supposed to be,
and if I stop, I'll get completely swamped.
Ann's going to be gone for the next month (doing her project
HELL-KITE), which will be weird and a bummer for sure, but more
so: I'm completely excited that she's heading out on tour, doing
it alone and just going for it. It's ambitious and impressive,
most people would not do that,.. I mean maybe for a week or so up
and down the coast, but three or four weeks is a long time and it
takes drive to even consider making that sort of plan (whether
you want to admit you have that drive and all of that or not).
She has some great looking shows, though can use help in DENVER
or SEATTLE, so if you live in one of those places and happen to
read this, and think you can help, please do).
Her tour kickoff sort of show is this Friday, the 3rd at CARTEL,
with myself, Ashlea (from Tent/City, Soft Shoulder as: A. HOHM)
and FOOT OX. The day before is a LAZY MAGNET show at Ryan's new
house, which I am going to try hard to get to after heading over
to Phoenix to see a bunch of great bands play with VITAMIN X,
including GEORGE MOSHINGTON and one of Ryan's (from The Wongs,
Destruction Unit and such) projects which sounds like it should
be awesome. ...and the day before that? the 1st? KATY
DAVIDSON with FRENCH QUARTER, and some sort of weird
collaboration set with myself, John Ryan and Ashle (so Soft
Shoulder, or 3/5's of Tent/City) with Katy too. I think it should
be called TENT NORA, but that's just me. ...and Tuesday,
9/30 is a BLESSURE GRAVE (Toby from Night Wounds bringing the
death / goth jams) / HELL-KITE / SOFT SHOULDER show, also at
Ryan's new place.
Seems like this
is going to be a pretty wild / busy week,...
things: shows / records
Everyone once in awhile, someone asks something along the lines
of: "How did you get into ( this or that)",...
sometimes I don't actually process all of the small events and
coincidences that create some sort of entity that I am truly
"in to" until I'm prompted to, and sometimes it's
almost accidental (or maybe inevitable?). I was not in the loop
on the TASTY SOIL label for awhile, though in a way, I was just
walking in circles around it. That all started clear back when
TENT/CITY did a split cassette with WIGWAM. I knew of Miles from
the band, but only by proxy, we were in on the release because
NOT NOT FUN wanted to do it, and their description of Wigwam
sounded perfect for a band that we should be doing a split with.
I ended up grabbing some great things from the two Wigwam people,
a 3"s CDr that they did, and later: an excellent double DVDr
of live footage from the Red Room in Kalamazoo and a beautiful
poetry book from Kelly Ginger (which I've had extra copies of in
the distro for years - just waiting for someone to snatch up -
hint hint).
Not so long later, ARBOR issued a flawless WIGWAM / ODD CLOUDS
split cassette and 3" CDr, the release was perfect and is
probably my favorite thing that Mike has done on the label to
this day, and I was completely blown away by Odd Clouds, and
always kept it in the back of my mind to pick up other things if
I ever came across them. ...so a year or so later, when I found a
copy of their LP on YPSILANTI at EXILED RECORDS while visiting
Portland, I jumped all over it - and instantly fell in love with
the bizarre mutant / oozing creatures all over the jacket.
...another year later, and therefore, not so long ago, winter,
the new NOT NOT FUN 7" singles were coming out, and one of
them was a THURSTON MOORE / PAUL FLAHERTY split with SLITHER. I
assumed I would be blown away by their side, as I can appreciate
most anything Thurston does, and Flaherty's sax playing can be
amongst the wildest,... but the real shock was the barrage of
scathing reeds and noise on the flipside - I listened to that
thing frequently, because something about it was so "in you
face", in my own opinion,... or maybe it was just exactly
what I was wanting to hear. So I (essentially on accident)
blasted it while making a short video of recent SOFT SHOULDER
handmade 7' covers, and threw it on Youtube like a
commercial.
A little while later, I came across a SLITHER CDr for dirt cheap,
and when it showed up, I was pleasantly surprised to find this
disgusting little weirdo monster on the cover, that instantly
reminded me of the art from that ODD CLOUDS LP that I liked so
much. I assumed it was the same artist, but didn't automatically
assume the bands would intertwine. ...and then early last month,
I had acquired yet another piece of gold with bizarro creatures
on it, this time a COTTON MUSEUM split LP, also with THURSTON
MOORE. ...sometime after that I had to end the mystery for
myself, and came to find out that Cotton Museum is the solo
outing of a guy named Chris Pottinger, who is not only in ODD
CLOUDS and SLITHER, but also does a label called TASTY SOIL,
which is the orgasmic manifestation of these sounds and drawings,
their website is overwhelming and hilarious cute // strange, and
really sealed the deal for my appreciation for what he is
doing.
The end result is a slow and casual hunt for various things that
have come out of these various ensembles and the label, though it
should be emphasized that it truly is casual, nothing over the
top or nerdy (yet - give it time). So, to truly let me feel like
I am "way behind", there's recording dates on the two
most recent things I've acquired, both by Cotton Museum, a Tasty
Soil CDr from 2005 and a 10" on SNSE from 2003. The CDr is
good, cleaner and less over the top than the side of the Thurston
Moore split, if I remember correctly that is. There's these small
patterns that occur over and over, and some climatic moments,
such as in the first track, where after minutes and minutes of
squelching and squeaking, these tone meet together in this high
drone, with a small perpetual click still keeping this un-assumed
flow. Very curious as to what is going on here exactly. There's
nothing muffled or buried here, everything is wide open, it's
just unknown origin. If I had to guess, or rather, if I had to
try and do something similar, I'd make tape reel recordings of
near broken oscillator tones, and then heavily damaged the
turning mechanism before attempting to play two recordings back
at the same time. Or better yet, grab them with my hands to slow
or cease their turning (I've done this before, but with
recordings of vocals or sax). The 10' was more intricate
sounding, though a similar approach, just with perhaps slightly
more depth and activity throughout? Perhaps most enjoyable is
wondering if these are meant to be soundtracks to the day to day
activities of the small creatures that this guy creates. Not that
the idea had not already crossed my mind, but seeing a video that
he made of a cardboard puppet of one of them, eating small
maggots or worms for a couple of minutes while a recording he did
played in the background, really just forces you to think about
it.
TUSSLE played this week, a small show as expected, but one played
with full energy and drive, also as expected. I'm kind of baffled
why this band has not caught on across the board. They are huge
in certain respects, but the kind of huge that still does not
draw anyone when passing though Phoenix, AZ - that's for sure.
Their breed of minimalist music / percussion heavy dance music
first caught my attention when they did a few 12"s and an LP
on TROUBLEMAN, and I dug their Liquid Liquid approach a lot. When
they finally came though town, it was pretty bleak. There was
some large show going on in Phoenix, and their small late show at
Stinkweeds in Tempe turned into something of depressing measures:
I was the only person there to see them. There were two other
people there, but to see the band that they were touring with,
Eats Tapes. So, despite the fact that there were only three
people at the show, other than Dario, who was there with the
store, Tussle still played this incredible set, they didn't seem
even remotely phased, and looked like they had a great time. It
was also when I got to realize that their recordings, even though
they are way above par, don't even begin to capture the intricacy
of their music, nor the energy - seeing it done live is
definitely where this band should be appreciated first and
foremost. ...there was a much more healthy crowd when they came
through again years later with YACHT, but that didn't seem to un
over into this show at all, and so it seemed to be a similar
situation. Myself there to see them, with Ann, and then a small
group of people (at least it was 15 or so instead of 2) who were
there, watching them, but not really there to see them.
It's confusing how things work, especially in places such as
Phoenix. ...granted, there's just a smaller community of people
who are interested in "the interesting" - or at least
what I consider to be "the interesting". I don't thin
anyone should ever feel obligated to go to shows, but at the same
time, why would Tussle ever want to both coming back through
Phoenix? ...I know that I would continue to do so myself, but at
the same time, it must be frustrating, they've been playing for
probably seven years now, I'd think there would be at least some
sort of mild following, especially for a group of people who are
doing something that is so enjoyable, and would seem to be to a
good variety of people. ...I don't know. Maybe I need to get a
hold of them and force them into a Tempe house show next time
they roll through. Realistically, I think if they can just get in
front of the right people, they'd click and do well here.
All of that being said and said and said, I was happy to pick up
a new 7", "You Can't Hide Your Love Forever 2", a
short little yellow 7" in an edition of 300 copies on a
label called Geographic North. Minimalist art that is still
completely effective, especially the small thin white font on the
light purple back cover,... there's hardly anything there - and
it looks so good. The A Side - "Animal Cop", is busy
for a lot of this bands output, heavy on the bass and a
shimmering keyboard part as well that glide over the couple of
minutes that this song keeps your head bobbing. The flipside's
"Room 191" sounds fairly disjointed and abstract for
what Tussle is usually doing, and despite feeling like it flies
by in a minute, is a welcome and interesting (and unexpected)
change. I'm always excited to see what this and is doing, and
highly recommend checking them out.
I've been trying really hard to find copies of the new GROUPER
LP, "Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill", not only for
myself, but for Ashlea and Ryan as well. If I had any brains, I
would have just ordered a ton of these for the Gilgongo distro
before it was released, but I assumed that it was going to be
very accessible and easy to find, and I didn't want to have to
pay the huge cost of ordering and shipping a ton of expensive LPs
from Europe. In the end, hardly any copies were shipped to
distributors here, it was impossible to find before you knew it
was out, and by the time anyone decided to just cough up the
money to buy one copy from the label in Europe, they ran out too,
and as far as I could gather, hardly anyone in the states owns a
copy of their favorite release of the year, such a shame.
Determined to find copies for my friends and I, I hit every
"secret" place I could think, and only was able to find
one - which was obviously exciting for me, but I would have
preferred to get copies for the few people I personally know that
would love this as much as I do. Regardless, I hear a repress is
in the works, and I'm sue everyone will plan it better this next
time around (and in the mean time, Liz just issued an LP version
of her split tape with INCA ORE on her own, so I made sure to
order a bunch of copies as soon as I could).
That being said, 'Dragging a Dead Deer Up A Hill" is
beautiful and honestly unexpected. The ambience and soft
reverberation of all things is still very much here, but Liz is
playing songs, real songs with lyrics and serious structure.
While this makes sense, if someone were to play this for me last
year, I would have never been able to guess that this would be
the next Grouper LP. Some of the pieces have a strong back bone
of built up vocal drone, but in reality this is mostly a guitar
(keyboard at times?) and singing record, and could easily be done
just as that, live. ...there is a uniformity to these as well,
very sad overall - though there are moments that feel incredible,
specifically on "Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping",
wow. This is impressive, and I feel like: a modern classic that
has the ability to truly be appreciated across the board / by
anyone and every one.
I finally grabbed late-last-year's DEAD MACHINES 7",
"Plays Kwaidan" on IDEAL, which, well, who knows why I
took so long to pick up. I partly blame, perhaps, the fact that
there are 600 of them, and in most cases, that's 6-12 releases
worth of copies, you know? I assumed this would be attainable for
awhile, and luckily it still was. Even though I think John Olson
collages look best in full color, there is something very nice
looking about this one in black and white, perhaps the fact that
it's a professionally printed sleeve, but regardless, this and
the fact that a readable font for the name and title make this a
sharp looking record. ...another thing that I liked about this
before even putting it on, was the fact that it's a 7", but
that's just a personal thing, okay? Lots of ghostly spooked out
space on this one, minimalist meanderings of small distant
cerebral scratching, but most deep ocean cathedral whispers.
Great for the atmosphere in your living space (or dungeon), but I
was honestly expecting there to be a huge helping of
"weird" crammed onto this disc.
I love when EASTSIDE RECORDS schools me on something, any of
them,... in this case, I was advised to pick up a reissue of an
old 7" from '78, THE MIDDLE CLASS - "Out of
Vogue", something I've never heard of in my entire life, at
least not that I can remember, but apparently had been bootleg a
bunch of times and is considered by some to be one of the first
"hardcore" records, next to Bad Brains and the such,
and actually features the guy that ran Frontier Records (who
finally officially and legally have gotten this back out). Great
fast punk, that instinctually reminds me of Teen Idels'
"Minor Disturbance", though a little more mature (maybe
they were already grown up). The title track won me over
instantly, and will be on the next mix-tape I make.
On the same trip, I also picked up a new 7" from a band
called WOUNDED LION, not only because of the great cover art
(it's nothing crazy, just something I love, look it up), but also
because the back cover let's you know it was put out by S-S
RECORDS, and I'm hard pressed to think of there being a time when
that means anything other than GOOD / GREAT / PERFECT. This
continues here: Wounded Lions throw down two great songs of
fairly simple punk / weird pop, that's maybe just a little too
"regular" to fit it with the new breed of SILTBREEZE.
A-Side's "Carol Cloud" is a great robotic track that
honestly reminds me of a lo-lo-fi Talking Heads, keeping it real
and straight, while the B-Side's "Pony People", brings
thing back to a garage-esque pop sorta WIPERS sound, which
perhaps on a return visit to the A-side would be found there too,
great organ work too. I'd be thrilled to hear what else this band
has done / is doing. I loved this. (more mix-tape material,
without a doubt).
Way back in April, I picked up a new split between two of the few
remaining hardcore bands that I can relate to, appreciate and
love, DANIEL STRIPED TIGER and SINALOA, and it sat at Ann's house
for awhile and then was lost when it finally made it's way back
over to mine (which is of course now "ours"). ...the
point being, I just finally have been able to listen to it, and
it's even better than I would have already expected. The cover
art is by Myles Karr, who if I remember correctly, usually has
more comic book / cartoonish sort of art, though off-hand I can't
remember what else I have seen of his. It's usually stuff that I
think is great, but don't personally like - though in this case,
I love it - a giant owl that's grabbing a house in one of it's
claws and has a small town's worth on it's back / between it's
back wings. It's a simple and great looking idea / piece, and
somehow works perfectly for these bands. Sinaloa's side is good,
driving melodic / emotional hardcore that has an inherent sound
of sincerity to it,... the kind that is hard to fake, and is the
same kind that band member Peter had when running his label
Monogo (I think that's what it was called at least / offhand).
Daniel Striped Tiger's side, wow,... powerful and aggressive,
interesting and adventurous for a band in this genre, as always
(I've always love their guitar work, it's slightly noisy in this
weird way - where you can tell they dig Drive Like Jehu or Hot
Snakes, but don't play anything that sounds like it), perfectly
executed 10 seconds or so of far-removed guitar noise between
their two songs, and great lyrics, ending with: "If you have
the ability, be able". I love these guys and have a huge
amount of respect and admiration for them. I know that they know,
but I don't think they know how much. I can't wait for something
else to come out.
Another band in this realm is OFF MINOR, and for the amazing
price of $10, I got a copy of their new split double CD with
KILLIE, who I believe are from Japan. This release is very much
about aesthetics, in fact, I may be wrong, but I think one or two
of these Off Minor songs might be on their recent LP, though I've
spent very little time with that release, and I don't know for
sure offhand. Regardless, good material - more jazzy and mathy
modern hardcore that is full of heart and power. Killie have much
more of a chaotic Orchid-esque sound that is combined with a more
developed sort of band from the genre, maybe Saetia, or Funeral
Diner. Though not something I would listen to often, a good band
for sure.
The packaging though, is insane. I will try to post pictures on
here sometime, but for now you'll have to imagine, two CDs in all
clear jewel cases that are the mini "fan"-CDs, with
white scribbles and some solid pink areas over a mostly clear
disc. Both of the cases have full transparency stickers across
the back, with tons or writing in both English and Japanese,
smaller ones on the front that indicate which CD is which, song
titles and band info. The two cases are housed in a giant fold
over box that fits them side by side, and is not only
silk-screened inside and out, in great detail, but die-cut as
well so that you see specific portions of the text on the jewel
case stickers through the case, it's unbelievable, you'd need to
see it to believe, and for $10, this is a seriously cheap piece
of beautiful art. Come over and ask to check it out,
really.
Picked up a DONNA PARKER 3"CDr (while also grabbing a CD
version of the LP of hers that I have for reasonable cheap),
called "Black Black Heart" on PHASE! RECORDS, and was
pleasantly surprised to find a good range of sound on it (the LP
is pretty monotonous - that is not to say that I don't like it,
just that this 3"s goes all over). Some extremely abused
sounds on "Guitars Without Guitars", and at the end of
the final track, "Choppy Waters", an unexpected rhythm,
almost a beat, made out of noise and what I'd a assume is
repositioning her microphone into different parts of the
amplifier. Donna is really interesting, I know little about her
but love what she's doing based on some videos I've seen. She has
a minimal approach that seems so completely sincere in it's
performance, and more personally, some of what she does is
identical to my methods of sound making, though for me it's
usually a small component. For her, the physical aspects run
through and through and are quite prominent, it's her whole body
playing her sound, not just her fingers, but that of course isn't
apparent when your frame of reference is a CDr, for
example.
I don't usually get every single thing that Olson does with
AMERICAN TAPES, but I do try to get all the vinyl releases, or
anything GRAVEYARDS, for sure,... though sometimes his insane
descriptions make some for the CDrs and tapes too unbelievable
sounding to pass up, and in the case of a recent WASTELAND JAZZ
UNIT, I decided to go for it based on that, their great name, and
the fact that Paul from Total Shutdown, Murder Murder, Death
Sentence: Panda and so on is in it, too. (And man, I bet he's
stoked, because he's a huge AM-TAPES fan). Completely destructed
and violent sounding machine malfunction, with what you eventual
figure out is saxophone in there underneath it all, only briefly
coming up front. This is pretty rough on the ears, and if they
play live at all, I am sure a mess live, and awesome, though I
was hoping for something a little more musical. Paul's project
Murder Murder can be a death-jazz mess, and I was crossing my
fingers for something like that with some sort of noise over or
with it. (Also grabbed a new DEAD MACHINES CDr on AM-TAPES,
"Zanti Misfit Style", which unavoidably sounds like
interstellar rat extermination due to the bizarre write-up that
came along with it, which I won't try to replicate here).
things:
COTTON MUSEUM - "Beautiful Golden Fur" CDr (Tasty
Soil).
COTTON MUSEUM - "Crippled Sloth" 10" (SNSE).
TUSSLE - "You Can't Hide Your Love Forever 2" 7"
(Geographic North).
GROUPER - "Dragging a Dead Dear Up A Hill" LP
(Type).
DEAD MACHINES - "Plays Kwaidan" 7" (Ideal).
THE MIDDLE CLASS - "Out of Vogue" 7" (Frontier).
WOUNDED LION - s/t 7" (S-S).
LESLIE KEFFER - "Provocative Oral Mics" CDr (Maim and
Disfigure).
DANIEL STRIPED TIGER / SINALOA - split 7" (Clean Plate /
Narshadaa).
JAMES TWIG HARPER - "American Esoteric Vol. 2" LP
(American Tapes / Ecstatic Peace / Gods of Tundra / Heresee /
Slow Toe).
OFF MINOR / KILLIE - split double CD (Oto).
DONNA PARKER - "Debutante" CD (Twisted Village).
DONNA PARKER - "Black Black Heart" 3" CDr
(Phase!).
+DOG+ - "Human Garbage" CDr (Audiobot).
JAKE VIDA - "Imaginary Sickness" CDr (Audiobot).
THE WHITE PEOPLE - "Live In America" CDr
(self-released?).
WASTELAND JAZZ UNIT - "Solar Static Coves" CDr
(American Tapes).
DEAD MACHINES - "Zanti Misfit Style" CDr (American
Tapes).
GRAVEYARDS - "Endings Vol. 8" CDr (American
Tapes).
V/A - "Broken Brain" CDr (Chocolate Monk) (all girl
project comp w/ Kim Gordon, Leslie Keffer, Inca Ore, Tovah Olson,
lot slots more).
9/22/08 - know no time.
No writing this week, sorry! Here's some stuff on tunes
though:
EASTSIDE RECORDS must be stoked that the WAX MUSEUMS LPs finally
came in, because I've been annoying as hell about their arrival
ever since seeing them play in Tucson with No Bunny and The
Okmoniks a few months ago. Their super snotty and quirky brand of
punk (that still has a strong correlation with stuff like The
Carbonas and Vicious) was elevated by their front man's oddball /
over the top sage presence. Regardless, I came home to Phoenix
with a handful of songs that were intensely stuck in my head, but
didn't exist in a physical format yet. (how frustrating)!
Well, finally here, and I love every second of this from start to
finish. Ann noted that it's not nearly as intense sounding as it
was live, which is factual, they don't come across "in your
face' in recorded format, but not that many bands do, and I think
this is a pretty perfect fidelity and energy level for what
they're doing. Highly recommended for anyone that can sit across
from a table and tell me that they "like punk" at all.
And man, please check these guys out live, incredible.
Brand new live 7" from SEXVID, featuring four furious songs
that are overblown and pissed sounding, just like this band
should be. Incredible energy captured here, and some moderately
bizarre editing together / patched parts between songs making for
an all around awesome little record. 500 copies, pick this up as
soon as you can. And if you're not familiar yet, with SEXVID's
brand of relevant hardcore aggression / frustration, you will be
soon, the inevitable LP, after three (four now) 7"s, is
finally on the way.
I've written about Teague Cullen on here a few times over the
past year and a half or however long I have been doing this
specific blog / writing thing. ...Those who know him or I
personally are more than likely privy to the unfortunate fact
that there was, for a minute perhaps, what was maybe: an
undeniable, though truthfully insignificant amount of
"weirdness". That's because we live in Tempe, AZ - a
small place, where people intersect often, things change
often,... though usually with everyone having nothing but the
best intentions. You can't have amazingly talented people who are
just about all complex and interesting people, not occasionally
find themselves in situations where things happen and you just
don't know exactly where you stand with someone anymore.
That being said, aside from the assumption that he knows I think
everything okay / good / great, I hope he also knows how
completely proud I am of him for his work on a new LP under his
performance moniker: FOOT OX. The new LP, "It's Like Our
Little Machine" is a huge effort from both him, and the
collective DISTANT COLONY label, which is essentially comprised
of the residents of a house a couple of streets west of mine,
where I actually used to live about six years ago. FOOT OX has
always varied in the live realm, often just Teague, but sometimes
with various friends from the area playing with him. However,
this is the second full length recording where he has these
elaborate arrangements for each song that are diverse enough from
each other that each track feels fresh from the previous, and has
guest appearances from countless area people, too many to start
to list here. Teague's music is interesting and weird,
maybe not for everyone, but should be for most, a weird
"modern" sounding take on a Daniel Johnston-esque sound
(he's probably tired of hearing that), though without sounding
like anyone specifically at all, you can tell he has a strong
love of the Elephant 6 sound. Engaging from start to finish, this
LP came out great, visually as well - great full cover collage
jackets and hand colored center labels that top off everything
perfectly.
While attempting to find something else, in the awful abstract
world of Ebay, I stumbled across an "buy it now"
listing for a copy of a lathe cut 10" by a band called SEVEN
HOUR DAY's. It looked nice and had a description that only
furthered interest: etc etc My Bloody Valentine etc etc Shoegaze
etc Ambient etc etc (in many more words), so I decided to blindly
go for it, without checking them out first. I was really excited
when it showed up. An unbelievably under priced package that not
only has a nice oversized insert (that includes a very James
Fella-like pedal schematic!!) and good minimal transparency
sheets for covers (lining a solid orange), this also comes with a
CD version, so awesome. Beautiful, as referenced in their
description, My Bloody Valentine (especially the second track) -
like ambient / drawn out shoegaze pieces that swirl and
reverberate peacefully while still maintaining a fairly abrasive
quality, at some points more than others. Despite the automatic
appeal of the lathe cut format, being able to blast the perfect
sounding CD in the car is appreciated on this one, very much.
...seeming to mostly be the project of a guy from Australia named
Steve Matzkov, who is now someone I am going to keep an eye out
for. Only 20 copies, so please: hit the internet and grab this
now if this sounds interesting to you. It should cost you less
than $16 or $17 shipped to your door, an incredible steal.
Another new GROWING release, this time a proper full-length
called "All The Way", which is very much a continuation
of the "Lateral" 12" ep. I feel silly talking
about this at all, so instead, I'll say what I said about that:
"Pulsing and shimmering, ambient but textured", though
this time around, some of the pulses take over and yield material
that could easily be worked into a Tempe dance part (hint hint
Ryan, James R, Dane),... stuff that is similar to the more
"song" sounding Black Dice recordings over the more
recent era. Confusing music to be coming from a couple of
guitars, that's for sure.
things:
SEXVID - "Voyeur" 7" (Dom America).
SEVEN HOUR DAY'S - lathe 10" + CD (self released).
GROWING - "All The Way" LP (The Social Registry).
THE WAX MUSEUMS - s/t LP (Douche Master).
FOOT OX - "It's Like Our Little Machine" LP (Distant
Colony).
9/14/08 - SSSSSSSSSSSSS
Time just keeps on flying by. Some many things that need to get
done, assembly of a few CDr releases that are already
"done",... you know. Tons of Soft Shoulder 7"
covers, not to mention all of the art and wrapping up the
collection CD as soon as possible. Ann's recently moved in and
the house is still in the process of being all organized so that
it can work for both of us effectively. A million other things,
of course. ...really and truly, the Married in Berdichev 7"
is done (as soon as the art show at my post office,... Brittany's
copies of the record have already made their way to her). The
Hell-Kite 7" s slightly delayed because the tests came back
bad, which is irritating because I had these rushed to be done so
they could be ready for her tour in October, and now they won't
be ready anyway. ...it's not the end of the world, but you
know.
SOFT SHOULDER played a couple shows these past two Saturdays, a
week ago was the return of FATHERS DAY, which was exciting and
awesome. The worlds best Dad-oriented thrash/punk band not only
still have it, but they had new songs as well, including the
"next hit", "DID I USE THE WORD DIVORCE?"
(which is not only the title, but half of the lyrics, the other
being: "It's called a separation"). I can grantee
everyone left with it in their heads, not just because it's so
good, but because they played it four times, as the set closer
and then each of the three times the crowd applauded and yelled
for an encore. Video proof on youtube, as well as a clip of their
collaboration set with QUINTRON from San Diego two years ago, a
little before Ryan left for his Mormon mission. (Still can not
believe he is here again)!
The following Saturday, yesterday, Soft Shoulder played again:
this time with mostly other Tempe / Phoenix bands, at this super
nice guy Devlin's house, which was incredibly fun and one of my
favorite sets that we've played in a long time. I'm really
excited about getting a bunch of new songs going and heading out
for a short tour when the CD is finally done. It's really great
to see a good amount of people have so much fun together. I
extremely enjoyed the TRADEWINDS set, which is a "pop
punk" project from a bunch of kids from the neighborhood:
Kelly / Splinter Cake, Teague / Foot Ox and Preston / Business
Man's Lunch.
A couple of other good ones in there: also Ryan Avery related, a
NIGHT WOLF show that was entirely too over the top and funny, and
included a public ridiculing of one of the few Avery naysayers -
Wayne Michael Wright (who has some things to do with some of the
downtown galleries and is featured in the movie about Ryan as
saying he thinks everything Ryan does is worthless). ...who knows
why he actually came to this show, but they had already written a
song for him that would have been reason enough for him to get
pissed enough to fight them. It included the (paraphrased)
lyrics: "Hey Michael, you know that time that we were down
at the Cone Gallery, we didn't know you were trying to have an
art show, we were just doing our weekly improv noise jam that
happens there, I mean it's not a big deal because there was only
a few people there anyway, and they were all there doing the
noise jam too, so really, I don't know how we could have ruined
your exhibition, since no one was there that cared about it
anyway, but we care and we still love you,... Waaaaaaaayne
Michael Wriiiiiiight" and so on. I could go into Andrew's
lyrically portion, but you should ask me about it sometime
instead. There was an awesome TREASURE MAMMAL set as well, under
the name "PARTY MOM",... it was the first time I had
heard him do a song called "Real Talk", which is bound
to be a Tempe / Phoenix jam of the year. THE COITUS opened, Corey
had made a few new bizarre circuit bent toys / gadgets to show
off, including a photo-theremin tennis racket
"guitar",... it's awesome.
There was another TRADEWINDS (Velvet Underground cover set) show
at the Manor, TIGHT HOLES also played, who were nasty and loud as
usual, one of the few true "punk" bands in the area.
Aside from a couple too-drunk kids that wrecked the house a
little, the show was pretty alright, and included a complete
surprise visit from SIR JOHN EDWARD HILLS THE WACKNESS, who I had
not seen in something like 3 or 4 years, perhaps more!
These weeks pass by so incredibly fast, it's insane.
things:
A new GANG WIZARD LP, release number what, 73,431?,... this time
around: an actual studio recording, showcases a very
confident but still tortured sound, from schizophrenic
ranting to mud/space oscillation, perhaps not for everyone, but
loved by me, though the B-Side is undeniably well done,
interesting and engaging. A split release between Green Tape,
Lost Treasure of the Underworld, Ol' Factory and Tanz Procesz
with dead-Beatles / acid-trip jacket art from Zeloot!
Scored a ton of amazing recent record for dirt cheap from someone
who was unloading a collection, giving me the chance to pick up
some stuff that I didn't within the past year or so, including an
hilariously silly 7" from THE CANCER KIDS, a 40 second one
sided 45rpm 7" that was limited to 150 and intended to be a
"supplement to "The Possible Dream" LP on Youth
Attack (which is also great)), and recommended to be inserting
between tracks 3 and 4.
I finally finally grabbed a copy of the ...WORMS 12" on
Marriage, which is the most out of character release from the
label in my opinion - and something I had been meaning to pick up
for years since SOFT SHOULDER played with them down in Tucson at
the truly missed 36 CHAMBERS. Odd Gravity records sounding stuff,
like a weird Clikitat Ikatowi / Antioch Arrow hybrid, and a
really long feeling 12' for playing at 45rpm. ...after picking up
a (((6))) 7" in LA on tour last month, I bought a few other
records from the band when I got home. Their full name being: THE
SECRET SOCIETY OF THE SONIC SIX, this band plays some excellent
minimal lounge / dance / electronic music that is eerie and
bizarre, and could have easily been made 30 years ago or just
last week. I especially enjoyed the two one-sided 12"s
"Isolated Incidents" 1.1 and 1.2.
things:
...WORMS - s/t LP (Marriage)
THE SECRET SOCIETY OF THE SONIC SIX - "9:00" 7"
(Touch of Evil).
THE SECRET SOCIETY OF THE SONIC SIX - "Isolated Incidents
1.1" 12" (Touch of Evil).
THE SECRET SOCIETY OF THE SONIC SIX - "Isolated Incidents
1.2" 12" (Touch of Evil).
GANG WIZARD - " " LP (Green Tape, Lost Treasure
of the Underworld, Ol' Factory and Tanz Procesz)
THE CANCER KIDS - "Boston Creme" 7" (Clean
Plate).
ISSEI SAGAWA s/t 7" (Youth Attack / Teenage
Teardrops).
8/31/08 - TENT/TOUR, HOME.
I didn't mention it in the blog, but there was a TENT/CITY tour
in the end of August, about a week and a half of shows, I think
it was 8 shows in 9 days. I was pretty rushed on getting things
ready to go before it was time to, which included getting the
"Stinkweeds" CDr done, which is a long long long
collection of recordings that were done at the old Stinkweeds
Records in Tempe throughout 2006. The bulk of the editing was
done over a year ago, but just fixing the final few things was
still a pain. The disc comes packaged minimally, with small
squares from the rug that covered the stage at the old store, I
think it came out great.
The trip was great, hung out with and (re-)met some great people.
Hard to say what the favorite parts or shows would be,... Nick in
Long Beach is probably the most sincerely stoked and awesome
person out there, LUCKY DRAGONS and SLEEPWALKERS LOCAL at the
Echo Curio / LA show were both awesome, hanging out with the kids
of DIY SLO is incredible, as was playing in the upstairs / loft
of their huge old house that they share, a completely guerilla
freeway underpass show with WOMANS WORTH in San Fran (they were
so awesome, dug the different line-up / instrumentation a lot),
MOM in Sacramento, and Jocelyn being so fucking cool to move the
show from the house that the cops showed up to, to her basement
in three seconds, a bizarre and great TUNNELS dance music set and
NU SENSEI in Portland, FOOT VILLAGE at the second LA show on the
way home and KATY DAVIDSON and KEVIN GREENSPON who were both
awesome in totally different ways (Katy's heartfelt warm music
and Kevin's intricate guitar work topped with over the top
lyrics) at the West Covina show. ...and silly to forget about,
but the tour kickoff show in Tempe at Cartel was very successful
and a lot of fun. Nick E. did a great CHILDRENS CRUSADE set and
James R assembled a band to perform his "BLACK FLAG -
"Damaged" (Glochids Edt)" 3" CDr live, which
is the entire Damaged LP being chopped down to about about 6
minutes, it's perfect. ...that's all real general
though, more writing some time soon.
For now, I'm home! Time to work on stuff, blah blah
blah.
things:
Picked up a couple of (ultra minimal looking) 7"s from
TITMACHINE, a band that I know little about other than them
having a new one (one of these) on Siltbreeze, which ended up
being a great couple of tracks of robotic snotty Siltbreeze style
demented pop, though with less of a swagger than some of the
others, Times New Viking or Eat Skull for example, much more
choppy and "march" like, and annoyingly awesome. The
other of the two, on Meeuw Muzak was a trip, an absurd cover of
"Now I Wanna Be Your Dog", and a B Side that was
downright bizarre. Can't wait to see what else this band does,
because I am pretty into these.
Directly related, grabbed a copy of EAT SKULL's "Dead
Families" 7" on Skulltones after loving the LP that was
also on Siltbreeze, from Exhiled in Portland, and didn't realize
until fifteen minutes of talking to the guy who co-runs the shop
with his partner (and is one of my favorite stores, period), that
he was actually in the band. I've chatted with him a few times on
my trips through the area, and him playing music at all has never
come up. His shop his excellent, an amazing collection of records
that you pretty much NEED to mail-order otherwise, it's hard to
get out of there without spending entirely too much.
Also in the Siltbreeze realm, he also just reissued the U.S.
GIRLS CDr as an LP. With the same art from the CDr screened
on white jackets, these look great. U.S. Girls is M Remy from old
Portland bands such as Hustler White and Silver Creme,... but in
this setting she sings over sounds played off cassette or with a
harpsichord, tons of reverb everywhere and a lo-fidelity recoding
that woks perfectly, but still translated well live when she
toured with Shearing Pinx a long while back. I love this and
would have loved to put it out.
A few new records from NIGHT WOUNDS: a split LP with AIDS WOLF
and 7" with MUTATORS my favorite recordings of theirs so
far. A truer to life sound than found on their "Allergic to
Heat" LP or split with Coughs, all of which was radically
different than the 7" that I did for them years and years
ago, which holds up in a different way. These newest recordings
have a lot of depth, are dark but not muddy at all, and come
closest to how incredible they always are live, regardless of the
frequently changing line-up. Continuing to remind me of the way
that I tend to write "no-wave / punk" pieces, these
have a sort of roots in hardcore and noise sound that you can't
relate to if you didn't live it - and it's refreshing and makes
them stand out from the pack. That and the fact that Toby has
kept this name alive and keeps it evolving / progressing. I can't
wait to hear what comes next. SERIPOP (Chloe and Yannick from
AIDS WOLF) art work all across the inside outside and inners
sleeves (as applicable) on these, the 7" covers are actually
screened front and back. The MUTATORS side of the split isn't
over as soon as you'd expect it to be, and while I could rave on
their side of the split LP with Shearing Pinx for little bit
longer, this is awesome too - tough grunge / punk that sounds
more wild than it does aggressive, and the fact that they are
great people can't hurt. AIDS WOLF's portion of the split LP
starts off a little slow for me, as I definitely prefer their
shorter discordant bursts of scuzzy Arab on Radar-esque tunes,
though the second half of their side returns to that format after
a few minutes of meandering sludge and tunnel torrents. I
absolutely can't wait to see these guys (all three of the bands)
again. So many good people and such good bands.
I finally got MAMMAL's "Lonesome Drifter" double LP,
which has a Thrones-like quality running throughout it, lots of
slow distorted bass over what often sounds like drum machine
rythems at a slow slow pace, which completely surprised me,
this is "music" pretty much. I particularly enjoyed the
track that sprawls across the entire D side, which ultimately
sounds like the recordings been taken to it's own death by the
end.
The new WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, "Two Hunters" is
beautiful looking and sounds incredible, amongst the most
appropriately recorded "black metal" (or whatever you
choose to call it) I've ever heard, and the band continues to
apply this undercover My Bloody Valentine feeling to music that
is outwardly, fairly disgusting and "brutal" (most
obvious throughout the first track, truthfully, though the first
have of the B side sounds more like "Growing" than
Growing has in five years, with drawn out high end clean guitars
swirling). ...this is interesting and diverse enough that it
should be appealing to a huge group of people that otherwise
would not even consider checking out a band like this,...
truthfully, I don't even buy many things released on Southern
Lord, despite thinking it's an awesome label - though I must say
I was excited to see that this release (unlike others I own) was
an American pressed job.
A new CROM LP! Amazing, full of absurdity between songs that
actually sound much more together than the full length that came
out forever ago (and was recently issued as an LP from a label
somewhere overseas), there's even more Venom live show banter
clips, undeniably my favorite part of the first LP,... it's weird
to hear this band sound so slick on so many levels, I'm used to
it being closer to the Crossed Out side of things (on all
levels). It's also weird that so many of these old power-violence
/ Slap-A-Ham bands are getting back together and touring and
putting out new records (Despise You and Capitalist Casualties
recently, heard that Hellnation are as well - though at the same
time, none of these bands maybe ever even "broke up"
for all I know.
OFF MINOR have a new LP as well, called "Some Blood".
Awesome to hear this band continue to record such great tunes,
they've been at it forever and ever now. Loud and hectic screamy
and passionate hardcore, which not that it matters at all in
2008, but is members of Saetia. I love that Steve is singing a
lot on this record and bet these songs are awesome played live
(this band is always incredible live - I suppose it goes
automatically therefore). Weird: An undeniable thin LP, I wonder
where this could have been pressed. I don't know what United's
regular weight records look like, but the music is too far out to
the end of the record (or at least as far as I know - that's what
it looks like to me). You never know, it could be a fluke, maybe
a majority of the press is nowhere near this flimsy and I just
got a weird one.
In fewer words: Found one of the many one-sided, weirdo-stickered
AMERICAN TAPES LPs that I didn't catch, this one from JASON
FINKBEINER, who is apparently of the group Pengo. ...not at all a
typical American Tapes sounding release at all, much more along
these lines of the Indian inspired Matt Valentine psych/guitar
recordings. A second SABATUERS 7", might actuall not be any
more recent than their one on Going Underground, but it's every
bit as good. Finally got the LP version of GOWN's beautiful
"Red State" LP. I'm in love with this band and am glad
to have some of these for the Gilgongo distro. A great new (and
very short) 7" from WAX MUSEUMS, who are still possibly the
best band I've seen play this year, and one of the purposefully
limited / hard-to-get JAY REATARD 7"s on Matador, which I
thought was much more enjoyable than the "See/Saw" one.
A bunch of new NOT NOT FUN records, but stuff that doesn't feel
new: a SHEPARDS LP of the CD that came out on Release the Bats
last year, with a live CDr included as a bonus, an EX-COCAINE /
YELLOW SWANS LP that I got a test for awhile back (good record,
but the Ex-Cocaine side wins), and recent ETERNAL TAPESTRY AND
SOCIAL JUNK LPs as well, all of which I was holding off on
because I was getting a ton of copies, also for the distro.
Excellent new 7" on RIP OFF RECORDS from The Glazers, a
female fronted "Rip Off Records" sounding band. This
7" was unexpected, I had no idea the label was still going,
the last thing I remembered was a Tyrades 7", but the B-Side
label hilariously answered: "TOO BUSY PLAYING WITH YOUR IPUD
TO NOTICE THAT RIP OFF IS BACK? THE GLAZERS RULE. GET OFF YOUR
IPUD AND BUY RECORDS",... something along those lines. Also
FINALLY got the NEW BLOODS' "Secret Life" as an LP. The
tape version looks and sounds great, but the LP is a must. An
awesome nasty little 7" from another Portland band,
SCAPHISTS, who are VLV royalty and despite being self described
as "shit punk" or something like that, are doing
something awesome, check them out. Much like the Titmachine
7"s, this is fairly stylistically minimal and looks
great.
In the "used" department, I came across a cheap BRUCE
RUSSELL 10", "The Movement of the Free Spirit"
which is an engaging couple of "movements" using guitar
and tape loops, the A side sounding like a broken copy of Metal
Machine Music playing at 16rpm. The B side has more of buzz saw
drone approach, with small interruptions where it starts to
feedback or get ultra choppy. This is a great record. An old BOSS
HOG double 7", material that's great though not as into it
as much as I am their "Cold Hands" or "Girl
+" EPs. ...an excellent VERUCA SALT 10", you have no
idea.
things:
U.S. GIRLS - "Introducing..." LP (Siltbreeze).
TITMACHINE - 7" (Meeuw Muzak)
TITMACHINE - "We Build A New City" 7"
(Siltbreeze).
EAT SKULL - "Dead Families" 7" (Skulltones).
SABOTEURS - 7" (Commodity Fetish).
JAY REATARD - "Always Wanting More" 7"
(Matador).
SCAPHISTS - 7" (Scaphism).
NIGHT WOUNDS / MUTATORS - split 7" (Bad Master).
AIDS WOLF / NIGHT WOUNDS - split LP (Nail In The Coffin).
NIGHT WOUNDS - "Live in NYC" CD (Nail In The
Coffin).
VIVIAN GIRLS - "Tell The World" 7"
(Woodsist).
GRAVEYARDS - square 8" lathe (Alt.Vinyl).
THE ADVERTS - "77-78 Outtakes and Demos" LP
(boot).
THE SCREAMERS - "Demos 1977-78" LP (boot).
GOWNS - "Red State" LP (Kill Shamen).
JASON FINKBEINER - one sided LP (American Tapes).
SECRET SOCIETY OF THE SONIC SIX + OBSOLETE - "One"
7" (Touch of Evil).
THE DEAD SCIENCE - ABC 7" (Tom Lab).
THE WAX MUSEUMS - "Magnet" 7" (Fashionable
Idiots).
THE GLAZERS - "High Heel Romance" 7" (Rip
Off).
SEVEN DEPRESSIONS - "Pillar To Post" 7" (Heavy
Tapes).
EX-COCAINE / YELLOW SWANS - split LP (Not Not Fun).
ETERNAL TAPESTRY -"Mystic Induction" LP (Not Not
Fun).
SOCIAL JUNK - "Concussion Summer" LP (Not Not
Fun).
NEW BLOODS - "The Secret Like" LP (Kill Rock
Stars).
SHEPARDS - "Loco Hills" LP + live CDr (Not Not
Fun).
OFF MINOR - "Some Blood" LP (Paramnesia / Narshardaa /
Pure Pain Sugar).
MAMMAL - "Lonesome Drifter" 2 x LP.
WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM - "Two Hunters" 2 x LP
(Southern Lord).
CROM - "Hot Sumerian Nights" LP (Forest Moon).
8/16/08 - SOUNDS OF SILENCE.
things:
There's a new GRAVEYARDS / DEAD MACHINES collaboration LP on
BROKEN RESEARCH, and it's an excellent display of restraint: an
extremely quiet combination of broken sloth paced free jazz and
electronic noise that gives more space to the ringing out of
cymbals and bells or extended cello bows than it does to any sort
of "noise' or avant-garde diy horn screeching. With this
being on Broken Research, there's a couple of hundred copies
(more than what many of these bands releases usually do), and
handmade / fold over cover art (painted and screened), though you
don't get the awesome and sometimes crucial John Olson / American
Tapes listing information to go a long with it. Reasonably
priced, and a favorite of these bands recent releases, I'd
definitely recommend this (and most all things on (Editions)
Broken Research).
Briefly mentioned in the last entry (in the setting of seeing
them play), I picked up a 7" from AUTOMATIC ERASERS (which
has two great minute and a half long songs of dirty rock / punk
in the Ripp Off Records vein), released on Ryan (Thundercats /
Eastside Records / Wipers (true enough))'s label I DON'T FEEL A
THING, home to tons or excellent noisy garage / pop, pretty much
from either right here in town or from Japan. (Grab the Lottie
Collins 7"!!!).
A really neat 7" from MUDBOY, the first in a series of remix
7"s where he is essentially taking other bands music /
compositions / song components which get re-mixed / written and
(as he puts it) "muxed up" by him. The end result is
probably something drastically different than the original
pieces, these being from EXTREME ANIMALS and DARKDARKDAK. An
interesting listen, though it would be awesome to have some sort
of gauge of where this is coming from and just how much of a 180
these version may be taking from the typical out put from these
bands. Interesting and worth checking out, if not for any reason
other than the accordion and vocal based song that is both dreary
and pretty sprawling across the B-side (I have a hunch
Mudboy did some serious time stretching on this track)!
Also from DNT, a new cassette compilation called "MASH
MANSUM"of current loud / weird / "sassy"-esque
punk / non-sense wave bands, including Shearing Pinx, Twin
Crystals (both typically the favorites on these sort of things),
and Hunting Lodge, though GAY BEAST took he cake on this one,
their song is strange and somewhat herky at parts with their
signature discordant keyboard and extremely high pitched vocals
barking (in the best of ways). Check out their LP
"Disrobics", it's full of great songs and looks
incredible).
Not sure how recent of a release it is, but I recently came to
own a copy of a COTTON MUSEUM / THURSTON MOORE split LP on TASTY
SOIL. I don't know anything about Tasty Soil off-hand, though I
think I might have a SLITHER CDr that is on the label, and the
artwork is extremely familiar / similar to that of the ODD CLOUDS
LP, maybe it's on of those guys? ...Cottom Museum contribute four
tracks of high pitched glitched out tones that dance over short
loops of nasty sounds,... though the beauty in a short loop is
that as absurd of disgusting sounds might be, they can easily
become the backbone or beat of anything. I liked all of this a
lot // it sounds like it would be fun to make. (I've done things
similar to this, and that has always been the case - live, it's
an awesome way to try new things out). Thuston's side is easy for
me to describe, but not without possibly sounding like I didn't
think it was good: like, the construction of some strange white
noise machine that never gets to full working order, lots of
connections slowly (almost) being made and occasionally holding
together for no more than a minute or so, yielding weird
malfunctioning sound.
While down in Tucson, I stumbled across a copy of a 7" from
old Tucson band SEX FATALE, which is in itself a funny story /
memory, but more specifically, when I put out my first 7"
years and years ago, I traded a copy with the kid who had just
put this out. I still joking bug him about it on the rare
instances that I run into him out anywhere (he's a show promoter,
more like "concert" promoter, and doesn't cover much
that I am interested in at all). This band was honestly pretty
fun at the time, clear back about 6 years ago, when I was in
either in (the late line-up of) Bullyrag or (the initial line-up
of) Financial Panther, we played with these guys once or twice,
pretty good jangly rock n' roll that I think was trying to be a
Le Shok / Red Light Sting combination (I don't mean that in a bad
way, the guy singing had a great snotty voice and the music was
general good and in your face, though at the same time, the
guitars were often (as is on the case of this 7") pretty
noodley / mathy.
I don't usually write about random used scores I come across
(even though some of those are the most exciting), but on the
same trip to Tucson and at the same store, I also scored a few
extremely rare, older Iron Lung releases, but they honestly pale
in comparison to the Jellyroll Rock Heads LP, which, geez, if you
enjoy Japanese garage punk and trashy almost power violence type
stuff, imagine the two together and that's what you get (really,
like Teengenerate meets Crudos or Charles Bronson) . I have no
idea why I never picked this up because I love this band, but
finding it for $4 is hard to complain about.
things:
GRAVEYARDS + DEAD MACHINES - "Machine Yard in Sound
World" LP (Broken Research).
THE AUTOMATIC ERASERS - "Make It Right / On The Road"
7" (I Don't Feel A Thing).
MUDBOY - "MUD MIX VOL. #1" 7" (DNT).
v/a - "MASH MANSUN" cassette (DNT).
FAMILY UNDERGROUND - "Helium Rug" LP (DNT).
SEX FATALE - s/t 7" (PSR).
REGULATIONS - "Electric Guitar" LP (Havoc).
LIFE AT THESE SPEEDS - "To Your Health" LP (Level
Plane).
WARMTH - "Leave Your Wet Brain In The Hot Sun" CD
(Digitalis).
SOUVENIR'S YOUNG AMERICA - "September Songs" LP
(Protagonist).
DONNA PARKER - "Debutante" LP (Twisted Village).
THURSTON MOORE / COTTON MUSEUM - split LP (Tasty Soil).
8/6/08 - SUMMERTIME HEAT.
Time just keeps on flying by, doesn't it? I feel like I just got
back from tour with Stephen / French Quarter, that feels like it
was last week, but it wasn't, it was about a month ago. It's
confusing, things just sort of come and go, records, shows,
people, work, everything. ...so, this is an attempt to play catch
up:
As far as
shows, I don't feel like there has been a ton over the past few
weeks? SOFT SHOULDER played with Portland's METH TEETH, who play
a weird fuzzy, scuzzy breed of borderline garage pop (when you
skim through everything). I loved their set a bunch, and their
recent 7" on Sweet Rot was great. (Think I wrote about that
one a couple of months ago). Sadly, MUTATORS were supposed to
play, but canceled the rest of their tour the week before. I'm
not even sure what their status is as a band, but I hope it's not
"the end", they just keep getting better and better
(their side of the split LP with Shearing Pinx is incredibly
good)!
Caught JAY REATARD play at Hollywood Alley, pretty much as good
as it can get. Something like 20 songs in under half an hour,
played nearly all of the Blood Visions LP, didn't stop a single
time, looping feedback or guitar noise while taking a second to
tune as needed. Wish they were still playing as a four piece, two
guitars would have been preferable for sure! I wasn't so into
Cheap Time, who are another In The Red band, but they were good
as well. The vocals just felt too much like East Bay pop punk or
something, and threw off the rest of their sound for me a whole
lot. I was extremely stoked about the openers, EARTHMEN AND
STRANGERS, a new project from Ryan (The Wongs, Destruction Unit,
and so on), and they were great,... word on the street is they
only practiced twice, but they played some very precise sounding
garage / power pop stuff that was excellent. AUTOMATIC ERASERS
opened, which included Ryan from The Thundercats and other such
Phoenix/Tempe classics.
Farther back, mid July, I played with NAT BALDWIN, a friend of
many friend who used to play in The Dirty Projectors. I remember
having a lot of trouble with my equipment at that show, the
adapter leech cord was shorting, so I had to use half the pedals
that I normally do, so I attempted to play a slightly toned down
version of the piece I did on tour with Stephen / French Quarter.
Nat was incredible, just upright bass and voice,... singing in a
very Dave L / Dirty P style over drawn out bass sounds and then
falling into the occasional free form chaos of strummed, plucked
slapped and ground strings. We traded some stuff, which included
a copy of a CD he released called "Solo Contrabass"
which is over and hour of avant garde, zero over dub, upright
bass SOUND, and truly interesting and innovative and impressive.
I hope he knows how much I enjoyed what he did.
Also saw a band called TEETH MOUNTAIN play a train wreck of a
show at the Willow House in Phoenix,... this is a band playing
drum / rhythm centered music, with any given number of auxiliary
members on sax, vocals, cello or any other variety of instruments
and devices, the end result being a very triumphant sounding
breed of music that could easily be misunderstood as "some
sort of hippy bullshit", though I can assure you it's not.
...so the show they played? ...was with a pop/folk/guitar noodle
two piece and fire breathing belly dancers. They seemed to have a
pretty positive attitude about me and Ann being 2 of 4 people
there to see them play, and seemingly did "things as
normal" as far as their set went, which we enjoyed sitting
on the concrete steps in the backyard with a nice steady breeze.
Their LP is good too, it covers a good amount of ground for
sticking with a pretty steady format, parts almost sound like
weird modern / middle eastern music, has great art and comes on a
beautiful translucent dark blue. ...no label info anywhere on the
jacket though, and I can't remember who released it off hand,
maybe one of them? Check these guys out, they are worth your
time.
I finally got to check out a new noise / wierdo store in downtown
Phoenix called CABAL. It's a very specific / specialty shop un by
Ben from Clew of Theseus, and is very well done and has a ton of
great records, tapes, CDs and movies that you can't find anywhere
else in the state of AZ. I had the pleasure of picking up the
newest SICKNESS CD on Self Abuse, "Muddark", which is
an incredible collection of things he had done in shorter runs
already. Sickness is a complete favorite of mine, and this disc
completely reinforces that 100%, extremely textured and violent
sound that periodically catches in short loops and has tendency
to punch in and out, leaving vulnerable spaces between. ....such
a great thing to listen to at a loud volume. And Ben's store is
awesome, highly recommended that anyone check it out that is even
remotely into any of that realm. It's got pretty LIMITED hours
though, so make sure you check out the site: CABAL.
as far as recent records and the such:
The WARBLER side of the split 7" with BROMP TREB on
DEATHBOMB ARC is a recent favorite, sounding much like a
crossbred child of later Mocket, Atari Teenage Riot and Black Cat
#13, fun and wild and out of control, and sill very beat oriented
and noisy//mechanical//electronic sounding. BROMP TREB is a
project from one of the FAT WORM OF ERROR guys, and it sounds
like that band, trying to somehow do something similar to the
music that WARBLER is playing, but ultimately sounding like a
high-density version Fat Worm, loosely falling over the
occasional drum sound. ...this is no complaint, it's great and
sounds damaged at any speed.
Grabbed some new AMERICAN TAPES stuff, all of it on the more
interesting sides of things, though my two favorites this time
around were the DS HASTINGS and DL SAVINGS TIME, and HANDICAPPER
HORNS LPs. The DS/DL LP is material from 13 years ago, which was
originally going to be a split 7". but is now seeing the
light of day as a one-sided LP, with an added collaboration
between the as well. Beyond obscure folks who just about no one
could possibly claim they're into. Disgusting and in your face
machine noise / fucked-reel type sounds, the kind that make you
question the condition of your speakers (at any volume). The
HANDICAPPER HORNS LP is a reed/electronics group, much more
mellow and accessible than many / most things on AM-TAPES,... I'd
go as far as saying parts of this is downright pretty, building
for the first huge hunk is a muddled loop of what could be guitar
or strings, hard to tell, but it's very deep and cathedral and
warbled sounding, with small interruptions from high-toned
squeals. This eventually overcome with a thinned helping of
sax(?) and noise, that is thin and seems to welcome the
eventually returning loop towards the end. ...I enjoyed this
one a lot. (oh and the SPYKES CDr is scathingly good, if
those are live recordings, they would have been painful to
see).
New band, I think from The Netherlands, MASSHYSTERI, which
features a few people from the awesome band, The Vicious, but
sounding very much like Gorilla Angreb as well. Everything about
their new 7" on FERAL WARD is perfect, the recording, the
art, everything. I don't even want to begin trying to compare of
classify, but this is what good punk music is to me, when it's
not really noisy or going a million miles per hour. I love
this.
I finally grabbed the newer CHROMATICS 12"s, "Nite' and
"Shining Vinyl". Great Lizzy Mercier Descloux /
modern-time Glass Candy dance music, lots of small interesting
sounds and things going on, "Nite" specifically, was
worked on with Johnny Jewel, and it's so completely obvious (and
awesome). "Nite" takes such a long time to get to where
it's building to, and it's a great ride, that by the time you've
reached the peak, you're so excited to be there that you don't
even think about the fact that you don't usually listen to
anything that sounds remotely like this (other than the few old
odd balls and so on). This is followed by instrumental and
acapella versions that are begging to be used by GLOCHIDS. The
couple of songs on the B-Side flow well too, "The
Guest" feeling like a drawn out warm up for "Glass
Slipper" which has some pretty nuts sounding low-end
vocoding going on and lots of sustain and swirling high-end sound
through the second half. Again, completely valid, and making me
feel like an idiot for taking so long to pick up. The
"Shining Violence" 12", which is much more recent,
is also great, but I was much more grabbed by "Nite",
and am tempted to NOT wait to see if a vinyl version of their new
full length is going to come out or not. (a side note: still
blows me away that this is technically "Chromatics",
the same band that released "Chrome Rats Vs Basement Ruts,
one of my favorite post-punk / no-wave / sassy/moody
"soul" records ever (with a handful of 7"s and
12"s at the time as well - have come a long way on a weird
road). ((Also, very related and highly recommended as well: a
triple LP vinyl version of the AFTER DARK compilation released by
TMU / ITALIAN'S DO IT BETTER, it looks just like the CD version,
and the low end is liable to blow your players head off the
record if it's too light. Now we can just hold our breathes for
the 3 x LP of the new GLASS CANDY)).
Related in release approach only, a gift via returning-from-tour
GLOCHIDS from Mike Pollard / ARBOR RECS / TREETOPS, was a copy of
his new LP, the B-Side of which was released towards the end of
last year as double cassette (they were short one, haha) called
"When I was Younger", and offers a wide range of
ambient / drone / sounds cape music. I'm not sure if the A side
has been elsewhere, it's hard to keep track, but it's one longer,
thick and solid piece of a more looming vein. Great looking full
color cover art on this one, and the aesthetic of the white
border / handwriting on the bottom of the back is excellent. I'm
really glad Mike is sill at it, both making music and doing his
label. We did a small split CDr together forever ago when he was
first getting started. (I remember that we first crossed paths
because of me wanting to wholesale some copies of an awesome
art-book / comp CD that he had done).
I also grabbed three new tapes from two friends / great women who
both do fantastic projects on their own (Eva / Ken Shields and
Brittany / Married in Berdichev), playing together as CALDARA
LAKES, though I don't want to write about the three tapes until I
listen to all of them, not just one. Obviously exciting, I got
one copy of two for myself, but several of the one that was
released on DEATHBOMB ARC for the Gilgongo distro.
While grabbing the non-DBA tapes, I also picked up the truly
essential RUSSIAN TSARLAG cassingle on Green Tape, which features
Tempe's favorite songs from a couple years ago, "BLEACH
PARTY" and "BEACH BANQUET". A complete throw back
his set / show, which was completely bizarre: from Carlos calling
me from various people's cell phones: "Hello James, it's
your friend Carlos, and I'd like you to pick me up from the
Phoenix Greyhound Station, so see you soon, Good Bye", with
me not knowing where he was because there are several of those,
not just one. ...to his e-mail before asking for corn syrup (he
would supply the food coloring), a bucket, a strobe light and a
tom drum as his "list of demands" for the show. ....in
the end, what he played was a cassette of drums and deranged
vocals over the pay, playing the exact same thing on real drums
and singing through the PA with maximum reverb. Perhaps this
sounds like it was irritating or strange, and it truly was, in
the best way possible. (And doing shows for / with his other
bands, BYRON HOUSE and DYNASTY,... some of my favorite shows ever
- everything Carlos does has a bit of his oddball magic in it,
and even though it might be a little hard to swallow at first,
it's valid once digested, I assure you).
Still have a ton of new and recent things to listen to, so a lot
of these will probably pop up next time aound.
DEAD COMET ALIVE - "Universe For One" one-sided LP
(American Tapes).
HANDICAPPER HORNS - "Sax In The City - One" one-sided
LP (American Tapes).
DS HASTINGS and DL SAVINGS TIME - "95 Flashback Attack"
one-sided LP (American Tapes).
MASSHYSTERI - 7" (Feral Ward).
BECK - "Modern Guilt" LP (Geffen).
TREETOPS - "Permission / When I Was Younger" LP
(Arbor).
TEETH MOUNTAIN - s/t LP (self?)
WOLF EYES / SKULL DEFEKTS split LP (Fang Bomb).
WOLF EYES - "Black Wing Over The Sand" LP (iDEAL /
KNING DISK).
ANDREW COLTRANE - "Greatest Hits(?)" LP (American
Tapes).
CHROMATICS - "Shining Violence" 12" (Italians Do
It Better).
v/a - "AFTER DARK" 3 x LP (Glass Candy, Farah, Mirage,
Professor Genius, Chromatics, Indeep) (Italians Do It
Better).
WARBLER / BROMP TREB - split 7" (Deathbomb ARC).
GRAVEYARDS / BIRTH REFUSAL / DEAD MACHINES / WAVES - split
7" (American Tapes).
CARS WILL BURN - "Into Pure Fantasy" CDr + art zine
(Deathbomb ARC).
NAT BALDWIN - "Solo Contrabass" CD. (Peacock).
SPYKES - "Live Frying" / tour CDr? (American
Tapes).
SICKNESS - "Muddark" CD (Self Abuse / Ninth
Circle).
SICKNESS - "I Have Become The DIsease That Made Me" CD
(Grounfault).
THINGS FALL APART - "As Above - So Below" CD
(self?)
THE NORTH SEA - "Snakeroot Ceremony" CDr (Phantom
Limb).
CENTURY PLANTS - "Fingers" CDr (Phantom Limb).
GHOST BRAMES / PRZEWALSKI'S HORSES - split CDr (Phantom
Limb?).
STONE BABY - "Broken Wings and Bandages" CDr (Phantom
Limb).
6MAJIK9 - "Rubber God Head" CDr (Phantom Limb).
ENTENTE CORDIALE - "The Recognition of Common
Interests" CDr (Phantom Limb).
CAHIER (ORCHESTRA) - "Ciudad" CDr (Phantom Limb).
KEVIN SHIELDS / RALE split 3" DVDr (videos by CHRISTOPHER
CICHOCKI) (Deathbomb ARC).
GRAVEYARDS / PINK CHUNK JAZZ BAND - split cassette (American
Tapes).
CALDERA LAKES - cassette (905).
CALDARA LAKES - cassette (Deathbomb ARC).
CALDARA LAKES - cassette (Blackest Rainbow).
HARD DRUGS -"Lost It" cassette (Cavelife).
EZRA BUCHLA - cassette (Deathbomb ARC).
TRASH DOG - "Buddha" cassette (Deathbomb ARC).
v/a "MARGNETIC DIVISION" cassette (w/ Brutal Knights,
CPC Gangbangs, more). (Bloodstain).
RUSSUAN TSARLAG - "Bleach Party / Beach Banquet"
cassingle (Green Tape).
CARREZA - "Consensus Reality" cassette
(Cavelife).
VxPxC - "Dead Right There" cassette (Sky-Fi).
METH TEETH - "Indian Spirits" cassette (self).
TERRORS - "Guard" double cassette (Cavelife).
I haven't really been doing to much because I've been / am busy
doing these things:
1. Going through records, picking out stuff I don't really want /
can sell.
2. Selling this stuff online, VLV and Ebay.
3. Attempting to book a last minute Tent/City tour.
4. Attempting to fix, set up the "Stinkweeds" Tent/City
CD.
Going through personal records and picking out stuff to sell to
not only pay for a $750 root canal being finished up, but for a
$200 7" that I sold for my friend Dan on Ebay, and was lost
in the mail. In any other situation, this would be no big deal,
but the guy is from Italy, and took a long time to pay, so Jasmin
had to do it for me while I was on tour last month. For whatever
reason (probably because it's what's normal for me anyway), the
Post Office assured her sending it First Class International
would be best, though doing so gives you no tracking number or
insurance, and she doesn't have the receipt, I can't even prove
that it was sent. ...the guy who won it has been nice about it,
but if it doesn't show in the next week or two, I'm going to have
to pay him money out of my pocket (since the $200 didn't go to
me,... it wasn't my record after all). It's just a total bummer
for all people involved. ...anyway, this hasn't been super fun,
I've found very little that I feel like letting go of so far,
though the things I have found should be enough to cover this
stuff. ...I'm listing it all on VLV first, then Ebay halfway
through the week.
I'm also trying to scrap together a last minute Tent/City tour,
which was something sort of planned for a long time, but never
really materialized and wasn't a 100% thing (as far as I knew)
until a couple of weeks ago, and a 200% thing as of this weekend.
(I wasn't sure that everyone was going to be okay with possibly
spending a fair amount of money on it, as it's possibly going to
be quite expensive). This also means that I am going to need to
get this Tent/City - "Stinkweeds" CD out soon, but
because this took a long time to be for sure, I was waiting, and
now there's just not much time, blah blah blah. So, for now it'll
be a short run CDr, but pro-burned discs, and with multiple runs
if needed. There's just some minor things that need to be done to
the recording before it's ready to go.
This week came and went so fast. The only specific thing I feel
like I remember is Soft Shoulder playing with METH TEETH at the
Bike Co-Op, which was a great little show that went really fast,
allowing Ann and I enough time (barely) to head over to
Trunkspace to see MY FERAL KIN, who were playing a tour kickoff
show - they are doing the west coast currently, go check them
out)!
Oh speaking of ITALY, here's my other fun mailing transaction
with that country, this time on the receiving end. Thanks!!!
(This is the new MARGARET DOLL RODS LP! Believe it or not, after
lots ofr re-bending, I've gotten some of the B-Side to play. In
time, I'll win!
While passing through Portland on this last tour, I, of course,
stopped by EXILED and ANTHEM Records. Although EXILED is probably
my favorite record store in existence right now, I do usually
find a few great things at Anthem each time I stop in. Amongst
tons of great used things, there was a couple of new TARA JANE
O'NEIL released, a nice, simply screened LP called "To Trace
a Raveling" on Portland label Mississippi (which is a soft
and layered, beautifully record (though short) collection of
sound and songs, much more "open" than some of her more
song-oriented recordings. (I enjoy both), and very much along the
same lines, a new book/CD combination called "Wings.
Strings. Meridians", which is incredible. More of an art
book than anything else, this is 96 full color pages of Tara's
art - which is something that's been all over records for a solid
15 years now and is something of a staple (in my opinion) of the
Quarterstick-eqsue "scene". The audio portion is much
longer feeling than the new LP, and very much in the same vein.
Most exciting about this release, is that despite the fact that
it is possible the most well done / professional / perfect
looking thing, it was only $15. ...so often "underground
music" CD releases are more than that on their own, let
alone with a 100 page art book that is worth the money alone.
Completely recommended 100%.
Lots of other awesome recent things, but a sheer lack of time at
the moment is preventing me from writing too much about them,
though in short, the BOSQUE BROWN LP, that I bought on a whim,
was a favorite of recent "I don't know's", and I'm glad
I grabbed - simple / simply beautiful song-writing, very nice and
calm, relaxing. The stuff on the RUSSIAN TSARLAG / BLUE SHIFT LP
is awesome though I wish Carlos (RTs) stuff was even MORE minimal
and absurd, like when I did a show for him (and Blue Shift as
well actually) several years ago. His portion of this LP
continues to be odd-ball talking nonsense, but has all these
other bizarre sounding things going on that it's shifted to
something legitimately great in a whole new way. Comes with a
great zine of scribbly at that perfectly compliments the music.
300 copies, probably gone fairly quickly, not for everyone, but
definitely for me. Lastly, a new GLOCHIDS CDr on new Temple
label, DISTANT COLONY. This collects sounds from various periods
of time, including material that he (James R, also from
Tent/City) composed for the live Mr. Fishsticks puppet shows
(they opened a few shows in Tucson doing the performances, with
Animal Collective and Deerhoof). Beautiful (and bizarre) sounds
throught out, as always - intricate and interesting. After a
quick check in at home in regards to some personal / family
issues, he flew back out to rejoin the French Quarter / Glochids
south/east/mid-coast tour, go check them out!
Still have tons of stuff to listen to from tour, including a huge
stack of great looking things from Grant Capes (Phantom Limb,
Sleepwalkers Local, and so on). The only one I've gotten to,
other than his amazing CDr that I mentioned last week, was a
(VxPxC) cassette that made for an eerie but calm drive in the
pouring / monsoon rain today. As always, extremely excited to
listen to everything else.
things:
Russian Tsarlag / Blue Shift - split LP (Rare Youth).
Margaret Doll Rods - "Sin'te Lat'in) LP (Gonna Puke).
Yellow Swans + Burning Star Core - collab LP (Pygmy / Blossoming
Noise).
Bosque Brown - "Cerro Verde" LP (Burnt Toast
Vinyl).
Glochids - "Puppet Sampler KeyboardSwee" CDr (Distant
Colony).
Tara Jane O'Neil - "To Trace a Raveling" LP
(Mississippi).
Tara Jane O'Neil - "Wings. Strings. Meridians" art book
and CD (Yeti / Square Root).
The New Flesh / Puke Attack - split LP (self released).
(VxPxC) - "Dead Right There" cassette (Sky-Fi).
Antischism - s/t 2xLP (Prack) (I think it's everything other than
the "Still Life" LP)!
Recently enjoyed: Me First, River City Tanlines - both LPs. The
Horrors - "Vent" LP. Force Field - "Lords of the
Ring Modulator" 2 x LP (Bulb). Miranda July
June passed so quickly, it's insane. I was gone for a couple of
weeks on tour with FRENCH QUARTER, which was the lowest stress
situation ever. We played with tons of awesome people, some shows
huge, some small, but when they were small, I'd end up selling
$100+ of Gilgongo and distro stuff anyway. And surprisingly,
despite the fact that I play weird sound / noise / and so on, and
Stephen played singer/song-writer type music, it rarely felt like
the shows were not making complete sense. It just worked really
well typically.
I'll write much more about it some other time, but it was
"good", and mostly nice to see and meet so many great
people. Grabbed some scores from record stores up and down the
coast, of course, but who really wants to talk about that anyway?
In the couple of weeks since I've been home, I've mostly been
trying to get personal things taken care of. I had a monstrous TO
DO list that is slowly getting completed (clean and organizing my
room,... after Bri and I broke up and Jasmin was moving in, I
decided to consolidate the label room into my bedroom as well,
which is working okay now, but was an awful mess from before I
left for tour, fixing stuff on the website, which is still not
complete. I finally figured out what was wrong with getting the
MP3s online, so that's fine now, still having trouble with the
"Google Groups mailing list e-mail address entry box",
which is really irritating. So many other random things too, but
it's getting wrapped up now, slowly).
Caught a few great shows recently here in the Phoenix area,
Yellow Fever at the Bike Saviors Co-Op in Tempe, Sex Vid at the
Chamber in Phoenix and High Castle, also at he Co-Op. YELLOW
FEVER are from Austin (I think), and have a very Quixotic sort of
sound to them, a two piece that manages to keep a pretty full
sound (their drummer often playing a synthesizer that holds bass
tones for extended period as he drums, occasionally hitting other
keys to change the note). Also playing the show was an awesome
trio of Abe (Treasure Mammal) and Corey Fogel (Mae Shi, Gowns and
the such) and another guy who's name I think was Adam? The three
played an unexpected and engaging set of intricate percussion
(anything Corey drums on is worth your time, trust me),
left-field violin and Abe throwing down disintegrated guitar and
vocals sporadically. I loved their set a lot.
SEX VID played an excellent short / fast set at a show with Think
Fast amongst others at the Chamber a couple of days later. If you
haven't checked out this band, go out of your way to - aggressive
and "pissed off" trashy punk, with three 7"s over
the past year and a half or so, I hope they have an LP on the way
that's going to knock everyone's socks off. (Their two most
recent 7"s are in their second and third pressings
respectfully and probably on their way out (or print) too).
HIGH CASTLE are a relatively new band from the bay area,
featuring members of Saboteurs and Wilson from Womens Worth /
Duchesses and I was glad to be playing with them in Soft Shoulder
when they were here. HC are a spastic and angular band, reminding
me a lot of some God Is My Co-Pilot at times, and Wilson is
secretly one of my favorite people I've met over the years
through shows and all of that, though we've only crossed paths a
few times. Soft Shoulder and his former band Duchesses played
together in LA and Phoenix, and Tent/City with his free-jazz
trio, Womens Worth, also in Phoenix. Definitely check out High
Castle as they come though your town, they're a lot of fun.
ABE VIGODA recently came through town on tour with No Age, and I
was so completely ecstatic, not just because they were the best
I've ever seen them, and you could actually head all of Michaels
vocals easily, but because they also had copies of their soon to
be released LP that I had no idea was even on the way, on Post
Present Medium, and it's the best they've sounded recorded before
in my opinion, other than their side of the split 7" with
Child P. (The recent 7" that was the first release on Kate
Hall's label was also fucking awesome too). Abe Vigoda are nice
guys and have been playing forever now, I hope that this current
tour and new LP get them even more of the appreciation they
deserve. Fourteen or so songs of solid, uplifting
tropical/indie/punk, there's that specific amount of delay on top
of that specific amount of angst, but you can hear how much fun
this band is very clearly on this LP, and I hope that's what
people get when they hear this: "I need to see this band
play!" Trust me, you do! My only complaint, I totally don't
dig the art, but seeing as this is going to be one of my favorite
things from this year, I guess I'll have to get over it, won't I?
It's going to be in my living room a lot.
The nice guy who does the 5NAKEFORK label contacted me when he
finished up an ultra low-run SICK LLAMA / FOSSILS split LP and I
grabbed a few for the distro. There's something like 200 of these
completely mysterious splits, that aside from the stamp on the
inside of the cover (and etchings in the vinyl itself), gives no
info whatsoever, including speed, though I believe on this
release that was the point of the Sick Llama side. On here,
Fossils, who I believe are intending this to be a 45rpm'r) sound
like they are sifting through the ruins of some post-apocalyptic
destroyed orchestra submarine. Perhaps that sounds absurd, but
it's accurate, and more enjoyable than was most people in this
general area are doing, in my opinion. There's an oddly placed
lock-groove right in the middle of their side, right at a
climatic point of abused violin and broken guitar (sounds like
the pick-ups are taped to bass strings occasionally being tugged
across the floor or something. The Sick Llama side, which again,
is "okay to play at any speed", was spun by me at 45 as
well, as this sounds more like the normal Llama that I know. At
first, less adventurous than some of his other things that I've
had the please of picking up (I recently grabbed a copy of the LP
on Hanson and a newer 7"s as well), but this is a pretty odd
sounding piece, I truly don't know what's going on right now.
haha. After another lock in the middle of his side, it
picks up into some great material that I really loved. upset
speakers having their lo-ends convexed too much with higher
pitched tones scraping across the top. This was good. 5nakefork
usually offers short run releases that come and go quick, and
have / had / will have some great things from Sleepwalkers Local,
Emeralds, Wether and tons tons more.
I finally picked up the LESLIE KEFFER LP on Ecstatic Peace after
passing on doing so for however long it has been out now, maybe 6
months? (probably longer). The A-Side is a long ambient (in a
mechanic and malfunctioning sort of way) piece that manages to
slowly shift through various walls of full and thick, but not
just scathing, sound. This reminds me of some of stuff that
Warmth does. The flipside felt like it blazed by and has a
similar feel.
I also took a pretty long time to pick up the most recent GROWING
release, a 12" on the Social Registry, which is in the same
vein as their last LP, "Vision Swim" and their recent
contribution to the Social Registry 7" series. Pulsing and
shimmering, ambient but textured, these four tracks fly by fairly
quickly, honestly leaving you wanting more than anything else. (I
instinctually took out Vision Swim to listen to afterwards, which
is actually awesome, as any other day, that would probably be the
last Growing record I'd have an urge to listen to, the double LP
on Conspiracy (vinyl version of the live CDr on Archive) is a
long time favorite, not just of the band, but in general, though
as time is going by, I am learning to enjoy this newest direction
more and more.
Took a little while to pick up IRON LUNG's new LP on Prank as
well, called "Sexless / No Sex", which continues their
short, fast, full volume hardcore assault from a two piece which
contains members from some older favorites, Gob and Artimus Pyle.
20 songs in (I'm sure) not much more than 25 minutes, which thick
sound and excellent mid-song transitions that keep it ultimately
more interesting than what most band sof this general feel are
doing. The Nick Blinko-esque are is apparently actually Nick
Blinko art, and catches the eye of anyone my age or older,
without a doubt, but anyone in generally as it's crust-punk meets
Edward Gorey vibe is always appreciated.
Awesome recent (soft of) DEEP JEW 7" on Static Aktion that I
just finally picked up from Nick / Hardlycore in Long Beach, out
of his distro while I was on tour. I was going to grab a bunch of
these (as well as a Sissy Spacek 7" that the label also put
out), but never returning e-mails meant waiting and eventually
grabbing single copies of each instead. ...I thought this one was
great, more coherent than their LP in my opinion, this is still
obliterated hardcore noise (much like Dynasty from a couple
summers back), and blurs the lines of guitar noise and
"music" quite well. I played with these guys last year
in LA, their set at the Smell consisted of setting up stacks of
amps facing the stage in the main room and then fist fighting the
crowd while ripping their ears to shreds as well. Sounds like
something that might be offensive if everyone in the building
didn't completely eat it up.
There's a new SISSY SPACEK CD/LP called "French Record"
that recently came out, though only the CD (on Australia's Dual
Plover) is out so far. Great collection of sound as always,
ranging from weird overly destroyed guitar tracks, to sparse and
hardly-there percussion-sound collages. Most notable was an eight
minute long track that had hard-panned alternating crashes of
clatter that were thrown back and forth with other sounds
occasionally levitating in the middle. Confused on some of this
because I feel like it's familiar, the two tracks called Sepsis,
I'm almost sure are from a 7" by the same name, but the
recording dates don't match up with when that came out, I got a
copy for myself and James R years ago. Could be a typo? Sometimes
I'm confused on these releases, like how Wiese - "Soft
Punk" LP had lots of stuff from other releases (great
7"s on Blue Sky Writings and Meu Dia De Muerte), but not
indicated anywhere in the packaging. blah blah. Regardless,
completely worth it if you're remotely interest in what this guy
does. ...much more along the lines of the recent "Gore
Jet" 7", another new Sissy Spacek record, a split
7" with The Gossip, was recently released as well. The SS
side is their live set from No Fun Fest, 2006 I think, offhand,
and (as mentioned - like "Gore Jet") a wall of
noise/thrash/wreckage, though in this live context, the small
sounds found on many Sissy Spacek records between them. The
Gossip side is a live recording of "Jason's Basement",
probably my favorite song of theirs, followed by some
cut/paste/rearrangement of sound from the show, I'd assume by
Wiese.
While on tour, I picked up the new ERIC COPELAND LP on Post
Present Medium, "Hermaphrodite", then found a promo
copy of the CD for 99 cents as well, allowing this to be listened
to while driving in the middle of the night from Seattle into the
weird abyss of Idaho. Excellent stuff that I suppose would be
expected from this Black Dice member, though at times I find
myself wishing things did not go on for as long as they do, even,
for example, the second track "Scraps" which is an
awesome, busy pitch-shifted gamelan sounding assault that is
joyous and bizarre. Obviously recommended if you enjoy Black
Dice, much of this sounds like components for something they
would be working on / doing. This is really good.
Some other recent things that I enjoyed a lot: new MAHJONGG CD on
K, I picked up a promo of this for a few cents while on the road,
and it made for a solid hour of "awake" driving,
interesting band, especially for K. New HOMOSTUPIDS 7" that
is great too, I dug it mostly because it was "real"
Homostupids, and not the silly joking around featured on their
ultra low-budget / high cost short run 7"s that they've done
over the past couple years. This is more along the lines of their
LP, "The Intern" on Parts Unknown, which is so so so so
good. Fucked / fast punk that is ridiculously good. Grabbed a
copy of a BONE AWL LP called "Not For Our Feet",
reissued on Nuclear War, which might have been a demo of sorts?
Either way, I've yet to hear much from this band that I would
consider "black metal", as they seem to have a big buzz
about them in relation to that genre. To me, this is just really
aggressive / angry sounding metallic crust punk, and I do like it
a lot. Reminds me of bands I'd see from here in Phoenix when I
first moved here, from the whole west side / Catchphraze Records
scene and the bands they'd do shows for. After seeing it in
Portland while on the road, I ordered a couple copies of a
compilation LP for Ann and I, a celebration of / thank you to,
the bands that participated in a festival, I think called
Halleluwah / Festival of Enthused Arts (and I assume this LP goes
by the same name). Tons of tracks from great people such as
Valet, White Rainbow, Tara Jane O'Neil, Vashti Bunyan, Deerhoof
and more. Simple but beautiful packaging, with what seems like
stiff vellum-type paper. Awesome looking and sounding record, to
be expected with anything released by Yeti. While traveling, I
also picked up an old WARMTH tape, which presents more of a
lighter sound than some of his other offerings (such as his epic
LP on Arbor, which is perfect in all ways possible). This
cassette is an eerie and warbled collage of midnight drone, and
ironically enough sounded like a slowed down warped version of a
diy "romance" mix-tape, found at a local thrift shop,
that was being played right before this got thrown into the tape
deck.
things:
Abe Vigoda - "Skeleton" LP (Post Present Medium).
Growing - "Lateral" LP (Social Registry).
Sick Llama / Fossils - split LP (5nakefork).
Leslie Keffer - "Feels Like Frenching" LP (Ecstatic
Peace).
The Gossip / Sissy Spacek - split 7" (Helicopter).
Cadaver in Drag - "Raw Child" CD (Animal
Disguise).
Mahjongg - s/t? CD (K).
Eric Copeland - "Hermaphrodite" LP (Post Present
Medium) / CD (Paw Tracks).
Iron Lung - "Sexless/No Sex" LP (Prank).
Homostupids - "Cat Music" 7" (Fashionable
Idiots).
Sex Vid - "Nests" 7" (Dom America).
Sex Vid - "Tania" 7" (Dom America).
Deep Jew - "Harem" 7" (Static Aktion). Jay Reatard - "Singles 06-07" 2xLP (In The Red) .
Jay Reatard - "See Saw" 7" (Matador).
Iron Lung - "Sexless / No Sex" LP (Prank).
Bone Awl - "Not For Our Feet" LP (Nuclear War).
v/a - "Halleluwah / Festival of Enthused Arts" LP (Yeti
/ Blackbird).
Warmth - cassette (Cherried Out Merch). (found a used copy
on tour).
(forgot to list these last time):
John Wiese + C Spencer Yeh - live CD (Helicopter).
Sissy Spacek - "California Ax" - 4xCD
(Helicopter).
Sissy Spacek - "French Record" CD (Dual Plower).
6/15/08
- Note: Posted in Sacramento, CA at 4:30AM after Stephen / French
Quarter asked: "Why haven't you posted in your blog in the
past month" (we're currently on tour together for a couple
of weeks on the west coast - come see us?).
5/11/08, 5/18/08, 5/25/08 - OOPS / OOPS
Vancouver is such a center point of weirdo punk and no wave noise
right now, and after receiving an always appreciated package of
magic from Nic Hughes (Shearing Pinx / N.213), full of great new
things from his label ISOLATED NOW WAVES earlier in the week (SEE
"THINGS" BELOW), Tempe had the pleasure of housing some
of their residents in earlier May at the Bike Co-Op, in the form
of a MUTATORS / MODERN CREATURES / SOFT SHOULDER show, which was
awesome and a good chance for me to test a PA that I scored
earlier in the day for $150 at a thrift store in town (which
worked fine for us, but ify for the other bands, though there's
all sorts of possible explanations for that one - cause trust me,
Soft Shoulder plays fairly loud).
The following weekend I headed out to LA to play a couple of
shows with Ann Marie (HELL-KITE). We had played a set together
during the first week of May here in Phoenix, with the DEAD
SCIENCE, who were completely amazing / wonderful as always (be
sue to check out their upcoming LP on Constellation - this band
has been playing for at least 7 years or so and are super nice
kids doing something fairly unique and seriously legit). ...at
that show she was playing with me, it was more of a loose noisy
type thing (which Steve J recorded for us - allowing us to make a
CD out of it). The LA shows were more so me playing along to her
songs.
Originally we just had a Saturday show at the House of Vermont,
which ended up being a pretty wild party type location, with an
amazing DJ named Bianca who threw down The Vanishing and James
White / Blacks tracks within the first 5 minutes of us walking up
to the house. LA hangs out late, but this was even later, not
even starting until 11:45 or so. We were exhausted and slept for
a little, but the vibe was great and everyone was really nice
there. We had heard some pretty over-the-top stories, maybe we
hit an off night? Regardless, a pretty wild atmosphere, not the
kind of thing that goes down in Phoenix very often.
The night before, we were asked to play a show at Echo Curio with
a band called Queen Mae and the Belles, who were so incredible
that it's not even worth trying to describe. Mostly percussion
and vocal based, three girls in some pretty extravagantly bizarre
outfits, sort of creeping all over the Curio like strange
animals. We missed a good portion of their set trying to catch
Naked on the Vague and Swift Wings at the Smell. We hung out for
what was most of what ended up being Naked on the Vague's set,
though we were completely in the dark because the kids at the
door told us it was Swift Wings that were about to start and the
set was pretty unlike the Naked stuff I have had the pleasure of
picking up so far.
LA was a great trip through and through, really nice to get out
of Phoenix for a minute, specifically with Ann. Getting away,
even if not even that far, is always enjoyable and makes being
where you are a little more tolerable. Got a great stack of
records for cheap at Amoeba (what else is new?), though I was
mostly excited about accidentally finding the Sleetmute Nightmute
7" for Ann for $1! Also had the pleasure of picking up a
tenor sax at a thrift store for $50, with a $48 package of reeds
being the first thing I saw when opening the case. Seems to work
fairly okay so far, though even if some money needs to be
invested in fixing it, so what? $50? Always really awesome to run
into nice people too, even if for a minute or two (Grant /
(VxPxC) / Sleepwalkers Local,... Eva / Kevin Shields,...
etc).
More recently, there was a great FOOT VILLAGE show, the last in a
tour of I think 23 days. Sounds like things have been going great
for them this time around. I recently put out their awesome new
LP, "Friendship Nation", and they sold through all of
their copies halfway through the shows, though I think I got them
more copies before they sold their last one. (If you're not
familiar with them, Foot Village play post-apocalyptic hardcore,
four drummers, not instruments, lots of yelling all around).
Excellent set here in PHoenix, super energetic and hilarious, and
Brian Miller managed to through down two of my favorite recent
quotes of the year so far over the course of the evening:
1. (in regards to plugging in the lights they put in the middle
of all of their drums): "These things are male on one side
and female on the other, just like most humans".
2. (in reply to hearing Ann mention being hungry): "Well I
hope you'e hungry for coal, because it doesn't matter if you've
been naughty or nice, you're getting coal, cause Santa Clause is
your waiter tonight"
An excellent cassingle from MODERN CREATURES, two songs of spooky
punk, a little bit like a less sassy Subtonix perhaps, dark and
driving and awesome, though not even half as awesome as the
7" they had wih them, put out by Mutators' drummer on his
label GROTESQUE MODREN. The N.213 / JESSE TAYLOR split
cassette it a good pairing with a new batch of Nic's solo
mutations and 15 minutes of Jesse's synth-tragic-dance music.
Jesse and Nic play together in Channels 3x4, and Jesse's also in
another great Vancouver based band, Twin Crystals. There's
something extremely endearing about seeing the two of them on
this tapes' layout. Some great LES BEYOND releases, which is
Erin of Shearing Pinx / Her Jazz Noise Collective doing her own
thing, and so on and so on and so on.
Newest SONIC YOUTH - SYR LP (number 7) which recently came out is
great, two long sides, A being a dense and kind of all over /
swaying sort of early 2000's SY-era type song that winds up
getting pretty loud and destroyed as time goes on. Unexpected
vocals from Kim throughout a good portion was an unexpected plus
that made it an even more engaging listen, the amazing sounding
recording helps too. The B side is a dark and drone oriented
piece with spurts of guitar clatter and bowed low-end strings
that starts off with a few minutes of quieter and pretty sounding
versions of what follows. Obviously not for the person that is
only wanting to hear some new songs, but this LP is
awesome.
Recently grabbed alternate format versions of some recent
releases, a cassette version of the NEW BLOODS full length
recently released as a CD / limited LP on Kill Rock Stars, with
pro-printed cassettes / inserts making for a nice looking tape.
The CD version of the extremely limited WOODS FAMILY CREEPS LP
recently released on Time-Lag and finally grabbed the LP version
of SHELLAC's newest LP, which I like a lot, almost as much, if
not more (in time) than "At Action Park".
Lucked out on finding the SICK LLAMA LP on Hanson at Amoeba used,
I've enjoyed most of his recordings that I've come across, and
aesthetically as well in most cases, specifically the AA lathe.
This LP is a good collection of varied sound recordings, thick
low rumbles, sparse high pitched crackles, some weird tape
manipulation processing and the occasional percussive portion as
well. Above par in my opinion, great to listen to while typing up
a month's worth of blog entries. ...I came home to his new
7" Nightly Melting" in my PO Box, and it carries the
same vibe as the LP, though feels more condensed, not just in the
sense that it's only 7"s and not 12. Perhaps not very
everyone that enjoys the genre, but I think what this guy is
doing is great.
Nestled in with the new Sick Llama 7" was a forgotten treat
which blew my mind 100%, a new SISSY SPACEK 7", also on
Troubleman. This one, called "Gore Jet" is not the
typical destruction / cut / rearrange schematic, but is actually
4 songs from 1999 with Wiese doing distorted bass / drum machine
and Cory Ronnau on vocals, it's fast and disgusting and out of
control and blown out noise/core at it's finest, extremely (and
surprisingly coherent). Dare I even try to compare this to
something like Honeywell or something? (I hope not - no one would
agree - it's more mechanical sounding, though what can you expect
- it's a drum machine). God, this is a great one.
There's a package worth of Wiese stuff that showed up earlier in
the month that I haven't had the chance to listen though all the
way yet (at least not in the right environment), including the
gigantic four-CD SISSY SPACEK - "California Ax", which
he did on his on Helicopter label, and includes old random stuff,
group efforts and the complete recordings of his recent Sissy
Spacek 13-tet show that he did at the Smell. Also on Helicopter,
a new CD of two live recordings of collaborations with C. Spencer
Yeh, which I have gotten halfway though three or four times, but
always end up having to leave or something else. (Love it so far
though, great crisp recordings that tear through any stereo
nicely - with much more of a sporadic approach rather than some
blanket of loud-volume banter).
Continuing the Vancouver kick already mentioned, a grabbed a
bunch of copies of a new SHEARING PINX 7" for the Gilgongo
distro, called "Haruspex", put out by Canadian label
Divorce (who have put out a few other great releases over the
past couple of years, including the Be Bad CD and a Unicorn /
Torso split). The A side track, "Negaman" starts out
with the Pinx in full form, fast loud Unwound in a no-wave sort
of way degenerating into open noise / all over the place nonsense
that slows down and relaxes for just a short while until the
"song" picks up and closes the side in the last twenty
seconds. B Side picks up right where those last twenty seconds
left off, fast noisy guitar at full volume / full force until
reaching a herky stop and go section where to vocals start
getting shouted over. Last song is a rough sounding live
recording of squealing // squelching destruction. Excellent
7"!
Another great 7" that I was happy to show up locally at
Eastside, a split between Gay Beast and Twin. Gay Beast are a
secret favorite of mine, after playing with them (in Soft
Shoulder) like a year and a half ago, and then re-falling in love
with their beautiful looking and absurd sounding LP. This is the
first recording I've heard since those times, and their brand of
extremely quirky and angular queer-wave is in tact, and would
make the children on Brainiac and God Is My Co-Pilot proud. Twin,
from what I remember, are from the ashes of The King Cobra, and
is a current project of one of the girls from The Need, which
definitely makes sense for how this sounds, thick riff-heavy, but
still sort poppy business. The more Quixotic side of things at
times. ...on top of how great the music on this thing is, one of
the most beautiful and intricate screening jobs I've seen in
awhile, three colors, very detailed and on a good off-white
stock. Everything about this record is perfect and it's well
worth your time and money. This is what a 7" should
be.
things:
Sonic Youth - SYR 7 LP (SYR).
Sick Llama - "Born Again To Die" LP (Hanson).
OCS - "Songs About Death and Dying Vol. #3" LP (Yik
Yak).
Blank Dogs - "On Two Sides" LP (Troubleman).
Meanwhile - "Reality or Nothing" LP (Feral Ward).
Shellac - "Excellent Italian Greyhound" LP (Touch and
Go). (finally)!
New Bloods - "The Secret Life" cassette (Hot
Sauce).
Small Group - s/t cassette (Jankey).
Woods (Woods Family Creeps) CD version of LP (Time-Lag).
Woods -"From the Horn" cassette (Fuck It Tapes).
Nonhorse - "Mushhead" cassette (Fuck It Tapes).
Sex Negatives - "Parkade" 7" (Grotesque Modern /
The Broadway to Boundary).
Nons / Lives Girls - split 7" (Grotesque Modern).
Moden Creatures - s/t 7" (Grotesque Modern).
Modern Creatures - "Took yr Girl / Becoming a Lizzard"
cassingle (Isolated Now Waves).
Les Beyond / Racketball - split cassette (Thankless).
N.213 / Jesse Taylor - split cassette (Isolated Now Waves).
Black Dicks - "XY.33" - cassette (Isolated Now
Waves).
Aja Rose Bond - "Flying Lion" cassette (Isolated Now
Waves).
Aerosol Constellations - Stellations #3 Feb 08 CDr (Isolated Now
Waves).
Les Beyond - "In A Gemstone" CDr (Isolated Now Waves).
Acre / Default Jamerson / Mongst - 3 x 3" CDr (Isolated Now
Waves).
v/a - "The Affirmation Series Vol. 1" - 3 x cassette
(Isolated Now Waves) (one side each from Les Beyond, Bonnie
Mercer, Knell, Tara Jane O'Neil, Aja Rose Bond and Paradise
Island).
Naked on the Vague - "Poltergeist Palm" 7"
(Skulltones).
Alas, Alak, Alaska! / Whitman - split 7" (Folktale).
Sissy Spacek - "Gore Jet" 7" (Troubleman
Unlimited).
Sick Llama - "Nightly Melting" 7" (Troubleman
Unlimited).
Gay Beast / Twin - split 7" (Anti-Form / Strictly Amateur
Films).
Shearing Pinx - "Haruspex" 7" (Divorce).
recent rotation:
Blue Meanies - live CD. Initial State LP on Prank. Delta 5.
Marion Brown. Coltrane - "Meditation".
___________________________________________________________________
4/27/08 - we own we own we own we sell
This seemed like a
really fast week, though was quite slow on some levels as well. I
played a couple of shows alone this week. One was with a girl
named Rachel. I'm not connected to the internet, so I can't look
up her last name and type it here like I actually remembered, but
she was playing her songs with other people under a collective
ensemble name: "Coney Island Suite". I was asked to
play by this great / nice guy from here, Steve, and what I
thought he said was that she was on tour and has some people come
with her / has random people from each town play with her, but in
all actuality, she is from here and is actually Steve's partner
(oops)! I really loved it, I thought the basis of her songs were
much like Shannon Wright, who I think is excellent, but what
Rachel did really took it a step beyond (or outside), having
really loose and free drums / percussion, and clarinet parts that
were so impressively complicated and well executed. Sometimes the
overall effect was really smooth and laid back, but others it was
very bizarre, fragmented and all over the place.
I liked what I did with my set, but it felt rushed and
not-together, which is okay. It felt really strange too, like I
was reacting to what I was doing fairly heavily. I felt like it
was a pretty accurate representation of how I have / had been
feeling lately, or maybe just sort of channeled something along
those lines from some other time, I'm not sure - it wasn't
attached to anything specific at all, but was sort of
overwhelming in general.
I played pretty much the same set a few days later at Ann's
house, and that time around I liked how it sounded a bit more,
and didn't make me feel anything but really good. the first half
of this thing is fairly abrasive but droney. There's supposed to
be this section that becomes sort of pulsing on the left and very
flowing on the right, but it hasn't come across the way I've
meant it to these last two times. ...the ending or second half
has this sort of skewed sounding feedback that's really quite,
with long notes being held out on various things, in the case of
the show at Ann's, it was Preston's wonderful sounding Wurlitzer
organ with the amp holding down the sustain pedal (and hitting
the same notes at different octaves), a guitar tuned to the same
notes at different octaves and laying on the floor, vocals that
come in and out very choppy, but are being layered and loops, and
with Preston playing cello, Ann playing melodica. I liked it a
lot. (I like them a lot)!
The show at Ann's house was weird, not a finer moment for Tempe,
everyone was pretty out of it in a wide variety of ways, and in
the time between my set ended and Kevin Greenspon's was starting,
it just completely disintegrated. I could be wrong, but I think
that for the last half of Kevin's set, it was literally just the
band he was in town with, Hey Buddy and the Pals, and Ann and
myself, maybe one o two others?. That might sound like a bummer
in a way, but on a completely personal level, it gave me an
extreme appreciation of Kevin / what he's doing. While it's not
really my normal cup of tea by any means, his willingness to give
it his all and go over the top, even when there is practically no
one there, is really impressive and inspiring. We went to
Trunkspace to see him play the following night, and I'd be
willing to say that it seemed like he might have even exhausted
more energy in the living room the night before. Oh: and he's
fucking funny. Hey Buddy and the Pals had a pretty loud and
unbalanced delivery - but I think they had fun, and a few people
actually meandered back and got to see them. (and probably dug
them okay, cause the same faces were at the Trunkspace show the
following night).
That sort of show, the one at Ann's, can really make you second
guess yourself and the things that you're involved with. Like
whether or not it's worth it (trying to make things happen), and
how you feel about your neighbors and team-mates and all of that
stuff. But on the other hand, it had some purely good vibes
floating underneath it all. Ann's set was wonderful. I liked what
I did. And: Kevin and his friends were not only "okay"
with how things went, they still had a ton of fun and were
grateful and positive throughout the whole thing. I was
really impressed with Ann keeping cool with all the weird stuff
going on, I feel like I would have been more freaked and on edge
if it was my thing / my house, and again, so impressed with
Kevin's sincere enthusiasm as well.
Slow moment for the label, how nice! I got the tests for the
Married in Berdichev 7" and they sound good. It'll still be
a month before that thing surfaces. And I'm excited for the
Tent/City "Stinkweeds" CD to finally be alive, but I
think I'm going to wait till whenever in May that James R shows
up, so that he can be there to help decide some things on it. And
just waiting on the screen to be made for the Juniper Strain LP
(so insane that it's going to be ready after three yeas or
something)!
things:
like none this week, how weird?
No Paws (No Lions) / Hey Buddy and the Pals - split 3" CDr
(Bridgetown).
No Paws (No Lions) / AM - split 7" (Silencio).
Daniel Striped Tiger / Sinaloa - split 7" (not sure on the
label, again, not online right now, but I think it's on Clean
Plate - and I should disclose, I have not listened to this yet,
but it's two of the very few current "hardcore" related
bands and I'm really excited about it).
listening to:
Red Aunts - "Salt Box", "#1 Chicken".
Meneguar - "The In Hour" (over and over). Sonic Youth -
"NYC Ghosts and Flowers", "Murray Street".
Emeralds - rip of double cassette.
___________________________________________________________________
4/20/08 - anahata!
So today is the first Sunday that I didn't have to work the first
half of the shift. ...it made possible: staying up until 5am
watching HORROR PARTY and having a nice breakfast / relax time
with a few people over at 3 Roots,... though I am sure I would
have been up with the HORROR regardless of having to wake up
early or not. ...I hope that this is as concrete of a situation
like it sounds, this schedule works so, so well for me, without a
doubt. (and while on the subject, what it is: an hour and forty
minutes of 30 second to 4 or 5 minute clips of weirdo B / cult
horror movies, assembled by the genius that his Colin of the band
Crime Desire - it is so worth your time, really really funny /
bizarre and incredible).
This week kind of blazed by quite quickly. In a good way, 95%
good I'd say. I continue feeling really good, about almost all
things that surround me and absolutely with myself. And
surroundings: Not just friends and people who are close, but
neighbors that I don't know, the seemingly increased amount of
young children that are hanging out on bikes and skateboards and
with their parents up and down the same streets that all of these
amazing creative people live on,... Doug, who owns the house that
I live in and is just so active and good, the fact that the tree
in the front yard is completely covered with leaves again. The
"rock band" in the house to the west: that consists of
Elizabeth and her boyfriend and their friend, who just play for
themselves in their living room. The feeling that I get just
knowing there's so much happening in such a highly dense way,
even all of the things that I don't know about at all.
But at the same time, I did have a definite exhaustion crash on
Friday night that was not enjoyable, one of those situations
where you just want to cry because how tired you are hits you at
once and you can't even think or talk. ...and that's okay, it was
salvaged wonderfully anyway. And the following day, I finally did
the majority of the cutting-up of the rug from Stinkweeds Tempe!
(In preparation for a "some time soon" CD of Tent/City
recordings that were done there in the middle of the night. - The
CDs are going to be packaged with squares of the rug).
Playing three shows by myself this week: Tuesday at Trunkspace,
with a woman that does fairly interesting but light jazz stuff
from what I understand. I'm planning on keeping my set light as
well to match the vibe as much as possible). Friday at
Ann/Aaron/Greg's house, with Ann / Hell-Kite and Kevin Greenspon
- who I feel like I'll finally actually be meeting, since I don't
really count message board interactions and 2 minute long
conversations when I am out of it and run into him at some show
in LA or something. And Saturday is with Deep Jew at the Bike
Co-Op. I'm really excited about getting the things that are
coming up, done and out - though I don't care much, just as long
as some or most are done in time for tour in June.
I think that my recent re-obsession with June of 44 / Shipping
News is slowly winding down. Good news for people who ever enter
my house! No more "Engine Takes To The Water" on
repeat, just once a day instead? ...I don't know. Such long time
favorites and legitimate assistants in helping me when I'm
feeling off. I feel like these handfuls of records and I have
just strongly reacquainted this time around, and it feels
nice.
Saw Ben / Porches play last night, such a great guy - I can't
wait till he finally ends up back here in Tempe. I forgot to grab
one of their new CDs. I mastered the thing a month or two ago and
didn't know it was even done / assembled and out. I don't think I
have it on my computer, and am curious how it really sounds. I am
a complete novice, would never want to be responsible for
mastering anyone's stuff other than my own, but I don't mind
doing my best in the name of helping out, and it was mostly just
trimming out the dead space, some cuts and fade-outs, things like
that. ...the recordings came out good, it's an awesome
representation of the songs that Ben makes.
Some random new things that have come my way: an excellent double
3" CDr from OWL XOUNDS called "Stoned and Zoned",
hard-hitting freejazz with hints of electronics / effects thrown
in this time around. This is probably my favorite release of
theirs thus far. It goes all over the place and never gets the
least bit boring. The newest MENEGUAR LP is absolutely amazing. I
believe, offhand, that the deal with the recordings is that they
are new songs that were heavily left open for different
interpretation during the recordings process - the end result
being weird mixes and odd instrumentation, Meneguar songs that
have 60's fringe pop melodies, especially in how backing vocals
were recorded on some songs. I don't know, I feel like going into
it much would make is sound a bit more bizarre than it is. It's
not another "Meneguar" LP though, it's something that
is way different and adventurous, while still being various
obviously rooted in the Meneguar vein,... or something? Maybe
what I am trying to get at is that this is one of the best things
I've heard in awhile, loved it right away, and the first song on
the B Side is probably going to be one of my favorites of the
year. Get this.
things:
Owl Xounds - "Stoned and Zoned" 2 x 3" CDr (Thors
Rubber).
German - "Street Food" CDr (Seafoam).
Meneguar - "The In Hour" LP (Woodsist).
Mike Tamburo / Matt McDowell - "At Bohemian Grave" CDr
(Ruralfaune).
___________________________________________________________________
4/13/08
- funny games!
Voyeurism! (life)!
Changes!
Infection in my jaw / neck area. (painful / not all the way gone
yet).
Restructured how I am doing some label work. (a
"schedule": so that I am less stressed by it).
Only working at the group home for the second half of Sundays
(starting next week).
Buying my mother's car in June (an Accord with just over 105K,
just paying off the loan's remainder).
oh, almost forgot: I am single now.
I want to write about a lot of things, but this just isn't the
forum for them. Honestly, there really is no forum aside from
conversation with friends (and Mom!) and the manifestation of
ideas and feelings into music and art (which is arguably
inappropriate in certain cases as well, but that's just entirely
too bad). And even if you sit down and talk about things with
someone, no one can really understand just what you are feeling
as much as you can anyway, though it can help you process, calm
down, further develop your ideas, and so on. ...when things are
overwhelming, it's obviously a huge benefit, and I absolutely owe
a lot of listening time right now.
Though I will disclose: I am okay, and at no point have I been
down on myself in a literal sort of sense at all. ...defiantly
for short amounts of time as an expression of frustration and
sadness, which is silly I think, but also understandable. The
fact of the matter is: I know exactly who I am, how I think, what
I believe in and what I desire from the world, and I'm happy with
where I stand as a person. I mean: There are some small
things that I would love to work on and change, as well as things
I want to start, but much more than that: I know I'm good
and have a lot to share. And: I deserve to be happy, and to be
with someone that I can make happy and share something amazing
with.
Maybe: some other time.
So, speaking of time: in an effort to keep myself sane / create
more time for myself, I am doing this sort of schedule thing,
where I try to do a majority of label work at two specific times:
packing orders made from Friday to Monday on Monday night all at
once, mailing them on Tuesday, and then the same: Tuesday through
Thursday, all packed on Thursday and mailed on Friday. And doing
all pertinent e-mailing and correspondence at those times as
well. ...I'm still checking e-mail everyday and responding to
short things, but most work is getting done at those times. I've
been doing this since the beginning of April, and had been
planning on it like that for awhile, and it's working out
well.
And not working the first half of the group home shift on Sundays
will be a huge help with having time to "live". Right
now it's an 8am-10pm shift, which means I only have one day where
I can be up as late as I want without having to worry about
waking up. Cutting out the first 6 hours of this shift will give
me another, and I really think that's a great thing for me right
now. Possibly "needed" actually, I'm not sure.
...regardless, I think it is going to be a concrete, long-term
thing. (Though you never know how things will go in this field,
and my love of the guys at this group home and the lack of
adequate coverage is the only reason I am even here. I don't care
about the extra money. The 14 hour shift that I do every Sunday
is an open position that could be filled at any time, but the
specific individuals that I work with at this home are somewhat
infamous for being out of control (though in reality: you don't
get the behaviors if you know what you're doing and interact with
them in just the right way), and so my temporary coverage of this
entire day has been temporarily going on for four years now,
which is crazy).
The infection, geez: The infection was insane, you would not
believe it, so large I could hardly open my mouth. Pain killers
were a life saver for a few days, it would just throb forever -
such an awful feeling. It was disgusting and I'll spare the messy
details, but I will embarrassingly admit that I was fairly
flattered that the young woman referring to me as Mr. Fella at
the Pharmacy was so obviously flirting with me despite the fact
that I had this gigantic disfigured face and could hardly talk
(and was almost in tears from being in so much pain at the
moment). Usually I don't like those situations, perhaps because I
am too uptight for my own good, but given the absurdity of the
scenario, I appreciated it. ...right now it's still there, though
only a little bit, to where I can just feel it from the inside. I
ran out of my second script for antibiotics, so depending on what
this thing looks and feels like over the next couple of days, I
might have to go back in again.
All of that awful business prompted me to not leave my home to
play a show with Married in Berdichev, who I love and am doing a
record for (next month), though I decided to be there in ghost
form, recording a 10 minute piece, freestyle / in one take and
making a little pamphlet to go with it (which I made a bunch of
for the crowd). The piece was weird, it went all over the place
in such a short amount of time, and I just went direct into a
stereo cassette deck. I thought it sounded great, and sent the
tape deck to the show to be ran through the PA with the pamphlets
for my "set". I heard I did okay! ...I made a CDr out
of the tape, and cut up / resized the pamphlet for the
packaging.
As for my mother's car: it seems like such a good plan for the
moment. It's a young, healthy car and will cost me very little,
especially since I can use it for the tour with French Quarter
that I am doing in June, as that would have been $700 in rental
car fees if I was going to have Stephen be able to legally drive,
which I obviously would have. I am, after all: very up tight. So
even with this car being a cheap-for-what-it-is sort of hook up,
it's even less expensive when calculated NOT having to spend all
that other money on a rental. ...I won't really use it much so
it'll stay nice forever I'm sure. Six days a week I'll still be
using my scooter to go to an from work. Realistically, the car
will just be for shows outside of the neighborhood, (grocery)
shopping, and the occasional trip to wherever. I don't know, I
like the idea for now.
Oh, what else... I'm wanting to do a lot of other music
things right now, but probably won't right away. Most recently,
writing a lot of things that I would love to fully assemble
before even attempting to work on with others. Slow and quiet
things that are fairly sparse and stop and go. I'd compare it but
it would just evoke "direct rip off", but I don't know.
It's a particular style for sure, and would be a great great
outlet for me. Regardless, I've been sending a lot of time just
standing there and playing, which is something I never usually
do. It's nice. It feels really good.
I saw the movie FUNNY GAMES, a remake of a shock/terror sort of
movie from the 90's that I am not familiar with. I thought it was
incredible, though am still a little ify on this one short scene
that was a bit over the top quirky, though when talking to others
about said scene, the appreciation of it makes tons of sense.
Regardless: a pretty awesome film about two people terrorizing a
family over the course of a day, essentially just for the sake of
torturing them. I've said for years that the shock aspects of
Clockwork Orange could use an updating and this is honestly a
pretty similar sort o approach. This whole movie could have been
a scene from that one, without a doubt. Pretty intense ideas were
thrown down, and there wasn't much to be touched on that wasn't
in the realm of "fucked up", but honestly much more
gripping was the dry wit from boys doing the torturing, their
softness was what really elevated what was going on to such a
fucked up level, and it was just all really well done.
There's this one song that plays three times, beginning middle
and end, this ultra fucked up / brutal nonsense that I was sure
was some Dave Witte or Chris Dodge elated project, but was
actually a Zorn thing called Naked City with Eye / Boredoms
freaking out on vocals. Such an over the top song! Like if you
played a Total Shutdown LP at 5 different speeds (all at least
twice as fast as it should be) at the same time. And otherwise,
no music at all. Just talking. Well, and other stuff.
I don't really feel like there's been too much else going on
since the last time I wrote in here,... Soft Shoulder played
Small Group's tape release show at the Bike Saviors Co-Op, but my
mood kicked me out of the show for sure, though to be fair, I
enjoyed wild company on the sidewalk down the street by my
vehicle for a good while. We also played last night, at what
ended up being a pretty bleak benefit show for Trunkspace.
...they made the rest of the money needed to get a Certificate of
Occupancy cleared, but it was pretty sad. I largely blame it
being fairly last minute, no one really knowing about it, and my
own personal dealings getting in the way of my getting people
stoked about it. ...you can't win every time, but then again:
technically a success, so, maybe I should just shut up about
it.
I'm still not feeling up to writing about music stuff at the
moment. tsk tsk. Oh well?
things:
Sickness + Wolf Eyes - LP (Hospital).
Inca Ore - "Ballet Chop" CDr (Ruralfaune).
(VxPxC) - "I See a Fire In The Distance" CDr
(Ruralfaune).
Foot Village, ZS - 7"s from Rock is Hell boxset.
Paradox #10 - book + CDr (American Tapes).
Life At These Speeds / Thank God - split 7" (Exotic
Fever).
listening to:
June of 44 - all. Shotmaker - "Mouse Ear (Forget Me
Not)". Lords of Light. Mania D. Mary Timony Band, Helium.
Sickness - "Fuck Your Punk Rock". Caroliner - random.
You and I - all. Get the Hell Out of the Way of the Volcano -
"Everyday Examples..." Don Caballero - "American
Don". Shipping News - "Save Everything".
3/30/08
- sleep in april, of course.
The fact of the matter is, that I've had a really crummy three
weeks.
Most recently, an infection in my jaw over the past week,
terrible.
Blah blah blah. April is almost here!
Foot Village and Little Women LPs are both out!
And there was some great: gossiping with Kate Hall for 2 minutes,
meeting Jesse Taylor from Vancouver / Ch 3x4 / Twin crystals /
Deer + Bird lathes after YEARS of mailing each other packages
full of amazing things, Foot Village, Kevin Shields and New
Bloods all just incredible live sets, and this one very specific,
most bleak Soft Shoulder noise set to a crowd of two. Very
exciting times indeed!
Huge "oops" on not named dropping Jacqueline Castel in
the previous entry about the These Are Power show, she's
completely awesome, as is her radio show in NYC, Make the Product
- check her / it out!
things:
Axolotl + Elisa Ambrogio - 7" (Spirit of Orr).
Meth Teeth - 7" (Sweet Rot).
The Okmoniks - "Party Fever!!!" LP (Slovenly).
Woods Family Creeps - s/t LP (Time-Lag).
Sewer Election / Altar of Fliers - split LP (Release the
Bats).
Robedoor - "Rancor Keeper" CD (Release the Bats).
Foot Village - "Friendship Nation" CD (Tome).
Gang Wizard - "Crow Whitaker" lathe 7" (Deer and
Bird).
Twin Crystals - "Seperate Birth" CDep (EXO).
Twin Crystals - "Disappear Forever" lathe 7" (Deer
and Bird / Crime Wave).
Twin Crystals - SLU 7" (test)
Twin Crystals - "No Clinics" lathe 10" (Deer and
Bird / SLU).
not really new (but thanks to an LA record store stop by
Jasmin!):
Veronica Lipgloss and the Evil Eyes - "The Witch's
Dagger" LP (Cochon).
Quintron - "Swamp Tech" LP (Tigerbeat 6).
used scores:
Sonic Youth - Experimental Jet Set / Trash and No Star LP
(Geffen?).
Graveyards - "Vultures Banquet" LP+ CDr (Editions
Broken Research).
3/9/08 - juxxxboxx
me (monday):
Not a ton of time to type at the moment, but I will say that the
annual "MARCH MONTH OF CRAZY SHOWS BECAUSE PEOPLE PASS
THROUGH IN ROUTE TO / FROM SXSW" has been pretty great so
far, with nothing but good interactions and the such, so far
consisting of a small small small but perfect (VxPxC) show at
Trunkspace, great / chill / nice people, amazingly good at 100%
improvision, went all over the place without ever sounding lost.
MOUNT EERIE the night after the night after, he played an
incredible set that was appropriately over the top and well done
(pitch black with a projector running shots of Anacortes forest
and refineries, with conversations about packaging tape and
Southern Lord records' great quality in the living room. And then
woah, THESE ARE POWERS at Modified Arts the next night. We played
with them and Chinese Stars, These Are Powers were incredible,
like some sort of wild pre-pubescent Gang Gang Dance or a
nu-Mocket "Pro-formula". They were all over the place,
robotic modulated bass, wild (yes, wild) vocals that came out of
this girl while she was running all over Modified, and you can
not fake this much enthusiasm, she was just ecstatic all night
long and made her band all that more enjoyable. I grabbed one of
everything that they had, all of which is fantastic, though
SEEING THIS BAND play is definately where it's at. ...however,
their maybe five screen printed gatefold double 180g LP is not a
horrible substitute by any means. And then a 350 person KIMYA
DAWSON show at Trunkspace, which was, stressfull? Here's Bri
White, who opened:
Stuff continues this week! Mika Miko / No Age / George Moshington
on Monday, and an absurd one on Tuesday: Old Time Relijun, Foot
Village (who's new LP will be ready in a couple weeks, but they
are going to have them for their current tour thanks to the
"mad skills" at GILGONGO RECORDS!) Twin Crystals,
Friends Forever, Kevin Shields, Soft Shoulder and Andrew Jackson
Jihad. esh! Both at Trunkspace!
THINGS (typed out throughout the week):
Picked up the new CAT POWER, a double LP of covers called
"Jukebox", which I found much more enjoyable than
"The Covers Record" that she did a few years ago. This
is a smooth, smooth, relaxing listen that is admittedly, more or
less "easy listening" in many areas, though still feels
like it has a lot of soul to it. And without examining much, I
honestly didn't recognize any of these songs at all, even taking
a minute to catch that one was a re-working of her own
"Metal Heart". LONG (in a good way) record.
New CHRIS CORASANO (who is a member of noise/rock unit Vampire
Belt and collaborates with EVERYONE) LP, called "The Young
Cricketer" is an excellent example of how inventive you can
be using just percussion and the occasional reed shoved in your
mouth, as this entire LP consists of diverse short snippets of
truly "busy" sounding pieces, given the fact that he
did this without overdubbing or using any sort of effects /
electronics. Long list on the back cover of the random items used
(including "reed attached to hose and funnel or various
shower apparatuses"). 100% recommended, this was really fun
to listen to.
Great new LP from NAKED ON THE VAGUE, on SILTBREEZE, who I'm
extremely excited about being so active again out of nowhere,
it's the best! ...This LP fit pretty well for everything else I
had been spinning at the time, Subtonix, These Are Powers,
Veronica Lipgloss and the Vanishing, though Naked on the Vague
are much more on the "downer" side of whatever you
would refer to anything like any of those as. Like instead of
getting you amped and all like These Are Powers, N.O.T.V. get you
feeling low and dirty, but not at all in a negative way, just in
a "that's the way it is, deal with it" sort of way.
(maybe if you took a These Are Powers 45 and play it at 16 after
leaving it out in the sun, for example. ...It's good though,
despite how all of that might sound, in fact, it's kind of
brilliant, you just need to know when to put it on / take it
off.
Although not at all new, I just finally got a copy of on of THE
BODY's older recordings, a self titled LP of slow, thick
hardcore, somewhere between anyone of the many Y2K
"screamo" revivalist (Remington: West fucking Triad
comes to mind, though the my have been doing their thing in the
late 90's??) and something like Noothgrush, or at times older
Isis, Cavity,... all of these being good things of course. Not
something I will pull out very often, but a solid record, and I
bet they are incredible live. From the same person, I also got a
copy of SPITBOY's "classic" (depending on who you ask!)
LP, "True Self Reveled". Despite owning pretty much
very thing else, I had never picked this one up. Who knows why, I
was probably 12 when that Los Crudos / Spitboy split LP came out,
so I have certainly had time, though having the CD from an
equally early age my to be blame. Regardless, this holds up, like
what what Bikini Kill if trying to play thicker, more
"hardcore" oriented material, and the GIANT, thick
booklet (thing is like 10" x 12"!) is worth the $3 or
$4 that I dropped on this alone. This was a really well-done
record. As well as these, I also scored GIBBONS and NORTH LINCOLN
LPs as well. The Gibb's missing an insert, it has to be, all I
can figure out about it that (I'd assume), this was a record Josh
Patrick Quinn had don on one of his labels, because there's a JPQ
in the matrix. (Always typing these things when there's no
internet to solve these small mysteries). Either way, an
excellent pop-ink record, a little far on the melodic side for
me, but so well done that I don't mind at all. Would fit well on
a bill with Pezz, Everready or Dillinger Four, absolutely. ...and
very much on the same page, is North Lincoln, who I had never
heard before, a little more on the gruff side of thing
(mid-period Hot Water Music? sure), but still hand in hand, great
driving, energetic, "real" melodic punk.
things:
Naked on the Vague - "The Blood Pressure Sessions" LP
(Siltbreeze).
Cat Power - "Jukebox" 2xLP (Matador).
These Are Powers - "Terrific Seasons" 2xLP
(Hoss).
These Are Powers - "Taro Tarot" CDep (Hoss / Deleted
Art).
These Are Powers - "Silver Lung" 7" (Elsie and
Jack).
(VxPxC) - "Strange on Hind Legs" CDr
(self-released).
(VxPxC) - "VXPXCXBXFXF" CDr (self-released).
Chris Corasano - "The Young Cricketer" LP (Family
Vineyard).
used scores:
The Body - s/t LP (Obscurest Press / Ooo-Mau-Mau).
Spitboy - "True Self Revealed" LP (Ebullition).
The Gibbons - "Hope Inc" LP (???).
3/2/08
- MARCH
Below things were written throughout the week, I'm feeling really
exhausted lately, not to be confused with burnt-out, not that at
all, but definitely overly tired to the point that I'm just not
doing well in any general regard, but that's okay, cause April is
right around the corner, and April will be okay! March on the
other hand, there's two new LPs and a CD coming out to be worked
on doing things with, and I'm probably playing 10 times in these
next four weeks. Point being, for now at least, is that I'm
really tired and worn out and all of that, so I don't have much
that I feel like writing about in reference to this last week.
Instead, I give you my March:
(Monday night)!
and everything else: Mon 3/03 - (VxPxC),
Warm Climate, Childrens Crusade, James Fella @ Trunkspace
Wed 3/05 - Mount Eerie, A.F. Jamison, French Quarter @ TrunkspaceThur
3/06 – Chinese Stars, These Are Powers, Vultures. Soft
Shoulder @ Modified Arts
Sat 3/08 - Kimya Dawson, Bri White, more @ Trunkspace
Mon 3/10 - Mika Miko, No Age, Clipd Beaks, George Moshington @
Trunkspace
Tue 3/11 - Old Time Relijun, Foot Village, Friends Forever, Soft
Shoulder, Kevin Shields, Andrew Jackson Jihad @ Trunkspace
Mon 3/17 - New Bloods, Magic Johnson, Extra Life, Soft Shoulder,
Splinter Cake, Love Songs Monster Songs @ Bike Saviors Co-Op
Wed 3/19 - Capillary Action, PWRFL Power, Soft Shoulder @
Trunkspace
Fri 3/21 - Foot Foot, Uggamugga, French Quarter, Liz Eymann @
Trunkspace
Thur 3/27 - Married in Berdichev, James Fella, more @ Trunkspace Fri 3/28 - The Black Keys, Jay Reatard @ Marguee Theater
Sat 3/29 - Dear Nora + CD release for a compilation Bri is doing,
at Trunkspace.
These will all be a lot of fun, but they are also "a
lot"!
things:
Seems like for a couple of months, a lot of the new things that
come in are AM-Tapes related and Memphis punk. This week is no
exception! ...more awesome from the recent onslaught of AMERICAN
TAPES releases, the CIRCUIT REFUSAL one-sided 12" (AM650) is
a solid brick of damaged tones being shifted across a cellar
somewhere out there, captured and painfully pushed trough
speakers via opaque marbled grey wax with current AM-TAPES style,
full color collage sticker on the b-side (so you can always tell
when these things are "virgin" or not). Although always
a fan of what this label throws down, and for obvious reason,
some of the more recent things have really been blowing me away,
this being no exception. The excitement found when a "wall
of noise" approach is diverse enough to be engaging but
still, in it's own way, a potentially "background" sort
of thing, is an great thing to achieve for me, on a personal
level. ...most recently doing this for me would be EMERALDS, who
have a much less harsh approach in all ways, but regardless: this
is a fairly violent sounding assault of sheer intensity, without
any of the silly dynamics getting in the way, and for the record,
is a collaboration between Circuit Wound and Birth Refusal.
Another rad AM-TAPES release to show, an echo death-jazz jam of a
one-sided LP called WARNING SIGN - "Live at Copymax Jason's
Birthday Party". This one is a little bit more lofi
aesthetically, though at a cool 113 copies, who would ever know?
I pick and choose which of this label's stuff I jump on. Most of
the LPs I'll give a try, and the 7"/CDr combos have all been
fantastic, this one is a story piece intiiaily:
""All right...this is going to take a while
to explain... Hang in there with a mug: While still in union at
the cove, me and the Conn Artist would always hit up the local
Office Max (re: Copymax) and scam copies, grip supplies - usual
underground lurker shit. So after months of doing this, a Max
worker finally talks to us and is into noize= dudes is Jason,
sayz all his coworkers are freaked out of me and Connelly cause
we copy weird shit, wore shorts and look like Heroin addicts
(????)... So we hit it off with Jason, hang with his crew and let
the good times roll... Enter PE PAUL, AKA Mr. Nutzo AKA New
Pledgmaster AKA dude most likely to get naked at a crew gig with
no ladies present. You might also know him as the wacko who was
kicked outta the last No Fun during the Smegma set for being
shirtless, on acid, and crazy. When Paul was getting escorted
out, Weise turns to Dilloway and says, "Man...what a loose
nut... causing a ruckus... you know him?" "Yeah I do,
Hes Paul from Boston. Me and Olson have a band with him called
Warning Sign." So fast forward a month or so, middle of
summer/ Ann Arbor= crazy. PE PAUL sublets a huge crib christens
it the GSPOT. Turns out to the be the summer spot for all gigs
underground and nutz. A gig twice a week, ruling times, massive
final show literally hours before Paul has to vacate. Rumors
spread of destroying the spot and burning it down... comes pretty
close. Turns out when the renters come back to reclaim the house
Paul is passed out on mounds of broken glass and bottles on a
some Iggy trip shit and the parents threaten his life... ruff
scene. Warning Sign -- which never end up being with Dilloway --
becomes a house band at the GSpot....duo with reeds, drums, and
?????? Every gig was pretty strange, you never knew what PE PAUL
was gunna do. The mug apparently studied music in Boston but no
one has seen proof of it. So aanyhow... black to Copymax Jason...
his birthday is coming up and his lady at the time Alicia (re:
Alicia Warning) wants to have a birthday show at they house
before their lease runs out. The only band that signs up is
Warning Sign. No Wolves come cause we are leaving the next
morning for Barcelona, no crew members show up. Weird gig/scene.
Only lurkers and some weird dudes on BMX bikes that "kinda
know Dilloway AKA that weird dude at Disks & Tapes" are
around. Turns out there is no place to jam... except a basement
that hasnt been opened "in forever." Me and Paul crack
the door, peer inside, nothing but low ceilings, cobwebs,
dampness, and a mound of something that died a slow horrible
death months ago. Totally gross. So we set up and its the middle
of summer and like 110 Degrees in the basement. Fully Nasty.
Turns out Alicia is a flute goddess and wants to jam
along/sweet... so we start playing... and within minutes every
Nutzo in the basement is playing a horn, jammin, freaking out,
yelling... weird shit/brain jolting/numbing gig. Woke up the next
morning and sent the tape to the plant. Pressed here on wax for
eternity is the results of the gig. Super strange ultra crude
echo chamber basement jazz cubism. Edition of 113 on black wax
with paste on covers. Copymax Jason Postscript: After moving out,
Jason and Alicia broke up, all them + "Copymax Chris"
(re: Brian, who never worked at Officemax or Copymax) who also
played on the above WS record, and nearly everyone on the record
moved into the short lived "Pleasuredome" in Ypsi that
did two gigs, one with Corsano, Traum, Laundry Room
Squelchers/both busted hard by Copz and shut down
permanately...." -American Tapes"
That being said, story aside, this is an awesome record, in some
ways completely hard to listen to, but by AM-TAPES standards, a
total pop gem. Tons of damaged reed work all over the place, full
on absurd onslaught and would be a fun things to listen to, but
combined with the story, is perhaps one of the most important
records of the past couple years. ...this is a great testament to
the idea that "everything you do is important",... and
to document what / when you can. This is a fucking bizarre random
moment that was luckily captured and I am completely grateful to
be one of the whopping 113 people to be able to enjoy it.
And along with this is another one of the awesome one-sided
7" / CDr combos, this time from THE THIN ENSEMBLE, which
from the listing descriptions sounds like it was just a do
whatever / whenever / death jazz unit with a cast of John Olson
and rotating members, harassing unexpected bystanders on the
streets and opening indie shows in the mid-90's, with very little
positive feedback. Great artist piece overall, as I continuously
say every time I get one of these 7"/CDr releases, and
there's a TON of stuff on the CDr, a TON.
And as for MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE: a couple of 7"s from BLACK
SUNDAY and RIVER CITY TANLINES, things I thought might be new,
but are maybe actually from a few years back and shockingly just
hanging out, in print, as they were a whole $4ppd each from the
label, MISPRINT. The Black Sunday songs are from one of the LPs,
but I couldn't remember off hand if they were the same recordings
or not, but either way, it serves as a good separate / smaller
dosage for different situations, and so on. The River City one is
just so solid, like anything else they (or Black Sunday) do for
that matter. Yes, solid 7"s indeed!
Grabbed a random used LP over at Eastside Records, THE SOVIETTES
- "LP II", which outside from seeing the name around, I
know nothing about, but certain aspects of the album art were
promising, and with three girls / one guy (on drums), and the
fact that I am always additionally stoked on that sort of gender
flip in the "punk band" context, I went for it and
completely loved it. Very consistant but all over, some of the
songs are on the more crunchy side, nothing very fast, mostly
good mid-paced "punk rock" pace, at times even Red
Aunts-esque, other times more straight forward, i.e. 90's
Sympathy for the Record Industry type stuff. Very poppy
underneath any of that, and felt great when spun just a little
bit ago. If there's an LP I, I'll definitely pick it up when I
see it.
Finally grabbed the recent ABE VIGODA 7", of all places,
used at Eastside as well. I've never picked it up because forever
now, I've supposed to have been getting a bunch of these for sale
in the distro from Kate Hall (who drums in Mika Miko and put this
out as her first record, naming her entity MOSHER HALL). The
A-side has everything that everyone (myself 100% included) loved
about what this band is doing right now, fun tropical punk that
is honestly just wonderfully delightful, with the B-side being a
song from their recent "Kid City" CD, only re-recorded
here with much more delay all over everything, and sounding even
better, including the addition of an awesome slow, tripped out
re-working of the song's intro! I'm really excited for what these
guys are doing, and they are really nice people. I hope that
someone great offers to do their next full length and that they
go as far as possible with it, they deserve anything they
get.
A great new (and already gone) split LP from QUINTANA ROO and
EMERALDS, on ARBOR also made it's way into my PO Box this week,
Quintana Roo, which is Britt and Amanda from Not Not Fun, with
Roy of Black Monk / Deep Jew / etc, playing drawn out, dark and
spacious movements, and although they haven't done anything
recently that I know of, go clear back a couple years to a great
Tempe jam session with Tent/City and Haunted Castle. This
specific "movement" ends up getting pretty darn heavy
and thick with some slow, low and heavy guitar that drones it all
home in the last several minutes. I thought this was an awesome
recording, a good companion to he recent Goslings CD that
Britt/Manda releases. he Emeralds side is also great. A band that
I am honestly not all that familiar with, but was recently turned
on to by fellow Phoenix resident B. SLAYMONTE, play great
minimalist ambient music, almost always on the lighter side of
things but without ever being "hardly there". This was
nice, but I am more so looking forward to a vinyl reissue of the
double cassette that was forwarded to me in MP3 format!!!
things:
Circuit Refusal - one-sided LP (American Tapes 650).
Warning Sign - "Live At Copymax Jason's" (American
Tapes 660).
The Thin Ensemble - "Free East Lansing Flashbacks"
7"+CDr (American Tapes 573).
Black Sunday - "Dancing Knives" 7"
(Misprint).
The River City Tan-Lines "Black Night" 7"
(Misprint).
Emeralds / Quintana Roo - split LP (Arbor).
Abe Vigoda - "Animal Ghosts" 7" (PPM / MOSHER
HALL).
Graveyards - "???" LP (Qbico). (didn't write about it,
but awesome / above par Graveyards release - "dramatic"
even!)
Graveyards / Bottom Feed - "Terror Tapes Vol. 27"
cassette (MJC).
used scores:
The Soviettes - "LP II" LP (Learning Curve)
recent rotations:
Lou Reed - "Metal Machine Music" (just finally heard
this, totally unexpected - from the way this was always
described, I expected a pretty lame screechy intentionally bad
record of guitar noise, but not at all the case, this is a
beautiful swirling collection of harmonic feedback, pulsing and
layering (four guitars, hard-panning, two on each side). Really
awesome recording, I love it, end with a great, choppy
lock-groove loop). Really, could be a new Growing LP, easily.
Barn Owl - "Bridge to the Clouds" CDr on Not Not Fun
(great folk / psych that has this very cathedral-esque feel to
it, lots of natural feeling ambience, it's nice).
2/24/08
- how to / in the tempe. (posted 2/26/08, oops!)
Monday was such a great day, a great day which I had 100%
completely OFF from work, President's Day they call it! Well,
thank you. ...a long, nice, slow day to organize stuff (the mess
of a room that the label has been living in), and I took off all
the things that were sold out from the distro, added all the new
stuff (30+ things, geez, with more showing this week that I
haven't added yet)! Also had a nice mid-afternoon burrito lunch
with Jasmin.
Later in the evening I played a show up the street with Christian
from Woods / Meneguar, French Quarter and Splinter Cake. Such a
good show, everyone was great and I was happy with how my
contribution turned out. Obvious highlight was seeing / hearing
Christian play a bunch of Woods songs as well as some others of
his own. He started his set with "Broke", which is
Tempe anthem. I remember, clearly, back to four or five years ago
when I first saw Meneguar in Tucson when they were touring with
the Gospel, I picked up the Woods double cassette and loved it so
much, I dubbed it for Ryan and the two of us repeatedly for
everyone else in town. I think Ryan ended up ordering like 5 or 6
copies of the tape for people since no one had paypal back then
(maybe not that many do now either? I don't know). All so long
ago, way before I did that 7" even. ...I remember a little
later too, when Jasmin moved to Mexico, I played her going away
party, so did Flux Conquistador, Bri's old band, and Aaron Neber
was trying to cover "Broke" but we couldn't get the
chords right. ...yeah, a total Tempe anthem. ...but the show on
Monday, yes, such a good thing, I loved it so so much.
Other small things during the week, sure, but nothing else that
can even come close to be worth mentioning in the wake of
Saturdays' show at BIKE SAVIORS CO-OP, a benefit to help raise
money to secure a Permit for Live Music at 3 ROOTS Coffee place
on Mill, a universally appreciated meeting point for likeminded
Tempe creative movement. They had $300, and needed $700 more, so
EVERYONE played, there was the dark scuzzy SOFT SHOULDER set, a
fairly all over the place YOURCHESTRA session, an awesome HELL
KITE set with Tempe's favorite Preston on drums (who also played
with Dane (who also played in SMALL GROUP and LOVE SONGS MONSTER
SONGS - both SO good) as BUSINESSMAN'S LUNCH, offering a late set
keyboard and guitar synthesizer pop). MY FERAL KIN's prog/folk/
bliss that makes James R (of GLOCHIDS) dance like a maniac). BRI
WHITE and FRENCH QUARTER both played, and I also did a short set
(was supposed to be just me, but Tempe's other favorite, CHRIS
CORWIN was moving to San Francisco - so I took advantage of him
being here for one more night and had him drum while I played
loops of sax and low-end feedback that eventually shifted to
minimal guitar sounds thrown on top of themselves over and over.
I loved it and can't wait to see / hear it). The whole show was
recorded for a compilation that JK Tapes is doing, and I think
Yari / Yourchestra / 3 Roots is going to do an additional one of
stuff that is not used. On top of it all being recorded in that
manner, there was a video camera going throughout the night as
well, I would know - I nailed it with my guitar like 5 times
during the Soft Shoulder set!
In the end, with all of the money from the door (it was $5 before
7:00, $7 after - and there were a lot of people!), bakery sales
(including AMAZING vegan treats - insane truffles and LAVA
cookies) and money from records I sold through the distro (I
donated 100% of sales from Gilgongo releases and 50% of profit
from non-Gilgongo releases) - $1000 was raised! And not just
because the goal was reached and surpassed, but because
everything was so awesome and positive, it was just a completely
inspiring and beautiful thing. Tempe can be such an awesome place
sometimes, without a doubt. I'm happy with how things are rolling
right now, even if I am tired a lot or maybe come off as grump
and all of that,... I'm not, I'm stoked. This place doesn't just
have potential, it's using it.
things:
One that will definitely be on my "top whatever" of the
year, will (with out a doubt!!) be THE GOSLINGS -
"Occasion", a new CD released on NOT NOT FUN, an
extremely distorted and churning mess of achievement, dare I say
perfect in how far gone it is? I'm sure there is other stuff out
there that might be similar, and I could always try to break it
down somehow: "a weird mix of Sunn and Gang Gang
Dance?"... maybe, maybe not. Thick, slow and sludgy riffs
that cut through layers of lower octaves while soulful vocals
bounce underneath the blanket of sound, poking through like some
weird gypsy at your foggy window in your living room of your
Tempe house while you walk out of your bathroom naked after
taking a hot shower on a winter morning, forgetting to close the
bathroom door. I don't think I could recommend this any more than
I am trying, it's fucking awesome.
The new INCA ORE LP is an awesome collection of both warm fuzzy
splotches, as well as odd discordant pieces, my favorite of with,
a little in on the B side, is very much like some weird Noggin +
Lydia Lunch collaboration or something. Eva's recordings are
almost always engaging listens and this is no exception to the
rule, what she's doing is legit. Called "Birthday of Bless
You", this was just released on the always fantastic NOT NOT
FUN label and comes highly recommended. Guaranteed to put you in
a bizarre trance, no doubt about it.
Really excited about a BLACK DICE CD that recently came out on
PAW TRACKS, which collects two of the DFA 12"s and a recent
one, also on Paw Tracks. Some really great / weird stuff going on
throughout all of these records, odd flowing / shape shifting
sound explorations that are not afraid to attempt and throb. My
only complaint: the absence of the "Cone Toaster" /
"Endless Happiness" (Eye remix) 12", as that is
not only my favorite Black Dice material, but a favorite record
in general.
A pretty quick listen, a new split LP from Vancouver bands
SHEARING PINX and MUTATORS is great, the Pinx offering one long
wall of guitar noise backed with a solid 6 or so scuzzz / grunge
punk from Mutators, who definitely played one of my favorite sets
of 2007 when they rolled through Phoenix and played with us (Soft
Shoulder) at Trunkspace, after being "one of the bands on
one of Jesse Taylor's early lathe cut 7" comps" for a
yea or so. Excellent stuff, excited to see them when they tear
through the states again in May! Out and probably gone quick, on
trash attack (i.e. - Raw Power, Career Suicide, etc) turned
no wave noise: UGLY POP RECORDS, also of Vancouver.
Grabbed the last LOST SOUNDS record, a short but sweet two song
7" on TIC TAC TOTALLY, which had two soulful dirty rock
anthems, one with Jay, the other Alicja, a good little goodbye
from a band that did a whole lot of stuff in a real little amount
of time (and I assure you, the shows were intense)!
...realistically, it was a very ALICJA TROUT week, with a bunch
of other new records with her on it showed up as well, including
an awesome little single from RIVER CITY TANLINES on SAVAGE
(A-side is a great moody tune with a southern blues rock style
Slant 6 sort of song on the back) and a split 7" with THE
INTELLECTUALS (who throw down a great, almost Delta 72-style
garage rock moment) on an Italian label who's name escapes me for
the moment, as it's not on the record and I'm not on the
internet, but initials: GBK. The list goes on with a BLACK SUNDAY
/ LE JONATHAN REILY split LP (Black Sunday is essentially Alicja
alone, with sporatic assistance from friends, and the
"Tronic Blanc" LP is constantly playing in my house)
and also Lost sounds related, a double 7" comp of BLOWTOPS
covers on BIG NECK that's got a JAY REATARD track on it.
Much Memphis in my Tempe living room.
I will say that I was a bit thrown off by THE HOSPITALS 12"
that I was initially extremely excited about scoring, as it came
and went before I had a chance to pick up a copy last year. ...in
the end, it's mostly like a weird 12" single, the A-side
just having one song from their newer full length on LOAD (which
is incredible!) and a bunch of covers that should have made me
flip out (including Harry Pussy and the Homosexuals??? This
should have been an instant favorite - but it was so
deconstructed that it just wasn't gripping me. Maybe just because
I knew what was going to happen, and it didn't happen the exact
way I wanted it to (a couple of those bands songs done Hospitals
style would be perfect in my mind), but I just didn't love it all
that much.
A complete opposite are two tapes from new found (and long
not-replied to) TEENAGE WAISTBAND, who had actually gotten a hold
of me a couple of months ago to see if I would be interested in
grabbing a few copies of their tape for the Gilgongo distro.
...one of those small things that get mentally tagged with a
"listen to it / check it out later", but then gets lost
in the ever expanding abyss of my life. ...in an effort to
"catch up", I went through inboxes and tried to hit
everyone back, and landing on their myspace was a treat, as are
these two cassettes,... intense but not overbearing no-wave
weirdness along the lines of Coughs and Sleetmute Nightmute,
though seemingly more outwardly "fun" than those bands.
And yes, I most certainly did want some copies of their tape for
the distro, which I now am happy to say have safely arrived and
are available for purchase! (and come highly recommended)!
things:
Lost Sounds - final recording 7" (Tic Tac Totally).
River City Tanlines - "Modern Friction" 7" (Savage
Magazine).
River City Tanlines / The Intellectuals - split 7" (GPK
(?)).
v/a - "Blowtops Tribute" 2 x 7" (Big Neck).
Inca Ore - "Birthday of Bless You" LP (Not Not
Fun).
The Goslings - "Occasion" CD (Not Not Fun).
Shearing Pinx / Mutators - split LP (Ugly Pop).
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Aagoo 7" series pic disc
(Aagoo).
(from last week):
Teenage Waistband - "What's One For Me?" cassette
Teenage Waistband - "I Saw What I Wanted To See"
cassette
Black Dice - "Load Blown" CD (Paw Tracks).
Black Sunday / Le Jonathan Reilly - split LP (Tic Tac
Totally).
The Hospitals - "Rich People" 12"
(Yakisakana).
Mouserocket - s/t LP (Empty).
used scores:
Helium - "The Dirt of Luck" LP (Matador) Finally!
The (Young) Pioneers - "Free the (Young) Pioneers Now!"
LP (Lookout) a favorite! for 99 cents!
Atomic Crash / Mike Landucci - split lathe 7" (BBPTC).
v/a - "Optional Inrediants From a Vile Recipe" 7"
(Trackshun) (Noggin, Paste, Bugskull, etc).
recent rotation:
Icewater Scandal - "No Handle" 2xLP (a seriously secret
treasure from the early days of the Social Registry label, great
shoe-gaze, early '00s-esque sonic Youth type jams, fittingly
enough, the LP coming with an extra track recorded be Lee
Renaldo). Jay Reatard - "Blood Visions" (seems like
this one is playing everywhere I go lately, I'm okay with that).
Bride of No No - "B.O.N.N. Apatite" LP
(Atavistic).
2/17/08 - rain,
v-day, curb y. e. and so on.
Slow slow week. Rained a couple of days, a very slow slow slow
recovery from being sick is leaving me far behind on a lot of
things right now, which is irritating, but there's not too much
to do about it. I finished up a new CDr that I'm sure I've
mentioned in this thing before, a collage of salvaged material
from various personal cassettes that I went through during this
most recent move, things recorded over the past several years,
all over the place, and squished together into on long piece. I
like it a lot, though still a lot of burning to do on
those. Bri and I exchanged some great Valentines Day gifts,
which included Kimya Dawson CDs, the Juno soundtrack, Season 2 of
Curb Your Enthusiasm, and so on!
This week in the wide wild world of record pressing: a second
batch of Little Women LPs with questionable degrees of flatness.
Totally confusing, the plant is baffled, but honestly doing
everything they can to be cool and accommodating. They've eaten
over $1500 of vinyl trying to fix this so far, and I'm completely
impressed with their willingness to help. (A much more enjoyable
experience than when I had some pressing issues at Bill Smith a
few years ago, oh my god, nightmares, sincerely). While that's
getting wrapped up, the CD version of the French Quarter full
length will be here in a few weeks, and then in April, it will be
in the A.I.M.S. listening stations while he is touring around.
Finished a few weeks after that: Foot Village's new full length,
"Friendship Nation", which is an excellent record and
captures what they do perfectly.
Also, LAST MINUTE SHOW TOMORROW NIGHT!
2/18/08
Christian D (Woods, Meneguar).
James Fella.
French Quarter.
house show in downtown Tempe, 8:00
9th / Maple, should have directions tomorrow, e-mail me! things
(will write about them with next week's):
Teenage Waistband - "What's One For Me?" cassette
Teenage Waistband - "I Saw What I Wanted To See"
cassette
Black Dice - "Load Blown" CD (Paw Tracks).
Black Sunday / Le Jonathan Reilly - split LP (Tic Tac
Totally).
The Hospitals - "Rich People" 12"
(Yakisakana).
Mouserocket - s/t LP (Empty).
used scores:
Gang Wizard / Minmae - split 7" (Blackbean and
Placenta).
Detestation - LP on Profane Existence. (Every bit as good as I
remember it being)!
2/10/08 - still
/ ill, dead in bed, new tunes and damage.
So about this time last week, I started feeling a little sick,
and still do now. I spent Monday in bed all day, literally, all
day. The rest of the week was day after day or rotating
irritation, be it a bad cough, sinus pain / congestion or a runny
nose that needed blows every 5-10 minutes. Crappy and awful, I
can't stand it. ...oh, and exhausted, all of the time. Missed out
on a birthday show for new-to-Tempe youth, Julio (of previous
week's mentioned MY FERAL KIN), mostly because I was falling
asleep and in a lot of general body pain (an un-enjoyable
combination) and had to come home and crash.
...the night before was a great show of all neighborhood kids up
on 9th and Maple. I played a set that I was extremely happy with
despite using a minimal set-up: stereo loops of vocals turned to
noise turned to sax turned to empty space, relatively fast paced
and to the point. Everything worked how I wanted it to for the
most part, which is always surprising when it happens. Lots of
others played, Kelly (SPLINTER CAKE) threw down the most bizarre
set I've seen him do to date, with corpse paint and an inverted
cross on his chest (to match the pentagram and 666 on his back),
he played four songs in a style meant to tribute the genre and
culture of death metal. It was pretty out there, and a total
blast. Kelly's got a great voice for that sort of thing, and a
slower part of his last song reminded me enough of Dystopia that
I remembered that their new LP was finally out - prompting me to
run over to Eastside between sets. Greg (GHOLZ) and Aaron Neber,
who both lived at this place, also played, as did Bri, who on top
of offering mostly newer songs, nailed a Hole cover (Doll Parts!)
on the head, it was awesome. oh, and a last minute (probably 2am,
cause this thing didn't start till 11:00 I think) set from
HELL-KITE, who's sole proprietor, Ann Marie, is a recent Tempe
transplant. ...really nice night in general, lots of
friendly people.
Greg recently finished a new issue of his zine, Phanatic, which
is a short collection of interviews with people doing things in
the Phoenix (Bri and I are both in there, as is Treasure Mammal),
and a few words with Six Organs' Ben Chasney for good measure,
with some small comic / art between. An extremely short read, but
completely valid - it's pretty insane that more people are not
making small zines like this on a regular basis. It's fun and
gets your neighbors excited, it really does.
Not too much else of note this week. ...made a youtube
"commercial" for the Soft Shoulder 7", just a
video showing a new batch of 30 or so covers. Finished up the art
for a new CDr, which will be a collage of material salvaged from
cassettes, appropriately titled, "Salvaged Tape". It
was going to be a 3", but I decided against it last minute,
mostly because I think it sounds awesome in a car, and who really
wants to risk shoving 3" CDrs into their vehicle's decks?
Other things too, I changed some stuff on the Gilgongo page that
now make me enjoy it more, but it's not all there yet, and I need
to update the distro in the next couple of days, I've got a ton
of new things to put on there.
Things:
Although not all that new at all, I recently picked up a used
copy of a 12" by a band called SKULL SKULL after
finding out it was a HAND HELD HEART release, a great label that
came about around the same time as HOPSCOTCH / SOUND VIRUS, who
often collaborated together on releases (and shows, posters, dual
label X-Mas cards, and so on). Aside from great contemporary
hardcore records (as in early 2000's) from The Red Scare and
Volume 11, really great stuff. The cover is great, at first
glance just a giant, though hard to see "SKULL" on top
of another,... you realize when pulling it out of the polybag
that it's actually just a blank black jacket that's been
scratched over and over to spell out the name. This 12" is a
one-sided 15 minute movement of gloomy broken-chamber
guitar-based sound, and a good little listen. I imagine these two
had a good time recordings / making this record.
After reading their interview in the newest issue of GIVE ME
BACK, the reincarnated HEARTATTACK, I picked up a couple of
7"s from the Vancouver band MARGARET THRASHER, who despite
the name are more punk than thrash, and offer fast paced two
minute blasts of energy with excellent lyrical content. The more
recent of the two, "Are You There God? It's me MARGARET
THRASHER" (yes, I know, that's good), has a great one about
refusing to see shows when one of the bands playing offer
oppressive lyrical content (in this case, Pro-Life preaching),
though the lyrics are thrown down in the manner that you'd talk
about it with your friends, and I like that a lot. On the other
disc is a controversial one regarding rape, for which she (Juls,
the woman singing in this band) made a small zine to go with, to
explain her lyrics, ideas and thoughts on the specifics of that
songs lyrics. I was really impressed with it, despite actually
not agreeing 100% (I find myself a little more lenient and way
more harsh on a couple of points that she's the opposite on), and
that's what's so awesome about what this band is doing and punk /
indie culture in general, having the forum to throw down your
thoughts and ideas and having room to not only have a finalized
personal input, but the opportunity to take it to an open,
conversational area, if you want to, as well. Both of these
7"s were released on CLARENCE THOMAS records, which I know
very little about, though I think they may be the party
responsible for the fairly absurd double 8" issue of the
Wrangler Brutes cassette (which I prefer in it's LP format via
X-Mist records, where the whole tape is on each side of it,
rather than needing to flip three times)! Same time - double
8"? That's so silly that it's cool.
Showing up this week was the first two 7"s of this year's
BORED FORTRESS 7" series on NOT NOT FUN records, a
POCAHAUNTED / CHARALAMBIDES split 7" and a SLITHER /
THURSTON MOORE + PAUL FLAHERTY split 7", which really blew
my mind. The Moore + Flaherty side sounds like a chunk out
of the middle of what was an hour of damaged jamming, with
Thurston's damaged contribution of thick and wild guitar noise
still giving plenty of leave to Flaherty's wild sax work,
creating a pretty gigantic glop of "what" that is not
in the least bit boring. Perhaps the biggest surprise inside this
package was SLITHER's contribution, who is this guy / girl? (or
is there more than one of them?). Generally speaking, I'm pretty
well versed with most of the artists on these Bored Fortress
7"s, but this one is alien to me, and therefore 100%
exciting and intriguing. I could hop on the internet, of course,
but would you believe that I'm typing this in an area with no
service? (it's a fact). With a similar name, in a way reminding
me of what SHIVERS does, though I think there's some reeded work
gracing this side as well,... this is some pretty diverse and
ground-covering noise that is a perfect pairing with Moore +
Flaherty on the other side.
As mentioned earlier, after seeing Splinter Cake's "death
metal tribute" set, I was reminded that the long overdue new
DYSTOPIA LP on LIFE IS ABUSE was out (because of a part of a
song, not cause of "death metal" at all), so in between
sets I grabbed it. Although not very active for the past 8 years
or so, Dystopia had played a bunch of shows in 2002 or 2003, and
then had started recordings the new songs a year after. Although
the liner notes state that these were all recorded back then, I
remember recently hearing that they were unfinished until
recently, making it so delayed. Whatever, none of that matters,
if you ever enjoyed the misanthropic grind/crust/metal of
Dystopia, then you will undoubtedly love this new one as well.
Dirty, disgusting and distorted and even more to the point than
some of the other records, this is pretty much perfect and an
excellent representation of what this band does. ...and let me
tell you, the collage on the front cover with George W wielding a
chainsaw in the bottom center, is perfect. Comes with a great
oversize CD-style booklet (it's probably 6" x 6" or so)
with all the lyrics and rough content as always.
things:
Skull Skull - 12" (Hand Held Heart).
Margaret Thrasher - "Does It Matter?" 7" (Clarence
Thomas).
Margaret thrasher - "Are You There God? It's me, Margaret
Thrasher" 7" (Clarence Thomas).
Pocahaunted / Charalambides - split 7" (Bored Fortress
7" series) (Not Not Fun).
Slither / Thurston Moore + Paul Flaherty - split 7" (Bored
Fortress 7" series) (Not Not Fun).
Dystopia - s/t (?) - LP (Life is Abuse).
Saints - "Gall Flood" (self-released). (really good
free minimalist drone-scape - really good).
recent rotation:
Spires That In The Sunset Rise - "This is Fire",
Coltrane - "Meditations" and "Mastery of Vol.
3", United States of America - s/t, The Cramps - "Big
Beat From Badsville", Sickness - "Fuck Your Punk
Rock", Owl Xounds - misc.
2/3/08 - new
tunes, new blog.
For no real
concrete reason, I've decided to stop using the blogspot site to
post things with, and am just going to attach this to my regular
site. Maybe just out of ease, I don't really like using the
blogspot one much at all. That being said, I hope to keep up on
this more regularly than I have with that.
Slow couple of weeks, or so it's felt like. Caught a CASTANETS
set at TRUNKSPACE that was pretty "far out" as in
seriously out there, with short interesting folk arrangements
being transformed into eight minute psych / guitar drone pieces.
What it instantly conjured for me, was a complete cross breed of
the two solo stylings of James Toth (Wooden Wand), who I know
this guy is friends with and has a similar voice to already.
...and mostly meaning it was like the WW folk songs being slowed
down and played over the WW "Backyard" CDs, slow drawn
out guitar riffs, real minimal stuff. ...a serious turn around
was the last 10 minute of the set, where the guy playing bass
with him (as a duo), harvested a solo wall of pulsating and
partially digested combinations of low tones and feedback, while
the guitar was thrown down (with a nasty sounding 30 seconds of
reversed sound repeated and eventually faded away) and the crowd
was explored in a Make-Up-esque gospel fashion.
The highlight of the show for me was Phoenix's own MY FERAL KIN,
who as of late have gone from a solid Little Wings (in a full
band) sort of sound, to a driving prog-indie unit, where despite
there being tons of new school Dirty Projectors (or old school
Beefheart) busy busy riffing going on virtually the whole time,
the band is continuing to play "songs", not just
mathematical pieces. Besides, these attain a general appreciation
that can be completely absent of a working knowledge o
musicianship and math in general. This band is just doing
something awesome and deserves you attention (and commands it
when you see them play). Really impressive and uplifting.
Before taking off, Bri and I grabbed some microphones to use for
a few days, as Bri's working on some new recordings at home right
now (and so far, they sound incredible, and I'm extremely excited
for her and proud of her, it's pretty inspiring to see her just
grab all of these tools that she hasn't really ever had a chance
to mess around with, and start constructing these amazing
assemblies of sounds / songs). And yes, that would be BRI WHITE.
of BRI WHITE fame. ...Bri's also working on a
compilation of female musicians / artists from the Phoenix area,
a mish0mash of short songs, weird recordings, spoken word and
"performance art" style works. Everything that I've
gotten to hear for it so far has been awesome, and I think the
final product is going to rule.
A little before, more like a week ago now, SOFT SHOULDER played
one of the most bleak sets ever, to three people at a show at the
CHAMBER, which is a newer storage facility / show space in the
same complex that the ARGO was in, years ago. I'm honestly not
even sure who the show was supposed to be with, other than an
equally caught off guard SPLINTER CAKE, which is the name under
which a guy from here named Kelly plays music under; fast loud
acoustic punk, the kid is full of awesome ideas, great lyrics and
is super pumped. He had just returned from several weeks of shows
with WHITMAN, and the two of us basically played to ourselves, as
the bands that we were asked to open for last minute, showed up
about two hours late, after we were done.
Kelly passed off a couple of new tapes, one of which was released
on FOLK TALE records (and is a fairly uniform collection of
frequently played songs that I'm sure everyone in Tempe knows by
heart by now). The other, a self-released display of very
stripped down simple recordings on one side (with the occasional
screamy punk track thrown in), and an incredible assortment of
different takes to songs on the other side, which I loved loved
loved a lot. Find him and bug him for a copy of this, or both o
these for that matter. Really good stuff.
In (short) label news: the LITTLE WOMEN LP should be done in the
next couple weeks (first batch of the LPs need to be repressed -
came out too warped looking), FOOT VILLAGE's new LP will be out
in March, as will a CD-only version o the recent FRENCH QUARTER
s/t LP/CD combo. It'll be cheap, $10 in stores, and hopefully
featured in the April A.I.M.S. listening stations across the
USA.
Things:
I was running low on the new SHEARING PINX LP, "Ultra
Snake" (and wanted to grab a few copies of SILVER CREME's
(re: M. REMY) nice little CDr), so I grabbed a bunch more from
Nic / ISOLATED NOW WAVES, and as always, the box was beautifully
decorated and crammed full of great new things from the short run
/ "vanity" label. This time around, a couple of older
CDrs from his solo unit N.213 "Noise Control" and IN
FLUX - "The First Flush", both from the pre-Pinx era of
2004 / 2005. Tons of awesome short pieces on the N.213, which is
housed in a great half 8 x 11" zine. My fave on this disc
was "Science Fair #1", which outside of sounding like
just that, was crackling and churning cage with small tones
trying to work their way through the small holes in the wall.
Honestly, with this and many other small moments, I was reminded
of tons of things that I do on a regular basis when playing
alone. There was also a disc of live CHANNELS 2x3 stuff, called
"Nervous Aktion", which (at the same time describing
them in general) sounds like a Gang Wizard, pre-historic
free-for-all take on Channels 3x4, which three of the four
Ch2x3ers on this disc make up, and is actually a very song based
band, kicking out excellent dark, dance-friendly
keyboard/drums/vocal songs (not entirely unlike Black Cat #13,
for example).
Thanks to the internet, this being 2008 now, and the world being
weird, a guy from somewhere on the east coast, I think NC, just
pressed a (potentially?) bootleg 7" of a couple of
unreleased BLACK CAT #13 songs in the form of a split with his
own band FEMME COVERT. He maintains that everything should be
cool and is actually selling them for dirt cheap, the mid-90's
price of $3.50ppd (insane)! Regardless, BC #13 being a huge
personal favorite, I ordered 20 of them for the distro and
friends who also dig them a lot. It might seem small, but there's
a lot of weirdness with them. They seemed to have a weird break
up, way back 7 years ago or whenever it was now, and when
people close to them offered to release the unused stuff, or do
discographies, they always maintained that all the masters were
destroyed and nothing would ever come from it, so this was indeed
a shock. It'll be interesting to see where it goes from here, but
in the meantime, know that one songs' a rerecorded version of an
older, and sounds great. The other is a Phantom Pregnancies
cover, and is therefore perfect. ...and for those out in the
cold, (and shoot, I already dropped their name no more than one
paragraph ago), BC #13 were an awesome discordant weirdo keyboard
/ bass driven band, with short songs that showcased some super
shrilly female vocals. In a way, a sassy Canadian Phantom
Pregnancies? Sure. And later, a couple of them formed the also
flawless Sick Lipstick, also worth every second you would spend
checking them out.
Also inside were two more great tapes in the long running split
C-20 series, which pits Shearing Pinx against all sorts of other
entities that they are currently digging. This time around
there's MIDWIFE and Germany's SHIVERS, who recently had a split
CDr with myself that was re-released on his label TAPE TEKTONIKS.
His 10 minutes here is equally intense and intricate, maybe a
more hyper version of what he did on our disc. I loved this one a
lot. This serious of tapes continues to make me feel great about
everything the Pinx people do in general, which if you're
unfamiliar with, is a LOT, enough to keep you entertained and
happy for a few days.
Although I received this forever ago, I also ran through a newer
TREETOPS CDr on BLACKEST RAINBOW called "Brighter
Light", which in some backwards way makes complete sense as
a title, these four tracks in about 25 minutes float around the
room like a midnight parking lot with bright florescent lights,
but all housed inside a cathedral. This also worked very well for
a quick session of splattering ink across the insides of old
Gilgongo 7" folders (as new Soft Shoulder
covers). ...also picked up the newest Glass Candy, which
continues down the straight-dance route of the past several
years. Extremely well done and aurally stimulating, though very
dark in it's own way too - though with there being NOTHING
"weird" or "strange" about their method at
this point,... and I continue to love the art, simple but good.
Long long songs: this would make a pretty tense double LP. I'd be
into that a lot.
things:
N.213 - "Noise Control" CDr (Isolated Now Waves).
In Flux - "The First Flush" CDr (Isolated Now
Waves).
Channels 2x3 - "Nervous Aktion!" CDr (Isolated Now
Waves).
Shearing Pinx - "Dissenter" (2007 winter tour) CDr
(Isolated Now Waves).
Shearing Pinx / Shivers - split C-20 (Isolated Now Waves).
Shearing Pinx / Midwife - split C-20 (Isolated Now Waves).
Treetops - "Brighter Lights" CDr (Blackest
Rainbow).
Glass Candy - "Beat Box" CD (Italians Do It Better).
Splinter Cake - "No Shoes, Windows Down" - C-17 (Folk
Tale).
Splinter Cake - "Bridges" cassette (self).
Saints - "Gall Flood" C-60 (self).
I.U.D. - "Dead Womb" 7" (Social Registry).
Black Cat #13 / Femme Covert - split 7" (Crunk Punx).
recent rotation:
Black Sunday - "Black Rabbit of Death", Dirt -
discography, John Wiese - misc, Bastard Noise - misc, Lebenden
Toten - "State Slaughter", Liars - "We Were Wrong,
So We Drowned", Red Aunts - "#1 Chicken", various
VLV mix-tape downloads, Rainer Maria, Jawbox, Gang Gang Dance.
