396
MOUNTAINS CS (RAMPART)
Heads
up: lots of real nice looking and sounding cassette mystery
coming from the Rampart Tapes label of Lexington, Kentucky.
Side one is an ominous low tone or two that sort of creeps
around, up and down, for a long time (10 or 15 minutes) with
a small band of demons quietly joining in towards the end.
Nice, but it's like a warmup for side two, which is a supremely
ruling super-thick & mean low-down tone that is just constantly
boring into my mind! It's starting to hurt a little bit! Hurt
so good! Mongo like when brain hurt! The Rampart label is
run by a member of The Hair Police and it wouldn't surprise
me if 396 Mountains consists of one or more members of The
Hair Police, because that band has been going in a more 'controlled'
'soundtracky' direction, for sure -- their amazing Drawn
Dead album is almost like the much denser/louder/"fully
formed" version of side one of this cassette. Drawn
Dead, damn, that's a good album . . . . likin' this 396
Mountains cassette too.
500MG:
Vertical Approach LP (ECLIPSE
RECORDS / GALACTIC ZOO DISK) Solo
'joint' by Michael Gibbons, guitarist for Bardo Pond. I just
realized that "MG" is his initials, but I think
the 500MG name also refers to something else that may or may
not tie in with the cover art. Anyway, this is an album of
quiet guitar pieces. I say quiet, but I don't necessarily
mean pretty or soothing -- in fact, it's pretty harsh, if
not via one gritty drone overdub or another, then by the very
large amounts of melancholia in the minimal melodies themselves,
which are almost as sad as the work of say Loren Connors or
the Charalambides-Scorces-Taurpis Tula axis. Just three tracks
per side, perfect length, a fine low-key harsh sad guitar
album.
ALVARIUS
B: Blood Operatives of the Barium Sunset LP (ABDUCTION)
I
would like more people than just the Sun City Girls freaks
to hear this album. It's by the solo guise of SCG member Alan
Bishop, and it's his third release as such. The first two
were more cultish -- his first, from 1994, untitled and mysterious,
was raw solo acoustic guitar instrumentals, and the second,
from 1998, also untitled and mysterious, was a double LP of
raw solo acoustic guitar songs that were ugly, mean, funny,
and really weird -- but this third one is an album of beautifully
recorded and fully arranged songs that could appeal to a lot
of people. Don't get me wrong, the songs are still weird and
mean and Alvarius still throws around about as many f-words
as you'd find on an Eazy E album, but the arrangements, orchestrations,
and melodies spread on so much film composer love that it
becomes something completely new. It's not like he hired a
few orchestras and super-producers either -- it's mostly just
guitars, bass, and drums, with a pinch of viola and organ
here and there, and a whole lot of craft, economy, and savvy.
For example, there's a gloriously cinematic Morricone cover
("Dirty Angels") created entirely by Bishop overdubbing
several voice and acoustic guitar tracks. The first time I
heard it, I had no idea the instrumentation was so simple.
Most of the tunes feature Alvarius playing with a small back-up
band that includes Eyvind Kang, drummer Randall Dunn, and
on some tracks guitarist Tim Young and percussionist Andrew
McGinnis. (A certain Richard Bishop plays guitar on one track
as well.) On a creepy number called "The Feel,"
Kang plays drums, and then overdubs not only viola but a rather
funky mutron-filtered bass line! But it's not so much about
the band as it is the lyrics, the melodies, and the cinematic
overdubs. And for those who want the hardcore real old west
evil shit that SCG have long since addicted you to, it's here
too, like on "Mr. 786": "I'm doin' business
with a black and tan / between a foggy mirror and a swollen
gland / He'd love to move some ivory or tiger whiskers / Cuz
that dope's been rottin' in the sun / He'd like to move some
guns / But I needed a half-ton of Persian pistachios / and
some imitation shark fins cuz I gotta score to / settle with
Chinese Dick who specializes in bird drool / and he killed
a queer buddy of mine in Yunnan / last year over two-dozen
Toyotas meant for Lashio / found his carcass in a freight
container bound for Medan / carved jack-o-lantern-style wrapped-up
in some Teak / furniture I order once-in-a-while."
APOTHECARY
HYMNS: Trowel and Era CD (LOCUST) Speaking
of which, the thing they call orch-pop has been around forever
and is still going strong through thick and thin among multiple
generations. Take this recording artist Apothecary Hymns,
no particular marketing/scene affiliation. First couple listens
I thought it was played and recorded real nice but wasn't
immediately impressed by the songs -- but now they're starting
to creep up on me, with the hooky slow-developing minor-key-verse/major-key-chorus
"A Sailor Song" in the lead right now. Apothecary
Hymns is a guy named Alex Stimmel who lives in Brooklyn, New
York, doing some kind of full-band retro-psych Americana all
by himself at home. But don't expect some loner-guy lower-fi
bedroom sketchbook trip -- these are very well recorded songs
that are fully written and carefully orchestrated (via lots
of overdubs -- electric guitar sounds, fuzz bass, banjo, drumkit,
and seemingly much more). Other reviews of this album seem
to always mention Syd Barrett, but it sounds to me like Lee
Ranaldo singing lead for The Band!
ASTRAL
SOCIAL CLUB: # 1; #2; #3 CDRs (SELF RELEASED) So
I get this package from somewhere overseas -- where, I don't
notice right away, because the handwritten return address
is really hard to read. I just know it's some other country
because the package has one of those green customs labels
stuck to it. I open it up and there's three CDRs in there.
I can tell they're CDRs because they're in flat plastic sleeves,
and . . . you can just tell. But, I take 'em out, and these
are some awful nice hard plastic sleeves, and the artwork
looks good, an image that says "Astral Social Club"
pasted onto a paper card, with a different color scheme for
each of the three volumes. Nice, but hey, I get (not quite)
2000 CDRs a week so no big deal, they go on the pile and I
go back to what I usually do, which is mostly work, sleep,
make food, pick up toys, change
diapers, etc.
A few
weeks later I stumble across the package again, and notice
for the first time that there's a big hand-written note in
there too. It's a real nice note too, inviting me to listen
to the "first 3 vols of ongoing series by my 'new project'....",
and it's signed off "Campbell," and I'm like, "Shit,
is this Campbell Kneale?? No, he lives in NZ, and this return
address is somewhere in England, I can tell that much . .
. waitaminnit, does that say N. Campbell?? Could this be THE
Neil Campbell??" I get a little excited, because for
several years now I've dug the work of Neil Campbell, whether
it's the various solo stuff (These Premises Are No Longer
Bugged is a great album!), the various collaborations,
the A Band, or of course Vibracathedral Orchestra -- hell,
I even like everything he did with Smell & Quim and that
Durian Durian LP! Could this be him? I betcha when
I listen I'll be able to tell . . . . so I put # 1
in (the three CDRs are
simply titled Astral Social Club #1, Astral Social
Club # 2, and Astral Social Club # 3) . . .
. and oh yeah, this is clearly him, because this is some gorgeous
post-drone shit, insert the adjective "higher-key"
wherever you want, it completely fits. How is it different
than Vibracathedral? Well, it almost seems completely electronic,
although it probably isn't, and by NO means is it "electronica"
(there is no such generic allegiance). It's also a little
mellower than anything else he's done -- his music has always
been beautiful, but rarely has it been this easy-going and
ethereal. I remember he once said that Vibracathedral's working
method was "anything to get the sound up and flying,"
a quote I always enjoyed, and this stuff is certainly still
soaring, but it's like he learned how to put that magic carpet
on autopilot, lay down, take a sweet snooze, and dream baby
dream. Heaven-bound, all the way -- even with the Suicide
influence, these discs DEFINITELY get this issue's Popol Vuh
Award . . . . I could talk about highlights and whatnot, but
there's no track titles and all three discs really are interchangeably
excellent. (For the record, though, I think my favorite track
right now is "[track eight]" on #3.) Anyway,
I'm not sure how you can order these or anything at this point
-- maybe check with Fusetron
-- but either way, heads up for Astral Social Club! (This
just in, they're available over at Volcanic
Tongue....)
ASTRAL
SOCIAL CLUB: Astral Social Club #4 (ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB) This
just in, "hot offa the burner," the fourth release
by Vibacathedral Neil Campbell's new solo moniker. Like the
first three, still very electronic, very solo, and very zoned-out
loopage, though this one strikes me as being a little more
'noisy' than the first three blissers. Track one (no titles)
sounds like mid-period Kevin Drumm, and the 12-minute track
two sounds like current Kevin Drumm, at least until
the microhouse pulse starts emerging. Track five might sound
kinda nice from the other room, but get up close and it's
absolutely hellish! It even has 'people being tortured' screams
going on somewhere in there! (And no, it's not just me!) My
dark-horse favorite is probably track six, a chilled-out workout
for ghosted-out rinkydink drum machine. Chilled-out . . .
. but creepy. Hive Mind influence?
BABY
HUEY AND THE BABYSITTERS: The Baby Huey Story -- The Living
Legend CD (WATER) Another
Chicago band! A vinyl reissue of this was first mentioned
in Blastitude almost four
years ago by columnist Tony Rettman, but it took a more
recent CD reissue, and an accompanying story about it in the
Chicago Reader, to finally get me to listen. (I have this
theory that in today's overcrowded music world, one strong
and trustworthy recommendation isn't enough to spur action
-- a minimum of two strong and trustworthy recommendations
are needed, and they have to come from completely separate
places.) Anyway, after approximately 1.5 adjustment spins,
I am deeply hooked on this album's songs and grooves. Let
me tell ya 'bout it.....
Baby Huey was a kid from
Northwest Indiana who weighed in at about 400 pounds and was
a ferocious soul singer. In the mid-1960s, while still a teenager,
he was tearing it up on the Chicago circuit with his backup
band the Babysitters, and they signed up with local hero Curtis
Mayfield, who produced their debut album for his Curtom label.
The album got finished, but before it could get released,
Baby Huey died due to health problems (made worse by excessive
drug use). He was 26 years old. The album did get released
a few months later, and went on to become an underground legend.
Listening now, it's easy to see why.
Opener "Listen To
Me" is just a laid-back slammer, with a chorus that fully
introduces Baby Huey's one-and-only bellowing/smooth delivery.
Song two is one of three instrumentals, which are not my favorite
cuts on the album -- I miss Baby Huey too much -- but do lend
a nice progressive air to the proceedings. Also progressive
are the track lengths -- the first three (aka side one) go
6:35, 6:10, and 9:23, the side-ender being a monumental psychedelic
freak-out version of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Going To
Come." It's way drawn out and spacey, with some foggy
downhome raps by Baby Huey about growing up in the sticks
(Northwest Indiana) and getting his mind blown by drugs and
soul music. Here's a snippet (rap in plain text, singing in
italics): "It seems like I tried so hard to get back
to get back where I started from. It took about 20
years of very serious smokin' . . . a few ups and downs, a
few trips . . . . a little space odyssey once and a while
. . . to get back to get back to get back to get back
to get back to bein' a kid all over." The rap keeps going,
touching on race relations: "There's three kinds of people
-- there's black people, there's white people, and there's
my people." By the time the band kicks back in at full
volume, Baby Huey is screaming and there's a trumpet hook
so heavy it's tragic. The whole thing is a deliriously
heavy 9-minute freak-out soul ballad that makes Vanilla Fudge
sound like The Osmonds. It's almost as heavy as "Munchies
For Your Love" by Bootsy's Rubber Band!
Side two opens with "Mighty
Mighty," a much poppier number and one of the sweeter
soul tracks I know right now, written by producer Mayfield,
and recorded a few years earlier by his group The Impressions
as "Mighty Mighty (Spade and Whitey)." The Babysitters'
version is pure fun and sweet good times, perhaps because
it doesn't get into the race topic as Mayfield did -- "(Spade
and Whitey)" is left out of the title, and I think out
of their arrangement of the chorus too. If they do sing the
words they mumble 'em -- it's almost a 'version' in the Jamaican
sense, because it borrows from the original without ever really
going into the verses, instead mixing teases of the chorus
(sung in as lovely a falsetto as Curtis's) with more great
raps from Baby Huey. He's a regular comedian on this album
. . . his unforgettable line "I think we used to play
in the sandbox together!" gets mentioned in the liner
notes and then there's the rather lascivious "Sho' a
cutie, I'll see you after the show!"
And after all that, oh lord,
comes the straight gangsta slammer "Hard Times."
What a track -- if the Bomb Squad hasn't sampled this I'll
eat my hat, that 'panic' horn trill in the intro was made
for them. Straight gangsta lyrics: "Eatin' Spam and Oreos
and drinkin' Thunderbird, baby." I love this song. There
are three more tracks, two of them instrumentals (including
a pretty over-the-top version of "California's Dreamin'"
by The Mamas and Papas) -- again very solid tracks that would
make time on any decent mix tape, but I'm a little skeptical
of 'em here, weighing down side two with such a great vocalist
in the band. The one other vocal track is great, though, "Runnin',"
another Mayfield composition with a beautifully sung chorus
hook so big you could drive a truck (or Baby Huey himself)
through it. I don't know, when it comes to vintage soul and
funk, I'm no expert or record collector. I just really like
the music, and I think this is a really good album!
BLACK
FOREST/BLACK SEA: Radiant Symmetry CD (LAST
VISIBLE DOG) Representing
the other Olneyville, Rhode Island, Black Forest/Black
Sea are not a crazy costumed noise rock band -- they're more
like one of them new psych folk bands you keep hearing about!
I'm surprised to say that this is my introduction to them,
other than the one comp track on The Invisible Pyramid,
because a lot of people seem to like 'em -- at least, their
self-titled debut CD went out of print rather quickly. And
so far I like 'em too. Melancholy free improvisation that
is built around classical sad melodies instead of the more
in-vogue sound and noise. But of course, there's tons of sound
and noise in there too, because each track stretches from
melodies into sound and noise and back, it's just the formulas
and progressions that mysteriously change. All tracks are
from live shows on a Spring 2004 European tour, and feature
the group's core duo of Miriam Goldberg (cello, omnichord,
voice) and Jeffrey Alexander (guitar, banjo, omnichord). Three
tracks are just the two of 'em (including one of the very
best, #4, recorded in Newcastle upon Tyne, England), but the
other six feature guests. For two fine tracks, recorded in
Tampere, Finland, they are joined by that town's resident
jam maven Jan Anderzén, and track #9 "Talbot Hotel,
Stoke-on-Trent 4/11/04" is a real beaut, a rolling and
unfolding series of yearning improvised major chords, filled
out by the "electric
tamboura, harmonium, percussion" of guest Harry Sumnall.
Reminds
me of the Charalambides song "Joy Shapes" (which
makes sense because Christina Carter Madonia of the Charalambides
has also played with Black Forest/Black Sea).
BORN
HELLER CD; ESPERS CD (LOCUST
MUSIC) Believe
me, I'd love to be able to stop referring to acid folk like
it's some new trend too, but hey, I guess that's what happened,
and I've always loved acid folk music so more power to 'em.
Here are two of the most acclaimed of the new crop, and I've
gotta say: pretty damn good. At the very least I now know
that the notable press I've been reading about Josephine Foster
(Arthur, Chicago Reader, web stuff) is well justified. I first
heard her in the Children's Hour, but that only amounted to
one track, heard for the first and only time while I played
it live on the radio, and I frankly did not really care for
it. However, I knew I would hear her again, and I looked forward
to the day, but it was almost uncanny the way I could never
make it to one of her shows. And I still haven't. But I finally
got ahold of this CD by her duo Born Heller, and it's a real
dreamy piece of something. The forte isn't exactly hooks or
memorable lyrics, but the overall sound of the songs is a
hook in and of itself. These are mysterious songs that hover
in the air with a sadness and wistfulness and strange playfulness
and you just kind of sit there and wonder about them while
they're happening. That's really all I can tell you so far,
except I will add that Jason Ajemian's acoustic bass playing
is key to this spectrality. He doesn't really play a single
"jazz" or even "folk" note on the whole
CD -- while Foster covers the chord progressions with her
acoustic guitar, he just sort of flits and hums somewhere
deep in the recesses of the tune. (And he shows up on the
very last track doing some vocals that really take the album
home.) [This just in: a while back I downloaded a Children's
Hour song called "Leader Soldier" without listening
to it, and it finally showed up on my player set on shuffle
-- it took me the whole length of the song to figure out who
it was, but it was great, spooky & pretty, quiet &
trancey. I think I got it from Ms. Foster's website, which
is at 100songsising.com.]
Also part of this whole "revival" that's going on,
also released by Locust Music, and also featuring songwriting
that is heavier on overall mood and mystery and atmosphere
than it is on classic "pop" ingredients like specific
hooks and quotable lyrics, is the self-titled debut CD by
Espers, here recording as a woman/woman/man trio (with guests).
All three sing -- the man in Espers is Greg Weeks, who you
might know from a previous solo CD or two. I have yet to hear
those, but I am digging Espers quite a bit. Very
well-played and sung, it's not so much "folk" as
it is this slightly grandiose, medieval and gothic odd-prog-lite
that unfolds at a slow, steady, and rather addictive pace.
It's not presented as one long suite with footnotes and subdivisions
or anything -- it's not that prog -- but it feels
like one long suite anyway, especially when it ends with an
epic instrumental that builds into an intense closing chorus
of wailing harpies (led by spectral guest Tara Burke of Fursaxa
fame). Really pretty cover art too, that would look (and feel)
incredible on an LP cover with that old soft kind of paper
like Neil Young (and others) used to use.
BORN HELLER: Live at the Gladtree Festival. Photo by Nashville
Brooke.
ESPERS: Holy shit, they're sitting in with
Clive Palmer!
CAN'T:
Final Performance CDR (RRR) The
concept and presentation is as simple and concise as could
be -- she (Jessica Rylan, who is Can't, which is a great name)
is by herself singing songs, five tracks clocking in at just
over 13 minutes -- but the catch is that she's singing into
a microphone that is really overamped and feeding back heavily,
and then the double catch is that, despite this chaotic volume
situation, it sounds like she's trying to hide the performance/recording
session from her family members and/or roommates in the other
room (the album was in fact recorded at her parents' house).
It's like one-woman shy crazy funny gutsy metal stream-of-consciousness
acapella karaoke. Then, track three is a shy noise track with
no vocals, at least not any vocals that are readily identifiable
as human, and it's seriously some killer sponge-squeal. And
two more tracks, with vocals, and weird beat-box stylings.
Can't? I can! (And BTW, when's somebody who has all the records
gonna write up an annotated RRR discography? Seriously, can
somebody just go to this
page and add descriptions, and then submit it to Blastitude?
And speaking of RRR, Can't is gonna be on tour with Emil Beaulieau
and John Wiese in February 2005. I know I'm gonna be there
. . .)
CAN'T:
New Secret (by Jessica Rylan) 12" Picture Disc (RRR) Loved
my first Can't album, now here's my second, truly a thing
of beauty. (Prettiest picture disc of the year? Definitely.
Of the century? Probably!) As on the previous Final Performance,
she (Can't, a/k/a Jessica Rylan) is still playing "home-made
synthesizer," creating weird instrumentals, and singing
intense love songs, but my, she has really upped the ante
with this release. Final Performance was 5 little
blasts in just 11 minutes, where New Secret has 6
tracks but is three times as long. Some of its tracks are
shorter instrumental things, but three of them are long, patient,
and powerful songs, precise and rhythmic and melodic, and
they are all classics. But then, so is "Driving in the
Rain," in which she gets out the tenor recorder flute
and plays a lovely short and sweet solo piece that is about
as "free folk" as it gets. I love track five, "Messy
Mystery," too -- it's this sparse bubbly instrumental
that my 2-year-old is convinced is the sound of (his words)
"fish swimming" and "going down underwater."
The sounds make him laugh and he says "fish!" constantly.
Late in the track when Ms. Rylan hits a real deep bending
tone, he gets excited and says "FISH FART!!" I say
all this not to tell you how hilarious my kid is, but to demonstrate
that this is some pretty deep music that is much more than
just Noise. And then track six "Casting A Spell"
is definitely the one for the annals, a 15-minute epic that
lives up to its title with one of the most fragile sweet witchy
melancholy melodies ever on a "Noise" record! Throw
in that gorgeous painting on the B side and, well, you've
got a masterpiece.
The lovely 'back cover', side two.
CAN'T aka JESSICA RYLAN: Casting a spell.
CHRISTINA
CARTER: Living Contact CD (KRANKY) Kranky
continues their Charalambides and Charalambides-related reissue
program with this sonically stripped-down and mostly instrumental
solo guitar long-player by a founding member of the band.
I've said it before, Ms. Carter can communicate loneliness
like no other balladeer -- indeed, she's one of the great
desert blues singers of her era (first release was 1992),
not to mention one of the most low-key and soft-spoken. On
this album the guitar holds steady throughout -- like pale
light on a calm cloudy day, it's always there -- while the
voice just comes and goes occasionally like a rare strange
breeze that kicks up three or four leaves and nothing more
before disappearing again. The big one on here is track #3,
"Alone, Not Alone," a 14-minuter that just hangs
out sad, relaxed, and heavy on seemingly one tone/one chord/one
love. Dust-sky existential-western soul-grind raga. Yessir.
Track #5, "Body Energy Exchange," is relatively
quite playful in its quixotic and sometimes rather speedy
improv patternings. But the whole album is pretty mysterious
and mysteriously pretty. Most of this was recorded quite a
while ago in 1995 and 1996 -- better late than never to have
it on full-press CD.
TOM
CARTER: Monument CD (KRANKY) The
other founding member of Charalambides also gets an out-of-print
CDR-only release reissued on CD. "The first track . .
. is slightly longer than two minutes and barely reveals itself,"
says the press material, and I'd have to agree -- my stereo
isn't exactly cranked, but I'm just now starting to hear stuff
at the 1:25 mark -- now at the 2-minute mark some ghost bow-whine
can be discerned, but hey, the track is already over. So,
really, that was just a prelude to track 2, which is 47 minutes
long and takes up the rest of the album. Both tracks are solo
lap steel guitar, recorded live to DAT back in March 2001,
and this is some very haunted world-hum, extremely patient,
slow-moving, heavy atmospherics. This is a guitar album, but
it's not obvious about it -- could be synth, could be piano
wire strung across a cathedral, could be amplified brain waves,
but regardless it is indeed a sound monument, and getting
next to it is a high lonesome and reflective way to spend
the better part of an hour.
CHARALAMBIDES:
Our Bed Is Green 2CD (KRANKY) And
yeah, speaking of the first Charalambides album from 1992
. . . . this is it, Our Bed Is Green, the latest
in Kranky's reissue program (release date: April 4, 2005).
You might have a one-CD version of this that was self-released
by the band (on their in-house Wholly Other imprint) in the
mid-1990s (I still have my copy, with its hand-painted watercolors
on the cover, and now sun-faded construction-paper tray insert),
but they initially self-released it as a C90 cassette, with
several more songs. This 2005 edition on Kranky is a two-CD
restoration of that cassette version in its entirety ("with
the exception of two cover songs"). I had forgotten how
epic this stuff was with the big guitars and soaring choruses,
because at the same time it's unabashedly shy home-recorded
music, still finding its feet. On the top there are shades
of like a 4AD shimmer/girl approach that people might even
compare to Mazzy Star or something, but down below, driving
the engine, it's nothing but weird overloaded cassette-4-track-revolution
drone-power. At times this scary undercurrent breaks through
the surface, too, for screaming daymares like "Neutron
Decay," so look out. Overall, the procession of these
tunes might be a little too gawky for recent Charalambides
converts -- as the 1990s progressed, they evolved into a more
fully developed, confident, and singular form of music, and
the curve is still arcing upward today -- but anyone with
an affinity for small, sad, oft-sweet, and somewhat haunted
solo/duo 4-track mini-dreams should appreciate it.
CHRISTINA CARTER (CHARALAMBIDES): Got the spook.
CHINABOISE:
The Greatest Story Ever Told CD (GULCHER) Pick
of the issue so far?! Fans of MX-80 Sound should take note
in particular, especially Rich Stim fans, as Chinaboise is
a pre-MX-80 Bloomington, IN band (all recordings done in 1975)
where Stim wrote songs and played guitar, saxophone, and more,
while laying down plenty of vocals in his inimitable puppy-dog
cool-nerd song-speak. He was aided and abetted by another
MX-er-to-be, drummer Dave Mahoney, as well as a few cute girls
and some guy named Rich Fish. When they decided a couple tracks
needed heavy guitar firepower, they asked local prog-punk
guitar hero Bruce Anderson to help out. Anderson in turn asked
Stim and Mahoney to join his mighty MX-80 band, and the rest
is history, but Chinaboise is no mere "MX-80 side project"
or even "MX-80 precursor," this is a full-fledged
fascinating band. There are prog-folk ditties, odd pop numbers,
shit that sounds like Getz and Gilberto from Venus, little
jazzish instrumentals on which Stim plays sax, and even a
couple outright comedy skits that really kinda have me scratching
my head. Also, why didn't the recent excavation of hundreds
of '75-'85 DIY chestnuts from every pocket of the U.S.A. yield
Chinaboise classics like "Girl You Got It (So Go Get
It)" or "Living On Oil"? Did the heavy R&B
influence make the nurds uncomfortable? No, it was because
these great tracks, and everything else on here (except one
track's minor compilation appearance), have never been released
in any form until this CD! "So Go Get It" indeed!
CHINABOISE:
Babes, all of 'em.
CLAY'S
FESTERING LUNGS: Pasture Music CS (CHOCOLATE
MONK) With
special guests E and F! And all due respect to Arthur magazine!
E: Look at this, this is insane. This blue electrical
tape goes all the way around the tape, so you have to peel
some of it off in order to listen to it. F: Looks cool. E:
Yeah, it does, and thing is, you can mostly preserve it, you
only have to cut through the tape on one side. [Gets out
exacto knife.] F: Yeah. E: I think this is the first
actual Chocolate Monk I've ever owned. F: Really? E: Yeah,
I hear about almost all of 'em but I never see 'em. F: You
gotta do mailorder, dude. E: I know, but I've got this weird
thing about ordering from the UK. Like this mental block about
their exchange rate or something. It's weird. I swear they
don't accept US currency over there or something. F: Actually
I've never ordered anything from the UK. E: Poser. [Laughter.]
Wait, actually I have the Harry Pussy Vigilance!
cassette, somewhere. F: Oh yeah? Where'd you get that? E:
I don't know, some U.S. mailorder . . . I think Little Brother
Records. F: I remember them. Fahey's Mill Pond? E:
Yep. F: Double 7-inch. E: But yeah, that Harry Pussy tape
is insane. It's just like one 10-second-long passage of music,
edited over and over again, like 500 times, to fill out an
entire 90 minute cassette. F: Wha....? E: Seriously. At least
that's what it feels like. [Cassette by Clay's Festering
Lung, finally unwrapped, starts playing.] We'll have
to listen to it after this, if I can dig it out. Which won't
be easy. F: Chocolate Monk night! E: Chocolate Monk in the
DJ tent! Can't believe I only have two Chocolate Monk releases,
how lame. [More listening.] This is great! Fuckin'
noise-folk! F: Yeah, and it's more noise than folk. E: Boom-box
tin-drone tape-scuzz! F: Pasture noise! E: Totally, this is
great. Very Chocolate Monk. F: Very Shield That Pierces
The Earth. E: Oh yeah, it's piercin'. But appropriate
you should say that, because Clay's Festering Lungs takes
their name from a track from that album. F: Okay, so is Nyoukis
on this? Or . . . E: I don't think so, I believe this is a
solo project by Clay Ruby from 23 Productions, Skullfucking
Tapes, the Davenport Family, Pasture Music fest, the whole
Madison, Wisconsin shebang. F: Oh yeah, the Metrocide and
all that. E: Yeah, that's an older project, I don't think
he does that anymore. F: One of the 93 projects involving
Clay Ruby. E: No, he's only involved in . . . . 23 projects.
F: Ha ha. [Later, start of side two.] E: Okay,
here on side two we have a far-away drone that is more of
a soft hum, and we have a couple dudes having a conversation,
probably Wisconsin dudes. This sounds like a Madison-type
conversation. F: Yeah, so like you and I are recording this
conversation, about what's on this tape, and we're two more
dudes, Illinois dudes, so when we're done with our tape it'll
have four dudes on it, having two different conversations
at two different times in two different states. E: Of mind.
F: I don't know, I think our states of mind are pretty fuckin'
similar . . . and our states are actually bordering, Illinois
and Wisconsin . . . that's pretty similar . . . they're only
like a two-and-a-half-hour drive away. It's almost like one
big state. E: Totally, you should get Sufjan Stevens to write
an album about it!
LOREN
MAZZACANE CONNORS/CHRISTINA CARTER: Meditations on the Ascension
of Blind Joe Death, Vol. 1 LP (ECSTATIC
YOD) Even
though I stopped following Loren Mazzacane Connors's every
heartbreaking guitar move a few years back (I had 6 or 7 of
his albums and they seemed to contain enough angelic genius
to last a lifetime), I immediately picked up his newly released
duet record with Christina Carter of the Charalambides. It
seemed like it would be such a perfect match of exquisite
high-lonesome tone, and not only is that true, there's a whole
lot more to it as well. For one, Ms. Carter made the choice
to completely forgo her more common guitar and vocal route,
and instead play perfect soft lost acoustic piano. This was
a sweet move; there are so many moments throughout both sides
where a cluster of warm piano notes seems to bloom out of
a cold and lonely guitar tone that shines like a sheet of
ice . . . and vice versa! There is also the awesome cover
art by Conrad Capistran, which refers to early
John Fahey cover art in order to illustrate the album's
heavy concept, a deep heart-and-gut-felt musical tribute to
the life and ascension of ole Blind Joe Death Fahey himself,
crystallized by a tough elegy and mission statement, written
by Byron Coley and printed on the back cover. "Death
is dead. Long live Death."
DANAVA
CDR (PIECEMEAL) CDR
demo by a progressive glam metal-overload rock band from Portland,
Oregon with Princess Sweepstakes connections. I never hear
about these particular bands anywhere except when they send
me shit in the mail, and I'm not sure why that is. Maybe they
just like to stay home a lot, and if so, they should be sending
this shit to everybody! Princess Sweepstakes is a ruling Beefheart/Caroliner
skronk outfit, and I like Danava better still. More 'metal'
and 'classic' in conception than Princess Sweepstakes, Danava
play long psyched-out Hawkwind/Simply Saucer-inflected takes
on heavy prog glam, with fine melodic hooks, twin guitar leads,
sci-fi synth, and killer circular buzz riffs. I'm reminded
of Maiden, Blizzard of Ozz, early Queen, a pinch
of T. (not Tyrannosaurus in the slightest) Rex, and, most
surprisingly and effectively, Voivod! You can go here
and download a couple of these epics -- might not be a bad
idea.
DE
HONDENKOEKJESFABRIEK DVD (DE
HONDENKOEKJESFABRIEK) I
really wanted to review this DVD of "weird noise"
from The Netherlands, featuring "idiot noise performances,
animations, exploding heads, truck van rental, spermatak,
monobrain, piediepie, the weak-end-quizz, mayoman and more!"
I mean, wouldn't you? (Waitaminnit, what's "spermatak"?)
Unfortunately, my kid picked it up off of the to-be-reviewed
pile, no doubt drawn to its eye-catching cover, got the case
open, and tried to remove the disc. I was just watching him,
going, "Look at that, how cute, baby wanna dake out da
DVD...." and then SNAP. He was only half-successful at
"daking" out the DVD. So, if you folks at De Hondenkoekjesfabriek
are reading this and wanna send a replacement, <sincerity>I
really do wanna watch it, and I promise I'll review it! That's
Blastitude, 1517 W. Fullerton, Chicago, IL 60614 USA.</sincerity>
DE
HONDENKOEKJESFABRIEK DVD (DE
HONDENKOEKJESFABRIEK), take two Alright,
they heard my plea and answered with another DVD! I'm keeping
this one far away from the kid, believe me. Having watched
it once, I'd have to say that I'm pretty impressed by this
crew and their devotion to surrealistic set-building, costuming,
and film-scarring, not to mention some sort of global squatter
amplifier shit noise that most (okay, quite a few) Blastitude
readers have been in love with for years (okay, some). Visually,
it carries on the tradition of the early 'music video' work
of The Residents, and other cockamamie low-budget regional
noise/theater/costume/fug extravaganzas -- brutal sound effects,
anyone? I'll even give my support to the Mayo-Man, though
his performance takes forever to cut to the chase, and he
never plays any music -- at least hook contact mics up to
those buckets of mayo, come on! One real standout was the
group Total Security and their shadowy split-screen B&W
sci-fi creep-thing that goes on for 15 minutes. And that's
just four videos on a DVD with like twelve....
DEMOS
YELLOW SWANS: Live in the Police State Capital one-sided LP
(WEIRD FOREST) I'm sure some folks
might describe D Yellow Swans (what the D stands for changes
with every billing, be it on a show flier or record release)
as one of them "Wolf Eyes Jr." bands, but that's
way too dismissive because this is very satisfying slow-spook
electro & guitar creep that can turn into outright noise-gush
on a dime. Like Wolf Eyes, antecedents may be apparent, but
there is something simply in the soul of it that is clearly
more than any mere 'sum of these three hip influences' or
'new version of that one great band' type of description,
and you can hear it in each sine wave and saturated guitar
movement. I really cannot stand to look at the sinew-salad
collage art on the cover, but I'm certainly enjoying the sounds
packaged within. My only complaint (besides the cover) is
that, as a one-sided LP, it could have easily been twice as
long without wearing out it's welcome. But hey, you know what
Alexander Graham Bell himself said back when he invented the
phonograph record: "'Tis far, far better, forsooth, to
err on the side of brevity." [Ed. note: This quote
is often mistakenly attributed to Bell, but most serious scholars
know that it was actually spoken in 1958 by Philly Joe Jones.
He was joking around.]
Heads
up: lots of real nice looking and sounding cassette mystery
coming from the Rampart Tapes label of Lexington, Kentucky.
Side one is an ominous low tone or two that sort of creeps
around, up and down, for a long time (10 or 15 minutes) with
a small band of demons quietly joining in towards the end.
Nice, but it's like a warmup for side two, which is a supremely
ruling super-thick & mean low-down tone that is just constantly
boring into my mind! It's starting to hurt a little bit! Hurt
so good! Mongo like when brain hurt! The Rampart label is
run by a member of The Hair Police and it wouldn't surprise
me if 396 Mountains consists of one or more members of The
Hair Police, because that band has been going in a more 'controlled'
'soundtracky' direction, for sure -- their amazing Drawn
Dead album is almost like the much denser/louder/"fully
formed" version of side one of this cassette. Drawn
Dead, damn, that's a good album . . . . likin' this 396
Mountains cassette too.
Solo
'joint' by Michael Gibbons, guitarist for Bardo Pond. I just
realized that "MG" is his initials, but I think
the 500MG name also refers to something else that may or may
not tie in with the cover art. Anyway, this is an album of
quiet guitar pieces. I say quiet, but I don't necessarily
mean pretty or soothing -- in fact, it's pretty harsh, if
not via one gritty drone overdub or another, then by the very
large amounts of melancholia in the minimal melodies themselves,
which are almost as sad as the work of say Loren Connors or
the Charalambides-Scorces-Taurpis Tula axis. Just three tracks
per side, perfect length, a fine low-key harsh sad guitar
album.
I
would like more people than just the Sun City Girls freaks
to hear this album. It's by the solo guise of SCG member Alan
Bishop, and it's his third release as such. The first two
were more cultish -- his first, from 1994, untitled and mysterious,
was raw solo acoustic guitar instrumentals, and the second,
from 1998, also untitled and mysterious, was a double LP of
raw solo acoustic guitar songs that were ugly, mean, funny,
and really weird -- but this third one is an album of beautifully
recorded and fully arranged songs that could appeal to a lot
of people. Don't get me wrong, the songs are still weird and
mean and Alvarius still throws around about as many f-words
as you'd find on an Eazy E album, but the arrangements, orchestrations,
and melodies spread on so much film composer love that it
becomes something completely new. It's not like he hired a
few orchestras and super-producers either -- it's mostly just
guitars, bass, and drums, with a pinch of viola and organ
here and there, and a whole lot of craft, economy, and savvy.
For example, there's a gloriously cinematic Morricone cover
("Dirty Angels") created entirely by Bishop overdubbing
several voice and acoustic guitar tracks. The first time I
heard it, I had no idea the instrumentation was so simple.
Most of the tunes feature Alvarius playing with a small back-up
band that includes Eyvind Kang, drummer Randall Dunn, and
on some tracks guitarist Tim Young and percussionist Andrew
McGinnis. (A certain Richard Bishop plays guitar on one track
as well.) On a creepy number called "The Feel,"
Kang plays drums, and then overdubs not only viola but a rather
funky mutron-filtered bass line! But it's not so much about
the band as it is the lyrics, the melodies, and the cinematic
overdubs. And for those who want the hardcore real old west
evil shit that SCG have long since addicted you to, it's here
too, like on "Mr. 786": "I'm doin' business
with a black and tan / between a foggy mirror and a swollen
gland / He'd love to move some ivory or tiger whiskers / Cuz
that dope's been rottin' in the sun / He'd like to move some
guns / But I needed a half-ton of Persian pistachios / and
some imitation shark fins cuz I gotta score to / settle with
Chinese Dick who specializes in bird drool / and he killed
a queer buddy of mine in Yunnan / last year over two-dozen
Toyotas meant for Lashio / found his carcass in a freight
container bound for Medan / carved jack-o-lantern-style wrapped-up
in some Teak / furniture I order once-in-a-while."
Speaking
of which, the thing they call orch-pop has been around forever
and is still going strong through thick and thin among multiple
generations. Take this recording artist Apothecary Hymns,
no particular marketing/scene affiliation. First couple listens
I thought it was played and recorded real nice but wasn't
immediately impressed by the songs -- but now they're starting
to creep up on me, with the hooky slow-developing minor-key-verse/major-key-chorus
"A Sailor Song" in the lead right now. Apothecary
Hymns is a guy named Alex Stimmel who lives in Brooklyn, New
York, doing some kind of full-band retro-psych Americana all
by himself at home. But don't expect some loner-guy lower-fi
bedroom sketchbook trip -- these are very well recorded songs
that are fully written and carefully orchestrated (via lots
of overdubs -- electric guitar sounds, fuzz bass, banjo, drumkit,
and seemingly much more). Other reviews of this album seem
to always mention Syd Barrett, but it sounds to me like Lee
Ranaldo singing lead for The Band!
So
I get this package from somewhere overseas -- where, I don't
notice right away, because the handwritten return address
is really hard to read. I just know it's some other country
because the package has one of those green customs labels
stuck to it. I open it up and there's three CDRs in there.
I can tell they're CDRs because they're in flat plastic sleeves,
and . . . you can just tell. But, I take 'em out, and these
are some awful nice hard plastic sleeves, and the artwork
looks good, an image that says "Astral Social Club"
pasted onto a paper card, with a different color scheme for
each of the three volumes. Nice, but hey, I get (not quite)
2000 CDRs a week so no big deal, they go on the pile and I
go back to what I usually do, which is mostly work, sleep,
make food, pick up toys, 
change
diapers, etc. 
are
simply titled Astral Social Club #1, Astral Social
Club # 2, and Astral Social Club # 3) . . .
. and oh yeah, this is clearly him, because this is some gorgeous
post-drone shit, insert the adjective "higher-key"
wherever you want, it completely fits. How is it different
than Vibracathedral? Well, it almost seems completely electronic,
although it probably isn't, and by NO means is it "electronica"
(there is no such generic allegiance). It's also a little
mellower than anything else he's done -- his music has always
been beautiful, but rarely has it been this easy-going and
ethereal. I remember he once said that Vibracathedral's working
method was "anything to get the sound up and flying,"
a quote I always enjoyed, and this stuff is certainly still
soaring, but it's like he learned how to put that magic carpet
on autopilot, lay down, take a sweet snooze, and dream baby
dream. Heaven-bound, all the way -- even with the Suicide
influence, these discs DEFINITELY get this issue's Popol Vuh
Award . . . . I could talk about highlights and whatnot, but
there's no track titles and all three discs really are interchangeably
excellent. (For the record, though, I think my favorite track
right now is "[track eight]" on #3.) Anyway,
I'm not sure how you can order these or anything at this point
-- maybe check with 
This
just in, "hot offa the burner," the fourth release
by Vibacathedral Neil Campbell's new solo moniker. Like the
first three, still very electronic, very solo, and very zoned-out
loopage, though this one strikes me as being a little more
'noisy' than the first three blissers. Track one (no titles)
sounds like mid-period Kevin Drumm, and the 12-minute track
two sounds like current Kevin Drumm, at least until
the microhouse pulse starts emerging. Track five might sound
kinda nice from the other room, but get up close and it's
absolutely hellish! It even has 'people being tortured' screams
going on somewhere in there! (And no, it's not just me!) My
dark-horse favorite is probably track six, a chilled-out workout
for ghosted-out rinkydink drum machine. Chilled-out . . .
. but creepy. Hive Mind influence? 
Another
Chicago band! A vinyl reissue of this was first mentioned
in Blastitude almost 
Representing
the other Olneyville, Rhode Island, Black Forest/Black
Sea are not a crazy costumed noise rock band -- they're more
like one of them new psych folk bands you keep hearing about!
I'm surprised to say that this is my introduction to them,
other than the one comp track on The Invisible Pyramid,
because a lot of people seem to like 'em -- at least, their
self-titled debut CD went out of print rather quickly. And
so far I like 'em too. Melancholy free improvisation that
is built around classical sad melodies instead of the more
in-vogue sound and noise. But of course, there's tons of sound
and noise in there too, because each track stretches from
melodies into sound and noise and back, it's just the formulas
and progressions that mysteriously change. All tracks are
from live shows on a Spring 2004 European tour, and feature
the group's core duo of Miriam Goldberg (cello, omnichord,
voice) and Jeffrey Alexander (guitar, banjo, omnichord). Three
tracks are just the two of 'em (including one of the very
best, #4, recorded in Newcastle upon Tyne, England), but the
other six feature guests. For two fine tracks, recorded in
Tampere, Finland, they are joined by that town's resident
jam maven Jan Anderzén, and track #9 "Talbot Hotel,
Stoke-on-Trent 4/11/04" is a real beaut, a rolling and
unfolding series of yearning improvised major chords, filled
out by the "electric
tamboura, harmonium, percussion" of guest Harry Sumnall.
Reminds
me of the Charalambides song "Joy Shapes" (which
makes sense because Christina Carter Madonia of the Charalambides
has also played with Black Forest/Black Sea). 
Believe
me, I'd love to be able to stop referring to acid folk like
it's some new trend too, but hey, I guess that's what happened,
and I've always loved acid folk music so more power to 'em.
Here are two of the most acclaimed of the new crop, and I've
gotta say: pretty damn good. At the very least I now know
that the notable press I've been reading about Josephine Foster
(Arthur, Chicago Reader, web stuff) is well justified. I first
heard her in the Children's Hour, but that only amounted to
one track, heard for the first and only time while I played
it live on the radio, and I frankly did not really care for
it. However, I knew I would hear her again, and I looked forward
to the day, but it was almost uncanny the way I could never
make it to one of her shows. And I still haven't. But I finally
got ahold of this CD by her duo Born Heller, and it's a real
dreamy piece of something. The forte isn't exactly hooks or
memorable lyrics, but the overall sound of the songs is a
hook in and of itself. These are mysterious songs that hover
in the air with a sadness and wistfulness and strange playfulness
and you just kind of sit there and wonder about them while
they're happening. That's really all I can tell you so far,
except I will add that Jason Ajemian's acoustic bass playing
is key to this spectrality. He doesn't really play a single
"jazz" or even "folk" note on the whole
CD -- while Foster covers the chord progressions with her
acoustic guitar, he just sort of flits and hums somewhere
deep in the recesses of the tune. (And he shows up on the
very last track doing some vocals that really take the album
home.) [This just in: a while back I downloaded a Children's
Hour song called "Leader Soldier" without listening
to it, and it finally showed up on my player set on shuffle
-- it took me the whole length of the song to figure out who
it was, but it was great, spooky & pretty, quiet &
trancey. I think I got it from Ms. Foster's website, which
is at 
Also part of this whole "revival" that's going on,
also released by Locust Music, and also featuring songwriting
that is heavier on overall mood and mystery and atmosphere
than it is on classic "pop" ingredients like specific
hooks and quotable lyrics, is the self-titled debut CD by
Espers, here recording as a woman/woman/man trio (with guests).
All three sing -- the man in Espers is Greg Weeks, who you
might know from a previous solo CD or two. I have yet to hear
those, but I am digging Espers quite a bit. Very
well-played and sung, it's not so much "folk" as
it is this slightly grandiose, medieval and gothic odd-prog-lite
that unfolds at a slow, steady, and rather addictive pace.
It's not presented as one long suite with footnotes and subdivisions
or anything -- it's not that prog -- but it feels
like one long suite anyway, especially when it ends with an
epic instrumental that builds into an intense closing chorus
of wailing harpies (led by spectral guest Tara Burke of Fursaxa
fame). Really pretty cover art too, that would look (and feel)
incredible on an LP cover with that old soft kind of paper
like Neil Young (and others) used to use. 
The
concept and presentation is as simple and concise as could
be -- she (Jessica Rylan, who is Can't, which is a great name)
is by herself singing songs, five tracks clocking in at just
over 13 minutes -- but the catch is that she's singing into
a microphone that is really overamped and feeding back heavily,
and then the double catch is that, despite this chaotic volume
situation, it sounds like she's trying to hide the performance/recording
session from her family members and/or roommates in the other
room (the album was in fact recorded at her parents' house).
It's like one-woman shy crazy funny gutsy metal stream-of-consciousness
acapella karaoke. Then, track three is a shy noise track with
no vocals, at least not any vocals that are readily identifiable
as human, and it's seriously some killer sponge-squeal. And
two more tracks, with vocals, and weird beat-box stylings.
Can't? I can! (And BTW, when's somebody who has all the records
gonna write up an annotated RRR discography? Seriously, can
somebody just go to 
Loved
my first Can't album, now here's my second, truly a thing
of beauty. (Prettiest picture disc of the year? Definitely.
Of the century? Probably!) As on the previous Final Performance,
she (Can't, a/k/a Jessica Rylan) is still playing "home-made
synthesizer," creating weird instrumentals, and singing
intense love songs, but my, she has really upped the ante
with this release. Final Performance was 5 little
blasts in just 11 minutes, where New Secret has 6
tracks but is three times as long. Some of its tracks are
shorter instrumental things, but three of them are long, patient,
and powerful songs, precise and rhythmic and melodic, and
they are all classics. But then, so is "Driving in the
Rain," in which she gets out the tenor recorder flute
and plays a lovely short and sweet solo piece that is about
as "free folk" as it gets. I love track five, "Messy
Mystery," too -- it's this sparse bubbly instrumental
that my 2-year-old is convinced is the sound of (his words)
"fish swimming" and "going down underwater."
The sounds make him laugh and he says "fish!" constantly.
Late in the track when Ms. Rylan hits a real deep bending
tone, he gets excited and says "FISH FART!!" I say
all this not to tell you how hilarious my kid is, but to demonstrate
that this is some pretty deep music that is much more than
just Noise. And then track six "Casting A Spell"
is definitely the one for the annals, a 15-minute epic that
lives up to its title with one of the most fragile sweet witchy
melancholy melodies ever on a "Noise" record! Throw
in that gorgeous painting on the B side and, well, you've
got a masterpiece. 
Kranky
continues their Charalambides and Charalambides-related reissue
program with this sonically stripped-down and mostly instrumental
solo guitar long-player by a founding member of the band.
I've said it before, Ms. Carter can communicate loneliness
like no other balladeer -- indeed, she's one of the great
desert blues singers of her era (first release was 1992),
not to mention one of the most low-key and soft-spoken. On
this album the guitar holds steady throughout -- like pale
light on a calm cloudy day, it's always there -- while the
voice just comes and goes occasionally like a rare strange
breeze that kicks up three or four leaves and nothing more
before disappearing again. The big one on here is track #3,
"Alone, Not Alone," a 14-minuter that just hangs
out sad, relaxed, and heavy on seemingly one tone/one chord/one
love. Dust-sky existential-western soul-grind raga. Yessir.
Track #5, "Body Energy Exchange," is relatively
quite playful in its quixotic and sometimes rather speedy
improv patternings. But the whole album is pretty mysterious
and mysteriously pretty. Most of this was recorded quite a
while ago in 1995 and 1996 -- better late than never to have
it on full-press CD.
The
other founding member of Charalambides also gets an out-of-print
CDR-only release reissued on CD. "The first track . .
. is slightly longer than two minutes and barely reveals itself,"
says the press material, and I'd have to agree -- my stereo
isn't exactly cranked, but I'm just now starting to hear stuff
at the 1:25 mark -- now at the 2-minute mark some ghost bow-whine
can be discerned, but hey, the track is already over. So,
really, that was just a prelude to track 2, which is 47 minutes
long and takes up the rest of the album. Both tracks are solo
lap steel guitar, recorded live to DAT back in March 2001,
and this is some very haunted world-hum, extremely patient,
slow-moving, heavy atmospherics. This is a guitar album, but
it's not obvious about it -- could be synth, could be piano
wire strung across a cathedral, could be amplified brain waves,
but regardless it is indeed a sound monument, and getting
next to it is a high lonesome and reflective way to spend
the better part of an hour. 
And
yeah, speaking of the first Charalambides album from 1992
. . . . this is it, Our Bed Is Green, the latest
in Kranky's reissue program (release date: April 4, 2005).
You might have a one-CD version of this that was self-released
by the band (on their in-house Wholly Other imprint) in the
mid-1990s (I still have my copy, with its hand-painted watercolors
on the cover, and now sun-faded construction-paper tray insert),
but they initially self-released it as a C90 cassette, with
several more songs. This 2005 edition on Kranky is a two-CD
restoration of that cassette version in its entirety ("with
the exception of two cover songs"). I had forgotten how
epic this stuff was with the big guitars and soaring choruses,
because at the same time it's unabashedly shy home-recorded
music, still finding its feet. On the top there are shades
of like a 4AD shimmer/girl approach that people might even
compare to Mazzy Star or something, but down below, driving
the engine, it's nothing but weird overloaded cassette-4-track-revolution
drone-power. At times this scary undercurrent breaks through
the surface, too, for screaming daymares like "Neutron
Decay," so look out. Overall, the procession of these
tunes might be a little too gawky for recent Charalambides
converts -- as the 1990s progressed, they evolved into a more
fully developed, confident, and singular form of music, and
the curve is still arcing upward today -- but anyone with
an affinity for small, sad, oft-sweet, and somewhat haunted
solo/duo 4-track mini-dreams should appreciate it. 
Pick
of the issue so far?! Fans of MX-80 Sound should take note
in particular, especially Rich Stim fans, as Chinaboise is
a pre-MX-80 Bloomington, IN band (all recordings done in 1975)
where Stim wrote songs and played guitar, saxophone, and more,
while laying down plenty of vocals in his inimitable puppy-dog
cool-nerd song-speak. He was aided and abetted by another
MX-er-to-be, drummer Dave Mahoney, as well as a few cute girls
and some guy named Rich Fish. When they decided a couple tracks
needed heavy guitar firepower, they asked local prog-punk
guitar hero Bruce Anderson to help out. Anderson in turn asked
Stim and Mahoney to join his mighty MX-80 band, and the rest
is history, but Chinaboise is no mere "MX-80 side project"
or even "MX-80 precursor," this is a full-fledged
fascinating band. There are prog-folk ditties, odd pop numbers,
shit that sounds like Getz and Gilberto from Venus, little
jazzish instrumentals on which Stim plays sax, and even a
couple outright comedy skits that really kinda have me scratching
my head. Also, why didn't the recent excavation of hundreds
of '75-'85 DIY chestnuts from every pocket of the U.S.A. yield
Chinaboise classics like "Girl You Got It (So Go Get
It)" or "Living On Oil"? Did the heavy R&B
influence make the nurds uncomfortable? No, it was because
these great tracks, and everything else on here (except one
track's minor compilation appearance), have never been released
in any form until this CD! "So Go Get It" indeed!
With
special guests E and F! And all due respect to Arthur magazine!
E: Look at this, this is insane. This blue electrical
tape goes all the way around the tape, so you have to peel
some of it off in order to listen to it. F: Looks cool. E:
Yeah, it does, and thing is, you can mostly preserve it, you
only have to cut through the tape on one side. [Gets out
exacto knife.] F: Yeah. E: I think this is the first
actual Chocolate Monk I've ever owned. F: Really? E: Yeah,
I hear about almost all of 'em but I never see 'em. F: You
gotta do mailorder, dude. E: I know, but I've got this weird
thing about ordering from the UK. Like this mental block about
their exchange rate or something. It's weird. I swear they
don't accept US currency over there or something. F: Actually
I've never ordered anything from the UK. E: Poser. [Laughter.]
Wait, actually I have the Harry Pussy Vigilance!
cassette, somewhere. F: Oh yeah? Where'd you get that? E:
I don't know, some U.S. mailorder . . . I think Little Brother
Records. F: I remember them. Fahey's Mill Pond? E:
Yep. F: Double 7-inch. E: But yeah, that Harry Pussy tape
is insane. It's just like one 10-second-long passage of music,
edited over and over again, like 500 times, to fill out an
entire 90 minute cassette. F: Wha....? E: Seriously. At least
that's what it feels like. [Cassette by Clay's Festering
Lung, finally unwrapped, starts playing.] We'll have
to listen to it after this, if I can dig it out. Which won't
be easy. F: Chocolate Monk night! E: Chocolate Monk in the
DJ tent! Can't believe I only have two Chocolate Monk releases,
how lame. [More listening.] This is great! Fuckin'
noise-folk! F: Yeah, and it's more noise than folk. E: Boom-box
tin-drone tape-scuzz! F: Pasture noise! E: Totally, this is
great. Very Chocolate Monk. F: Very Shield That Pierces
The Earth. E: Oh yeah, it's piercin'. But appropriate
you should say that, because Clay's Festering Lungs takes
their name from a track from that album. F: Okay, so is Nyoukis
on this? Or . . . E: I don't think so, I believe this is a
solo project by Clay Ruby from 23 Productions, Skullfucking
Tapes, the Davenport Family, Pasture Music fest, the whole
Madison, Wisconsin shebang. F: Oh yeah, the Metrocide and
all that. E: Yeah, that's an older project, I don't think
he does that anymore. F: One of the 93 projects involving
Clay Ruby. E: No, he's only involved in . . . . 23 projects.
F: Ha ha. [Later, start of side two.] E: Okay,
here on side two we have a far-away drone that is more of
a soft hum, and we have a couple dudes having a conversation,
probably Wisconsin dudes. This sounds like a Madison-type
conversation. F: Yeah, so like you and I are recording this
conversation, about what's on this tape, and we're two more
dudes, Illinois dudes, so when we're done with our tape it'll
have four dudes on it, having two different conversations
at two different times in two different states. E: Of mind.
F: I don't know, I think our states of mind are pretty fuckin'
similar . . . and our states are actually bordering, Illinois
and Wisconsin . . . that's pretty similar . . . they're only
like a two-and-a-half-hour drive away. It's almost like one
big state. E: Totally, you should get Sufjan Stevens to write
an album about it!
Even
though I stopped following Loren Mazzacane Connors's every
heartbreaking guitar move a few years back (I had 6 or 7 of
his albums and they seemed to contain enough angelic genius
to last a lifetime), I immediately picked up his newly released
duet record with Christina Carter of the Charalambides. It
seemed like it would be such a perfect match of exquisite
high-lonesome tone, and not only is that true, there's a whole
lot more to it as well. For one, Ms. Carter made the choice
to completely forgo her more common guitar and vocal route,
and instead play perfect soft lost acoustic piano. This was
a sweet move; there are so many moments throughout both sides
where a cluster of warm piano notes seems to bloom out of
a cold and lonely guitar tone that shines like a sheet of
ice . . . and vice versa! There is also the awesome cover
art by Conrad Capistran, which refers to 
CDR
demo by a progressive glam metal-overload rock band from Portland,
Oregon with Princess Sweepstakes connections. I never hear
about these particular bands anywhere except when they send
me shit in the mail, and I'm not sure why that is. Maybe they
just like to stay home a lot, and if so, they should be sending
this shit to everybody! Princess Sweepstakes is a ruling Beefheart/Caroliner
skronk outfit, and I like Danava better still. More 'metal'
and 'classic' in conception than Princess Sweepstakes, Danava
play long psyched-out Hawkwind/Simply Saucer-inflected takes
on heavy prog glam, with fine melodic hooks, twin guitar leads,
sci-fi synth, and killer circular buzz riffs. I'm reminded
of Maiden, Blizzard of Ozz, early Queen, a pinch
of T. (not Tyrannosaurus in the slightest) Rex, and, most
surprisingly and effectively, Voivod! You can go 
I
really wanted to review this DVD of "weird noise"
from The Netherlands, featuring "idiot noise performances,
animations, exploding heads, truck van rental, spermatak,
monobrain, piediepie, the weak-end-quizz, mayoman and more!"
I mean, wouldn't you? (Waitaminnit, what's "spermatak"?)
Unfortunately, my kid picked it up off of the to-be-reviewed
pile, no doubt drawn to its eye-catching cover, got the case
open, and tried to remove the disc. I was just watching him,
going, "Look at that, how cute, baby wanna dake out da
DVD...." and then SNAP. He was only half-successful at
"daking" out the DVD. So, if you folks at De Hondenkoekjesfabriek
are reading this and wanna send a replacement, <sincerity>I
really do wanna watch it, and I promise I'll review it! That's
Blastitude, 1517 W. Fullerton, Chicago, IL 60614 USA.</sincerity>
I'm sure some folks
might describe D Yellow Swans (what the D stands for changes
with every billing, be it on a show flier or record release)
as one of them "Wolf Eyes Jr." bands, but that's
way too dismissive because this is very satisfying slow-spook
electro & guitar creep that can turn into outright noise-gush
on a dime. Like Wolf Eyes, antecedents may be apparent, but
there is something simply in the soul of it that is clearly
more than any mere 'sum of these three hip influences' or
'new version of that one great band' type of description,
and you can hear it in each sine wave and saturated guitar
movement. I really cannot stand to look at the sinew-salad
collage art on the cover, but I'm certainly enjoying the sounds
packaged within. My only complaint (besides the cover) is
that, as a one-sided LP, it could have easily been twice as
long without wearing out it's welcome. But hey, you know what
Alexander Graham Bell himself said back when he invented the
phonograph record: "'Tis far, far better, forsooth, to
err on the side of brevity." [Ed. note: This quote
is often mistakenly attributed to Bell, but most serious scholars
know that it was actually spoken in 1958 by Philly Joe Jones.
He was joking around.] 
