Warped Reality

Use Your Allusion (Happy Birthday, Mr. Eno)

2008-05-17T14:08:16Z

Brian Eno turned 60 this week.

Since his days at Winchester School of Art in the late ‘60s, when he was nearly kicked out for being a “disruptive element,” Brian Eno has always been a provocateur.

Stylistically and philosophically restless, the co-creator (along with Peter Schmidt) of Oblique Strategies and founding member of art-rock dandies Roxy Music has unexpectedly become a big-name producer of such equally big-name acts as Paul Simon, U2, and now Coldplay.

Quite frankly, the very thought of listening to Coldplay (or, ugh, U2) makes me break out in hives. But I appreciate Eno’s sneaky ability to simultaneously operate above and below the radar —it’s a talent that should not be underestimated. (The Windows98 start-up theme? That’s Eno’s. But he’s also mapped his own scents, shot his own videos, and organized numerous artistic collaborations.)

Eno’s greatest talent as a producer has been the ability to encourage bands to throw out their carefully constructed rulebooks and start fresh, often with startling results. (See Talking Heads’ stylistic transformation under Eno’s watch from angular downtown doyennes to funkified worldbeat ambassadors.)

His own music has been no less startling. Widely credited with inventing Ambient in 1978 (Ambient I: Music for Airports), Eno’s own stylistic restlessness has led to the creation of a subtle, challenging body of work that, despite its magpie impatience to settle on a single aesthetic, ultimately coheres into something weird but wonderful.

Happy birthday.

Brian Eno | Eno Shop

Brian Eno, “Third Uncle” (from Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy)

Brian Eno, “Dead Finks Don’t Talk” (from Here Come the Warm Jets )

PHOTO CREDIT: CORBIS

little stabs at happiness

2008-05-12T02:50:19Z

A vast symphony of social disgust. Better luck next time.

Bedouin Ascent, “Bway Boogie Woogie”

Bark Psychosis, “All Different Things”

Disco Inferno, “Second Language”

Jack Smith, “Carnival of Ecstasy” (from Silent Shadows On Cinemaroc Island, Table of the Elements)

IMAGE: FLAMING CREATURES, PROJECTED.

Now That's Disgusting Music (R.I.P.) | 1990-2008

2008-04-30T03:44:43Z

Sad word came down today, via P-fork, that Beggars Group imprints Too Pure and Beggars Banquet have been absorbed into 4AD. Stereolab’s next album will arrive on August 19th sporting 4AD and Duophonic logos. Sayonara, l’il Too Pure arrow. You’ll be missed.

Favorite Too Pure moments:

Seefeel, “More Like Space.” From start to finish, pretty damn breathtaking. My favorite release from Seefeel. Yes, even moreso than Quique. So sue me!

Seefeel, “More Like Space”

PJ Harvey, Dry. I would argue that Rid of Me is Peej’s true masterpiece, her startling, brazen hat trick. But it was Dry that introduced her raw, unique perspective to the world. I still remember where I was when I heard “Dress.” I went out and bought the album the next day.

PJ Harvey, “Dress”

Mouse on Mars, "Frosch/room." Until 1994, I was decidedly on the guitar-rock side of the fence. Seefeel helped to get my incremental mental paradigm shift towards electronic music rolling, and Mouse on Mars finished the job. Their music was witty, warm, and elastically inventive in a way that I hadn’t suspected electronic music to be capable of.

And, with the addition of powerhouse drummer Dodo Nkishi, their live performances ended up being more fun than a barrel full of knob-twiddlers. (No disrespect meant to any knob-twiddlers out there.)

As evidenced by their recent collaboration with Mark E Smith, Von Südenfed, they remain as radical and wry as ever. (When I once asked them how they’d gotten to the UK from their native Germany, Jan, by way of reply, simply mimed the side stroke.)

Mouse on Mars, “Froschroom”

Laika, Silver Apples of the Moon.I interned at too pure in the fall of 1994. So, if you happen to have a copy of “Silver Apples” with the original artwork —complete with hand-affixed customs labels and facsimile stamps— there’s a slight chance it was my handiwork. (Self-adhesive stamp technology has come a long way since those dark days.)

Laika, “Spider Happy Hour”

Stereolab, “Seeperbold.” My favorite Stereolab songs have traditionally been one-offs and freebies of the sort that either get sold on tour or show up on, say, cassette tapes affixed to the front of Melody Maker (or was it NME?). “Seeperbold” is no exception. The way Laetitia rhymes “comatos-e” with “moros-e” here never fails to crack me up for some reason.

Stereolab, “Seeperbold.”

Electrelane. I only got to see Electrelane once, opening in San Francisco for Broadcast. Now, I adore Broadcast. But putting Electrelane on before them was somewhat unfair, because their retro-futuristic, somewhat wistful music came off pallidly next to Electrelane’s exhilarating harmonic convergences.

I do hope the shake-up at 4AD hasn’t also shaken Verity Susman’s solo project Vera November loose. (Her “Jive” is my favorite unreleased single since forever —a jumpin’ juke-joint holler and all-around joyful blast. AAAA!)

Electrelane, “Only One Thing is Needed”

Long Fin Killie; Bows, "TFM." Luke Sutherland’s work for Too Pure seemed to me perpetually (and unfairly) overlooked. His work erred on the side of quiet, subtle, and sly, with a marked lack of ego. It was that lack of ego that enabled Sutherland—a brilliant writer with a polymath’s gift for picking up every instrument from violin to bouzouki— to inhabit a vivid panoply of voices, turning each song into a fully imagined pocket world, beautifully shaped and turned out with poetic precision. If anything, his short-lived project Bows, a collaboration between Sutherland, Scottish musician Ruth Emond, and Norwegian singer Signe Hoirup Wille-Jorgensen , was even more exquisite than its predecessor Long Fin Killie.

Long Fin Killie, “Hollywood Gem” (1995)

Bows, “TFM”(from the Britannica EP, 1999)

Kick it old school with too pure founder Paul Cox' history of the label. Then Go forth and buy lovely things at the too pure shop | Then go & express your profound displeasure to the folks at Beggars USA.

PHOTO BY ANDREA | HIGHBURY CORNER, 2007

Room with a FU

2008-04-20T00:51:47Z

Talk about brutal irony: this year’s Record Store Day happens to coincide with the opening of John Varvatos' Bowery boutique. Varvatos’ name may not mean much to you, but his pricey menswear shop just happens to be taking over the site of the former CBGBs.

After years of legal battles and fundraisers, CBs finally closed its doors last summer, putting an end to one of the most storied clubs in New York City history. (CB’s owner Hilly Kristal passed away soon after.) Varvatos —who bills himself as a “rock n’roll designer” and populates his ad campaigns with the likes of Iggy Pop and Cheap Trick— has renovated the space with a great sense of respect, keeping the graffitied and flyered walls intact, selling CDs by acts from CB’s heyday, and giving the Soho gallery treatment to framed covers of PUNK and NY Rocker. (There’s even a “Gabba Gabba Hey” sign on the back wall.)

But all of this sticks in the craw of New Yorkers fed up with the egregious Yuppification of the Bowery —the worst contender (by far) being the ostentatious Bowery Hotel, with its Studio 54-esque velvet rope and Robber Baron-luxe décor. (Second in line: the New Museum’s robotic façade with its rainbow-hued, cartoonishly chipper “Hell Yes!”)

The Bowery is one of the last frontiers for the increasingly pitched battle between those who want to keep New York accessible and those who want to keep pushing real estate prices into the stratosphere. For now, the wholesalers remain, but for how long?

Getting back to the plight of the record stores: the Bowery’s own Downtown Music Gallery (342 Bowery) is facing a potential move thanks to an untenable rent hike. Open since 1991, this scruffy shop carries some of the most adventurous music there is, with special attention paid to downtown musicians. (For instance, they sell the limited edition releases from John Zorn’s artist-curated club the Stone.)

Home in Providence, every single one of Thayer Street’s record stores has shuttered its doors. I knew the end was nigh for the last holdout, Tom’s Tracks, when a slightly desperate sign exclaiming, “Now selling comics!” appeared in their window. (Have comics ever been a lucrative cash-cow?)

Gone are the days of going spelunking for dusty rarities in basements and crammed storefronts. Now it’s all moved online, thanks to Gemm, ebay, and Dusty Groove. The plus side is that all these rarities are but a click away. The down side is that the thrill of the hunt —searching high and low for that Aurobindo record, or Kid Congo’s first EP— has been replaced with a somewhat dispiriting mouse-click on a PayPal button. Plus ça change…

I leave you with a trio of downtown favorites, Talking Heads, Kid Congo, and the (soon-to-be-reunited) Feelies…

The Feelies, “Loveless Love” (from Crazy Rhythms)

Talking Heads, “Drugs” (from Fear of Music)

Kid Congo Powers, “La Historia de un Amor” (from Solo Cholo)

PHOTO: RIP, HILLY.

Klaus Dinger, 1946-2008

2008-04-11T02:11:35Z

The other night I’d just finished reading a bittersweet interview with half of Neu!, Michael Rother, when I learned that his partner in Neu!, Klaus Dinger, had passed away of heart failure just shy of his 62nd birthday.

It seemed vividly clear from Rother's comments in his recent Invisible Jukebox that, although his relationship with Dinger had become incredibly strained over the years, a great deal of fondness remained between the two longtime collaborators. As Rother wrote on his website:“I will remember Klaus for his creativity as an artist and I will think about him with gratitude for his wonderful contributions to our project Neu!.”

Dinger is particularly credited with originating the propulsive “motorik” beat of classic Krautrock, a joyous and trance-inducing —yet slightly sinister— expansive groove-mantra beloved of taste-makers everywhere, from Bowie and Eno to Stereolab, John Frusciante to the Wooden Shjips.

If you’re curious to know what Neu! sound like, Damon Albarn's description lends the group a curiously (and slightly unearned) Tropicalismo flair: “When I listen to Neu! I think of a Germany where the autobahn is a thousand miles of golden white sands and the sound systems hang in the banana trees, instead of speedtraps and bratwurst.” Brian Eno, Mr. Oblique Strategies himself, inched a bit closer with his description of Dinger's alienated funk rhythms: "There were three great beats in the 70s: Fela Kuti's Afrobeat, James Brown's funk, and Klaus Dinger's Neu! beat."

Better yet, you could just have a listen. Nine minutes may sound like a long time, but Neu! time passes in the blink of an eye, a delirious swirl of color and mind-bending tricks of the light. Talk about the in-sound from way-out.

Klaus Dinger [Wiki] | Neu! [Amazon] | Michael Rother | Groenland [home to Neu! reissues]

Ciccone Youth, “Two Cool Rock Chicks Listening to Neu!” (from The Whitey Album)

Neu!, “Negativeland” (from Neu!, 1972)

Stereolab, “We’re Not Adult Orientated (Neu Wave)” (from Space Age Bachelor Pad Music)

NEU!: MICHAEL ROTHER (LEFT) AND KLAUS DINGER (RIGHT) | PHOTO BY THOMAS DINGER

Kim Deal Appreciation Day!

2008-04-08T02:41:10Z

In honor of Kim Deal’s all-around awesomeness (and the brand-new Breeders album, Mountain Battles), it’s Kim Deal Appreciation Day here at Warped Reality.

Hindsight is 20/20, and it seems pretty damn clear in retrospect that the dissolution of the Pixies had a great deal to do with Kim Deal’s effortless ascension into her own spotlight.

Deal slowly but surely came to ground the group’s wilder flights of fancy: her driving, concise basslines and honeyed vocals stood out as the unerring calm to Black Francis’ jagged, pitch-black squalls. It was this finely calibrated balance, ironically enough, that pulled the Pixies back from the brink more than once, reining in their frontman’s hyper-kinetic abrasiveness and pushing their peculiar, often surreal sound into the stratosphere. But it also pulled the group apart, sowing the seeds of jealousy and miscommunication.

When Deal (predictably) went off on her own to found the indie supergroup the Breeders, it seemed inevitable that she’d finally become a star in her own right. And, in what was a thrilling triumph of substance over style, she did just that, scoring a genuine hit with “Cannonball” off of 1993’s Last Splash. The year punk broke. Smash your head on the punk rock. Ka-ching!

That New Year’s Eve, the Breeders triumphantly rang in the New Year on MTV, Kim Deal’s gleeful insouciance that much cooler because it seemed so wonderfully genuine. No stylists made her over. You’d never catch her yo-yo dieting. She scribbled out stray gray hairs with Sharpies. She smoked and drank and made snarky (unprintable) comments. And through it all, she played music as head-bangingly glorious as it was fizzy and sweet —propulsively giddy, jagged little pop rocks.

It’s been a whirlwind since then, but after numerous ups and downs —including lineup changes, rehab stints, and (Pixies) reunions— the Breeders are back.

And it’s about time.

The last time I saw them was in San Francisco, circa Title TK. While the beer onstage had been replaced by Starbucks, and Kim was no longer able to stick her cigarette between the frets in her guitar to smolder away between songs (damn smoking ordinances), that did little to dim the group’s high-wattage enthusiasm. They were more than ready right out of the starting gate, equal parts sloppy and genius. After all, it’s one of Kim’s many virtues that she’s never exactly on point —she (and, consequently, the group) are always a little off. But that’s perfect too—it suits her to a tee.

Here’s to you, Kim.

4AD/Mountain Battles | The Breeders on Myspace

The Breeders, “We’re Gonna Rise” (from Mountain Battles, 2007)

the Breeders, “Overcome” (with Carrie Bradley, from the Pod demos)

the Breeders, “Head To Toe” (co-written by Diana Senechal)

Lydia Oh Lydia

2008-04-01T03:18:49Z

As usual, I'm a day late and a p-fork short announcing this little tidbit of news: No Wave hellions Teenage Jesus & the Jerks will be reuniting for two shows (8pm, 11pm) at NYC's Knitting Factory on (Friday) June 13th. The reunion shows constitute a release party of sorts for Thurston Moore & Byron Coley's lavish No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976-1980 [Abrams].

Strident chanteuse Lydia Lunch will be joined by current Bad Seed/former Jerk & Eight Eyed Spy Jim Sclavunos. Rumor has it that a “lost member” of TJ&TJ will be filling on bass duties, but no word yet as to whom that could be. (Thurston Moore?)

The rest of the evening's entertainment remains a mystery. Quoth the Knitting Factory press release: "Also on the bill will be a supporting act from the ashes of the original NYC No Wave nightmare." Hmm. DNA, anyone? Bueller? Paging Tim Wright, jungles of Belize?

For more on No New York and No Wave:"High Voltage Humans"

Interview with Robin Crutchfield, touching on the radical heyday of TJ&TJ

Look for the collected works of TJ&TJ will also be out in June from Atavistic.

Buy tix here. [Jesus 1, Jesus 2]

Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, “Burning Rubber” (from No New York)

Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, “I Woke Up Dreaming” (from No New York)

LYDIA & LIZZIE MERCIER DESCLOUX, 1980 | PHOTO CREDIT: UNKNOWN

Black Postcards

2008-03-23T19:38:25Z

Dean Wareham
Lizard Lounge, Cambridge
March 21, 2008

As the former frontman of Galaxie 500 and Luna and currently one half of Dean & Britta, Dean Wareham has become known for a certain kind of highly literate, glacial pop. His new memoir, Black Postcards (subtitled “A Rock & Roll Romance”) finds an intriguing tonal centre between the cerebral and the libidinal. Pulling no punches when it comes to the emotional consequences of endless touring (atrocious food, boredom, distracting female attention), the book is both analytical and immediate —far more satisfyingly in-depth than your average rock & roll tell-all. (You know the ones: they’re printed in huge 12-point type and include the words “As told to” somewhere on the title page.)

Black Postcards begins with Wareham’s idyllic childhood in Wellington, New Zealand, and follows his musical career from the formation (and eventual splintering) of Galaxie 500 to the final days of Luna.

The book’s dramatic centerpiece concerns the hiring of Britta Phillips as Luna’s new bass player. Both Dean and Britta try to play down their mutual attraction but fail to stave it off for long. (Clearly, the way to Dean’s heart is to read Musil’s The Man of Qualities in the tour van.)

Cue recriminations, divorce papers, and band chaos. The usual stuff of rock n’ roll memoirs, true, but Wareham’s version of excess is miles away from the Nikki Sixx school. He comes off as far too eminently sensible to go over the edge.

Rather, the book’s most refreshing quality is its candor: Wareham’s most damning assessments concern himself, as he wrestles with a turbulent marriage, the ups and downs of his musical career, and the perils of touring. Throughout he retains his trademark dry wit and his eye for telling detail.

At Friday night’s reading, Dean picked some of the book’s bawdiest passages to read to the packed crowd, including an account of a tour-van game of “Who’d you open for?” that mutates into one of “Who would you fuck?” (Spoiler alert: Bowie and Natalie Merchant figure prominently.)

Afterwards, Dean and Britta played some stripped-down songs, just the two of them. Dean’s ode to his Dodge Dart, “Blue Thunder,” and the shimmering cover of Jonathan Richman’s “Don’t Let Our Youth Go To Waste” got an airing, marred by muddy sound but still sounding as crisply optimistic as a spring day.

While Dean & Britta’s gorgeous harmonies suggest a fertile (and ongoing) musical (and personal) partnership, let's hope this isn't the last time that Wareham adds Writer to his already-extensive resumé.

Dean & Britta| Luna | Black Postcards/Penguin Group

Galaxie 500, “Don’t Let Our Youth Go To Waste (a Jonathan Richman cover from Copenhagen, Live 1990)

Dean & Britta, “You Turn My Head Around (a Lee Hazlewood cover from Back Numbers, 2007)

Hanna’s Sound World

2008-03-16T04:44:24Z

Last spring, Glasgow-based visual, sound and installation artist Hanna Tuulikki transformed boarded-up, condemned row-houses in Glasgow’s Duncan Crescent, altering these alienated spaces through the medium of sound and light. Animating the inhospitable interiors with “dream machines” —custom-made magic lanterns one featuring her exquisite, Rackhame-esque silhouettes of flora and fauna— she brought the natural world inside, bringing life and light to forgotten rooms.

The sound aspect of these installations further blurred of boundaries between man-made spaces and the natural world. Taking field recordings of bubbling brooks, wind through tree branches, bird song, and other ambient sounds of the forest, Tuulikki mixed them with her own voice to create a sensual, surround-sound hyper-reality of a woodland environment that might have existed had the city not encroached.

It’s this kind of attention to detail and respect for the natural world that colors Hanna’s work with her group Nalle, who begin their first US tour this Sunday.

Consisting of Hanna and One Ensemble members Aby Vulliamy on viola, accordion, and vocals) and Chris Hladowski on vocals, bouzouki, and clarinet, the group’s insistence on building up sounds in the most gradual, organic way is entrancing. Songs shift and ebb in their own otherworldly time-frame, and the effect is as unique as it is immense. Perhaps immense is the wrong word, because the music is, in some ways, small —it’s detail-oriented, micro as opposed to macro, gentle. Yet it feels ancient, out-of-time, and that makes it powerful in a very fresh way.

Nalle have two full-length CDs available: By Chance Upon Waking from lovely Leicester-based label Pickled Egg, and the brand-new Siren’s Wave [Locust]. If you act fast (I sound like one of those late-night informercials, eek!) you might also be able to grab the super-limited edition (only 100 made) live CD out on Secret Eye micro-label Eye Secretions. (The group might be selling it on tour —I’m not sure.)

It’s also music to be experienced live, so startlingly does the ensemble blend their vocals and unique combination of instruments.

The tour is fairly extensive, bringing the group all over the East coast through the last half of March.

Mar 16 | New Haven, CT: BAR with Eric Carbonara
Mar 17 | Providence, RI: AS220 with Eric Carbonara, Eyes Like Saucers
Mar 18 | Boston, MA: PA's Lounge with Eric Carbonara
Mar 19 | Portland, ME: TBA
Mar 20 | Northampton, MA: The King St. Manor with Defneq, Viking Moses
Mar 21 | NYC, NY: Knitting Factory with Spectre Folk, Vert
Mar 22 | Philadelphia, PA: Brickbat Books with Eric Carbonara
Mar 23 | Baltimore, MD: Warehouse show with Dan Conrad, Susan Alcorn
Mar 25 | Columbus, OH: Skylab
Mar 26 | Chicago, IL: Empty Bottle with Paul Metzger, The Zoo Wheel
Mar 27 | Cleveland, OH: All Go Signs with Black Forest/Black Sea, Paul Metzger
Mar 28 | Pittsburgh, PA: Secret Eye House with Mike Tamburo, Tradition
Mar 29 | State College, PA: Schlow Library with Black Forest/Black Sea, Evening Fires
Mar 30 | NYC, NY: Glasslands with Begushkin
Mar 31 | Jersey City, NJ: WFMU session

Nalle, “Ravens (from Chance Upon Waking, Pickled Egg, 2006)

ILLUSTRATION BY HANNA TUULIKKI FROM THE NEST INSTALLATION, GLASGOW, MARCH 2007

Fascist Groove Things

2008-03-10T04:01:07Z

33 1/3 :: 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Drew Daniel [Continuum, 2008, $10.95]

Pop is, by its very nature, glossy and superficial, glancing off complexity and thorny ambivalences with blithe assurance.

With 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Throbbing Gristle attempt—in their own profoundly warped way— to make peace with pop music’s influence upon them; at the same time, the album plays out with such profound ambivalence —running hot and cold all at once, constantly vacillating between attraction and repulsion and back again— that its exploration of “pop” becomes heavily weighted —its like a mille-feuille of ironic distance. Upon its release in 1979, TG’s third full-length album was received with head-scratching condescension for the most part. Daniel’s artfully written little volume makes the case for this strange, unlikable album and its often unpalatable charms.

Alluring and repellent in equal measure, the group’s masterwork remains indelible for the ways in which it reworks the last vestiges of 60s optimism (as evinced in psychedelia and prog) with the darker, more ambivalent strains of punk and post-punk. In this way the band doesn't simply straddle genres but whole philosophical, moral and sexual divides. This is what makes their music so enduringly strange and repugnant —yet fascinating.

I fell into this book like Alice down an unfathomably dark rabbit-hole. It reads like a riveting detective novel, so concisely has Daniel (AKA one half of Matmos) woven personal history (both TG’s and his own), (un)reliable narration (thanks to the members of TG themselves, contradictory bastards the lot of them), close dissection (a forensic/anatomic tack being particularly appropriate with TG) and overarching pop-cultural critique.

I haven’t read Steven Ford’s Wreckers of Civilisation, but this tiny volume on only one album in the massive TG oeuvre situates the group so powerfully in the appropriate historical, personal, and musical contexts that I never wanted the book to end. It’s a vivid, revealing, and very personal work that is beautifully written from start to finish, and my favorite of the 33 1/3s so far.

For a more in-depth discussion of the book, Brainwashed has a great interview with Drew about his just-published volume here.

Throbbing Gristle [Official Site] | 33 1/3 [Blogspot] | Drew Daniel/Matmos [Official Site]

Throbbing Gristle, “Hot on the Heels of Love”

Throbbing Gristle, “Six Six Sixties”

FROM LEFT: GEN, CHRIS, COSEY, SLEAZY | INDUSTRIAL RECORDS PROMO CIRCA 1978

Passings

2008-03-06T03:04:42Z

Too often, loved ones leave us far too soon.

There’s nothing that can prepare you for such moments, or for how painful it is to watch someone slipping away and being able to do nothing.

My father passed away when I was very young, after a protracted battle with lymphoma.

My cat Mister Henry passed away last week, a mere month after I found out he had untreatable myeloma.

Brainwashed.com’s Jon Whitney has curated a two-cd requiem for his mother, Marilyn Whitney, who passed away last November.

The fifth release in the Brainwashed Handmade Series, this lovingly compiled mix —titled Peace (for Mom)— gathers new, old, and previously unreleased music donated by friends of Brainwashed, including Matmos, His Name Is Alive, Marissa Nadler, Sybarite, A Place To Bury Strangers, Carter-Tutti, Ida, Little Annie, and many more.

All of it is in honor of Marilyn, whose intense love of music in turn inspired Jon’s own, seemingly boundless enthusiasm.

Proceeds go to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, where Marilyn often volunteered. For ordering information visit Brainwashed.com.

Sybarite [myspace] | Antony & the Johnsons | Official Site

Peace (for Mom)
Track Listing:

Disc A:
1. A Place to Bury Strangers, "Sunbeam"
2. Antony and the Johnsons, "You Are My Sister"
3. Aranos, "Fall's Golden Whispers"
4. Jessica Bailiff, "Fly High"
5. Little Annie Bandez and Paul Wallfisch, "Smile"
6. Boduf Songs, "Little Song for Jon"
7. Boy In Static, "Stay Awake"
8. Caribou, "Hummingbird"
9. Carter Tutti, "Woven Clouds" (alternate version)
10. Current 93, "All the Pretty Little Horses"
11. Fridge, "Five Four Child Voice" - [MP3]
12. Christoph Heemann and Andreas Martin, "Walla Mashalla"
13. His Name Is Alive, "This World Is Not My Home"
14. Ida, "See the Stars" (acoustic)
15. The Paula Kelley Orchestra, "Life for Life"
16. Kinski, "Waka Nusa"
17. The Legendary Pink Dots, "We Bring the Day" (edit)

Disc B:
1. Andrew Liles, "The Comfortable Illusion of Meaning"
2. Matmos, "Staircase"
3. Monster Movie, "Vanishing Act"
4. Marissa Nadler, "Stallions"
5. Nudge, "Greener"
6. Amanda Palmer, "I'll Follow You Into the Dark"
7. Pantaleimon, "Idumaea"
8. Sandro Perri, "Family Tree"
9. Rivulets, "You Sail On"
10. Ulrich Schnauss, "Wherever You Are"
11. The 17th Pygmy, "I Know My Train's A Coming"
12. Stars of the Lid, "Requiem"
13. Sybarite, "Mochi Swt"
14. 27, "Windows and Glass"
15. Volcano the Bear, "Wooden Sailus"
16. Keith Fullerton Whitman, "Weiter"
17. Windy & Carl, "I Have Been Waiting to Hear Your Voice"

Antony & The Johnsons, “Hope There’s Someone” (from I Am A Bird Now)

Sybarite, “Unica Zurn” (from Nonument, 2002)

Alison In Wonderland

2008-02-26T03:47:27Z

Alison Goldfrapp is an intriguing iteration on the Diva. Her flamboyance is quiet, studied, her gestures thoughtful rather than brashly encompassing. Her style is less brassy than it is Surreal, flirtatious, even a bit louche. There’s something so marvelously fantastical and almost Pagan (think Wicker Man) about the unsettling worlds she paints with her songs. (They’re like musical corollaries to Angela Carter’s phantasmagoric and sometimes nightmarish short stories in tone and imagistic flair —think endless nights at the circus, or dusk-to-dawn cabarets presided over by Jenny Lind and Emmy Hennings .)

Her eponymous duo's 2003 album Black Cherry has remained one of my favorites, a lush, ornate —yet oddly comforting— song cycle that hangs together more gracefully than most dancefloor-friendly albums deign to even attempt. That’s why the 2005 follow-up, Supernature, was a bit of a letdown. Far less consistent, it hit the same sensual notes as Black Cherry but pallidly, like a Xerox of a Xerox.

I have great hopes for her new album, Seventh Tree [Mute] as a bucolic and ever-so-slightly sinister return to form —the press release calls it a “sensual counterpoint …gilded in butterfly colors of an English Surrealism shared with Lear and Lennon.” I do hope that doesn't mean that Goldfrapp's marvelous idiosyncrasies have been wiped out in favor of the glitter-ball chanteuse who stomped all over Supernature. We shall see. (It's out tomorrow, I believe.)

I’ve been a fan of Ms. Goldfrapp’s evocative voice for quite some time now. She’s graced some of the quirkiest, most unusual singles of the late 90s, working with Tricky, Orbital, Add N To X, among others. I leave you with some of my favorite Goldfrapp moments from her pre-solo career years.

Goldfrapp [official] | [Myspace] | Tricky | Add N to (X) | Orbital

Add N to X, “Revenge of the Black Regent” (from Avant Hard, 1999)

Tricky (with Alison Goldfrapp), “Pumpkin” (from Maxinquaye, 1995)

Orbital (with Alison Goldfrapp), “Sad But New” (from the Insides EP, 1996)

LIVE :: Neptune, Helms, These Are Powers

2008-02-20T03:50:10Z

These Are Powers
Helms
Neptune [Record Release Party]
Great Scott
Allston, MA
Saturday, February 16th

Variation is a wonderful thing. Even though Saturday night’s show is (on paper at least) power trio night, it’s amazing how much leeway there is within that structure. None of these bands would ever be mistaken for one another.

These Are Powers start things off with a bang. High-kicking banshee priestess Anna Barie is aided and abetted by equally energized co-conspirators Pat Noecker (ex-Liars) on bass and vocals and diminutive powerhouse percussionist Bill Salas on squiggle box/drum kit/vocals.

There’s a kernel of truth to the group’s Myspace genre designation “breakbeat/healing & easy listening.” On the one hand, their music is crazily danceable and weirdly hi-NRG; on the other, it’s tribal and contemplative, a beguiling mix of the high and low, the sacred and the profane.

Noecker’s intoned, vaguely ominous vocals contrast effectively with Barie’s wide-ranging, often startling ululations. You never get the sense that these two having a conversation, per se. Lyrically, their intentions clearly have nothing to do with your typical pop scenario of lovelorn grievances; rather, the effect is cumulative and largely textural —using repetition and variation to gradually build meanings and associations.

Musically speaking, though one can hear echoes of angular, vaguely No Waveish skronk, TAP’s overall sound melds psychically exhausted, apocalyptic end-times music with something altogether more optimistic, even Dionysian. The group is as much about pure revelry as it is about painterly textures.

Most importantly, though, their collective, headlong engagement with the music is joyously infectious. Not that a Boston crowd is going to dance without a fight, but the head-bobbing gets noticeably more frenzied. By the time the too-short set culminates in their as-yet-unreleased new single “Chipping Ice” (complete with whacked-out coughing solos), the group’s endearingly manic energy seems to have won over the blasé, packed-in-like-sardines crowd.

I’m prepared to like Helms, really I am. They have a kind of well-balanced grace, standing there, instruments at the ready. So far, so good, until… they…start…playing.

Their energy is so consistently tamped-down and, well, consistent —with so little tonal variation from moment to moment— that they leave little in the way of expectation. Their format —rock-solid rhythm section propping up noodly-muso guitarist (with nary a rhythm guitarist in sight, alas)— is texturally numbing and borderline dullsville. Throughout their set I keep hoping for the rhythm section to mutiny (they’re so obviously better than Mr. Muso and his mumbled vocalizing), but, seeing as how the bassist and drummer are respectively wife and brother to said muso guitarist, that hardly seems a likely scenario. Alas.

To their credit, their final song finally breaks out of the gray-wash torpor and deigns to ROCK. I wish they'd done it sooner. They really, truly need to be thrown off-balance, to get out of their comfort zone, and rough up their dynamics a bit.

Helms drag my energy level down to nothing, then Neptune sweep in and build it back up —and then some. And I’m not just saying that because they ply the audience with sheet cake (inscribed with the name of their new album, Gong Lake).

Neptune is a gimmick band that long ago transcended the gimmick. This decade-old Boston-based trio make their own instruments, literally sculpting sound with their own bare hands using scrap metal, found objects and their own twisted Rube Goldberg-ian imaginations.

None of this three-dimensional ingenuity would mean much if the music didn’t match it with equal fervor, but it does.

To fall back on the dreaded “Listen if you like…” cliché, Neptune ably build on the urban dread of Rocket from the Tombs and the whimsical (albeit sadistic) genre-tweaking surrealism of Diskomo-era Residents (although Neptune lack that group’s more explicitly theatrical elements).

At times the music sounds like robot dub —all mutant polyrhythms and processed, echo-chambered vocals. It can also be hushed and cinematic, playing with drones and slow-building tension.
Whispery and barbed, Neptune’s music full of coiled-up energy that gets released in short, sharp bursts by three expert players who instinctively know one another’s strengths and play to them with breathtaking efficiency.

Here’s to another ten years.

These Are Powers | Helms | Neptune

These Are Powers, “You Come With Nothing” (from TERRIFIC SEASONS [Hoss Records, 2006])

Helms, “There’s No ‘I’ in Team But There Is One In Tina” [from SECRET DOORS | Plants & Brains, 2006])

Neptune, “Purple Sleep” [from GONG LAKE | Table of the Elements, 2008])

NEPTUNE AT GREAT SCOTT, FROM NEPTUNEBAND.COM

A Rainy-Day Miscellany

2008-02-13T21:10:14Z

I have a longer post I’ve been struggling to finish, so as a stop-gap I’m going to post some noteworthy local(ish) concerts coming up.

First up: These Are Powers, non-stop touring whirling dervishes, will be releasing a new EP called Taro Tarot [Hoss] on April 8th.

TAP is playing Neptune’srecord release party at Great Scott in Boston this Saturday night (2/16) with the excellent Animal Hospital. Go see them: they will kick your ass and take names. You will not be disappointed. (Unless you harbor skepticism about post-No Wave, booty-shaking atonal insanity.)

TAP will be also playing some dates with the ever-delightful Mr Calvin Johnson [K Recs, Beat Happening, the (original) Go Team, and on and on]. Calvin will be at Brown’s own Hourglass Café (located in the basement of Faunce House, 75 Waterman St.) on Saturday as well, which means —egads!— that I have to DECIDE between the two shows. (Say it ain't so!)

Deer Tick will be playing a solo set at the Hourglass this Thursday evening (that’s Valentine’s Day for all you lovebirds out there). Tom Thumb opens. The show starts at 8PM and will be broadcast on live on BSR

Hourglass shows generally start around 9PM or so. But it never hurts to get there early —bring your laptop, take advantage of the free WiFi, awesome coffee, and comfy chairs.

• DEER TICK | Hourglass Café, 75 Waterman St. Providence | Thursday February 14th, 8PM

• CALVIN JOHNSON | the Underground at Faunce House, 75 Waterman St. Providence | Saturday February 16th, 8PM

• NEPTUNE, THESE ARE POWERS, HELMS, and ANIMAL HOSPITAL | Great Scott, 1222 Commonwealth Ave. Allston | Saturday February 16th | 21+ | 9PM | $10

• NEPTUNE (Record Release!) with WHITE MICE, LAZY MAGNET and THE GLASS SHIVERS | AS220, 115 Empire St. Providence | Sunday February 17th | $6

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THESE ARE POWERS Tour Dates

Feb 14 2008 | NY, New York Valentines Day @ Cake Shop w/The Apes, Knyfe Hyts, Mixel Pixel, Puttin' On The Ritz
Feb 15 2008 | Annandale-On-Hudson, New York @Bard College
Feb 16 2008 | Allston, Massachusetts @ Great Scott w/Neptune, Animal Hospital
Feb 17 2008 | Pittsburgh, PA @ TBA
Feb 18 2008 | Detroit, MI @ TBA
Feb 20 2008 | Chicago, Illinois @ AV-Aerie (formerly Open End) w/Bird Names, Adam Griffin
Feb 21 2008 | Milwaukee, Wisconsin @ Mad Planet w/MAHJONGG, Juiceboxxx
Feb 22 2008 | Minneapolis, Minnesota @ 7th St. Entry w/MAHJONGG
Feb 23 2008 | Ames, Iowa @ The Practice Space w/Wet Hair, Secret Abuse, Iwa
Feb 24 2008 | Omaha, Nebraska @ The Waiting Room w/MAHJONGG, Calvin Johnson
Feb 25 2008 | Lincoln, Nebraska @ Box Awesome w/MAHJONGG, The Show is the Rainbow, Calvin Johnson
Feb 26 2008 | Denver, Colorado @ Larimer Lounge w/MAHJONGG
Feb 27 2008 | Salt Lake City, Utah @ Kilby Court w/ MAHJONGG, Calvin Johnson
Mar 1 2008 | San Francisco, California @ Hemlock Tavern w/Lemonade, Mi Ami
Mar 2 2008 | Oakland, California @ ABCo Artspace w/ Wildildlife, Chen Santa Maria, Lumerians
Mar 4 2008 | Los Angeles, California @ Echo
Mar 5 2008 | Los Angeles, California @ The Smell w/ Ima Gymnast, Teenage Moms, Bipolar Bear
Mar 6 2008 | Phoenix, Arizona @ Modified Arts w/The Chinese Stars, The Vultures, Soft Shoulder
Mar 7 2008 | Santa Fe, New Mexico @ High Mayhem w/Chinese Stars
Mar 9 2008 | Denton, Texas @ Rubber Gloves w/Shiny Around the Edges, Castanets
Mar 11 2008 | Houston, Texas @ Boondocks w/ The Death Set, Ponytail
Mar 12 2008 | Austin, TX - Habana Calle 6 (Cardboard Records Showcase)
Mar 13 2008 | Austin TX - Ms Bea's w/ Ecstatic Sunshine, Foreign Islands, Pig Out, Tristan Perich, Panther, The Mae-Shi, Deer Tick, Castanets, Woods)
Mar 13 2008 | Austin, TX - MyOpenBar.com Garage w/ No Age, Mika Miko
Mar 15 2008 | Austin, TX - Mohawk w/ Matt and Kim, DD Fantasy, High Places, Ponytail, Ecstatic Sunshine, Foreign Islands, Team Robespierre, Woods, Abe Vigoda, Best Friends Forever)
Mar 16 2008 | Little Rock, Arkansas @ Happy Fucker House w/The Deathset
Mar 17 2008 | Nashville, Tennessee @ Exit/In w/The Deathset
Mar 18 2008 | Lexington, Kentucky @ The Void Skate Shop w/The Deathset
Mar 19 2008 | Greenville, NC @ Spazzatorium w/ the Deathset
Mar 20 2008 |Richmond, VA @ Gallery 5
Mar 21 2008 | Baltimore, Maryland @ Floristree w/ WZT Hearts and more...
Mar 28 2008 | Ridgewood, NY @ Silent Barn w/Extra Life, Skeletons
May 3 2008 | Krems, Austria @ DONAUFESTIVAL

These Are Powers | Hoss Records | Calvin Johnson bio [k]| Deer Tick |

These Are Powers, “Chipping Ice” (from the upcoming Taro Tarot EP [Hoss Records, 2008])

Beat Happening, “Bad Seeds”

Neptune, “Paris Green” [from GONG LAKE [Table of the Elements, 2008])

INTERVIEW: John McCauley from DEER TICK

2008-02-07T03:04:56Z

Local countrified upstarts DEER TICK will be at Jake’s Bar & Grille [373 Richmond St, Providence] on Saturday, February 9. The show starts at 9 pm; DRAG THE RIVER will play too.

In honor of the show, I wrote a little piece on DEER TICK. It goes a little something like this:

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REELIN' & ROCKIN'

Deer Tick singer John McCauley’s lived-in, whiskey-rough rasp and weather-beaten, hard-luck anthems harken back to the old-school traditions of Nashville, a boozy world of dim lights, thick smoke, and loud, loud music. But McCauley, whose world-weary demeanor can make him seem startlingly older than his 21 years, is too smart a songwriter to settle in comfortably to the care-worn clichés of the honky-tonk: you’ll find no tears-in-beers melodrama or last-call revelations here.

Borrowing a phrase from the late, great Gram Parsons, McCauley prefers to characterize his work as “cosmic American music — a mixture of rock, country, bluegrass, blues and folk that doesn’t suck.” Echoing throughout are the influential sounds of Texan outlaws like Gram, Townes van Zandt, and Roky Erickson — storytellers and nomadic troubadours all. Acknowledging their significance, he adds, “I’m pretty crazy about Townes, Gram, and John Prine. I also love the Beatles, Roy Orbison, Paul Simon, and Buddy Holly. They were all so much themselves [that] it’s kind of weird.” Continues here...

Deer Tick Myspace | Deer Tick web | Feow! Records Bio

Deer Tick, “These Old Shoes” (written by Chris Paddock)

Deer Tick, “Baltimore Blues No. 1”

PHOTO BY AMATEUR6