Filed under: Activities, Art, Upcoming Events | Tags: Häpna, Mountains, R. Keenan Lawler, Shedding, Tape, Thrill Jockey, Upcoming Events
SHEDDING (from Louisville)
MOUNTAINS (from NYC, on Thrill Jockey)
TAPE (from Sweden, on Immune Recordings)
R. KEENAN LAWLER (from Louisville)
Wednesday, February 3rd
at SKULL ALLEY
1017 E. Broadway
7 PM, ALL AGES
SHEDDING has been a solo project for Connor Bell since 2001, though in 2009 Tim Furnish (Parlour, Crain, Papa M, The For Carnation) and Joey Yates (The Loved, Parlour, Sapat) joined as the rhythm section in SHEDDING’s new lineup. Solo, SHEDDING has already released a few albums, and the new band lineup plans to release a 7″ or 2 over the winter and spring of 2009-2010.
MOUNTAINS is Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp, friends since their middle school days. The duo were brought together by mutual artistic and musical interests, and both ended up at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. It was during this time that they began exchanging musical ideas and compositions which led to them founding the Apestaartje label in 1999. As their collaborations and individual projects blossomed, they decided to create Mountains as a vehicle for live performance. The group has 4 albums: their first self-titled release and second album Sewn were both on Apestaartje; the third and fourth, Choral and Etching, on Thrill Jockey. Mountains is often compared to artists such as Brian Eno and Fennesz, citing their extended melodies and their unique broad guitar work. Mountains seamlessly blend pastoral electronic sounds with field recordings and a plethora of acoustic instruments.
Swedish trio TAPE was set up in 2000 by brothers Andreas and Johan Berthling with Tomas Hallonsten. Taking cues both from pop, experimentalism and minimalism, their sound has become recognized internationally and is clearly something of its own. Their first album Opera was released on the Häpna imprint (which Johan is a co-owner of) in 2002. With an array of electronic and acoustic instruments at hand they recorded at a small stone barn on the island of Öland, east of Sweden. 2003 saw the release of Milieu, recorded at the very same barn. In 2005 they went to Cologne to have Marcus Schmickler produce and record their third album Rideau. Over the past few years, their touring has taken them to places like Japan, Taiwan, USA and most parts of Europe.
R. KEENAN LAWLER is a musician and sound artist based in Louisville Kentucky. For over 25 years his musical journey has taken him from early experiments with reverb tanks, noise and tape decks to all manner of avant-garde, “new” music, psychedelia, electro-acoustic, drone, ethnic and sampler-based work. LAWLER is best known for developing a highly personal and exploratory language for the metal bodied resonator guitar which Baltimore’s John Berdnt called “Cosmic, monolithic and deeply American.” Indeed his work is informed by carnatic classical, Charles Ives, Albert Ayler, blues, minimalism and non-western trance musics. Primarily a solo performer, he is also known for collaborative work. The “Keyhole II” album he recorded with Pelt and metal worker Eric Clark is one of Pelt’s most beautiful and memorable recordings, and his guitar playing is also heard on releases by Paul K., Jack Wright, My Morning Jacket and most visibily on Matmos’ “The Civil War.” He has collaborated or performed with a wide range of forward-thinking musicians and mavericks including Rhys Chatham, John Butcher, Eliott Sharp, Charalambides, Ignaz Schick/Perlonex, Kaffe Matthews, Burning Star Core, Jason Kahn, Ut Gret, Thaniel Ion Lee, Ed Wilcox, Ramesh Srinivasan, Kevin Drumm, Arco Flute Foundation, Helena Espvall, Ian Nagoski, Connor Bell, Andy Willis, Alan Licht, Taksuya Nakatani, Tom Carter, Bhob Rainey, Aaron Rosenblum, Joe Dutkiewicz, Evergreen, Eric Carbonara and Joseph Suchy.
Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=248875773696.
For more information, check http://othersideoflife.wordpress.com. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.
Filed under: Activities, Upcoming Events | Tags: Catherine Irwin, Elephant Micah, The Hollows, The Swan Dive, Upcoming Events
CATHERINE IRWIN (member of FREAKWATER)
ELEPHANT MICAH (from Bloomington, Indiana)
THE HOLLOWS (from Bloomington, Indiana)
Friday, January 22nd
at the SWAN DIVE
921 Swan Street
9 PM, $5, 21-and-over
CATHERINE IRWIN has called Louisville, Kentucky home, or at least her home base, all her life. She began performing by playing guitar in punk bands “and not caring a bit about country music,” she says. Still, the seed for her band Freakwater was inside her: “Most of the country music I heard on radio, I hated. But I loved the Carter Family, the way they would approach songs about death and dying or being saved and rejoicing the same way. That kind of music seems to age better. I can’t see myself playing punk anymore, but this kind of music I can see playing the rest of my life” (Chicago Tribune). Her songs are just packed with sapience, despondency, and wry wit, though you don’t have to look past “Louisville Lip” or “Dirty Little Snowman” to see she’s one of America’s greatest living songwriters. Even so, she remains humble, even self-depreciating: “If I had a master plan, it’d be trying to get people used to the idea of frumpy middle-aged losers singing music” (Boston Phoenix). She will be joined at this show by (we think) fantastic Louisville guitarist Michael O’Bannon, formerly of Blinders, Antman, and current member of 1069.
Kentuckiana’s ELEPHANT MICAH has been practicing the fine art of flying under the radar for almost a decade now. In the middle 2000s, along string of home-fi folk rock albums (released by BlueSanct Records and Time-Lag Records) earned the band praise from avant-music mag The Wire and overseas gigs with Jason Molina’s Magnolia Electric Company. In 2010, Elephant Micah returns with a major CD/LP release on Time-Lag Records and its first American tour in five years. ELEPHANT MICAH is the name of a music collective led by musician Joe O’Connell. In addition, he has released work on his own LRRC (Luddite Rural Recording Cooperative), which has also released work from collaborators Justin Vollmar and Jason Henn.
THE HOLLOWS feature neo-country songstress Kate Long backed by an accomplished cast of fellow Bloomington music mainstays (see also: Fatted Calf String Band, Magnolia Electric Company, Panoply Academy, etc). Be sure to catch them on this rare Louisville outing!
Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=246305277152.
For more information, check http://othersideoflife.wordpress.com. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.
Filed under: Louisville Music History, Obituary, Record Review | Tags: Blues Control, Extra Golden, Group Doueh, Mouthus, The Phantom Family Halo, Year End Top Five
This week’s LEO Weekly contains a short top-five list by yours truly, and here it is for your perusal — Top Five Albums of 2009:
1. Blues Control, “Local Flavor” (Siltbreeze)
Russ Waterhouse and Lea Cho of Blues Control have delivered the goods with “Local Flavor” (full disclosure: Russ and Lea are friends, and I was present at their first show a few years back). That is, if the goods were super-hallucinogenic drugs that didn’t leave you damaged, but rather took you on a midnight journey through Tangier without leaving your living room. From beat-laden not-quite-dance workouts, to deconstructed guitar licks, to massive underwater drones, to ringing alarm clocks, there isn’t a record this year I’ve heard as wonderfully evocative of out-of-mind experiences.
2. Group Doueh, “Treeg Salaam” (Sublime Frequencies)
While it might put off some world music purists (and who do those jokers think they are, anyway?), the lo-fi nature of Group Doueh’s recordings are not only more “authentic” than, say, bringing the band to Paris or London to record in some sterile studio, they’re also far more joyous. Listening to “Treeg Salaam” at a loud volume, you feel like you’re standing in some Western Saharan souk, watching guitarist Doueh and company tear it up – and seeing them have a great time while they’re doing so.
3. The Phantom Family Halo, “Monoliths and These Flowers Never Die” (Karate Body)
Generally, most rock bands these days can’t pull off the sprawling double album, once a 1970s hallmark. But The Phantom Family Halo manages to do so, with aplomb. After multiple listens, I’m not entirely sure what the overarching theme or concept behind “Monoliths and These Flowers Never Die” is, or even if there is one, but this double album is executed so brilliantly, I’m not sure it matters. Hopefully the rest of the country will start paying attention to what these local greats are up to.
4. Mouthus, “Divisionals” (Ecstatic Peace!)
Back in May I wrote in LEO about Mouthus, the rackety, noisy guitar-and-drums duo of Brian Sullivan and Nate Nelson, and their album “Divisionals,” one of the mellowest, yet undeniably great albums I’ve heard this year. I even went so preposterously far as to write that “Divisionals” contains “a mysterious set of cyclic drones, which interlock and mesh within each other, much as the strands of DNA within our cells.” Well, Nate came through Louisville in August, and told me that “Divisionals” was performed on synths, a departure from their usual m.o. There you go.
5. Extra Golden, “Thank You Very Quickly” (Thrill Jockey)
Despite listening to more music from around the world than ever, I find that not very much of it is by current bands. The recent explosion of reissues of 1960s and 1970s African music is far more compelling than most new African bands, sadly. Extra Golden is an exception to that rule, and perhaps it’s because the half-Kenyan, half-American band has an extra rock element to it reminiscent of 1970s classics. Regardless, we’ve been lucky to see them twice in Louisville in the past year, and that they release consistently great albums.
Other albums that I’d have given honorable mention to, if space allowed: Bill Orcutt, A New Way to Pay Old Debts (Palialia); Sperm, Shh! (DeStijl); Sir Richard Bishop, The Freak of Araby (Drag City); Oneohtrix Point Never, Zones Without People (Arbor); Omar Souleyman, Highway to Hassake: Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria (Sublime Frequencies); Jim O’Rourke, I’m Happy, and I’m singing and a 1, 2, 3, 4 (Editions Mego); Kurt Vile, Childish Prodigy (Matador); Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, The Voudon Effect: Funk & Sato from Benin’s Obscure Labels 1972 – 1975 (Analog Africa); Death, …For the Whole World to See (Drag City); Tony Conrad/Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Taking Issue (Dais).
Best Shows I Attended in 2009: Throbbing Gristle/Emeralds at Logan Square Auditorium, Chicago; Daniel Higgs at Lisa’s Oak Street Lounge, Louisville; Joe Manning/Doug Paisley/Nathan Salsburg at the Swan Dive, Louisville (full disclosure: I booked this show); Endless Boogie/Cross at the Swan Dive, Louisville (I also booked this show); Sapat/Blues Control/Softcheque/Raw Thug at Lisa’s Oak Street Lounge, Louisville; Black Juju (The Alice Cooper Cover Band) at Lisa’s Oak Street Lounge, Louisville; Young Widows/Maserati/The Genitalmen at Zanzabar, Louisville (full disclosure: I djed at this show); The Julia Schagene/Furry Bits at Jeff Komara’s house, Louisville.
Worst Things to Happen in 2009: The deaths of Rowland S. Howard, Jack Rose, Jerry Fuchs, Tony Bailey, Rashied Ali, Maryanne Amacher, Hugh Hopper, Max Neuhaus, Michael Jackson, Ron Asheton, Randy Bewley, Lux Interior, Luther Thomas, Mick Cocks, Sirone, and probably many more that I’m forgetting.
You can read the rest of the feature, including the top-five picks by the rest of LEO’s music critics here: http://leoweekly.com/music/music-top-fives-2009.
Filed under: New Releases, Record Review | Tags: New Release, Record Reviews, Trans Am
LEO Weekly ran my review of the new Trans Am live album today:
Live albums generally serve two main purposes: as documentation of a one-time-only, you-had-to-be-there concert that defines an artist’s career (think James Brown’s 1963 classic Live at the Apollo); or as a survey of greatest hits performed live (with the caveat that said album is a fulfillment of contractual obligations). Regardless, either approach usually disappoints. In the first instance, I end up bummed out because I wasn’t there. In the second, I hope whatever variation of “Greatest Hits Live!” I’m listening to finishes quickly. Unfortunately, Trans Am’s new live album, What Day Is It Tonight?, falls into the second category. While I’ve enjoyed seeing them many times over their nearly two-decade long stint, listening to their pleasant-but-superficial tunes sprawled over 70 minutes (without much noticeable variation from their albums, aside from a superfluous drum solo or three) doesn’t seem necessary.
Buy it from Thrill Jockey.
Filed under: Activities, Art, Upcoming Events | Tags: Andrew Weathers, Nzambi, Pete Fosco, Upcoming Events
NZAMBI (electronic drone from Louisville, formerly of PAX TITANIA)
PETE FOSCO (solo experimental guitar from Cincinnati, Ohio)
ANDREW WEATHERS (solo electronics from Greensboro, North Carolina)
Saturday, January 9th
at the SWAN DIVE
921 Swan Street
9 PM, $5, 21-and over
NZAMBI is the new synth project from Christopher Cprek, who has also released work under the PAX TITANIA moniker. Christopher uses an arsenal of DIY modular synthesizers. His former projects include Darker Florida with Irene Moon, Auk Theatre with Irene Moon, and as a member of Warmer Milks a few years back. NZAMBI’s debut as a project was in October at Zanzabar, with Regression, Spykes, and others.
PETE FOSCO was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1980 and grew up in a suburb on the west side of town. Every day after school he would pillage his dad’s record collection, listen to early ’80s Phil Collins-era Genesis, eat oatmeal raisin cookies and stay up until 4am for no reason. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music in 2004, where he studied digital video and film production and learned how to appreciate fresh guacamole and The Green Manalishi by Fleetwood Mac. He is a self-taught guitarist and started playing out in 2007. He is inspired to live today by the soundtracks from Herzog’s Grizzly Man [by Richard Thompson -- ed.], the Flower/Corsano Duo, Fushitsusha, and pot roast and mashed potatoes cooked by his wife Heather. They reside in Covington, Kentucky and live with an English bulldog and mini Italian greyhound.
Brad Rose at Foxy Digitalis recently wrote this about PETE FOSCO’s release Autumn Fire Blues: “Our man in Ohio knows when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em, cuz on Autumn Fire Blues, he’s burning the whole thing into a pile of silken ash. FOSCO just plain rules. His skill in crafting soaring guitar drones is up there with the best of ‘em. Autumn Fire Blues takes what he started on last year’s [release] Dust, American Dust and pushes it over the edge and into the abyss. Anchors of bleed drip from the ceiling coating everything in a thick layer of crimson bliss. This is music for the last season. Music for the last days, to see us off into the heavens as they crumble. Pure magic.”
ANDREW WEATHERS is a composer of experimental music. He is currently based in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he studies music composition at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=226271631480.
For more information, check http://othersideoflife.wordpress.com. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.
Filed under: New Releases, Record Review | Tags: Big Nurse, Dialing In, Eleh, James Ferraro, Jeans Wilder, Jen Paul, Nana April Jun, New Releases, Oneohtrix Point Never, Record Reviews, Still Single
Still more reviews I’ve written for Still Single have been added to the tumblr site. And here they are:
Jen Paul/Jeans Wilder — s/t split LP (La Station Radar)
Jen Paul dials in some heavy reverb guitar, with occasional singing and percussion – that is whenever he/they bother to write a song that lasts longer than 30 seconds. Nothing special, at least nothing that you haven’t heard tried in the past decade or two since Loveless. The Jeans Wilder side is some poorly played, out-of-tune, lower-than-lo-fi grit that even Kurt Vile wouldn’t release as a b-side on some sub-sub-sub-“hip” label. Wait, did I write that? Limited edition of 300. (http://lastationradar.com)
Oneohtrix Point Never — Zones Without People LP (Arbor)
Oneohtrix Point Never is a project by Daniel Lopatin, who seems to be upping the ante in the retro-synth sweepstakes. Zones Without People begins as a pretty fantastic set of deceptively-simple melodic pieces set somewhere between the futurism of early ‘70s Cluster or Tangerine Dream, the pastoralism of Boards of Canada (without the beats), and the looking-backwards-yet-forward sensibilities of current peers such as Emeralds. On the second side, Oneohtrix Point Never shifts further into overdrive, as the melodies are occasionally dispersed with shrill stabs and ominous minor-key rumblings. Whether you’re into music as blatant about its influences is up to you, but personally I can’t get enough of well-done synthesizer music, which Zones Without People most certainly is. Limited to 500, first edition already out of print. (http://www.arborinfinity.com)
James Ferraro — CITRAC 2xLP (Arbor)
Some pretty strange stuff on this mishmash of a double album from James Ferraro, who you may also know as one-half of Skaters. The first album, subtitled Left Behind: Postremo Mundus Techno-Symposium (and previously released elsewhere), is some sort of meditation on the creepy Christian Left Behind series of books and movies, Kirk Cameron, tribal tattoos, homoeroticism, one-world order conspiracy theories, and some other nonsense. Music-wise, the first LP is filled with the sort of warped noisy kling-klang you’d expect (unfortunately beset with some strange moans and groans), oblivious to whatever the underlying concept may be. The second album of the set, subtitled Wired Tribe/Liquid Metal Excerpt I, is musically more straightforward, but less satisfying, as Side C begins with some throbbing industrial noise, quickly giving way to what sounds like bleed-through from someone listening to a 1980s porn soundtrack in another room. As the side progresses the cheese continues, as some very 1980s electro-ish sounds filtered through cheap equipment dominate the proceedings, occasionally interspersed with jarring edits, and then rounded out at the end by some more moaning. Finally, the last side is made up of two recordings Ferraro previously released under his Liquid Metal moniker, and these are also filled with some twisted ‘80s cheese, much like the side before them. Frankly, it’s a bit of a mystery why these pretty disparate projects were lumped together in one release. (http://www.arborinfinity.com)
Eleh/Nana April Jun — Observations & Momentum split LP (Touch)
For the first three, maybe four years of this decade, the Touch label couldn’t really do wrong when it came to releasing some spare-ass music. From the first non-Mego Fennesz releases, to Ryoji Ikeda’s primary forays outside of Japan, to a million other fantastic yet stereotypically dry recordings, Touch seemingly had the finger on the pulse of post-academic, post-minimalist electronic music. However, there are only so many austere-yet-expensive imports of relatively minimalist stuff one can own. Catching back up with the label, this release, one of a series of split LPs, renews faith that Touch, while not really releasing records that are that different from each other, might still be worth investigating. Though the liners namedrop La Monte Young, Pauline Oliveros, and Charlemagne Palestine, what the Eleh side really seems like is homage to an important ‘90s contribution to the minimalist oeuvre, Thomas Koner’s Permafrost. The Nana April Jun side is more of the same bleak winter sounds, but instead of being stuck under ice, you’re stuck on the side of a mountain, enveloped in a blizzard. Either way, it’s hopeless, so just give in. (http://www.touchmusic.org.uk)
Dialing In — The Islamic Bomb LP (Music Fellowship)
There’s something about this release by Dialing In, the solo moniker of one Reita Piecuch of Seattle, which rubs me the wrong way, and it’s not just the semi-offensive title. Basically, the album is a collage consisting of street sounds from a trip Piecuch took to Pakistan, cut up and made into her own brutally tough music. However, the methodology isn’t the problem: it’s the end result, which ultimately isn’t that pleasant to listen to. It’s not unpleasant in the sense that most noise music strives to be (and usually isn’t), but rather it’s unpleasant in that Piecuch’s finished compositions don’t seem to add very much to the found material. Instead of illuminating that material by extrapolating, say, a strange melody out of some anonymous voice, Piecuch instead adds layers of expressive, yet empty sonic murk on top of what otherwise might be pretty interesting field recordings. Jade green vinyl, limited to 500 copies. (http://www.musicfellowship.com)
Big Nurse — American Waste LP (High-Density Headache Records)
It may not be obvious to you lucky people who live on either coast and can walk/run/take public transportation to whatever good record store you happen to live by, but living in a flyover state, much less a red state, can be rough, music-wise. For every gem-in-the-rough such as Big Nurse one might uncover, one still has to endure a fair amount of friends who still want to express how “cutting edge” Vampire Weekend is. Whatever. Anyway, Big Nurse is the real deal. They’re a four-piece, underground rock racket from Nashville, and from what I hear on American Waste, they might probably be the pick of the current lo-fi litter. Seriously, this record smokes in a way that only twentysomethings with no hope of ever being heard can smoke. Humorless record nerds all across the Midwest will want to figure out how they can get a copy, once they figure out years from now that the shambolic retard-rock bordering on Kraut-style bliss in these grooves is pure genius. Did I mention that the ridiculously over-the-top super-long first side is entitled “Runnin’ With the Devil”? Well now I did. Limited edition of 200. (http://highdensityheadache.blogspot.com) (http://www.myspace.com/bignurse)
Filed under: New Releases, Record Review | Tags: 1069, Dark Lingo, Dean McPhee, Dusted Magazine, New Releases, Pigeons, Prurient, Smokers Please, Still Single, Stillbirth
I’ve been asked, nay commanded, to contribute to Doug Mosurock’s infamous Still Singles column, both at the tumblr site, and on Dusted. It’s an absolute pleasure to once again be part of the reviewing team (my last review for Still Single was written over two years ago), and I thought I’d share with you the fruits of my labors (in reverse order than on the site):
1069, s/t 3×7″ EP (self released)
This box mysteriously showed up at the record store I used to work at, a nice purple thing with a sticker reading “Limited Edition of 100” over the opening. Upon further review after purchase, it turns out to be a new project by Louisville punk rock pioneers Steve “Chili” Rigot (of the legendary Endtables) and Michael O’Bannon (of Blinders and Antman, among many other projects), aided and abetted by young whippersnappers Sandy and Van Campbell (the latter the drummer of the Black Diamond Heavies). However, if you’re expecting some fast, futuristic tunes, 1069 (named after the address of Louisville’s first “punk house” – whose lot is now occupied by a Taco Bell) will bound to disappoint: laconic, slow-chooglin’ yet tender country rock (with more emphasis on country than rock) is the order of the day here, which immediately brings to mind the first couple of Palace Brothers recordings – back when nobody outside of Louisville knew who Will Oldham was. Unfortunately, though the tunes are fine, it seems like every single old dude from the punk scene in Louisville has already “gone country.” While Rigot and O’Bannon’s take is more tolerable than some of their peers, at this point I’m a little over it. Still, if you like finding out where-they-are-now (as I certainly do), you’ll enjoy 1069. Just not sure where the hell you’ll be able to find this, since it’s self-released. Maybe try calling Ear X-tacy in Louisville to see if they have any copies left? Limited to 100.
Stillbirth/Prurient — The Mirror of Purification split 7″ (Semata Productions)
It’s been quite some time since I’ve checked out what Prurient’s Dominick Fernow’s been up to, whether that’s a function as now living in a flyover red state whose major city eschews noise (but they love it in Lexington, apparently), or being fully domesticated, I’m not sure. However, I’m glad I did, if only to hear something completely different from what I’m used to. The Stillbirth track, “The View Untangled,” has some nice mysterious computer sounds, almost akin to a chance meeting between Pita (the laptopper), the Caretaker (the V/VM-related weirdo), and pita (the bread) on a delicatessen tray. Fernow’s side isn’t much different, aesthetically, from Stillbirth, as processed synth and percussion sounds meld with some surprisingly suppressed spoken phrases I can’t quite make out, with a moan here and there. If anything, both tracks are too short, because by the time they’ve finished I’m still stuck wondering what’s going on. That’s not a bad thing. Grey marble vinyl, limited to 500. (http://semataproductions.com)
Smokers Please — “Flensing” b/w “Grey Christmas” 7″ (Yoko Ono Tribute Weekend)
Noisy one-man-band squall over viola drone and guitar fuckery on the A-side, which may or may not excite you. Having heard plenty of records by A Handful of Dust, I wasn’t particularly excited, frankly. The label says to play at 33, but 45 sorta sounded better. B-side goes into “quiet, please” territory, and I’m not sure that’s much more of a thrill, either. This single left not much of an impression at all, and if the label didn’t have such a goofy name, I’d probably forget it in the middle of writing this review. Further research reveals that it’s a product of a New Zealander (Ben Spiers, of Glory Fckn Sun – Ed.) 250 copies. (http://www.yokoonotributeweekend.com)
Pigeons — Lunette 7″ EP (Soft Abuse)
More post-Vivian Girls jingle-jangle and cooey female vocals smothered in layers of fuzz and reverb. Somehow, it’s surprising to me that this style is so in vogue these days. If you had a time machine, you could go back twenty-five years, play someone this record, throw a paisley shirt on, suddenly you’d be transformed into a 50 year-old dude from Los Angeles that nobody cares about. But I suppose if I could predict when musical trends would crop up decades later, I’d be running a record label. Not sure why this sort of skilled-yet-not ineptitude is so prevalent, or why this band with NNCK connections (as I discovered from Google just now) exists, but there you have it. (http://www.softabuse.com)
Dean McPhee — Brown Bear 12″ EP (Hood Faire)
Despite my initial skepticism towards Young Britons doing their take on Americana (though truth be told, some UK residents such as Ben Reynolds do it quite well), Dean McPhee’s solo 12” is a fairly decent take on late, reverb-soaked Fahey, or perhaps Loren Mazzacane Connors. That is, it’s certainly pleasant, though not particularly aggressive; perhaps polite in that oh-so-peculiar manner we Colonials expect. No rough guitar instrumentals akin to Neil Young’s Dead Man soundtrack, instead we get two short pieces on the first side, and a side-long piece on the second. And it’s over there where the politeness melds into a bit of sobering boredom, wherein McPhee smothers his once-again decent ability in typical guy-with-a-Line6 territory. However, if you like post-Fahey instrumental guitar, there’s enough here to at least point to some promising future releases. (http://www.hoodfaire.co.uk)
Dark Lingo — Little Black Glasses 7″ EP (Dear Skull)
Dark Lingo is a duo of Sandy Patton, of Memphis, Tennessee’s Wet Labia (who I’m not familiar with) and Nick Patton of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Centipede Eest (who I am), and what we have here is the rare single which actually sounds kinda fun. An art product germinated in the much-ballyhooed creative class crater that is Braddock, PA, they market themselves as some manner of “ESG meets Hawkwind” blather, but what I hear is more early-1990s quirkiness (Thinking Fellers, Trumans Water, etc.) stripped down to bass, drums, and vocal basics. Lo-fi, no frills, no frivolous attempts to mask the fact that it’s a duo playing, and hardly much treble or midrange at all, which is fine with me. Lyrics on the A-side, “Little Black Glasses,” even made me chuckle once or twice. (http://www.myspace.com/dearskullrecords)
More reviews are on the way!
Filed under: Activities, Upcoming Events | Tags: Jozef van Wissem, R. Keenan Lawler, Upcoming Events, Zak Riles
Unfortunately, due to events beyond our control, the Zak Riles, Jozef van Wissem, and R. Keenan Lawler show at the Swan Dive on Friday, December 18th has been cancelled! We apologize, and hopefully we will be announcing a make-up date for sometime in the spring of 2010 shortly.
I’m almost at a lost for words, this time, to write an obituary, once again, for a fantastic musician who I was lucky to consider a friend. I’m in my office, aka our spare room, lying on the air mattress that we use when out-of-towners come to visit, with my beagles, listening to the new Bill Orcutt record, and thinking about Jack Rose, and how Jack Rose passed away today.
Jack was just here, in late September, as he played a show I booked on my birthday, and he stayed the night. I had the next day off so we drove around town in search of records, soul food, and rare bourbons. He was stoked because he found a Verlaines record at Underground Sounds for $7. We also had a great lunch at this soul food joint way out where Broadway ends at Shawnee Park with Kris Abplanalp and Neil. We went to Old Town Liquors, and Jack bought a bunch of good and obscure bourbons, then he left. Needless to say, it was a really good hang.
Aside from the many other times I saw him play, another fond memory was when Jack played a show I booked in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, with Major Stars and Miminokoto at the Palace Tavern. The place was way too crowded, and Major Stars nearly brought the house down with their blistering, super-loud and awesome opening set (Wayne Rogers, you are the man, and I’m glad New York’s Finest didn’t haul you away that night). Jack played second, just him and his guitar, and delivered the same sort of intensity at 1/4 the volume. Even though I’d seen him many times, that was the night his playing really clicked for me. And despite all the chaos of probably 200 people in a space made for 50, noise complaints from the neighbors, and the two bartender/owners who seemed like they were ready to kill me and Todd P., it was totally worth it.
Anyway, Jack Rose is gone, and the world has lost a singular talent. And people who knew him lost a fun, fun-loving, laid-back-yet-intense guy, who was no bullshit artist, but the real deal. Rest in peace, Jack.
Filed under: New Releases, Record Review | Tags: Dead Child, Sapat, The Phantom Family Halo
The second of two reviews of mine that LEO Weekly published last week is of the new double album by the Phantom Family Halo, Monoliths and These Flowers Never Die:
Louisville’s The Phantom Family Halo return with Monoliths and These Flowers Never Die, a sophomore double-album that is surprisingly both sprawling and focused, an exemplary effort of what is possible when retro-rock sensibilities are distilled through modern musical techniques. Unlike their debut, The Legend of Black Six, the new double album sports a cohesive, unified sound, thanks mostly to the myriad of excellent vocal styles displayed by lead singer Dominic Cipolla (also a member of Sapat and Dead Child). Whether on guitar-heavy rock anthems, more experimental Krautrock-esque numbers, or the occasional twisted pop tune, Cipolla’s voice always more-than-fits; it could be said that his vocals are the quintessential ingredient in what makes The Phantom Family Halo perhaps the most unique band not only in Louisville at present, but in the larger world of music as well.
Buy it directly from Karate Body here: http://www.karatebodyrecords.com.
