DISTONAL LAUNCH PARTY with PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT, NATIVES, WET HAIR, TROPICAL TRASH at HARLEY’S MAIN STREET TAVERN, Tuesday March 6th

Cropped Out and The Other Side of Life present:
The Distonal.Com Launch Party with…

PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT (Columbus, OH; on Fat Cat Records)
NATIVES (Louisville, KY; on Rad Tantrum)
WET HAIR (Iowa City, IA; on Night-People/De Stijl)
TROPICAL TRASH (Louisville, KY; on Loin Seepage/Sophomore Lounge)

Tuesday, March 6th
at HARLEY’S MAIN STREET TAVERN
122 W. Main (between 1st and 2nd Streets)
8 PM, $6, 21 and over.

This is the launch party for a new Louisville-based web publication called Distonal (from the creative forces that brought you the recently retired Decibel Tolls). In the words of the head honcho himself, Michael Powell:

Distonal is an online magazine spread across an anchored open source WordPress home and an accompanying Tumblr that will cover… well, whatever I feel like writing about. It’s the opposite of The Decibel Tolls in that regard, and it’s hard to say what will end up there, which excites me. The thread that binds everything, though, will be thoughtful and attitude-laden writing from myself and others (to be announced) that reaches toward broader universal topics, as well as articles that retain a strong commitment to the happenings of my native Louisville. I’ll still be reviewing records and photographing shows, but I may also drop some secret Bloggins curry recipes, March Madness picks, gastropub critiques, absurd manifestos, and my thoughts on the body politic. Distonal promises to be fluid and freeform, while brandishing a distinct voice all the while. It should go live sometime in late February, or early March at the latest. It’ll be a fun ride, and I hope you’ll follow me over there.

Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/events/169598496483223. And like Distonal on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/distonal.

To join our email list, send an email to hstencil AT gmail DOT com.

TENDER MERCY, GIVING UP/PUTTING OUT, SLITHERING BEAST at MAG BAR, Tomorrow! Monday, August 22nd

Our friends at CROPPED OUT and SOPHOMORE LOUNGE are putting on this fantastic show tomorrow at Old Louisville’s favorite watering hole, the Mag Bar. Here are the particulars:

The triumphant return of Sophomore Lounge’s pop-slop magicians, GIVING UP (Louisville, KY/Garner, IA) and PUTTING OUT (Chicago, IL). Featuring members of STATE CHAMPION and MEAH!, with special guest openers SLITHERING BEAST (Clark County country cookin’).

JUST ADDED: Louisville heartstring-strummer and friend of the family, Mark Kramer a.k.a. TENDER MERCY will round out the night with some stripped-down, hauntingly sparse acousti…c numbers of his own. For fans of: Little Wings, Red House Painters, Spokane, etc.

This is the last show of a three-week tour for GU/PO, so come on down, buy yourself a beer, drink half of it, pour the rest of it on them, then buy one of their records to say you’re sorry. Then buy yourself another beer, and put a Warren Zevon song on the jukebox. It’s Monday night, what else is there to do?

http://soundcloud.com/tender-mercy
http://givingup.castlemorbius.com/
http://www.gooddrawers.com/puttingout
http://www.slitheringbeast.com/

9 PM. $4. 21 and over.

The MAG BAR is located at 1398 South 2nd Street, at the corner of Magnolia and Second. You knew that, as you’ve been going there since before you were old enough to drink.

The ubiquitous Facebook invite is, of course, here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=252908064739438.

Richard Youngs, Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits (Jagjaguwar)

Richard Youngs’ Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits might just be the most improbably great pop album I’ve heard both this year and last. Funnily enough, it’s not exactly a new release, having been issued on CD-R last year in a tiny edition by Sonic Oyster. But Bloomington, Indiana indie Jagjaguwar has just reissued Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits in a gorgeously remastered vinyl edition. Youngs, a stalwart of Glasgow, Scotland’s experimental music scene (and an Other Side of Life favorite), was dared by friend and collaborator Andrew Paine to make a “proper pop album,” and the result is quite striking. Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits features Youngs’ striking multi-tracked singing (an occasional feature of his experimental albums) set to propulsive, electronic-based songs reminiscent of Brian Eno’s 1970s rock albums Here Come the Warm Jets and Another Green World mixed with a 1980s pop aesthetic akin to classic Pet Shop Boys or New Order. While not dance-oriented as those latter reference points, songs such as “Like a Sailor” and “Love in the Great Outdoors” certainly succeed at inserting a gorgeous beauty within the three-minute pop song format.

Listen to “Love in the Great Outdoors” from Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits here.

Buy it from Jagjaguwar here.

V/A, Reportage: Spela Själv (Unknown Label)

My review of the Reportage: Spela Själv bootleg LP ran in this week’s LEO Weekly:

Among many forgotten musical innovations of the 1960s, perhaps the most obscure was that of audience-driven free improvisation. Groups such as Musica Elettronica Viva (consisting of American expatriate composers living in Italy) encouraged attendees at their gigs to become part of the performance, and more “out-there” psychedelic rock groups such as The Red Krayola and Cro-Magnon invited non-musicians to join in. Some of this music is only successful as an experiment in democratization, yet some can be fun to listen to. Reportage: Spela Själv (which translates to “reportage: play yourself”) is such an album. Edited and compiled by Swedish composers Bo Anders Persson (who also played in Trad Gras och Stenar and Parson Sound) and Solvieg Bark, the album consists of many outdoor jams, akin to a rural, Swedish-folk influenced Amon Duul, interspersed with the sounds of children.

Buy it from Fusetron here: http://www.fusetronsound.com/index.php?whomlab=Unknown.

Download it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ytmmwjgmyv0.

Just Announced! Lexington’s CROSS to open for ENDLESS BOOGIE 9/24

Exciting new Lexington, Kentucky band CROSS will open for ENDLESS BOOGIE at the Swan Dive, Thursday September 24th (click the link for more information about the show).

Here’s the “official” CROSS bio:

Based out of Lexington, CROSS is comprised of MA Turner and R Clint Colburn. CROSS started playing music together directly after guitarist MA Turner’s group Warmer Milks dissolved in early Spring 2009 and immediately went on a bi-coastal U.S. tour. Currently working on their first full length record, CROSS live at the Rat Vex house in Lexington’s north end where both members draw on the walls and listen to records.

CROSS just completed a cross-country tour with Castanets, and their performance with ENDLESS BOOGIE will be their Louisville debut! You can listen to some of their tunes at their MySpace site, http://www.myspace.com/foreverintothecross or at their blog at http://tombstonegravy.blogspot.com.

R. Keenan Lawler, Nick Hennies at the SWAN DIVE Saturday, August 8

(Image of R. Keenan Lawler at Terrastock 2008 swiped with love from Chris Barrus’s Flickr photostream. Image of Nick Hennies and a dog swiped from whiskeyandapples.com.)

R. KEENAN LAWLER
NICK HENNIES (Austin, Texas)

Saturday, August 8
The Swan Dive
9 PM
$5, 21 and over

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.

NICK HENNIES is a percussionist and composer from Louisville, KY. He received his M.A. from UC-San Diego where he studied with world-renowned percussionist Steven Schick and performed with ‘red fish blue fish’, the SONOR Ensemble, Castanets, and in a duo with trombonist Tucker Dulin. Since relocating to Austin, TX in 2003 HENNIES has performed regularly with The Weird Weeds, the Austin New Music Co-op, Peter & the Wolf, and numerous collaborations with local and visiting musicians. He has worked with a wide array of musicians including Arnold Dreyblatt, Radu Malfatti, Eugene Chadbourne, Stuart Saunders Smith, and Jandek in his first ever U.S. performance. HENNIES’ solo work involves minimalist experiments in timbre with percussion instruments, as well as working with found sounds and electronic sources. His first official solo CD “Paths” was released on Thor’s Rubber Hammer in 2008 and also has released or forthcoming work on B-Boim, Sentient Recognition Archive, and Spectral House.

Listen to a clip from NICK HENNIES’ solo CD “Paths” here: http://nhennies.com/audio/paths-sample.mp3.

For more information, check http://othersideoflife.wordpress.com/upcomingevents for updates and/or email hstencil@gmail.com.

Hugh Hopper, R.I.P.

(Image of Hugh Hopper taken from Wikipedia.)

I’m seeing news on the internet — though not confirmed by any news organizations yet — that former Soft Machine bassist Hugh Hopper has died. His Wikipedia entry, which mentions his year-long struggle with leukemia, gives the date as “June 2009.” No additional information is available on his official website.

Hopper’s 1973 album 1984 has long been a favorite of mine. His first solo album after leaving the Soft Machine, 1984 combines Hopper’s excellent jazz playing with some experimental processes, especially tape loops, to great effect. It’s fitting that this album, based on the futuristic novel by George Orwell, still sounds ahead of its time.

(1984 cover image from http://www.progarchives.com.)

Download 1984 here.

Tie Me to the Listenin’ Post: 5/31 – 6/5

(photo swiped from http://hadleighhighlibrary.wordpress.com/about/.)

John Fahey, The Yellow Princess CD
Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest CD (Warp)
Extra Golden, Thank You Very Quickly CD (Thrill Jockey, available here)
Bill Callahan, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle CD (Drag City)
Big Business, Mind the Drift CD (Hydra Head)
Spacemen 3, The Perfect Prescription CD
Iggy Pop, Preliminaries CD
Savath & Savalas, La Llama CD (Stones Throw)
Etran Finatawa, Desert Crossroads CD (available here)
The Damned, Machine Gun Etiquette CD
Freddie Hubbard, Without a Song: Live in Europe 1969 CD
Sir Richard Bishop, The Freak of Araby CD (Drag City)
Swans, The Great Annhilator CD
V/A, The Roots of Nick Cave CD
Sperm, Shh! LP (Destijl)
V/A, Mexique: Fetes de San Miguel Tzinacapan mp3s
Oneohtrix Point Never — Ruined Lives, Betrayal in the Octagon, and Young Beidnahga mp3s
Gas, Konigsforst 2LP

Last updated Tuesday June 2, 2009.

Tie Me to the Listenin’ Post: 5/24 – 5/30

(image swiped from http://www.telegraph-office.com/pages/wireless_gallery.html.)

Group Doueh, Guitar Music from the Western Sahara and Treeg Salaam LPs (Sublime Frequencies, available here and here)
Omar Souleyman, Highway to Hassake: Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria 2LP (Sublime Frequencies)
V/A, Ethiopian Modern Instrumentals Hits LP (L’Arome)
Noah Howard, At Judson Hall LP (ESP-Disk, available here)
V/A, “Musiques de l’Asie Traditionnelle vol. 4: Tibet LP (Playa Sound)
Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Soul Finger CD
The Field, Yesterday and Today CD (Kompakt)
Vieux Farka Toure, Fondo CD
V/A, Phantom Guitars CD
Jimmy Cliff, The Harder They Come CD
Elvis Presley, Roustabout LP
Boards of Canada, Music Has the Right to Children CD
Kardinal Offishal, Not 4 Sale CD
Ennio Morricone, Film Music Vol. 1 CD
Big Business, Mind the Drift CD (Hydra Head)
Patto, s/t CD
Iggy Pop, Preliminaries CD
Fire on Fire, The Orchard CD (Young God)
The Inner Space, Agilok & Blubbo CD (Wah-Wah)
DJ Shadow, Endtroducing CD
V/A, Ghana Soundz Vol. 2 CD
Hawkwind, In Search of Space CD
The Damned, Machine Gun Etiquette CD
Saccharine Trust, Past Lives CD
Richard Hell & the Voidoids, Blank Generation CD
Extra Golden, Thank You Very Quickly CD (Thrill Jockey)
James Blackshaw, The Glass Bead Game CD (Young God)
J.G. Thirlwell, The Venture Bros.: The Music of J.G. Thirlwell CD
The Stooges, S/T CD
Iron & Wine, Around the Well CD (Sub Pop)
V/A, 1970′s Algerian Proto-Rai Underground CD (Sublime Frequencies)

Last updated on Tuesday, June 2, 2009.

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba, Segu Blue (Analog Africa/Open House)

Yet another review appeared in LEO Weekly today, this time of Bassekou Kouyate & Ngobi Ba’s Segu Blue. Unfortunately, due to space constraints there isn’t much mention of the actual music, but whatever:

Given the recent collaboration between Bela Fleck and Malian kora player Toumani Diabate, it’s possible that there’s been no greater spotlight on the West African nation at any other time than right now. Fortunately, all the attention on Mali is casting some light on other worthwhile players as well. Countryman Bassekou Kouyate plays the ngoni, a six-stringed instrument, which is arguably less complex than Tiabate’s 21-stringed kora, but still retains a beautiful melodicism. Kouyate’s 2007 album Segu Blue, issued in the United States this year, contains all the beauty one has come to expect from acoustic music from Mali. And on the blue “Lament for Ali Farka,” a requiem for the departed guitarist Ali Farka Toure, Kouyate and his group Ngoni Ba emerge from the shadows cast by their better-known comrades.

Commenter Dan Hirsch on a Facebook link I posted with the review says they’ll be touring the US next spring, so that’s pretty cool. In the meantime, you can download Segu Blue here.