It could go on forever

and I wouldn't mind. Really.

Destroyer - Kaputt

Sorry I haven't posted much lately. I think this may be post worthy. This is something that last week, I would've never imagined myself listening to. Kind of borderline schmaltzy a little at first? But after listening to it while shoveling all that snow? Recommended.

Now I'll listen to again whilst I lay on this heating pad...

Herbie

I've seen this before but came up on it on a different blog so thought i'd repost:



Herbie is such a nerd but so funky! When he's rocking that little effects wheel thing? Fuck outta here.

How about this gem?



hahahaha, so many Keytars! And Thomas Dolby is rocking the keytar-sampler? I'm going to steal that move.

DC OUT!!

Nigeria Rock Special! Pyschedelic Afro-Rock & Jazz Funk in 1970s

Check it out! Some songs in English, some not. A few instrumentals, some political lyrics, 70's psychedelia/funk riffs. Track 2 "More bread to the people" is a cool jam. Soundway Records has a lot of African/Latin music comps if you dig that stuff.

Dead Man's Bones

Esotericists beware.

A Hollywood A-Lister and a buddy write, perform and sing with the Silverlake Conservatory of Music Children's Choir. If you can put aside any preconceived notions that come from reading/knowing any of that, you might be in for one of the most enjoyable listens from the last couple years.

Two Good Ones

Balam Acab:

Realize i never officially posted about this. I used a track off of Balam Acab's "See Birds" EP as the second song on the 10/10/10 WWALT mix, if you're feeling that (actually need to do another one, guess i missed the 1/11/11 mix).

It's really dope, in the vein of Flying Lotus, etc., but more chill. Really highly recommended, worth paying money if you are into that or can't find it via the Good Captain.



Forest Swords:

Full props go to Rootless for finding this one. He said i'd love it, and after a few failed attempts online i got it at iTunes. It's like DJ Shadow plus live guitar and bass. Actually, i would say it sounds like Balam Acab with guitars... thus putting both under one WWALT post, get it?

HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION, GET THESE NOW!!!

dc

Beyond CaptainCrawl

I was talking to someone the other night about how I get most of my music via blogs and typically find sites through CaptainCrawl. He was glad to hear about CaptainCrawl but mentioned that he often just found music by searching for the band, maybe include the name of the album, and mediafire or another file uploading service. I had done that once or twice but I've been trying the google route and I think I'm through with CaptainCrawl. I'm still combing through the best of 2010 lists, this one on Pitchfork is the readers best of, and I've found everything I've looked for on there. BTW, one of the ones I've just downloaded (but haven't listened to yet) is The Seven Fields of Aphelion, yet another solo project from the Black Moth Super Rainbow crew. Is everyone getting music this way or are ya'll still on CaptainCrawl? CC is cool in terms of getting hip to new blogs where I wind up going nuts and downloading the whole archive over time. But if you want to cut right to the chase it's just google + band + mediafire (the best of the file uploading services, in my experience) and its on.

Late to the Party

Even though Bill Zink posted about it back in October or something, I just now got around to listening to "Music For Saharan Cell Phones Vol 1 & 2", and I LOOOOOVE that shit. I definitely appreciate the concept, and you know I appreciate the esoteric cassette only release aspect from Mississippi Records, but the music itself is great. Love the "folky" stuff, but also the Top 40 Vocoder tracks. Some of those jams sound like Diplo.

What do you call that kind of music, generally? I typically say "North African", but I don't know if that is right. Is it "Saharan"?Shit like this:



What is that music called? Tinariwen have that same vibe... not sure if you guys know them, I know Rootless and EJ are down. Even that Ethiopiques shit is from the same region, geographically.

Anyway, if anyone has anything like this PLEASE hit me up for a DVD trade. That "African - Arabian Crossroads" LP I posted in that last record store post is on that tip, so i'll rip it and include it to sweeten the pot.

Take it easy, Merry New Year.

d-nice

p.s. the sahelsounds blog (also involved in putting out that tape) is deeeeep, check it out if this post has any interest to you.

Say It Ain't So, Joe Sarno

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Apparently, the web sheriff got tired of chasing Julian Assange, because he took the time a couple weeks ago to shut down my favorite music blog, Singer Saints. I will really miss this one: its fluid narrative style, breadth and range of taste, and free-associative epiphanies are matchless in the music blogosphere.

I hope against hope that it (or he, he being Joe Sarno) will show up again (much like the rebirth of Bigfatsatanist, now rocking as a blog dealing primarily with the new cassette underground - which is a good idea not only because it's a sub-genre much in need of some sunlight, but also because those guys really want their stuff posted on music blogs). Until then, Mr. Sarno, my hat is off to you.

My Favorite Records of 2010

Quick list, in no particular order:
LCD Soundsystem: This is Happening
Wild Nothing: Gemini
Kurt Vile: Constant Hitmaker (this came out in 2008, but I only just found out about it and listened to it a lot this year)
Squarepusher: Shobaleader One- d'Demonstrator
Deerhunter: Halcyon Digest
Caribou: Swim
Lloyd Cole: Broken Record
Matthew Dear:Black City
Shy Child: Liquid Love
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: The Brutalist Bricks
Sebastien Tellier: Sexuality Remix
Small Black: New Chain
Sweet Lights: S/T
Bear Claw: Refuse this Gift
Washed Out: Life of Leisure
Against Me!: White Crosses

Happy New Year- Now for Some Satanic Disco Shit

I only joined this blog this year, and since relocating to Seattle I haven't checked in or contributed often. Collectively, though, you guys have enriched my musical life in this short time more than I could attest to in a court of law. I never would have gotten into Wild Nothing or Kurt Vile if not for following the trail of taste crumbs you guys dropped this year, and I know there were lots of other leads I got here that I'm not remembering off the top of my head. Kurt Vile though- thanks.

Since I haven't been carrying my weight around here, I wanted to crawl a couple inches toward returning the favor.

First, the Satanic disco shit. If you're into Front 242, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, or Black Devil Disco Club, you might get a kick out of the retro-sinister industrial stomp and end of the world sampling shitstorm of Gatekeeper and their EP Giza . I don't know much about them, but sometimes that's the way I like to keep it. Facts just get in the way, make us weak, give Beelzebub meaty human form and body image issues. No good. I was trolling blogs and checked this out spurred on by the Jean-Michel Jarre record art alone, and I kept listening because of the subliminal messages telling me I had to.




Second thing- if any of you fans of Kurt Vile haven't listened to this already, you should really check out Sweet Lights. This is Philadelphia musician Shai Halperin, former member of The Capitol Years and The War on Drugs (for whom the inimitable long-haired turtle man Kurt Vile also played), and his self-titled record here is just good, clean amazing.


Happy new year.

Big City

Back when I first moved to the city. Sound Library was the THE spot. It was like the top shelf beat diggers paradise record store. Japanese tourists would fly here and drop G's there. This Madlib video was shot there. The kind of place where you would be like "Oh damn! I've only heard about that!" then check the price tag and get bummed because the record is between $60-$100 bucks...

Anywho, i guess it was owned by these two British guys. They had a falling out, and one of them kept the name and moved the store to the LES. The other guy opened "Big City" records like a block over from Academy in the East Village.

The Big City guy decided to open a new store, and of all the places in the world he could pick, dude chooses my town in New Jersey, like 5 minutes away from my house! So, on the one hand i'm psyched... on the other hand, my checking account will surely feel the wrath.

This dude was in "good-will mode" with the opening, with a ton of killer records, a little chewed up, under $10 bucks. I hit it up three weeks in a row. Here are some of the gems I got. For any of you WWALT members feeling bad for not paying money for music in 2010, I got us covered.

Here are the pics, excuse my stir crazy children getting in on the act:
















Happy New Years.

2010 wrap-up

Since my main ninja DC Loochatron threw down the gauntlet about the 2010 "best of" post, I gotta answer the call. I feel like, overall, this year was slow for me in regards to acquiring, digesting, and appraising new music. Some years are just like that. I feel like it was a year of "comfort music," where I really just relied on tried and true tracks from the past to take me to my happy place.
However, I wasn't completely asleep at the wheel in 2010, so the little that I came across in my musical endeavors I will share with you now...

Best Album: "Halcyon Digest" - Deerhunter. Everyone's kinda jocking this band hard right now, but eff it. It's a really really great listen. I do hope that Deerhunter brings back more of their Sonic Youth/noise/experimental influence in the future, though. Don't get me wrong, there are some tracks on this record that are basically sonic perfection. I must have listened to "Desire Lines" 100 times in the past two months.


Best older stuff I finally got around to: The Misfits. I never really ever listened to these guys. I think the whole "horror" thing turned me off for a long time and put me off listening to any of their stuff. For some reason I thought I'd get (read: download) a bunch of their stuff and check it out. It's really amazing. They carve out two-minute gems of high-energy punk with lyrics about demons, monsters, and aliens. Pretty cool.

Old Boards Of Canada EPs - There are a lot of fakes out there claiming to be BOC EPs, but there are some legit ones as well, like "Hi Scores." I've been rocking this one nonstop. Favorite tracks are "Hi Scores," "Seeya Later," "Everything You Do Is A Balloon."

Best video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAAET-VLAxI&feature=related

Best "electronica": "Oversteps" - Autechre
"Cosmogramma" - Flying Lotus
"Combed Over Chrome" - Raleigh Moncrief
"Songs For Trees And Cyborgs" - Robot Koch

Blog I found most of my 2010 downloads on: http://earpussyhm.blogspot.com/

Best album coupled with best use of bizarre "ET porn" in a live show: "Maniac Meat" - Tobacco. Killer album. And yes, the live show featured some visuals of esoteric German pornography depicting ET having sex with humans. Ew.

Best music news of 2010: Godspeed You! Black Emperor announced their North American tour.

Lamest news: John Mayer is still allowed to make music.

Saddest news: The death of Captain Beefheart.

Best of 2010 Post

Humbled by a venerable WWLTN tradition, I submit to you, dear reader, my best of 2010 in no particular order. I just checked and the grand tally is just under 33 gigs of music this year. Is that a lot or a little? Not all of the albums below came out this year (though most did), it’s just this year that I got hip to them.

Megafortress: Stumbled into Zebulon one night after being ambushed by giant litres of beer at Radegast and this dude blew my mind. In 2010 I spent many a night at Zebulon checking out the experimental music they tend to feature early in the week, never a cover charge, across the street from my apartment in Williamsburg, that dynamic itself was a musical highlight in 2010 for me. Anyway, Megafortress is Bill Gillam and it’s just him sitting Indian style in front of a whole row of effects, he’s got some flute-like mic and he gets these deep Gregorian monk vocals going over god-like electronic pulses and it’s pretty amazing. You can download his EP off myspace and he posts stuff a lot on his soundcloud page.

Koen Holtkamp, Field Rituals: Koen H. is one half of the ambient duo Mountains, if you like their stuff you’d like this, I listened to it a lot in 2010.

Deerhunter/Atlas Sound: I saw Atlas Sound, Deerhunter lead singer Bradford Cox’s solo project, at the Bell House last Saturday night. Dude has marfan syndrome, is often in drag, and is kind of freaky looking. He’s also super-talented, kind of a weird shaman. I’m scared of him and awed by him. I like Deerhunter, but they are kind of hit or miss to me. “Fountain Stairs” is the catchiest thing they’ve written and I loved that song right away, and “Earthquake”, the first track off their new album, Halcyon Digest, became one of my favorite songs of the year (the hissing sounds, the weird electric/acoustic robot guitar, the underwater vocals). But I’m not crazy about the whole album. I’m a bigger fan of Atlas Sound, which has some great "songs" but is half brilliant ambient music. I didn’t know what to expect live, but thought he’d actually have a few people playing with him. But it was just him solo, acoustic guitar through effects and a harmonica and vocals. Fucking amazing, I’ve never seen someone make music that way. The Bell House was sold out and people we’re hanging on every moment (see attached photo), you could hear a pin drop between songs, the whole place waiting on every mumbled sentence Cox uttered, the bashful weird kid, effeminate and bullied, who became a rock god.

The Black Keys, Brothers: These guys just put out good albums, great driving music. “Everlasting light” and “Sinister Kid” are best of 2010 status.

Kurt Vile, God is Saying this to You: I like the other Kurt Vile albums but I like his acoustic low-fi stuff a lot more than his full-on rock band. Great song-writer, manages to be weird and still write killer melodies. “My Sympathy” and “My Best Friends”, top 2010 tracks.

Storm & Stress, Under Thunder and Fluorescent Light: This is a band from the early 2000s I think, a trio with the unique Kevin Shea on drums. Kevin plays in dozens of bands and is one of the most deeply weird and distinctive musicians I’ve ever been around. Word is he hates Storm & Stress now, despising it’s hipster indie-rock milieu, and he’s certainly now moved into way more bizarre territory. This year one of the most memorable shows I saw was a show he put on at the Kitchen, the famous Chelsea performance space. My friend Tim Dahl came out in a platinum wig to “Move Bitch” and got on a platform where a synthesizer and mic awaited him and rapped along with Ludacris to start things off. The rest of the crew came out, including a bassist dressed as Jesus, and they basically destroyed pop music for an hour, all with a screen of the movie 300 and it’s scenes of gore violence going on silently at the front of the stage. It was alternately excruciating and hilarious, but also had moments of musical synchronicity, as the stillborn child of melody occasionally peered its head out of the abortion that actually was the music. Anyway, I first heard Storm & Stress this year, and to me it’s more jazz on the thrill-jockey tip than it is indie-rock. Check out the band and also all of Kevin Shea’s shit.

Child Abuse, Cut & Run: another local act, Tim Dahl’s main band, a few of their shows make my top 2010 list and their album came out this year as well. No one really knows what to make of these guys. They tour with metal bands sometimes but they are not really metal; I’ve heard some extreme math rock bands that sound a little like them, but the screaming vocals and laser-sounding synth take it out of that area; and beneath it all there is a core of avant-composers like John Cage or Stockhausen. Not music to be taken lightly.

Tallest Man on Earth, The Wild Hunt: Great album, and one of best shows of the year was this guy’s show at Webster Hall. Sweden’s pride, Kristian Matsson, is getting a lot of recognition and all of it is well deserved.

Future Islands, In Evening Air: Another memorable show that introduced me to a band this year. Saw these guys at Death by Audio on my birthday. Death by Audio is a total dive, wires hanging from the ceilings, weird bathrooms; off-label whiskey, PBR cans and cheap red wine are sold from a table in the back. Future Islands are a trio from Baltimore, Animal Collective meets Danzig, ecstatic crowd, small venue, great time.

Local Natives, Gorilla Manor; The Morning Benders, The Big Echo: I was listening to both these albums in the spring a lot, both debuts, really solid. One of my best memories of 2010 is listening to the Morning Benders (and lots of dub) in Jamaica at a friend’s wedding with a huge spliff, seaside.

Das Racist, Bike for Three!, Blakroc: These were the only three albums/bands (in that order) that hit my radar hard in terms of hip hop.

Washed Out, Twin Shadow, Neon Indian: I actually got Neon Indian at the end of 2009, but I listened to a lot of electronic stuff like this in 2010. Twin Shadow’s “Tyrant Destroyed” and “Castles in the Snow” are on my top tracks list, as is Washed Out’s “Feel it All Around”.

Spoon, Transference: They just put out quality album after quality album, “Who makes you money” is one of my favorite tracks of the year.

Warpaint: I guess their debut album was self-released in 2008 (and is either self-titled or called Exquisite Corpse), their latest, The Fool, came out this past fall, but I got both this year and I’m a fan of this band.

Just Because

As nasty as it looks

DC 2010 Best Of Joint

OK, so maybe "face melting" was a little strong, but here's the DC Loocha 2010 year end wrap up.

Best Old School Thing I learned about this year: Relatively Clean Rivers. http://whatwearelisteningto.blogspot.com/2010/03/relatively-clean-rivers.html. My man Record Mike tipped me off to these guys saying he heard a RCR influence in the Monastics. Well, I'm not feeling that, especially, but it did get me running to Captain Crawl pretty quick, and the result was huge. Top shelf borderline cheese garage, CSNY-wannabe, Skip Spence level shit. So good. Some solid gold bangers on here, best song of all time category, especially "Hello Sunshine" which is my kids' favorite song of all time. PLUS, an OG copy of the vinyl sold on eBay for almost fucking $800 dollars ?!?!?!?!?! Check it out. That shit's crazy. You know what that breaks down to on a per-song basis?!?! But it's totally worth it. If i stumbled on this randomly in a thrift shop somewhere my fucking brain would have exploded.

Best catch phrase of 2010: "Stay Liquid"

Most epic vinyl score: Meh, I'll say that Eno box set I got at a Garage Sale 4/25 but i reserve the right to renig on that statement.
http://whatwearelisteningto.blogspot.com/2010/04/garage-sale-scores.html

Most poignant question asked in 2010: "Do you think Devo got a lot of ass back in the day?"

Best Album of 2010: Best album that came out in 2010? I don't even know, I feel like I'm kind of out of touch on the Pitchfork/Rolling Stone level of shit, so I'll go with the last Deerhunter album, that's a pretty sure bet. It was very very good.

Best New Thing I Scored: I'm going to go with that live Emeralds bootleg from 10/4, I'm a big fan and those recordings sound great and the shows were intense. http://whatwearelisteningto.blogspot.com/2010/10/live-emeralds.html

Best band of 2010: I'm going to say, pound for pound, as far as number of plays in iTunes and true happiness a band brought me in 2010, I gotta go with Das Racist as my #1 band of 2010. After initially being like "Is this too jokey for me?" I very quickly got on board, and proceeded to listen to both of those mix tapes 1,000,000 times. Pretty much all the way through every time, too. And really, every time it starts, I get a little bounce in my step and a smile on my face and a nod in my head. "Who's that? Brown - Brown-B- Br- B- Browwwn!!!" That shit is awesome. Fave band of 2010.

First place I ever heard of Die Antwoord: My man "CS" on 6/25. http://whatwearelisteningto.blogspot.com/2010/06/die-antwoord.html

Most epic mind blowing shit of 2010: That Justin Bieber slowed-down/Sigor Ros sounding ambient thing. That was insane. The fact that something that beautiful and intense could be extracted from a 2 1/2 minute slice of throw away pop. After a minute I was like "hahaha, it sounds like Sigor Ros!" Then at 4 1/2 minutes I was like "Wow, this is actually really good!" and at the 15 minute mark I was like "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! DOUBLE RAINBOW ALL THE WAY! I FEEL SO GOOOD! BOO HOO HOO HA HA HA!!"

Happy Merry.

dc

Benoît Pioulard/J D Emmanuel

I'm working on best of 2010 list, but thought I'd mention two recent discoveries.

id Reverberations is the blog that Headdress album (which I like a lot) was on. I found Benoit Poulard, aka Thomas Meluch, on there, he's a low-fi song-writer on the Elliott Smith, Kurt Vile tip. I also like J D Emmanuel's early 80s synth album, Wizards, which reminds me a little bit of Mark McGuire.

WWLTN 2010 reflections

Humbled by a venerable WWLN tradition, I submit to you, dear reader, my best of 2010 in no particular order. I just checked and the grand tally is just under 33 gigs of music this year. Is that a lot or a little? Not all of the albums below came out this year (though most did), it’s just this year that I got hip to them.

Megafortress: Stumbled into Zebulon one night after being ambushed by giant litres of beer at Radegast and this dude blew my mind. In 2010 I spent many a night at Zebulon checking out the experimental music they tend to feature early in the week, never a cover charge, across the street from my apartment in Williamsburg, that dynamic itself was a musical highlight in 2010 for me. Anyway, Megafortress is Bill Gillam and it’s just him sitting Indian style in front of a whole row of effects, he’s got some flute-like mic and he gets these deep Gregorian monk vocals going over god-like electronic pulses and it’s pretty amazing. You can download his EP off myspace and he posts stuff a lot on his soundcloud page.

Koen Holtkamp, Field Rituals: Koen H. is one half of the ambient duo Mountains, if you like their stuff you’d like this, I listened to it a lot in 2010.

Deerhunter/Atlas Sound: I saw Atlas Sound, Deerhunter lead singer Bradford Cox’s solo project, at the Bell House last Saturday night. Dude has marfan syndrome, is often in drag, and is kind of freaky looking. He’s also super-talented, kind of a weird shaman. I’m scared of him and awed by him. I like Deerhunter, but they are kind of hit or miss to me. “Fountain Stairs” is the catchiest thing they’ve written and I loved that song right away, and “Earthquake”, the first track off their new album, Halcyon Digest, became one of my favorite songs of the year (the hissing sounds, the weird electric/acoustic robot guitar, the underwater vocals). But I’m not crazy about the whole album. I’m a bigger fan of Atlas Sound, which has some great "songs" but is half brilliant ambient music. I didn’t know what to expect live, but thought he’d actually have a few people playing with him. But it was just him solo, acoustic guitar through effects and a harmonica and vocals. Fucking amazing, I’ve never seen someone make music that way. The Bell House was sold out and people we’re hanging on every moment (see attached photo), you could hear a pin drop between songs, the whole place waiting on every weird mumbled sentence Cox uttered, the bashful weird kid, effeminate and bullied, who became a rock god.

The Black Keys, Brothers: These guys just put out good albums, great driving music. “Everlasting light” and “Sinister Kid” are best of 2010 status.

Kurt Vile, God is Saying this to You: I like the other Kurt Vile albums but I like his acoustic low-fi stuff a lot more than his full-on rock band. Great song-writer, manages to be weird and still write killer melodies. “My Sympathy” and “My Best Friends”, top 2010 tracks.

Storm & Stress, Under Thunder and Fluorescent Light: This is a band from the early 2000s I think, a trio with the unique Kevin Shea on drums. Kevin plays in dozens of bands and is one of the most deeply weird and distinctive musicians I’ve ever been around. Word is he hates Storm & Stress now, despising it’s hipster indie-rock milieu, and he’s certainly now moved into way more bizarre territory. This year one of the most memorable shows I saw was a show he put on at the Kitchen, the famous Chelsea performance space. My friend Tim Dahl came out in a platinum wig to “Move Bitch” and got on a platform where a synthesizer and mic awaited him and rapped along with Ludacris to start things off. The rest of the crew came out, including a bassist dressed as Jesus, and they basically destroyed pop music for an hour, all with a screen of the movie 300 and it’s scenes of gore violence going on silently at the front of the stage. It was alternately excruciating and hilarious, but also had moments of musical synchronicity, as the stillborn child of melody occasionally peered it’s head out of the abortion that actually was the music. Anyway, I first heard Storm & Stress this year, and to me it’s more jazz on the thrill-jockey tip than it is indie-rock. Check out the band and also all of Kevin Shea’s shit.

Child Abuse, Cut & Run: another local act, Tim Dahl’s main band, a few of their shows make my top 2010 list and their album came out this year as well. No one really knows what to make of these guys. They tour with metal bands sometimes but they are not really metal; I’ve heard some extreme math rock bands that sound a little like them, but the screaming vocals and laser-sounding synth take it out of that area; and beneath it all there is a core of avant-composers like John Cage or Stockhausen. Not music to be taken lightly.

Tallest Man on Earth, The Wild Hunt: Great album, and one of best shows of the year was this guy’s show at Webster Hall. Sweden’s pride, Kristian Matsson, is getting a lot of recognition and all of it is well deserved.

Future Islands, In Evening Air: Another memorable show that introduced me to a band this year. Saw these guys at Death by Audio on my birthday. Death by Audio is a total dive, wires hanging from the ceilings, weird bathrooms; off-label whiskey, PBR cans and cheap red wine are sold from a table in the back. Future Islands are a trio from Baltimore, animal collective meets Danzig, ecstatic crowd, small venue, great time.

Local Natives, Gorilla Manor; The Morning Benders, The Big Echo: I was listening to both these albums in the spring a lot, both debuts, really solid. One of my best memories of 2010 is listening to the Morning Benders (and lots of dub) in Jamaica at a friend’s wedding with a huge spliff, seaside.

Das Racist, Bike for Three!, Blakroc: These were the only three albums/bands (in that order) that hit my radar hard in terms of hip hop.

Washed Out, Twin Shadow, Neon Indian: I actually got Neon Indian at the end of 2009, but I listened to a lot of electronic stuff like this in 2010. Twin Shadow’s “Tyrant Destroyed” and “Castles in the Snow” are on my top tracks list, as is Washed Out’s “Feel it All Around”.

Spoon, Transference: They just put out quality album after quality album, “Who makes you money” is one of my favorite tracks of the year.

Warpaint: I guess their debut album was self-released in 2008 (and is either self-titled or called Exquisite Corpse), their latest, The Fool, came out this past fall, but I got both this year and I’m a fan of this band.

Saharan Cellphones Again

If anyone was digging on the Saharan cell phones tape, the second volume is up at ghostcapital right now.  I loved the first one, can't wait to get to the second one . . .

Rob Crow EP and home recording question

Rob Crow is the main singer/guitarist of Pinback. I saw him do a little acoustic set recently in LA and it was pretty nifty. He knocked out something like 30 songs in about 45-50 minutes, mostly playing them all back-to-back-to-back with a few hilarious stories and personal anecdotes woven in for good measure.

One thing that's really cool about Crow and the Pinback guys in general is that they tend to bring a lot of random home recording projects and "tour-only EPs" to sell as merch when they're on the road. But it's not just throw-away shit; the quality level is usually pretty damned high.

Case and point, here is a 6-song tour-only CD that Rob Crow was selling, that I've put on yousendit for anyone who's interested:

https://www.yousendit.com/download/cEd0ZFhqSEJRYTljR0E9PQ

This one is all cover songs that he recorded himself. Here's the tracklist:

1. Fear - I Am a Doctor
2. Snake Finger - Man in the Dark Sedan
3. Devo - Deep Sleep
4. Wall of Voodoo - Call Box
5. Captain Beefheart - Click Clack
6. Samhain - Archangel

If you're into any of the above artists/bands, I hope you'll check it out, b/c these are some pretty great little covers.

Which leads me to my question about home recording..... I know that Rob Crow recorded all of these tracks himself, and obviously the guy has a lot of recording experience. But one thing I'm trying to figure out is how he might have recorded the drums on these tracks.

If anyone has any ideas on that, please post them here or email me at: ator_iv AT yahoodotcom

Headdress - Turquoise

This is a record I picked up in the used bin at Other Music a while back. It had a good vibe and it was on Mexican Summer label (home of Valet, Real Estate, and Kurt Vile releases...) and it was under $10.00. Maybe $5.00? So i gambled on it with no other knowledge.

It has slowly grown on me. It is in heavy rotation for the crucial after-10:00PM-on-a-weeknight slot. It's super mellow, reverby guitars, I don't even think there are drums.

Because the music is kind of anonymous and since i bought it in a vacuum with no info about the band, i think i took it for granted. But the other night I had the A-HA moment where i realized "Hey, this is really great record!"

I found it on this blog, here you go my friends.

Check it out.

There is one track where these guys do coyote/wolf howling sounds for like a solid minute... don't let that turn you off, just fast forward it.

I got a mega post in the wings, and my epic 2010 wrap up which will blow minds.

dc

Cosmic Hearse

I like this guy a lot. I don't grab everything he posts, but something about the album artwork and the way he writes never fails to entertain. Ridiculously deep collection of obscure golden age metal (my tag for late 80's early 90's shit & all those NWOBHM-ish Acronym sub-genres I'm not cool enough to decipher), a bit 'o' hardcore and some ephemera that might interest someone into Polish black metal demos from 1991. Check out some of these sweet covers and tell me you're not interested, at least a little....

say it ain't so...

is captaincrawl finally dead? haven't been able to access the site for a few days now....

Broken Moog Blues

(rare picture of the Scoobie Brothers, (c) 2009 Bea Finkel)

The Scoobie Brothers called me up last Thursday and told me they had some new material. I immediately booked some studio time, and after a marathon 36 hour session fueled by energy drinks, Courvoisier and Ibogaine, the latest Scoobie Brothers joint was recorded directly to Ampex.

I whipped this video together, and here you are, just in time for your Christmas party playlist... "Broken Moog Scoob" by the Scoobie Brothers.



I also took this opportunity to post all the videos from "Darkside (of the Scoob)" on one site: www.thescoobiebrothers.com

Lastly, for MP3's of all Darkside releases to date, holla at me and I'll yousendit it to you. This month only, special introductory price of free.

Happy Thanksgiving.

dc

p.s. December is coming and any WWALT member who is not a pussy will take a minute to do a year end best of type joint.

Touch Me!

Jackpot!  There was a British tape label in the mid-80's called Touch that was doing some incredible stuff, putting out limited edition cassette-only releases (back when putting out something on cassette only was proletarian necessity, as opposed to hipster ironic cool) that were all mind expanding events.  I only managed to get my hands on three of them . . . but, lo and behold, there's a whole passel of them for everybody to grab right here on the intertubes!

The ones I'm familiar with are Ritual - Magnetic North, Feature Mist, and Islands In-Between.  Islands In-Between is an exploration of music from Java and Bali, done way back when this kind of music was only of interest to ethnomusicologists and sociologists.  Feature Mist is an atmosphere, all spoken word and synths, featuring big names expected (New Order) and unexpected (Simple Minds).  Magnetic North is much like Feature Mist, though by now the projects were attracting 80's New Wave/Avant names like Einsteurzende Neubauten, The Residents, S/Z, Renaldo and the Loaf, Cabaret Voltaire, and more.  All three cassettes were well programmed (like a very good radio show instead of a simple compilation of music), and wonderfully designed.

I'll occasionally run across the "Touch" name when I'm scanning the Forced Exposure online mail order catalogue, but I've never checked it out to see if it's the same thing, or even a descendant.  I had pretty much forgotten about these cassettes until the CD player on the boombox in the kitchen broke, and I had to haul out the old-school tech to have a soundtrack for cooking dinner.  All three tapes stand the test of time well, and I can't wait to listen to the ones I haven't heard yet.  Highly recommended; you should check this out, even if it doesn't sound exactly like your cup of tea.

Blowing Up

So in, what, 6 months? Das Racist went from 1) heard about them on a relatively small, "taste maker" site (StreetBoners.com), to 2) full blown Pitchfork dissertation, and now, part 3) Full spread in the New Yorker by Sasha Ferre Jones.

BLOWING UP. I see mainstream record label and radio airtime in the near future. And that's fine with me. They deserve to be heard.

I think "hipster rap" or whatever someone ends up anointing this will turn into a movement/genre and will take the world by storm in 2011.

dc

Three Mile Pilot: The Inevitable Past Is the Future Forgotten

This is a 2010 release. After not playing together for 13 years the band is back, and better than ever. I have one of their discs from the 90's and it's drums, bass and vocals only. A little too arty for my taste. This release has much more refined song writing, and with piano, synth the sound is much richer. Indie rockers Armistead Burwell Smith iv from Pinback, and Pall Jenkins from Blackheart Procession are the founders of the band. Check it out!

John Cage, Warpaint and more on Eno

My buddy Rindy and I have a discussion group called The Junta and he's got a good post up about John Cage. He was kind enough to scan the New Yorker story about Cage, if you're interested in his music it's a great read.

Here is the latest album by Warpaint, an all female-band from LA, I'm a fan, listening to their new album now, lots of dark blended voices and more electronic elements on this album, they are growing.

Also, after I read that Eno interview I really wanted to check out his new album, Small Craft on a Milk Sea. But I wasn't even looking for it when I stumbled upon it on some blog, can't remember which and don't feel like searching for it now. But it's way cool and different than any Eno album I've heard (though I'm not an Eno authority). If any of ya'll have trouble finding it hit me up and I'll yousendit to you. I also threw down $4 (who says I won't pay for music?) for the Bloom app and I could waste away many hours in the 5th dimension messing with that.....

Eno Interview

Really interesting interview with Brian Eno on Pitchfork.

I'm not even Mr. Eno or anything, but he gets into a lot of stuff that I think will appeal to the dudes on this blog: vinyl vs. cd vs. mp3, improvisation, the future of computer music, the future of music PERIOD, his process, uh.. Kaoss pads, headphones, etc.

ch-ch-ch-check it out.

dc