Keith Fullerton Whitman

This interview actually came out in 2006 but I just read it and thought it was awesome. I suspect some people on this blog haven't read it and would really like it too so thought I'd post it.

25 Songs: Blues Vol. 1

Paul's Boutique Record Release Party

Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique - Record Release Party 1989 from sjx on Vimeo.

BLAM!

Sharon Van Etten "Tramp"

Just listened to it on NPR's first listen. I'd heard part of a song on the radio here in dirty jersey, shazam'ed it, and I'm now not being disappointed. Really really good songs with nice varied arrangements. I like her voice, it's not typically indie twee, or screamy, it's quite strong, almost cat power-strong. She's depressingly young--yes, I'm bitter and jealous. This sounds like what a "mature" record would sound like if calling something "mature" wasn't usually implying that it was boring and lame. The song "We Are Fine" is a highlight.

I missed you, 1999.

We Jam Econo

Being a bass player (and one who is a self taught and learned by playing in bands at that) it's kind of crazy that I never got into The Minutemen. I knew Mike Watt from fIREHOSE fame, and was pretty deep into them, but I think I just bought one Minutemen CD, kind of went "meh" and then never came back. I was a Fugazi/fIREHOSE kid growing up, not a Minor Threat/Minutemen kid.

I've already had my late bloomer moment with Minor Threat (having listened to Minor Threat Discography enough over the last few years to make up for lost time) but I never got into The Minutemen. I only really dug in after scoring a copy of Double Nickels on The Dime at a garage sale (for $1.00, selling on eBay for $100, DC!! DC!!!).

What a great, fascinating, intensely creative and original band. This is clearly displayed in the documentary about them "We Jam Econo". If you are a fan or want to be or are interested in them any way, I recommend checking it out, it's on Netflix streaming.

(I also checked out the Pearl Jam "20" documentary by Cameron Crowe, also defintiely worth checking on Netflix, also known as the Spotify of movies.)

d-nice

More Grist for the Mill

Apropos Spotify, a graphic breakdown for the artist's payday based on various different media formats.  Looks like I'm justified to stick with Rhapsody, if I'm interested in the artists income . . . although obviously all online sites pretty much suck as far as royalties are concerned.

TNT and Birth of the Cool

Been listening to two of my favorite albums lately, TNT and Birth of the Cool.

TNT is an album I consistently come back to when it comes to Tortoise. It sounds different than a lot of their stuff, at times colder, more robotic. At other times, in particular on the title track, some of their strongest melodies come through. It makes me contemplative; it's the best music in the world to fold laundry to.

Keeping on the Tortoise vibe, I kind of rediscovered It's All Around You. I've listened to this album a million times but for some reason it just clicked. In heavy rotation at the moment.

I've also been on the west coast jazz tip. Listened to Birth of the Cool last weekend a bunch of times, one of my all time favorite albums. Captures that beatnik '50s feeling so well, and the songs themselves are so strong. I love that it closes with "Darn the Dream", the vocals really round off the record well.

It had me exploring more of west coast jazz. I know the Dave Brubek and Paul Desmond stuff pretty well, really like some of those records. But I've been listening to a lot of Chet Baker lately, in particular his records with Gerry Mulligan.

Anyone have any other suggestions on good west coast jazz?

Sunn O))) and Nurse With Wound

ØØ VOID is Sunn O)))'s second album, or their first "all in" album (the first recordings they did up to their standards, which in this case, is a 24 track studio recording to 2" tape).  It's pretty much exactly what you think of when you think of Sunn O))), a band birthed from the second Earth album: big doomy guitar drones, and very little else.  If you've paid attention to any of their later releases, especially Monoliths & Dimensions, then here are the basics.  As every brain dead rocker everywhere says, TURN IT ALL THE WAY UP!

It's back in rotation primarily due to a vinyl reissue on Stephen O'Malley's Ideologic Organ label.  It's a good one to have on vinyl, since the whole point of droning (besides the hypnotic effect) is the nuance and play of textures, including overtones and undertones, which are best realized with analog playback.  The 2 x LP gives a full side to each of the four compositions (playback at 45 rpm for even better depth and fidelity), and the package consists of VERY HEAVY cardboard with beautiful artwork.  The only bitch I have is that the heavy cardboard sleeves almost require lubrication to slide in and out, and when you pull the platter out of its sleeve, you need to grasp the edge with your thumb and index finger and really tug, which means you are marking up the edge of the platter.  Oh well, such is the nature of sacrifice for aesthetics.

The real gem here is The Iron Soul of Nothing, a collaboration between Sunn O))) and 80's industrial/noise/avant legends Nurse With Wound, in which NWW's Steven Stapleton remixes ØØ VOID.  Stapleton gets to the core of the album, picking up various elements of the drone and recutting them for his own version of the same idea.  The result sounds more electro and less doom metal, and more dynamic, as Stapleton is as aggressive in his collaging as possible while still remaining true to the drone.

And, as an added bonus, the packaging is much less annoying here than on the Sunn O))) reissue.

With Sunn O))), you know what you are getting, and ØØ VOID is the base level of what you get.  The Iron Soul of Nothing is Nurse With Wound's revelatory re-imagining of Sunn O)))'s core project.  If either one of these things sounds good to you, you will not be disappointed.

Mega Upload Song???

I'm so confused. So, wait, these guys LIKE Mega Upload?

I'm such a weak-minded simpleton... all it took was this youtube clip and i'm like "Fuck yeah! I love Mega Upload! What the hell, man?!!"

dc

hahaha, is this real?

LoLooks like the days of the freebie are coming to an end

I guess with all the MegaUpload madness other file sharing sites are laying low. Many logs I frequent are closing up because their hosts have deleted the goods.

Some blurbs:

http://www.hqhiphop.net/

As of today, Filesonic.com deleted all my files, as well as Ben's and King Skullie's. I had about 800GB of data stored there. It seems that all the filehosts are running scared because of Megaupload's trial and that there is nothing left to do and no other option but to quit. I made this decision as the creator of the blog along with Ben and King Skullie, that the blog must cease to be. There was too much work and time put into the creation of this place to have it all taken away by some greedy corporate fucks.

It was fun while it lasted, please remember this place as the first that started a wave of good material in outstanding quality. These three years spent with this blog have been a wonderful experience that none of its authors will ever forget. Stay strong, and whatever happens, keep your love for the music. You can leave any messages you have for us here.

Farewell,

http://churchofzer.blogspot.com/

Probably as a consequence of the MegaUpload hysteria, it looks like my Mediafire account was wiped out. If this is true and permanent, this entire blog just dried. It may go on and start over... Stay tuned.

25 Songs: White Boy Angst

Enjoy!

Megaupload taken down

Just saw this story about the key people behind Megaupload being arrested in New Zealand. I had no idea about the whole story behind Megaupload, and I haven't used much of these sites lately since I got on Spotify, but it's an interesting development in the web piracy debate that we've posted a lot about on the blog.

rare footage surfaces...

More rare than a Sasquatch sighting... videographer Paul Stevenson has recently captured actual footage of the Scoobie Brothers, apparently working on new material in the English countryside.

2012... is it a possible sign of the apocalypse?

Stay tuned, true believers.

dc

I Never Meta Guitar

Get it? It's a pun.

I found this comp, "I Never Meta Guitar" on Spotify... cool collection of solo guitar tracks in the style of those solo Marc Ribot albums (who is conspicuously absent from this line up).

Features Jeff Parker, Nels Cline, Scott Fields, Mick Barr, Elliott Sharp, plus a bunch of guys I never heard of that Bill Zink is probably up on. Also features Rootless' favorite guitarist of all times... Mary Halvorson. Rootless responds: "I find her cold, devoid of emotion and robot-like."

It's worth adding as a Spotify playlist. I'd also like to take this opportunity to say that Spotify is dope, absolute game changer, but it totally does not "have everything", there are lots of holes in the net, and it is not replacing my iTunes library or my vinyl, for that matter. And its search functionality kind of sucks.

dc

Best of the Best ofs

Everyone probably has list fatigue at this point, but I thought I'd post one more. I love the end of the year because all of the end-of the-year lists get me hip to so much cool music I might have over-looked. Here are my top scores from all the lists, including off the blog here:

Sandro Perri, "Impossible Spaces": The review I read said he was along the lines of the Sea & Cake, which was pretty accurate, great songs, really cool album.

The War on Drugs, "Slave Ambient": At fist I listened to this album, and past ones, with curiosity. I'm a big Kurt Vile fan and I was fascinated by how alike these guys sound (I'm aware that KV played in this band for a while), and the Americana (Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, etc.) vibe they have going. Then I was driving the other day and it just clicked and I started just digging these albums for what they are--great music. They're playing Music Hall of Williamsburg on April 6th, just bought tickets.

Shabazz Palaces, "Black Up": One of the dudes from Digable Planets, intergalactic hip hop, one of the few albums in that genre I've been feeling in a while.

Julianna Barwick, "The Magic Place": Sounds like Grouper, which is a good thing.

Zomby, "Dedication": Kind of Burial meets Boards of Canada. Been listening to this a lot.

Julian Lynch, "Terra": The same mellow feel as Sandro Perri, maybe more melancholic, with tasteful horns and bugged-out synth.

Bibio, "Mind Bokeh": Finally checked this out, surprising and interesting.

The Minimal Wave Tapes

This came out like 2 years ago. It was on my radar, I saw it on the wall at record shops, and it definitely caught my eye (how could it not with that cover?! that typeface?!!) but the blurb of weirdo 80's synth music didn't really get me excited.

The short version, I gather, is a label "Minimal Wave" started putting our these reissues in 2005 of obscure, private label 80's synth gems from around the globe. Stones Throw made a comp and released it a few years ago.

When I saw that Stones Throw announced that Vol 2 is on the way I thought I'd see if I could finally check Vol 1 via Spotify. It's there, and it's dope!

I see it kind of like Numero Group is to funk/soul or Iron Leg blog is to psych/garage... extracting gems from the deep deep underground and sharing to the masses. Except here, instead of funk or psych, it's early Depeche Mode-esque "Sprockets" synths and drum machines. And similar to Iron Leg, a lot of it is so bad that it comes full circle and it's awesome. Also reminds me of the "In The Beginning There Was Rhythm" comp on Soul Jazz, if you feel that.

Check it out (if you haven't already) if anything here sets off your Spidey Sense. I've been doing the robot for three days.

dc

The Kronos Quartet

I found an old Kronos Quartet mixtape in the basement.  It was pretty good, so I thought I would share it.  This is fairly light on their minimalist pieces (I wasn't into that at the time), but I think it's an interesting representation.  Listen and enjoy!

2011

Bibio - Mind Bokeh
Monastics - Topography
Clams Casino - Clams Casino
Shlomo - Bad Vibes
Boduf Songs - This Alone Above All Else In Spite Of Everything
Atlas Sound - Parallax
The Scoobie Brothers - The Funkiest Brothers In The Universe
Rothko - Eleven Stages Of Intervention
tune yards - W H O K I L L
Buke & Gass - Riposte
BMSR - Extra Flavor (Dandelion Gum outtakes)
Slugabed - Ultra Heat Treated
Andy Stott - Passed Me By
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
Junip - Fields
Jürgen Müller - Science Of The Sea

check em out!

-ej

2011 Picks

This year I got more into older music than any new stuff that was coming out.  That said, here are my picks for the best stuff that I heard that came out this year.

-When Saints go Machine, Konkylie
These guys do some really interesting voice-as-instrument stuff, paired with really rich synthetic tones that walk a nice line between the abstract and Depeche Mode pop.

-Obits, Moody, Standard, and Poor
Rick Froberg uses blues-rock to tell you how it is.  Yes, it is shitty.

-A Winged Victory for the Sullen, S/T
What would happen if two guys tried to make Millions Now Living Will Never Die after listening to Gorecki's 3rd about a million times.

-Bibio, Mind Bokeh
I imagine that if you replaced the music in all the movie adaptations of Clive Barker novels with something pretty and soothing, this is what it would sound like.

-Junior Boys, It's All True
If we allow ourselves to pretend that George Michael's output dropped off in the '90s not because he was fighting with his label, but because he was hard at work on an only whispered-about masterpiece whose working title was "I Want Your Sex Pt. 3", we can also allow ourselves to pretend that this is the long-awaited fruition of that long endeavor.

-Destroyer, Kaputt
stream of consciousness musing, call a woman's name, drop an f-bomb, repeat.

-Cut Copy, Zonoscope
Men at Work, Paul Simon, others, big bright Australian production.

-Atlas Sound, Parallax
 Yes, of course.

-True Widow, As High As the Highest Heavens and From the Center to the Circumference of the Earth


-College, The Northern Council

Favorite new stuff from 2011

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't been very active here, but i'll really try to do a better job next year!!! Here's a short list of the 2011 records that I liked the most! (in no particular order)

Dakota Suite and Emanuele Errante - The North Green Down
Liro Rantala - Lost Heroes
Francesco Tristano - Idiosynkrasia
Nils Frahm - Felt
Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys
Jd Mc Pherson - Signs and Signifiers
Hauschka - Salon Des Amateurs
Beirut - The Rip Tide
Destroyer - Kaputt
James Blake - James Blake

My 2011 list

Imaginary Softwoods: maybe I heard some of this in 2010 but I finally got Spectrolite via the DC wax-to-digital, which pre-Spotify was pretty cool. This is just some of my favorite stuff, so beautiful, but stays away from the touchy/feelyness of new age. It makes me want to quietly pass away someday listening to this taking in a Huxley/Leary-like dose of psychedelics. I've probably listened to this hundreds of times this year.

King Krule (formerly Zoo Kid): you see a lot of posts on Facebook of music stuff and if you're like me you skip most of it. a guy I don't even know well posted a video of Zoo Kids' "Out Getting Ribs" and I clicked and have become a big fan. Maybe it was the title of the song, which I don't think has anything to do with anything, that got me to click, not sure. It's just a killer song, low-fi, and the guy's got a cool baritone voice dripping with English attitude. I became more of a fan when I started reading about him and found out he's Archy Marshall, 17 year old, tall, pale, skinny ginger kid who is totally unimpressed with rising success, cold chilling in sweatpants at CMJ and just not giving a shit. Not that much already out there from this guy but check out "the Noose of Jah City" and tell me that shit's not great. He's playing Glasslands in Williamsburg on 1/13 and I got a ticket, psyched for that show.

Grouper -- Alien Observer / A I A Dream Loss: I have really liked all of Grouper's music, her ethereal vocals have soothed my insomniac soul (along with copious scotch) on many an evening, but I didn't take to this right away. But after a little while, sure that there was something that I didn't quite get I began to feel this one too, in the same places. I just found (thanks Spotify!) the part two aspect, Dream Loss, to this.

Aglaia: I don't know that much about this, but I think it's two dudes from Italy. I got a few of their albums in 2011 and now have access to several more via Spotify. Another deep ambient trip, veering towards new age, another great one for the late/early hours, listening brings you back to floating in amniotic bliss, unaware yet ecstatic, great music for drifting off or waking up to.

Real Estate--Days: Another I tried the mediafire trick on, didn't work, and I gave up and sort of forget about but then got on Spotify and now I get to like (that sentence made me dizzy, sorry). An album I definitely wouldn't have bought (maybe if it was $5?) but now I'm more a fan of the band and would really like to check them out live. The music reviewers do a good job describing these guys and their blissed-out suburban stoner vibe and those mid-tempo or slow ones are what I'm most into, in fact I got "Kinder Blumen" going right now as I type this.

Kurt Vile: When I first heard "Smoke Ring for my Halo" my reaction wasn't good, it sounded way more slickly produced than his other albums. And I still don't love the whole record, but its got some of my favorite tracks on there--"On Tour" & "Puppet to the Man"--and the KV EPs that either came out this year or that I just checked out this year further solidified this guy as one of my favorite songwriters. On the Square Shells EP the first track "Ocean City" sounds like a throwback, catchy melody almost campy lyrics, and then he fades in this gorgeous wash of ambient sound, and it's classic KV, beautiful, deep but with darkness and irreverence co-mingled just right.

Ryan Adams: I wanna send this out to my main man DC because I know he's a fan. For real though, this guy is one of the most hated dudes around, both for his behavior (which I've personally confirmed through several direct sources is as bad or worse than what I've read about) and his output, which can be uneven. But forget the inconsistency of his work, some people just hate what this dude is about (you know who you are), straight-forward, alt-country stuff, kind of a modern James Taylor at times. Fuck it, dude sometimes writes great songs. I guess he got cleaned up and leaves out in LA and is married to Mandy Moore and he put out his best album since Heartbreaker this year, Ashes & Fire. If you hate him, don't bother. If you've liked some of his earlier work, give it a listen.

The music piracy/industry stuff continues to be fascinating. I already noted my come to Jesus moment with Spotify on the blog, but that's been a huge shift for me, really. I've gone from trying to accumulate music (which I had been doing, sincerely, really for decades) to paying to access it. It's an amazing world where I can use my phone to instantly pull up a band and check out their album right away. There's still lots of rough edges to the way the industry is evolving, how musicians and people who support them (labels, people who do album artwork, etc.) can make a living, but I mostly think it's an amazing time to be making and listening to music.

Happy holidays everyone and thanks for all the music picks and convo this year.

JH.

DC's Favorites of 2011

As originally contemplated in the astute post by Professor Peter a few weeks ago, this really isn't the "Best of 2011" list, it's really the "DC favorite’s of 2011" list.

Here are my #3 picks:



#3: BALAM ACAB. I first posted about the See Birds EP last January (I think?), which was great. After that, he had a song on a Beyonce/L'Oreal commercial, and his full length came out to much brou-ha-ha from Pitchfork, The Fader, and I think mainstream Rolling Stone, etc? It blew up is what I'm saying. I can’t lie, it bugs me that this kid is 17 years old and lives in his moms basement, not jealousy, but it affects how I perceive the music. The product is indisputable, however, the music is great. Epic super mellow chill out.



#2: Peaking Lights, "936". Man, what a fucking awesome album. Great album but (along with the #1 pick below) just totally in my personally sweet spot. Groove-based with beats + weird sounds + lo-fi chick vocals. The “press” called this a “dub” album, and I ain’t mad at that. Top shelf A+++ great album.

#1 spot goes too……… DRUM ROLL.............



Forest Swords! OH DAMN !!!! OH DAMN!!!! Forest Swords wins in a landslide. Stripped down beats (like, one tom tom stripped down), dj elements, atmospeheric vocals, but with spaghetti western guitar on top. Just a solid vibe/concept from beginning to end. Best possible album to listen to driving home out of the city late from band practice with half a buzz going. I haven’t done the analysis, but factoring in listens in the car, this has to be what I listen to most in 2011. Fucking awesome album, if you missed it go check it out. Also, it’s on Olde English Spelling Bee records. Rootless gets MVP award for tipping me off, PROPS.

Biggest music related life changer of 2011: TIE, Sonos and Spotify.

HONORABLE MENTIONS go to:
-Dirty Beaches
-Trouble Books with Mark McGuire (this CD is awesome if you missed it)
-Prince Jammy "Computerised Dub"
-Matthewdavid (a little anonymous but i like ti and it got a lot of play, good background music)
-That new Grouper joint(s)


Happy Holidays, guys. Thanks for all your posts and tipping me off to so much great music.
dc

The War on Drugs

Anyone ever check out this band? I don't know much about them, just quickly checked them out after they made the Pitchfork Top 50 of 2011 list (I will have a list up before the year is out...) and it's cool, kind of the Kurt Vile tip, if you're into KV, sounds like Dylan at times to me too (so does KV come to think of it).

Hark! The Iron Man

Merry holidaze folks!

I dig it!

R.I.P. Césaria Évora

That voice. Oh, that voice...