ALBUM REVIEW: Harmonious bec from Japan’s record Her Strange Dreams is a winner. All the comparisons are true amongst the light sprinkling of traditional instrumentation. Her Strange Dreams is brought to you by Monotreme Records and offer a mix reminiscent of those glorious DJ Shadow record bin finds and that weird techno music present in the sound bed of Lost in Translation (at least in my imagination) for those round eyes that are paying attention. I’m not an expert nor have I ever heard of the duo ZaMaRoo and From Vapor to Water but in this case it does not matter. This is cool shit ethereal music. Not blast you out of your house, car or club techno but more what water would sound like if it had a ambient voice. This is the sound track for that dream soft-core dream taking place in a foreign film. You can’t quite place it actually. This is sexy stuff and strange at times in familiar joy division kind of way. Could be the soundtrack for a Henrik Purienne film for all you know so get inside the kimono and get comfortable.
Mp3 Downloads: Progress by Harmonious bec comes out in November 2010! Sing Me Spanish Techno by The New Pornographers. I’ve always loved this song it’s probably one of their best songs from Twin Cinema. Trying To Make It New track by DJ Shadow ripped from the UK radio
Words do not communicate knowledge in the way they should. Lets all thank Satan there is temptation (music) even if the words don’t make any sense or their melodies paint the ether via soundscapes and the conspiracies that give us cultural relevance come through the audio. The best songs are like the most awesome females at the risk of sound totally misogynistic it’s what you hope to get out of music. You know getting some feeling? Creating some sort of vision from that high that we could not see without hearing or tasting. This sensation would not be possible without some muse or soundtrack. The few bands do a good job of the above over and over again without risking being mundane or boring. Please fuel your libido below.
Dark Mix for dark moods: Barricade by Interpol (new!) from their self titled record. A review is coming but for now enjoy a single. This band borrows and twists what the bands below started years ago. [Buy] New Face In Hell by The Fall from Grotesque (After the Gramme)(1980) album art was drawn by Mark E. Smith’s sister, Suzanne and album title was taken a from a film that was later renamed. [Buy] European Female by The Stranglers from the album Feline(1982). Always a weird mix of pop and keywords mixed with your darkness. [Buy] I Saw an X-Ray of a Girl Passing Gas by Butthole Surfers from Hairway to Steven (1988) Should be the album you listen to in order to perform that acid test you wanted to venture on. Just make sure you have a tripmaster. [Buy] Do It Clean by Echo & The Bunnymen of their debut Crocodiles (1980) and probably one of the most brilliant songs ever that I still have no clue what it’s about. [Buy]
Right before The Pixies fall tour begins you can catch Mr. Frank Black Francis play live. He has more twists to his personality one would argue than a unrelenting vine, this is clear, the man behind the black sunglasses is more than just the music. A working artist for sure, always making something trying new things borrowing genres and key changes. Sure you met him in The Pixies but do you know him? Pan forward to 2010 it’s been 17 years since they disbanded and he started writing songs about aliens, Ghosts and Pittsburgh. Quite a long time to build, remix and rebuild a whole body of work since anybody could be proud of. Sometime close to what the Pixies did other times just a live 2 track recording. It’s all good and always worth checking to see what he’s up. Who he has roped into to the jam in the tradition of blues masters and the likes of Lou Reed and David Bowie.
Back in the day I played bass in this little loud indie rock band from New Brunswick, NJ called Bubblegum Thunder. Above is photo of Albini’s basement where we recorded a record and a 7″ to acetate Ampex 24 track tape. I remember looking at the plans for a interface schematic for Electrical Audio with Bob Weston and thinking these guys are total fucking geeks. Catch Shellac live At Bell House in Brooklyn, Tues Sept 7th which is freaking sold out. Somebody please get me on the guest list for crying out loud. Thank you!
Shellac Digital downloads even though Steve hates them: Prayer to God from 1,000 Hurts The Admiral from At Action Park Disgrace Terraform Holiday in Sun (Sec Pistols Cover) w/ David Yow Halloween @ The Lounge Ax
All of which I nerdly own on vinyl. Always funny when the blank CD with no artwork would roll-out of packaging and I’m like WTF? I’d think if the record had a baby it would at least be a flexi-disc.
Lots of great bands playing the Union Country Music Festival this year in 2010. Nice mix of headliners like Spoon and supporting bands playing the stages like: The Zombies, Ok Go!, Jesse Malin, Soul Asylum, Suzanne Vega with bands starting Weds Sept 8th through Sunday Sept 12th. Oh did I mention the entertainments is FREE!? Another reason why Jersey is becoming cooler every year. Not that you had to tell me that but just in case you want to road trip it for the day. The fest usually has decent vendor provided food and recently has added a beer garden and lots of stuff for the kids to do. So great reason to burn in the sun in Oak Ridge Park, in Clark NJ.
Track a couple tracks from the bands that are playing: Queen Of The Underworld by Jesse Malin. This is a older track from the glam punker you might know jesse from D Generation days. Matured into something influenced by The Rolling Stones and cleaner P.Westerberg jams. The Way We Get by from Spoon’s awesome Kill the Moonlight album. If you get anything before their new one Transference get that one then back-fill. All great records.
The Zombies live on the BBC 1965-66: I found these live radio tracks a year or so ago out in the blogosphere so enjoy them. The songs have little radio bits with the band being interviewed and telling funny little stories about young fan girls chasing them down in hotels. Remember this was on the eve of Beatlemania. They could have been bigger than Ringo, John, Paul and George. I Must Move Just out of reach When Ever You’re Ready Will you love me tomorrow? Sitting In The Park (1966)
Hey if you like your punk rock oldschool with out the gutter dirt-bag element and plenty of cussing you should check out T.V. Tramps. Lots of avengers-Bags-stiv bators, Deadboys, etc like attitude. Singer Joy Vay, Baby Zee Matt “The Gooz”- on drums, Brian Sugent(The Blisters) on old-old guitars and Claude Coleman, Jr. the “ace of bass” all bring it and own to wear. This is brand new classic punk. Get your mo-hawk dyed and your leather dry cleaned. Enjoy them on Facebook.
T.V. Tramp shows: 9/14/10 8:30PM La Poisson Rouge NY 10/1/10 9:00PM The Brighton Bar, Long Branch NJ
I’m a big fan of Tom Scharpling; who not only hosts the best show on earth, he is also screen writer in “real life”. (Isn’t everybody?). He’s a comedic spinster and spends most of his radio show hanging up on people and letting the Howard-esque one’s hang on for the fun if you are not conversationalist you are toast. Something sycophantic about it all but somehow super under-indie ground Ted Leo (also frequent guest of the show) put a cast of characters together and debuted his song Bottled in Corks on Funny or Die;s video channel. Here is a totally tongue and cheek and self referential uber cheese rock video. the song is classic Ted Leo.
Direct from Julien Temple’s movie The Future is Unwritten a great bit from Joe Strummer (RIP 1952-2002)when he’s waxing philosophic, he says “without people, you are nothing”. What I think Joe was driving at is we live in a insulated society and we need to pay attention to those around us to make our and their lives richer. Still to this day with dominance of office culture in our social networks this fact is even more true. Your head is down trudging along to the next email. In a recent interview, with my now friend Jack Rabid (for a project I’m doing), who had the pleasure of buying Mr. Strummer a beer when he interviewed him for his magazine The Big Takeover. I saw this intensity for people in Jack’s eyes and in how hiss a passion for the people who make music, and in the things he said, and in particular when he recalled said interview. I won’t be the spoiler until it’s released on Create or Else just yet. but somehow the vibe was transferred to guys like Jack and between the sub-text and fascination with culture and class that The Clash and Joe cared about so much. The notion that you can affect the future even if it is one soul at time is pretty great. Here are few tracks that if anything will enrich your day but for a moment every time you listen to them or they randomly come up on your ipod. They do for me anyways. Enjoy.
ALBUM REVIEW: Tame Impala’s InnerSpeaker is a jam band like no other in love with guitar effects, rubber soul and the mysterious retro parts of the Flaming Lips. Ok maybe they are more Pink Floyd but the thing is with the distortion and big drums things get like an ocean engulfed by pixies on the top with these spacey vocals that just make this album work. Right see key is here I said album. All of these tracks are woven together with guitars to create a great soundscape for that old black velvet 70’s nude psychedelic poster you have.
ONLY US SHOWS: Even 30 years ago New Model Army has always been a band way ahead of their time. Always political in nature to the point of keeping them out of US according to Wiki. If I had to batch them together you could say they were a mash up of The Cult when they go acoustic or solo, Killing Joke (when they light torches) and Jesus and Mary Chain because of the leather except they played with large rusty axes and played fast with lots of chicks dressed in animal skins (imagination runs wild). Fronted by Justin Sullivan a underworld cult hero and leading their 12th band release last year Today is a good Day is as fresh as it was back in 1986 and could give all the bands on relapse a wake-up call that there can be more depth to the thrash metal genre -something they invented in my humble opinion and are still taking it to the next level in the vain of Neurosis. When I first heard their music many presidents ago it hit me that the bass could be distorted way beyond anything Geddy Lee could pull off. The newer material is big rock in a big way and still good. Once you test drive the mp3s below go find The Ghost Of Cain release. Happy hunting.
They are coming to rip-up up the pavement: Friday September 3 & September 4, 2010 – Brooklyn, NY @ Bell House 149 7th St., Brooklyn, NY 11215 (718) 643-6510; www.thebellhouseny.com
Recent Comments