August 31, 2011

Juned >> Would you wait for me?

Juned - "Kyuss"
(Up Records, 1995)

Juned was an all-girl quartet from Washington, active only from about 1993 to about 1996.  They put out two LPs on Up Records, a subsidiary of indie behemoth Sub Pop.  Their name, pronounced "Joon'd" (one syllable), is skateboarder slang for learning a lesson from being fucked over.  Their second album, Every Night For You, is in my opinion the greatest album ever put out by an all-female band, and nothing else comes even remotely close.  I immediately ordered this CD after hearing their stunning song "Titanic" on an incredible 4-band promo 7" that Up put out the previous year.  ("Titanic" will be posted on here someday.)  The other three bands on it were Modest Mouse, The Pastels, and 764-HERO.  I received the CD in early January 1997, put this song on, and my jaw just about went through the floor at the genius evinced by this, the opening track.


I can say that it is one of the most life-changing songs I've ever heard, from the stirring opening guitar notes to the thunderous drum intro, to the opening "Going faster, my time" lyric, to just every miniscule detail of it, man... to the very last note.  Every note of this song has an urgent purity which most bands would kill for.  Every note of this song is necessary for world peace and for understanding of the cosmos.  Even the guitar solo (from 2:09 to 3:07) massacres anything by Slash or that satanic guy from Led Zeppelin.  The 3:08 mark is crucial because the guitars suddenly end their duel by hitting matching resonant notes one octave apart, and a mini post-punk bass part kicks in.  And then when the rhythm guitar comes back in with venomous, distorted power chords at the 3:15 mark, it knocks your socks off once more.  The vocals after this point are sung slightly higher and more desperately than in the beginning of the song, leading to the final climax of emotion: "And I couldn't bring you along / Would you wait for me?"  It's presumably the most staggeringly amazing final minute of any song, ever.

Elegant back cover of LP

I remember that this was the second most-played song on my 2002-2008 Mac's iTunes, trailing only "Until You're Forever" by The Veldt.  Part of Juned's power was the fact that all four members sang in some capacity, though they had two main lead singers, Dale Balenseifen and Claudia Groom.  To this day, I still have no idea which of them sang lead on this song, which drives me crazy.  As for the song title, in fall of 1994 Juned and Kyuss went on tour as the opening acts for Dinosaur Jr., so I guess all three bands became good pals.  In fact, Juned's bassist Leslie Hardy briefly married Dino Jr.'s bassist Mike "I'm Not Lou Barlow" Johnson.  Those crazy bassists!  I WANTED TO GO TO THIS SHOW IN NEW ORLEANS, mainly b/c Dino had an MTV hit at the time with "Feel The Pain", but I was only 17.  Anyway, Kyuss is fucking lame, and Josh Homme is a douche, so I'm always ticked off that Juned named such an amazing song after them.  What the hell is a kyuss anyway?  I guess the name refers to the '70s dueling-guitar / arena-ready aspect of the song, e.g. the same '70s territory mined so clumsily by Kyuss.  "Sisters Of The Red Sun" is a long, instrumental psychedelic (sorry, "post-rock") tour de force that is overtly inspired by Jimi Hendrix's lengthy space-fest "Third Stone From The Sun."  Remember, Jimi was from Seattle and is a huge hero to most bands up there.  Juned had already broken up by the time this album was released in early '96.

Clockwise from left: bassist Leslie Hardy, drummer Lenny Rennalls,
singer / guitarist Dale Balenseifen, singer / guitarist Claudia Groom
Dale's Facebook photo, making the same exact face as in the above photo, but with heart-shaped cleavage(?) in place of fur! 

I had an Every Night For You promo poster (as well as a promo poster for their self-titled debut album) on my diagonal attic ceiling from '97 to '05, despite its comically-Photoshopped stars.  You can see the self-titled album poster in this little clip I shot on 3/26/04:


Juned's bassist went on to join the incredibly mediocre bands Love As Laughter and Murder City Devils.  I saw LAL at a dive bar called the Hi-Ho Lounge in July '98, and I wanted to say something to her about how Juned changed my life, but I chickened out, even though she's about 5 feet tall, so I just walked right by her on my way to the bathroom.  I even remember that I wore my Unwound shirt to that show to try to impress her with my knowledge of Seattle / Olympia bands, ha.  (My white one; I now have that white one and about 4 black ones.)

As for Kill Sybil, I have two 7"s by them, but I've never gotten their full-length.  (One of their 7"s is a split with Cher, no joke.)  This is the part where I physically restrain myself from going off on the one all-female band that received all the acclaim during the '90s and beyond, while Juned remain almost totally unknown.  Yes, it's Sleater-Kinney to whom I refer, they of "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone" fame and ear-rupturing vocal stylings.  The band with effortlessly catchy choruses, angelic vocal harmonizing, and accessibly melodic riffage gets ignored, while the one with primitive uh, everything, become stars.  I guess S-K's more masculine sound appealed to male rock critics and zine writers, while Juned's more feminine, shoegaze-influenced quiet storm would've made them superstars in England in the late '80s / early '90s (especially the Sundays-esque "Hearts To Bleed"), but was totally out of fashion in the boorish mid-'90s U.S., a nation which actually gave the Melvins and Butthole Surfers major-label recording contracts.
Fun Fact: Juned's song "Groovin' On You" was on the soundtrack to the 1996 flick Grace Of My Heart, but was allegedly not used in the actual movie.

May 1996 issue of Lollipop magazine w/ an article on Juned

Or you can ignore all the ravings I've just issued and listen to what an iTunes reviewer named die die my love had to say in 2007, in proto-Twitter form:
"there a graet band that all"

Planets with similar climates: Bleach - "Seeing" & "Push" (1991), Lush - "Sweetness And Light" (1990), Swervedriver - "Blowin' Cool" (1993), blueScreen - "Anon" (2002), Concrete Blonde - "Dance Along The Edge" (1986), Kill Laura - "False Dawn" (1994), The Emerald Down - "Stars" (2001), Earwig - "Everything's Just Fine" (1991), National Skyline - "Reinkiller" (2001), Ride - "Here And Now" (1990).


Worst thing I had to do today: Cut down my 10 foot tall Celeste fig tree after learning it has a fatal and very contagious fungus called ganoderma.


Worst thing I learned yesterday: "Pilots use automated systems to fly airliners for all but about three minutes of a flight: the takeoff and the landing." - From an article called Are airline pilots forgetting how to fly?

August 28, 2011

The Emerald Down >> Heavier than heaven

The Emerald Down - "Heavier Than Ether, Lighter Than Air"
(POPsound Records, 2001)

I already told you about this band in one of the very first posts on this blog, so go back and read it by clicking the tag "the emerald down" at the bottom of this post, or find it by any number of other ways.  This is the song that got me into TED back in '02 or '03, and it's from their only full album, Scream The Sound.  I've been badgering people to check out this song for so many years that it's nice to finally post it here and be done with it.  Rebecca's vocals are just otherworldly, but I can't make out a single word she's saying, even while using the "Vocal Booster" EQ setting on my iTunes player.  Hopefully the CD has a lyric sheet, but I just have it on mp3's, which I obtained this very year.  I kinda like the concept of wordless vocals, though, e.g. Sigur Ros, early Cocteau Twins, etc.  (Update, 8/29/11: While drinking a swig of orange juice in the other room, I figured out that starting at the 1:05 mark, she says the song's title.  It only took me about 100 listens to figure this out.)  This song's brevity is its only downside, so someone out there needs to get an extended mix together, and I shall post it on here with much fanfare.  Since it has such an ominously delicious bassline, I used part of the song title in a list I made of my favorite basslines: Heavier Than Ether, Serious As A Heart Attack.  High-quality speakers, preferably including a subwoofer, are a must when listening to all songs on Blowtorch Baby.


The slow, stalkerish tempo of the song is so freaky and nerve-wracking.  Seriously, this deserves to be the theme song for some low-budget neo-noir flick.  Few songs have ever been as aptly-named as this one, and rarely has a music video been as minimalistic or as fitting as this one:


According to the band's MySpace, "The album was released on September 11th, 2001 - not the best day for a CD release!"  Then it was apparently reissued in 2003 with slightly different cover art, but I'm not sure.  All I know is I've seen two different covers, and I've seen this album assigned the release date 2001 and also 2003.  Here are the two cover designs I've found:

Apparently the original 2001 cover
The 2003 cover?

The two other awesome songs on this album are "Recondite Astral Traveler" (with the most amazingly sensual, extraterrestrial guitar textures ever) and the aggressive, jagged "Perilized."  Most of the other songs are very similar to Slowdive, for better or for worse; mainly for the better, if you ask me.  The disc was recorded and mixed at Engine Studios in Chicago in a mere four days.  As far as live shows, they opened for other Pacific NW bands like Unwound, Hovercraft, and The Posies before and/or after moving from Washington to Ohio.  The Hovercraft influence is prominent in "Heavier"'s intergalactic ambient guitar.
Their bassist was definitely their secret weapon, and their guitarist(s) pretty much stayed out of the bassist's way by playing high, trebly feedback/noise (sort of mimicking the singer's super-high voice).  The band broke up in 2003 (according to a post on their MySpace in 2005), and their other website, www.theemeralddown.com, is mothballed.

Undated live photo from their MySpace page, showing only Chad Williamson & Rebecca Basye.
Possibly from the same practice room gig as the "Recondite Astral Traveler" link I gave above.

They're probably in my U.S. shoegaze top 5, with Colfax Abbey, Stella Luna, Hum, For Against, and I forgot the others.  Maybe Tamaryn will make it someday?

Fun Quiz: Did this song invent chillwave?  Y/N

Cacti I bought yesterday in Gonzales on a cloudless 96º afternoon:
Mammilloydia candida
Mammillaria haageana subsp. elegans
Parodia werneri (a.k.a. Notocactus uebelmannianus) (already had 1)
Parodia magnifica (a.k.a. Notocactus magnificus) (already had 2)
Mammillaria hahniana (already had 1)

Planets with similar climates: ILYA - "Isola" (2002), Slowdive - "Losing Today" & "Albatross" (1991), Juned - "Titanic" (1995), My Bloody Valentine - "To Here Knows When" (1991), Tagging Satellites - "Five Star Memory" (2000), Ciccone Youth - "G-Force" & "Platoon II" (~1988).

August 26, 2011

Earwig >> Everything just blinds me

Earwig - "Everything's Just Fine"
(La-Di-Da Productions, 1991)

This is from Earwig's EP called Might, which is a pretty cool word when you think of the two totally different meanings of it, one of them denoting power and the other indecision.  The contrast between Kirsty Yates' catatonic vocals and the tumultuous, bombastic backing music is just brilliant, IMO, and has a disorienting effect on the listener's brain.  In fact, a great downtempo / trip-hop remix of this song could easily be made by just taking out the guitar and adding some atmospheric synth.


I believe the song is about domestic violence, but I'm not sure.  Might was released only on 12", but all four of its tracks were included in the band's compilation CD called Past, which came out the following year; that's where I got this song.  Yes, British bands of this era & ilk loved to use one-word titles for their albums / EPs, preferably with four or five letters.  The other awesome song on Might is "Driving You Mad, Slowly," which has a great video that I just recently discovered:


Other music videos that feature cars being smashed with blunt implements:
Depeche Mode - "Stripped"
Failure - "Undone"
Surely there are more, so let me know of any. 

I would say Might is one of the key releases of its time and place, but it's almost totally unknown.  If it had been released on Creation, 4AD, Matador, etc., it'd probably be talked about extensively as a landmark of the scene.  Not long after this, Earwig shed their drummer and changed their insect-y name to the much better Insides, and changed their sound dramatically, to an insular, downtempo, electronic throb, but more on that later.  I only found out about Earwig after falling in love with Insides two years ago.

CDs currently in my car:
Lowercase - The Going Away Present
A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
Puro Instinct - Headbangers In Ecstasy
Warpaint - Exquisite Corpse
Various Artists - Excursions In Ambience: The Third Dimension
A.R. Kane - Americana
Philip Aaberg - Out Of The Frame
Suzanne Vega - Suzanne Vega
The Drop - The New Horror Guidelines
Bauhaus - Press The Eject And Give Me The Tape (CD-R)
The Police - Every Breath You Take: The Classics
(Rahsaan) Roland Kirk - Rip, Rig, And Panic / Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith

Planets with similar climates: Sonic Youth - "Wish Fulfillment" (1992), Bleach - "First" (1991), Helium - "Hole In The Ground" (1993), Band Of Susans - "Hell Bent" (1994), Editors - "Lights" (2005).


Most bizarre thing that I read today: Man Gets Eye Replaced With Video Camera

Most horrifying non-Hurricane-Irene-related headline of the day: Neutral Milk Hotel To Release Box Set

August 25, 2011

Zombi >> It's never sunny in Pittsburgh

Zombi - "Challenger Deep"
(Relapse Records, 2005)

This is the barnstorming first song on Pittsburgh duo Zombi's album Surface To Air.  The whole album is an unquestioned masterpiece of the genre, particularly "Digitalis," the title track, and 18-minute closing epic "Night Rhythms," which is basically the "Djed" (Tortoise, 1996) of this past decade.  "Challenger Deep" is definitely more aggressive and "rock" than Zombi's overall sound, with a titanic bassline that has been enhanced by performance-enhancing drugs.



I have not been to every weightroom in the country, but I have to wonder aloud, "Why is this not the most-played album in weightrooms across the country?"  Most of Zombi's tracks (remember, I don't use "songs" to refer to instrumental compositions, since "song" implies singing) are prominently based on synths, with occasional galloping drums providing the gravitas, but mostly keeping in a controlled, almost New Age / Phaedra vein that sounds straight out of Berlin in the mid-'70s.  For example, the aforementioned "Night Rhythms":


The production of the album, done by band members A.E. Paterra and Steve Moore themselves, is phenomenal, almost 3-D.  It could even be the best-produced album I've ever heard.  In keeping with the band's epic tendencies, the CD booklet is one of the thickest I've ever seen, packed with dazzling full-color satellite photos of land formations.

Back cover
Keep in mind that this band had its name before the whole ludicrous infestation of zombie / vampire / werewolf chic that has happened in recent years, to the point where any lonely dip can walk into a drugstore and buy a romance novel whose plot involves a lonely housewife being seduced by a vampire or nonhuman entity of some sort.  (Pers. observation; CVS drugstore, 8/20/11.)  I bought this CD in early 2007; I think I missed Zombi live once circa that year, but I'm not sure.

Tremendous 2004 press photo taken in a mausoleum; L-R: A.E. Paterra, Steve Moore. (Photo by Shawn Brackbill.)


Some capsule reviews:
The driftwood at the Rivertown pier in Kenner: A huge pile of it, a couple of city blocks long.  I got a great piece on which to mount my staghorn fern which I've owned for 13 years.  Few good board-esque pieces remain, so you'll only want to go if you need long pointy pieces.
Those white oval stickers with abbreviations in them, for the backs of cars: Still not good.  My mom just added a "VH" one to her Tahoe, denoting the island of Vinalhaven in Maine, making her look like a Van Halen fan to 99.9% of the world.
Jay-Z: Still douching it up, referring to his wife Beyoncé "my bitch" on his new collabo album with the even douchier Kanye West.  On a related note, Amber Rose looks better and better with each dis lyric Kanye writes about her.
Breakfast for dinner: Along with TV dinners, the Nestlé's theme song, and Fruit Wrinkles, one of my favorite food trends of the '80s.  Am trying to help it make a comeback, but for some reason, people still seem to want to eat dinner for dinner.

Planets with similar climates: Trans Am - "Trans Am" (1995) & "Television Eyes" (1999), Simple Minds - "Theme For Great Cities" (1981), Deadsy - "The Key To Gramercy Park" (2001), Six Finger Satellite - "Race Against Space" (1998), Rush - "Tom Sawyer" (1981), Quicksand - "Baphomet" (1992), Faith No More - "Kindergarten" (1992).

Southpacific >> New cold dream

Southpacific - "Analogue 9"
(Turnbuckle Records, 1999)

I got this CD in a pretty strange way.  I had written to upstart indie rock label Turnbuckle Records in spring of '97 after learning that one of my favorite bands, Bailter Space, had signed to them after being dropped by Matador Recs.  They sent me a free copy of B-Space's new 7" and also a free B-Space shirt, because they were late in shipping their new album, Capsul, to me.  Cool label.  One day in early 2000, their online mailing list had a quiz made up of three softball questions about Bailter Space.  The first person to respond correctly would receive a copy of the new album Constance by Southpacific.  Well, I won it (I knew two of the answers, but sheepishly had to look up the other one online), and they sent me the CD and a bunch of promo postcards for it, and I was pretty much blown away by it, and it became the soundtrack to that summer for me.  I like the irony of a Canadian band naming itself after a balmy tropical locale.




Both of SoPac's albums got glowing reviews in the Canadian music press, and from a lot of U.S. scribes as well.  AllMusic Guide curiously said "Southpacific's songs are cacophonous photographs taken from the window from a falling 747."  Amazon staffer Matthew Cooke (yes, Amazon is one of the few online music sellers to have its own music writers who pen reviews, and not simply license reviews from AllMusic) said "All instrumental except for one song (and even then, the vocals are barely there at all), Southpacific's debut record is a slow-motion feedback loop, with shoegazer guitars swirling around whispery, half-suggested harmonies. Hypnotizing and noisily repetitive, the sound bears a resemblance to My Bloody Valentine's Loveless-era, fuzzbox-overload approach, but there's a quieter energy at the heart of these songs. While flirting with the fringes of glum, lonely-guy rock, the band's music still has its head too high in the clouds to be morose or 'sadcore' in the vein of Codeine or emotionally naked like Red House Painters. Short pearls of bright melodic snippets ('Alamo') mix with sleepy and repetitive dirges ('E10 @ 182'), all wrapped up in a sense of vastness, like the ocean of the band's namesake."  CMJ (1/31/00) described the album as "an evocative blur of shadowy streaks that coast over steady, deliberate percussion....outstandingly played, smart...and downright spectral in grandeur."


Though guitar is definitely what most people think of when this band comes to mind, the absurdly great basslines are what grab me.  The production levels are incredibly high, despite being self-produced (by SoPac drummer / sampler / guitarist Graeme Fleming).


From Toothpaste For Dinner

The band broke up not long after this album came out; the online label Orchard later picked it up and has continued to make it available online in mp3 form.  The album has attained a deservedly-big cult following among shoegaze / post-rock fans.  I have personally gotten at least a dozen people into this band / album, so I like to think that despite cheating a little bit to win this CD, I have "paid it forward" many times over.

The title of this post is a pun on the title of the album New Gold Dream by Simple Minds.  I saw this phrase in an old issue of NME or Melody Maker as the title of an article about Curve (or possibly some other band, but come on, it perfectly describes Curve), and I just knew I had to recycle it someday, and that day has now come.

About ten years ago I read about a slender tome called Warm Voices Rearranged, comprised of record reviews that are anagrams of the letters contained in the artist name + album name.  I have still not tracked down the book, despite having it on my eBay automatic alerts for all those years, which I guess means that a very small amount of copies have been sold, or that it's so good that no one wants to part with it.  Here are my favorite new ones (ones not included in the book) from their new blog:


Butthole Surfers - Independent Worm Saloon
SW bores emit another dud LP. No neurons left!


Yes - Tales From Topographic Oceans
These cosmic oafs play ornate prog.

Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
Black men complain noisily about the USA. No folk ditties!

GG Allin And The Murder Junkies - Brutality And Bloodshed For All
I'll rally at drug den, shoot junk and die right before album lands.

Nurse With Wound - Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table Of A Sewing Machine And An Umbrella
A chic English noise band's inane debut, named for Lautréamont. [Wincing] Ew, what a glum scene!

Carcass - Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious
An imbecilic grindcore act scans its thesaurus, son!

The Rolling Stones - England's Newest Hit Makers
The white-skin men sell translated Negro songs.

John Lennon And Yoko Ono - Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With The Lions
"Any hit on it, Johnnie?"
"No."
"Music?"
"No."
"Skill?"
"No."
"Oho, flesh? Nude 2nd wife?!"
"No."

Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures
Ian's joyless vow: "I die, punks. No urn!"

Incredible String Band - Wee Tam And The Big Huge
Acidheads bring enlightenment. Dig, but beware!

Radiohead - The King Of Limbs
Kid A methods fail. Boring, eh?
(Submitted by the otherwise despicable Mark Prindle)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
Sulky hipsters play one-note instrumental feedback dirges, noon-five. Okay?

And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Source Tags And Codes
Sonic Youth soundalikes wowed retarded fanboys. All dug act!
(Alternative anagram: Atonal Austinites' rock drones fully awed dowdy douchebags.)

The Doors - Waiting For The Sun
Oh, four stoned twits are nigh!

Their Fiona Apple one is sure to become legendary.  Hopefully they'll come up with a good one for my submission: P.M. Dawn - Of The Heart, Of The Soul And Of The Cross: The Utopian Experience.


Planets with similar climates: Tristeza - "Building Peaks" (2000), Tortoise - "Glass Museum" (1996), Swervedriver - "Never Learn" (1992), Slowdive - "Morningrise" (1990), Poem Rocket - "Contrail de l'avion" (1994), Simple Minds - "Shake Off The Ghosts" / "A Brass Band In African Chimes" (1984).

Best abysmal video found this week:


"The running of the Porta Potties at Preakness 2008"

August 19, 2011

Seefeel >> I can see you feel climactic

Seefeel - "Come Alive"
(Too Pure Records, 1993 / Astralwerks Records, 1994)
+
Seefeel - "Come Alive (Climactic Phase #1)"
(Volume, 1993 / Too Pure Records, 2007)

London-based Seefeel evolved into Scala in the mid-'90s; if you missed my Scala post from a few months ago (the song "Hold Me Down"), then you really have no one to blame but yourself.  Go check it out.
I was planning for months to post the dubby, hypnotic title track from the More Like Space EP, and in fact that song is one of the reasons I began this blog.  But I decided this song from the same EP is more immediate and just as compelling.  The dense, claustrophobic production style of this song somehow reminds me of the style used by The Bomb Squad, e.g. on Public Enemy's "Brothers Gonna Work It Out."  The punishing bassline and industrial-style drumbeats (I'm not sure if those are real or fake drums) take this song into uncharted waters, genre-wise.  It turns out that a wall of multi-tracked flutes can sound pretty eerie.  At about the 2:45 mark, the beat settles into a nice simulated lock-groove thing for about a minute, lulling you into a bit of a trance.  Then at about the 3:45 mark, the drums sort of run off of their tracks and go all free-jazz for a while, and then the last minute is all ambient and liquid-y.  I wish the spoken-style vocals were louder in the mix, so I could hear what singer Sarah Peacock is saying.  I'm quite sure that she says "I can see you" at the 1:51 mark.  I believe this exact mp3 was taken from the 1994 compilation of Seefeel's early tracks, called Polyfusia, which was designed to introduce the band to U.S. listeners concurrent with the belated stateside release of their debut album Quique.

"Come Alive"

An awesomely spacey, disorienting instrumental remix of this song called "Come Alive (Climactic Phase #1)" appeared on the 2007 "Redux Edition" reissue of Quique.

"Come Alive (Climactic Phase #1)"

This song was originally released in 1993 on a compilation called Volume Seven.  It was that bimonthly(?) compilation series that came with a nearly 200-page glossy CD-sixed book and always had a bizarrely charismatic species of fish on the cover.  It's hard to explain what the Volume series was, but this page has info & pics about installment #7.  (Note that Sub Sub had not yet turned into Doves, The Verve still lacked a "The," and Radiohead had yet to transform from a mediocre rock band into a mediocre techno-rock band.)

I first heard Seefeel via a track called "Charlotte's Mouth (Avant Garde Mix)" in 1999, and then I took a chance on buying Quique on cassette for a dollar the following year.  It became a roadtrip favorite in my Acura Integra (R.I.P.).  Seefeel reformed with only two original members a few years ago and put out a mediocre album, but at least it helped to stir up a lot of attention for the band's earlier works, which are finally reaching classic status.

That's a time-lapse photo of a moonset in Rio, taken in April 2011 by Babak Tafreshi; click on the photo for lots of info on it.  He's the founder of The World At Night, which describes itself as "a program to produce and present a collection of stunning photographs and time-lapse videos of the world’s landmarks against the celestial attractions."  I found it at NASA's Astronomy Picture Of The Day site.

Planets with similar climates: Curve - "Blindfold" & "Galaxy" (1991), Slowdive - "Missing You" (1993), Bailter Space - "Get Lost" (1992), Scala - "Naked" (1995), My Bloody Valentine - "Soon" (1990), Bleach - "Fragment (1992).

August 18, 2011

Soul Whirling Somewhere >> When will you make up your mind?

Soul Whirling Somewhere - "Every Female Werewolf Ever, Listed Alphabetically By Crime"
(Projekt Records, 1997)

Soul Whirling Somewhere was the musical vehicle of a guy from Arizona named Michael Plaster.  He released four albums on goofy goth label Projekt Records.  This song is from the EP Pyewackit.  The name refers to his pet mouse that died, and the EP is dedicated to this mouse; that's also presumably it on the cover.  Not the most gothy thing ever done, to be sure, but it took some amount of balls, I guess.  As for the name of this song, its origin is anyone's guess.  The defeatist lyrics and Red House Painters worship are pretty overt on SWS's somewhat unintentionally humorous debut (double CD) album, Eating The Sea, which I bought in '08 and listened to only once.  I bought this EP a few years before that.


If you like the little synth drone that comes in at the 2:38 mark of this song, you must hear the truly stunning ambient piece called "God In Heaven" that closes this EP, since it's built off of that same synth sound.  It's 11 minutes of perfection, and probably the best pure ambient song I've ever heard, truly an out of body experience for the inner mind.  I wish he had done many albums of ambient music rather than just one track.

No, not Trent Reznor... It's Michael Plaster, still shoegazing in 2006


Best headline of the week: Juggalos Boo, Pelt Charlie Sheen

I guess America is finally getting fed up with douchebags?  If so, this is a good development.

Best abysmal YouTube video found this week:

"The Rock electrifies Lilian with the People's Strudel"


Planets with similar climates: Red House Painters - "Drop" (1994), Slowdive - "So Tired" (1992), Glide - "Worlds Away" (1992), Verve - "On Your Own" (1995), Long Fin Killie - "Valentino" (1996).

August 14, 2011

Christian Scott >> Fear the whisper

Christian Scott - "Litany Against Fear"
(Concord Records, 2007)

Here's another track from my piano-favsies list.  It's the epic opening track to trumpeter Christian Scott's 2007 album Anthem.  (His 2006 album Rewind That also had an epic opening track, which I will post in the future.)  He's been on my radar for many years now, but I've only seen him live once, at Jazz Fest in 2010, where he was in the lead role in a tribute to Miles Davis called Tutu Revisited, accompanied by Marcus Miller and an all-star band.  It was the only reason I went that day, and yeah, it was pretty awesome.  (Update, 8/16/11: In response to the comment this post received about NOLA shunning C. Scott, I will point out that I have never seen any musician receive as many ovations, or ovations of such volume/fervor, as Scott got during that Jazz Fest '10 performance.  And it was even more impressive considering Marcus Miller was technically the headline artist of that group.)  Aside from that, he essentially never plays live here.  I have no idea why he has shunned his hometown so blatantly.  Can you at least give us an explanation, Christian?  In the meantime, I'll just be over here having my soul stirred by whatever the first song on your latest album is.


All About Jazz said:
"Anything but predictable, Anthem opens with Scott's dramatic "Litany Against Fear." The track takes on the characteristics of a Sunday sermon, starting off with penetratingly introspective blue notes, rising to rebellious anger, and then ending with a moment of peaceful resolution. The percussive playing of pianist Aaron Parks, the muscular sound of drummer Marcus Gilmore, the resonant bass lines of Esperanza Spaulding* [sic], and the explosive riffs of guitarist Matt Stevens blend masterfully with Scott's brooding lyricism.
Very much like his idol, Miles Davis, Scott has a very laidback style, but as is the case with so many players from New Orleans, he definitely possesses the ability to swing."


*Yes, the Esperanza Spalding, surprise winner of Best New Artist at this year's Grammys, the first-ever jazzbo to win it.
To understand how Scott gets those cool hushed tones on his trumpet, arguably even cooler and more hushed than those of, say, Miles Davis or Chet Baker, read this paragraph about his "whisper technique".

April 2010 issue.  I saw him this very month, and I would've bought this ish(ue) if I had known about it at the time.

Speaking of trumpeters with cool, hushed tones, I mentioned getting a Chet Davis CD retrospective last month.  Here's the luridly effective opening page from the essay section of the booklet:


Hopefully Scott won't go down the road to drugs / ruin / mediocrity the way Chet and Miles did soon after their primes.  Maybe that's one of the reasons why he ditched NOLA in the first place?

A photo I took today of my Agave bracteosa (Squid Agave), which I've had for about 5 years, meaning it's about 7 years old:


It's in a 12" diameter pot.  This species is one of the few agaves (tequila plants) without vicious spines, and it's allegedly hardy down to 10º F, making it one of the hardiest agaves, hence everybody should own one.  It looks very wimpy, but the leaves are actually leathery and tough.

Planets with similar climates: Stanley Clarke - "Black On Black Crime" (from Boyz N The Hood), John Coltrane Quartet - "Wise One" (1964), Isotope 217 - "Beneath The Undertow" (2007), David S. Ware - "Aquarian Sound" (1992).

Michael Krassner >> Use your Aleutians

Michael Krassner - "Telegraph Hill"
(Atavistic Records, 1996)

This is another time-stoppingly haunting track from the Dutch Harbor: Where The Sea Breaks Its Back soundtrack; see previous post for more info if you missed it.  Gotta love the eerie samples of wind-ravaged surf in the background.  It kind of brings me back to the mid-'80s, on my dad's sailboat called the Green Toad* in San Francisco Bay, where the waves violently pound you nonstop, requiring the passengers to dart from one side of the boat to the other every few minutes/seconds in order to keep it from tipping over.  And the water is freezing cold year-round, not to mention a favorite haunt of great white sharks, and to top it off, the hulking corpse of Alcatraz is always looming in the background... Truly a miserable experience, but, as Calvin's dad always told him in Calvin & Hobbes, "It builds character."  Other than the sailboating thing, San Fran was absolute paradise to me.  Coincidentally, there's a famous Telegraph Hill in San Fran, the one with all the parrots which inspired a movie, but the one in this song title is apparently in Alaska.
*Our family's Buick sedan was called the Blue Bomb; my dad traded it for a bottle of wine ca. '85 before getting a Honda Accord and a GMC Jimmy.  He drove up to Oregon to get it because there's no sales tax there.  FWIW, today's Honda Civics are much bigger than that era's Honda Accords, since all American cars are incrementally getting bigger and more overpowered each model year in order to satisfy moronic American carbuyers, while people drive smaller and more efficient cars in Europe every year.  (The Civic is the Accord's little brother, if you didn't know.)  Despite its 90-or-so horsepower, that Accord was my favorite car to drive when I got my driver's license in March of '92, due to Honda's patented type of double wishbone suspension, which gives all Hondas / Acuras almost telepathically effortless steering.

As for this track, I've never seen a photo of Michael Krassner, but I can almost picture some gaunt, wild-haired guy sitting at a piano in a few feet of water on the Unalaska coastline in 30-below weather, plinking away at the ivories.  Astute readers will recall that this track was mentioned a few months ago in my National Skyline post, when I gave a list of my favorite piano performances.


Krassner put out a solo album in 1999, which is marred by Elliott Smith-y Sensitive Singer-Songwriter vocals and contains nothing like "Telegraph Hill," unfortunately.  He appears to be mainly a composer and/or producer.  In any case, here is hoping he does more of this minimalist piano stuff someday.  While I have indeed posted two tracks from this soundtrack, note that neither of them is by the main group (The Boxhead Ensemble) which did the majority of the album's music.  You'll have to just go get the album yourself to find out why I've raved about it so much.

Since your eyes need more Dutch Harbor-related imagery, here is a French DVD poster:

The one movie poster that out-pretentouses even the French

I recently dug up a slender 1978 tome that I've had for many years called Crazy Laws, by the unfortunately-named Dick Hyman.



I've almost given it away to thrift stores many a time, but each time I skim through it I am engulfed by a white-hot desire to keep it for a little longer.  Here are some highlights:

• "In Tennessee, you can't shoot any game other than whales from a moving automobile."
• "It is unlawful to throw coal at another person in Harlan, Kentucky -- if the size of the lump exceeds three inches."
• "Lions may not be taken to the theater in Maryland."
• "In Garfield County, Montana, it is ordered that no one shall draw funny faces on window shades."
• "In Georgia, it is unlawful to slap a man on the back."
• "Unrestrained giggling is forbidden on the streets of Helena, Montana."
• "It is unlawful in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, to remove icicles from buildings by taking potshots at them with a gun or rifle."
• "A Chicago law forbids eating in a place that is on fire."
• "In Lawrence, Kansas, you can't carry bees around in your hat on the city streets."
• "It is against the law to tickle a girl in Norton, Virginia."
• "In Memphis, it is against the law for a woman to drive a car unless there is a man either running or walking in front of the car waving a red flag to warn approaching motorists and pedestrians."
• "A Trenton, New Jersey, ordinance states that it is unlawful to throw any tainted pickles in the streets."
• "To catch a whale in the inland waters of the state of Oklahoma is contrary to law." [I think this is the only whale-related item you'd find there.]
• "In Tulsa, Oklahoma, you cannot open a pop bottle unless a licensed engineer is present."
• "It is illegal in Nebraska to picnic twice on the same spot within any thirty-day period."
• "In Wilbur, Washington, it is against the law for a person to ride upon the streets on an ugly horse." [Please, folks, no Amy Winehouse jokes... It's just too soon.]
• "Providence, Rhode Island, law forbids you to leap over local bridges."
• "International Falls, Minnesota, forbids cats to chase dogs up telephone poles."
• "Vermont says that a woman cannot walk down the street on a Sunday unless her husband walks twenty paces behind her with a musket on his shoulder."
• "It is against the law to speak English in Illinois."
• "In Glendale, Arizona, it is against the law for a car to back up." [Except over an "illegal" immigrant, presumably, considering AZ's immigration stance.]
• "Kansas makes it unlawful to eat snakes on Sunday."
• "The town of Brawley, California, passed a resolution forbidding snow within the city limits."
• "In Atlanta, the law forbids diaper service trucks from having horns that play 'Rock-A-Bye-Baby.'"
• "The law says you can't drive more than two thousand sheep down Hollywood Boulevard at one time."
• "In Illinois, Macomb makes it illegal for a car to impersonate a wolf."
• "In Muskogee, Oklahoma, there is an old city ordinance that states that no baseball team shall be allowed to hit the ball over the fence or out of the ball park."
• "A Georgia law prohibits persons from saying 'Oh, Boy' in Jonesboro."
• "Women in Joliet, Illinois, can be jailed for trying on more than six dresses in one store."
• "Beards more than two and a half feet long are forbidden by law in Altoona, Pennsylvania."  [Hear that, Brooklyn hipsters?  No more ironic field trips to Altoona for you.]
• "In Massachusetts, it is against the law to put tomatoes in clam chowder."
• "You can't say 'delinquency' on the streets of Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania."
• "In Winchester, Massachusetts, a young girl may not be employed to dance on a tightrope except in church."

Planets with similar climates: Harold Budd & Brian Eno - "Not Yet Remembered" & "The Plateaux Of Mirror" (1980), Roger Eno - "Whispering Gallery" (1994), Liz Story - "Speechless" (1988), Györgi Ligeti - "Musica Ricerata (Movement II)" (ca. 1951-53) (made famous in Eyes Wide Shut), (George Winston - "January Stars" (1982).


Currently eating or drinking: Stonefire Tandoori Naan flatbread; Mirassou 2009 California Pinot Noir; iChill Blissful Berry "relaxation shot".


Actual size; available at finer gas stations.