Tamaryn >> You're a cruel sea

California Month, tremor #21:

Tamaryn - "Dawning"

(Mexican Summer Records, 2010)

Much like how Polly Jean Harvey is the singer of the band named PJ Harvey and Carlos Santana is the guitarist of the band named Santana, Tamaryn Brown is the singer of the band named Tamaryn.  I had originally assumed they were named as a reference to Slowdive's songs "Avalyn 1" and "Avalyn 2," since Slowdive is obviously their biggest influence.  Tamaryn the lady is from New Zealand, but chose to settle in the almost identical, climate-wise (a foggy and cool subtropical Mediterranean climate), city of San Francisco.  The spectacular Nikau palm grows well in San Fran, since it is a native of New Zealand.

From Wikipedia; regions of cruel sea activity not depicted

Taking the equator as the hottest area of the world, you can go a certain amount of degrees either north or south, and the latitudes that correspond to each other will tend to have similar climates, though wind currents and ocean currents play a large part in it too.  (For example, even though Scandinavia is right next to the Arctic Circle, it has a relatively balmy climate due to the Gulf Stream continually bringing in warm water from the Caribbean.)  One of the ironic effects of global warming is that the poles will be warmer and hence will not "power" currents such as the Gulf Stream as they have for untold millennia.  So less warm water will be delivered on this underwater railway to northern Europe, hence it will actually get colder there, despite the fact that the rest of the world will get warmer.

The "Dawning" music video is a big part of why I went to see them live:

My mom says this song sounds like it has Stevie Nicks on vocals.  I went to see Tamaryn in April opening for the Raveonettes and recorded them doing a bit of "Love Fade," plus the entirety of "Dawning":

You can tell they play in front of a pretty interesting montage of film clips.  It's a gamble when you go to a concert strictly to see an opening band play one specific song, so luckily they did play "Dawning."  Right before they went on, I asked to buy their "Mild Confusion" 7", but Tamaryn told me they had sold out of them on the tour.  She later said "Well, I've gotta go up and sing now... Facebook me," but I've never joined FB and never will, though at that moment I briefly did kick myself for not being on it.

The camera flash killed off their projected video

A local band called Twin Killers played before Tamaryn and put on a hyperactive show, with their indie-prog-thrash stylings.  I can pretty much guarantee they'll be signed to a big indie label any minute now.  I don't think I've ever seen a band wear such tight jeans, aside from maybe The Church in the mid-'80s.  The singer paced rapidly back and forth from one side of the stage to the other the entire time, like a leopard stuck in a cage at the zoo, pivoting dramatically each time.  They're named after a Deerhoof song, though the singer claims the name is a reference to a dream she had, in which she or someone else was trying to kill a set of twins.  (Coincidentally, Slowdive is the name of a Siouxsie & The Banshees song, but their singer claimed it came to him in a dream... Yeah right.  Singers!)

I also saw TK's headline at a club in Houma two months later, when I went down there to exchange my microwave.

Planets with similar climates: Slowdive - "Slowdive" (1991), Memoryhouse - "Heirloom" (2010), Bleach - "Surround" (1991), Band Of Susans - "Ice Age" (1990), Sonic Youth - "Becuz" (1995).


Currently eating or drinking: Sweaty Betty Blonde wheat beer; Naked strawberry & banana smoothie.

The Prime Movers >> They led me to strange beliefs and now my head is a museum

California Month, tremor #20:

The Prime Movers - "Museum"

(Birdcage Records, 1985 / 2005)

I first heard The Prime Movers in 2005 on a compilation CD called Beating Up The Campus: 18 College Rock Classics Of The '80s.  It was their very poppy song "On The Trail," which led me to check out what else they did in the '80s.  So I found out they put out an LP called Museum on their own Birdcage Records, which led to them being picked up by Island Records.  They were from Sierra Madre, CA.

At the 2:30 mark, right after the final lyric is delivered, the song explodes into a noisily beautiful Sonic Youth-esque cacophony before quickly fading out.  This mp3 is a freebie from the band's official site.  I would have preferred to post "In Touch With You," which has an even sicker bassline than this one, but I grew to love this song enough to post it.  There's so much going on in a mere 3-minute span.  Its bassline is a thing of rare beauty, muscular and powerful, yet funky as a damned son of a biotch.  The chiming / screaming guitar soundscapes are obviously very influenced by U2.  This band had serious chops, which is not something I often say, since I'm not into "chops"-type bands.  But man, their bassist was just amazing, their guitarist was very abstract though not averse to occasional arena heroics, and their drummer could own any kind of beat.

They were tapped to do a song for the Michael Mann film Manhunter, which was of course the prequel to The Silence Of The Lambs.  It was a strange, krautrock-y, Roxy-Music-on-steroids-and-coke tune called "Strong As I Am":

The Movers were rocking some nice "KROQ hair" in that clip.  Astute readers will recognize Manhunter's lead actor, William Petersen, from the epic car chase clip from the movie To Live And Die In L.A. that I showed in my post about the band Feverdream.  He was basically the proto-Tom Cruise, but without the lameness, and I can't understand why he never became a bigger star.  By the same token, The Prime Movers should've been stars, but you knew that by now.  They could be lumped into the "Big Music" scene of the mid-'80s, mainly consisting of U.K. bands like U2, Big Country, Simple Minds, The Alarm, Cactus World News, etc., who penned unabashedly heartfelt "big" songs combining some degree of post-punk underpinnings with sociologically-relevant lyrics.  And the P.M.'s even signed to U2's label, Island, so they had every bit of momentum going their way.  I'd say the archetypal song of this movement was unquestionably U2's global hit "Pride (In The Name Of Love)," which seemed like a love song but was actually about Martin Luther King, Jr.  You also had The Alarm's "Rain In The Summertime," Simple Minds' "Speed Your Love To Me," and of course Big Country's "In A Big Country." You could maybe include more ethereal songs like "Life In A Northern Town" by The Dream Academy.

Signed back cover of the "Dark Western Night" 12" (Island Records, 1986)

Well, hopefully Big Music will make a comeback and The Prime Movers will be rediscovered.  Their website intriguingly says "Birdcage Records has obtained rights to the entire Prime Movers catalogue and beginning October 1st will be releasing a song every month.  Birdcage co-founder Chas Maselli says, 'It's a cryin' shame that only 25% of this band's recordings are currently available to the public. We have over 30 songs we are readying for release, at least half of which were previously unavailable in any form.'"  Hopefully they'll have a studio version of the incredible "Way Station," which so far has only been released in blistering live form, as a bonus track on the Museum CD.  Note that the band's other singer, the dark haired one, sings lead on this one, whereas the blond one sang lead on "Strong As I Am" (and presumably on "Museum").  Here it is, live at The Roxy in Hollywood in 1986, starting at the 1:30 mark:

Planets with similar climates: Gang Of Four - "Call Me Up" (1982), Gene Loves Jezebel - "Bruises" (1983), The Pop Group - "Colour Blind" (1980), Cactus World News - "Pilots Of Beka" (1986), The Sound - "Longest Days" (1984), Minutemen - "Anxious Mo-Fo" (1984).

Idaho >> There is snow covering your blankets

California Month, tremor #19:

Idaho - "If You Dare"

(Caroline Records, 1995)

In my previous Idaho post ("You Are There"), I mentioned that their later stuff was much less bombastic, and this song is perhaps the most stunning example of their quiet side.  The interesting thing is that the band got larger on this album in terms of members, but its sound got smaller and more delicate on most of the songs.

A profound amount of information about this album, whose title is a slang term meaning "inebriated," derived from the poor sailing techniques of drunken mariners, can be found here.

Magazine ad, with a lyric pulled from "No One's Watching"

Promo CD; singer / guitarist Jeff Martin on left

California Month is taking over the world: Yesterday I heard Film School's "Heart Full Of Pentagrams" at Guitar Center, which was the first time I've ever heard anything by them on any sort of radio station.  And GC was founded in, yup, Los Angeles.  But it seems like they have more samplers / drum machines / keyboards for sale nowadays than guitars.... Sign o' the times.

A Hyla cinerea (Green tree frog) getting some shade on my Serenoa repens (Saw Palmetto) yesterday:

Planets with similar climates: American Music Club - "Big Night" (1987), Red House Painters - "Down Through" (1993), Low - "Shame" (1995).

Starflyer 59 >> Now you're turning blue

California Month, tremor #18:

Starflyer 59 - "Blue Collar Love"

(Tooth & Nail Records, 1993)

This is perhaps the heaviest song in history.  It's from Starflyer's spectacular debut album, generally referred to by fans as The Silver Album, though it's technically untitled or self-titled.  The band was masterminded by singer / guitarist / songwriter Jason Martin, with a rotating backing cast.  I borrowed it on cassette from my Loyola dormmate named Peter Whipple in Sept. '97, having heard only one Starflyer song at the time, namely "The Boulevard."  He mentioned that he had seen a Starflyer / Seam / Bedhead gig in Houston, which made me so jealous.

This album hit me like an atom bomb, and I still sometimes pull it out and listen to it on the road for a week or so straight.  It's another one of those albums that profoundly shaped the aesthetic of Blowtorch Baby.  Martin unfortunately changed Starflyer's sound pretty drastically after their two excellent 1994 releases (the Silver LP and the She's The Queen EP) to a dad-friendly pop-rock, and their later recordings are mostly uninspired and meandering, but they occasionally cranked out a gem or two, such as 1995's "A Housewife Love Song," which has one of the most intriguing videos ever:

That song is pretty much "Blue Collar Love Part 2," and yes, that's Jason Martin in the video, but I don't know who the girl is.  Her "When Animals Attack" pantomiming at around the 3:05 mark reminds me of Lung Leg's similar antics in Richard Kern's infamous '85 short film Submit To Me, clips of which were sampled that same year in Sonic Youth's "Death Valley '69" video...  (Warning: Submit To Me is probably the most NSFW video ever allowed on YouTube.)

The band's change in sound is why I didn't include them in my little list of best U.S. shoegaze bands a few posts ago.  In summer of '98, via Tooth & Nail mailorder, I ordered The SIlver Album on cassette and SF59's live album, called Plugged.  Plugged was already out of print, so Jason Martin himself wrote me a little apology note and explained that he was swapping in an orange Starflyer t-shirt and a decent 7" ("Goodbyes Are Sad" b/w "Next Time Around").  I got Plugged a few years later, but its poor sound quality makes it for diehard fans only.  Speaking of diehard fans, in their early days SF59 touted various brands of motorcycles in their albums' / EPs' liner notes; on this album they proclaimed "starflyer exclusively rides triumph motor bikes."  Here's a zine I bought on eBay about 5 years ago; I forgot where it is, so this is the eBay seller's photo:

The "One giant step..." line is a play on Silver's extravagant liner notes, which feature an artsy 2-page spread devoted to each song.  "Blue Collar Love"'s says "One small step for Starflyer, one giant leap for the working man" at the bottom.  All three formats on which this album was released (1994 CD, 1994 cassette, 2005 CD) have different cover art.  I'll upload a comparison pic sometime.  Sorry that this turned into another factoid-based post.

Note: This mp3 is from the original 1994 CD, not from the remastered 2005 CD, which I also own.  The remastering job is not acceptable to me, with a more compressed sound and higher master volume, and it was done after T&N had sold 50% of itself to EMI Records, so I went with the better-sounding, totally indie version of the song.

Planets with similar climates: Smashing Orange - "Flower Kisses" (1992), Soundgarden - "New Damage" (1991) & "Blind Dogs" (1995), Helmet - "Sinatra" (1990), Quicksand - "Head To Wall" (1992).


I've decided this assessment of Dr. Dre's "Keep Their Heads Ringin'" might be the funniest Beavis & Butt-head clip ever, edging out their throttling of "See You In Hell" by Grim Reaper:

I saw a photo of someone in this t-shirt today; a spoof of M.A.D.D., of course:

Tristeza >> Another green circle

California Month, tremor #17:

Tristeza - "I Am A Cheetah"

(Tiger Style Records, 2000)

Since forming in San Diego in 1997, Tristeza has had many lineup changes, so I'm not going to get into all that.  I think I waste too much time on band bio information anyway.  But it should be mentioned that former member Jimmy LaValle went on to arguably eclipse Tristeza's popularity with his somnambulant project called The Album Leaf.  I missed Tristeza in New Orleans at the Mermaid Lounge a few times circa the late '90s to early '00s.  I went to see their late-era lineup in 2005 in Baton Rouge, mainly to see them play their aggressive new banger "Halo Heads."  (They did.)  They had a female bassist at that point, but on this album it was just a sausage fest.

The only other awesome cuts on this album are "Building Peaks" and "City Of The Future," but the disc a a whole is worth owning.  I think I got it in 2005, because I made a mix CD containing the very eerie "COTF" that summer.

I have heard some people surmise that post-rock will go down as this generation's jazz.  I don't know about that, but if so, I think "I Am A Cheetah" merits mention near the top of the pile in terms of compositional quality.  It does have a jazz-like fluidity and crispness, much like its titular feline, and the drumming is straight-up jazz style.  I bet this is the kind of music Miles Davis would've made if he had hooked up with CAN in the mid-'70s.  I like how the bassist plays one hypnotic repeating note for the last 1:45, which I once thought was a keyboard part until I listened closer.  To say they owe a huge debt to Tortoise would be an understatement, but I think they carved out their own niche pretty well.

People who have only seen the front cover might associate the album's sound with the color green.  Looking at both the front and back covers gives a very citrus-y effect:

Here is a collage I've been procrastinating on, letting it idle under a sheet of Saran wrap for several years until I decide how to glue down the parts.  I don't know how the little comic strip snuck in there, and I think the red piece is too different of a color to make it into the final product.  I have this thing for cutting out images and then flipping them over to use them in collages.  In fact, I realized ca. 2007 that I could use it as my trademark technique, since every artist needs one, and since this has apparently never been used by a well-known artist.  So I scrawled out a whole manifesto about it, such as how it incorporates chaos theory / chance, etc. etc., and signed and dated it, just in case I need it someday.  Anyway, I like how the phrase "Shrinking Generation" appeared on the backs of the dudes holding hands (cut out from an issue of Newsweek).  I cut the embossed pearly flower off of one of those condolence cards you send to a family after someone dies.

This "we believe..." thing was part of a pamphlet that my high school sent me, asking for money.  I noticed it (probably intended for the above collage) sitting on top of this M. Jordan tribute mag in my living room, and thought a photo of it was worth taking.  I'll admit that I did adjust its position slightly, though:

Planets with similar climates: Tortoise - "Glass Museum" (1995), Bark Psychosis - "Big Shot" (1993), Dif Juz - "No Motion" (198_), Simple Minds - "A Brass Band In African Chimes" (1984), Andreas Vollenweider - "Unto The Burning Circle" (1989), Macha - "Light The Chinese Flower" (1998).


Most interesting correction of the week/year: Correction, Sept. 16, 2011: This story originally misidentified the title of the Sir-Mix-a-Lot song that Sarah Palin sang along with. It is "Baby Got Back," not "I Like Big Butts."  With a correction like that, you know the article has to be good.

The Orange Peels >> It's dangerous to fly a kite when it's raining

California Month, tremor #16:

The Orange Peels - "I Don't Mind The Rain"

(Minty Fresh Records, 1995 or '96)

The album cover says "recorded in 2-dimensional california sound."

I got this album, Square, in '97 or '98 for about a dollar on promo CD at The Mushroom or Underground Sounds, and instantly fell in love with this song, despite not normally being into this kind of thing.  I probably bought it because I was really into the Cardigans' First Band On The Moon, and I knew they had been on Minty Fresh.  The co-ed vocal harmonizing is so beautiful that it could theoretically melt the heart of someone as cold and callous as Simon Cowell, Lindsay Lohan, Clarence Thomas, or Anthony Bourdain.  This band was/is fronted by a guy named Allen Clapp and once known as, I kid you not, Allen Clapp And His Orchestra.  According to Wikipedia, "The Roland [RE-201] Space Echo would become an important part of Clapp's production of musical soundscapes, helping him achieve a cool, coastal sound."  The album was released in 1997, but was recorded from '95 to '96 at two very cool-sounding studios: The Terrarium in Minneapolis, MN, and Mysterious Cove in Campbell, CA.  Rain is always a great lyrical topic; the Peels' next album even had a song called "The West Coast Rain."  And their website even has a page about how great California life is!  Way to rub it in, guys.  Leave it to a geeky Cali band to tell us not to fly a kite during a storm.  Like it ever rains in California.  I think I remember one drop of rain in the six years I lived there, and it was probably just morning fog condensation.  It took an East Coast dude, Ben Franklin, to have to guts to do that, and that's how he discovered cable TV, and now we all benefit from it.  For example, we can use the Weather Channel to tell us when a storm is coming and thereby know when to avoid it.

The Japanese edition of Square had totally different & better cover art than the U.S. one did:

Japanese front cover

Japanese back cover

Fun Story Time: A week or so ago, I was at my parents', watching the Saints-Packers game with my mom & sister, and for some reason I felt impelled out of the blue to show my sister one of my all-time favorite videos/songs on YouTube, "Only A Memory" by the Smithereens:

My mom even overheard it and said she liked it.  I think she was pretty surprised when I mentioned they were: a.) from New Jersey, and b.) from the '80s.  (She was born and raised in Philly.)  Then this past Sunday, my sister and I went to The Mushroom in order to show her boyfriend it for the first time, and while I was at the bottom of the long stairway that leads up to the store, located on top of popular frat bar The Boot a few feet off of Tulane's campus, I realized they were playing a Comsat Angels song!  It was "My Mind's Eye" from their 1992 "comeback" album of the same name.  (Remember "I Come From The Sun"?  Well, that was the very next song that came on.)  I just about fainted.  It turns out this guy had brought some of his Comsats CDs over to the store that night, not to sell them, but just to have the store play them while he shopped.  I think he was about 50-ish.  The first I told him was "I have all the Comsats' albums."  So we talked for about an hour until they closed at midnight, and they practically had to kick us out.  He had grown up in England and had seen all the cool punk and post-punk bands of the late '70s / early '80s, such as the Comsats, The Sound, Simple Minds, Cocteau Twins (I think), Siouxsie & The Banshees, Wire, etc.  He said he grew up in the Banshees' city so he saw them a lot.  And later on he saw My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive, among others.  We briefly talked about Miles Davis' The Birth Of The Cool after my sister showed me a live Miles DVD from that era.  (I swear, this all has a point, so read on...)  I found some cheap used CDs on the racks and instructed him to buy them.  These included The Death Of Cool by Kitchens Of Distinction, The Back Room by Editors, a CD by Celebration (blatant Banshees clones), and Green Thoughts by the Smithereens (the album that houses "Only A Memory").  Amazingly, I also found "Only A Memory" on 7" in a big box of used 45's!  I had been wanting this damn thing for many years...  I informed him (his name is Brian or Ryan) about the greatness of Film School and told him about my blog, the last three posts of which were coincidentally about said band.  

Then today, my sister excitedly texted my from Holland to tell me she heard "Only A Memory" on XM radio over there.

To summarize:

1.) Sept. 8: I show the video to someone

2.) Sept. 18: I recommend the song/album to someone else at a record store

3.) I find & buy the song on 7" that same night

4.) Sept. 21: The person from step 1 hears the song on satellite radio on another continent

And the circle gets completed.  I guess this is what Jung or Sting would refer to as synchronicity, or what others may call kismet or just plain old fate.  Whatever you call it, it's pretty cool when, after focusing on something and attempting to spread the word that thing, you are swiftly rewarded with something pertaining to that entity.

If a tree falls and no one hears or sees it, did it really fall?  If you like something and don't spread the word about it, do you really like it?

Planets with similar climates: Eleventh Dream Day - "After This Time Is Gone" (1992), Jale - "Despite" (1996), Over The Rhine - "How Does It Feel (To Be On My Mind)?" (1991), Papas Fritas - "Smash This World" (1994), Cornelius - "Star Fruits Surf Rider" (1996), Tommy Keene - "Places That Are Gone" (1984/86), Matthew Sweet - "We're The Same" (1995).

Abecedarians >> I've waited for one thousand years to die

California Month, tremor #15:

Abecedarians - "Soil" (early version)

(Independent Project Records, 1983, '84, or '85)

Trying to come up with a genre to describe this spidery song is next to impossible.  Psychedelic post-goth?  Stoner dream-punk?  Proto-shoegaze krautrock?  The jazzy drumming becomes almost industrial, especially contrasted with the abstract, liquid guitar lines played above it.

This song is taken from the posthumous compilation The Other Side Of The Fence (1983-85), released only on double 10" vinyl (some copies on black wax, some on yellow), numbered, with strikingly desolate cover art that suits the music perfectly:

Those are Phoenix dactylifera palms (Date Palms), a.k.a. my favorite plant in the world, presumably in situ in the Middle East / N. Africa

It consists of recordings that predate their impressive 1986 debut album Eureka.  Despite the song's languid tempo, the opening line is pretty intense: "Seeping from soil, the juices of lust that once held me at bay."  Does it refer to water, blood, or uh... something else?  (Huh-huh...)  This song is a treble lover's dream, and the stereo separation in the mixing job (done in 1990) is really impressive.  Abecedarians were a relatively unknown group from Los Angeles by way of Orange County, active from about 1983-90.  I just discovered this band a few years ago.  Chris Manecke handled the vocal and guitar assignments, Kevin Dolan thrust his sticks upon the drums, and John Blake strummed on his bass guitar.

In L.A., even the cacti are paparazzi.  (From the booklet of their great compilation CD, cleverly titled AB-CD.)

I was stunned to discover earlier this year that the Abs had a music video for this song, and it remains one of my favorite YouTube discoveries.  It's the re-recorded 1986 Eureka version:

The Eureka version of "Soil" is almost a minute longer than the one I'm posting, and is a little smoother.  It goes without saying that both versions are amazing.  The history of the band's first album is confusing.  Eureka was put out by a micro indie called Southwest Audio Reproductions with two different cover designs, then reissued by Caroline Records in 1987 with an entirely new cover (consisting of blocks of mini permutations of the original covers) and one different song.  See info on all three versions here.  All three versions sell for large sums on eBay, so I have no hopes of ever owning one; an eBayer named shugarecords is actually trying to sell one for $3,000 right now.  Eureka indeed...

Planets with similar climates: Gang Of Four - "The History Of The World" (1982), Poem Rocket - "Bataille" (1997), Section 25 - "New Horizon" (1981), For Against - "Echelons" (1987), New Fast Automatic Daffodils - "Music" (1992), The Durutti Column - "Never Known" (1981), Sonic Youth - "I Dreamed I Dream" (1982).

Film School >> You ask me what would happen if all strangers turned to stone

California Month, tremor #14:

Film School - "Two Kinds"

(Beggars Banquet Records, 2007)

When Film School's self-titled album came out in '06, it was pegged as part of the whole Interpol / Editors post-punk revival thing, and since most of those neo-post-punk bands had disappointed me, I kind of ignored it.  A few years later, I stumbled onto a Blogspot post of some live songs that F.S. had played at South By Southwest '08 that very same month.  I downloaded it and was stunned by the song "Two Kinds," and hence decided to go see them the following month.  So I have to thank that person for getting me into Film School, and especially into this song, one of the finest of the last decade.

The melody line is emotionally gripping and urgent, the lyrics are great / bittersweet, the bassline is monstrous (yet subtle), the synth violin is pretty magical, etc.  The way each instrument enters the song at the beginning one after another is pretty cool, and, as a nice touch, they each leave the song the same way at the end.  Lorelei's backing vocals also become more prominent towards the end.  Why Beggars Banquet didn't release this song as a single is beyond mind-boggling, so I won't sit around and bemoan that, but it could be due to the fact this album only sold about 900 copies in its first week, which is more an indictment of the public's musical taste than anything.  Then again, it would've sold a lot more if this single had preceded it by a month, so it's a chicken or egg question.  There was a cool Sixties-style video made for the intense single "Dear Me":

Here are some of the pics I took at the Spanish Moon in Baton Rouge on 4/15/08.  These are totally raw, direct from my memory card, meaning no Photoshopping, cropping, color adjusting, etc.  All the blurs are from using a long shutter speed, of course, and are intentional.

L-R: Dave Dupuis (gtr), Greg Bertens (vox, gtr), James Smith (drm), Lorelei Plotczyk (bass, vox), Jason Ruck (snth).
I believe the images projected on the screen were related to the album's cover art (see below).

They used a trippy "venetian blinds" lighting effect for a while

Aerial view from the upstairs balcony at Greg thrashing about & Lorelei standing still

I can't sit here and explain why, but this is my favorite pic of the night, and one of my favorite band pics I've ever taken

(Yes, they played "Two Kinds" that night, as well as "Compare," "Lectric," "11:11," and "What I Meant To Say.")  The only problem with the show was that this fairly irritating band called British Sea Power headlined.  I bought Hideout on LP & got it signed, thanks to the ridiculously nice Lorelei, who was quite surprised / flattered at my request, then spent around an hour tracking down her bandmates in various places in the club.  She also gave me a free "Dear Me" 7" and some stickers.  She has this amazing Zen-like calmness and placidity that is quite disarming, both onstage and off.  Talking to her or watching her perform is kind of like having Benadryl directed directly into your veins.  (Note: The LP comes with a free digital download code for the album, which is where I got the mp3 for this post.)  Guitarist Dave Dupuis and I talked about our love of Band Of Susans after he complimented the BOS Love Agenda t-shirt I had on.  (That was the first time anyone had commented on that shirt, in fact.)  I remember I was wearing a bright green ski cap that night for some reason, which combined with my red BOS shirt to make me look very Christmas-y.  I made a mental note to mail my other BOS shirt to Film School, since it doesn't fit me, but I never got around to it.  Dave said that Swervedriver is his favorite band ever, and mentioned how psyched he was that Film School would be opening for the Swervies' reunion tour in a few weeks.  He drew his trademark curly 'fro on the LP:

Poster by Scott Campbell of Bullhorn Bandits. (A Baton Rouge "post-rock" band called Man Plus Building actually played before F.S.)

Planets with similar climates: Francis 7 - "Red Roses" (2003), R.E.M. - "The One I Love" (1986), The Werefrogs - "It's Real" (1990), Catherine Wheel - "Crank" (1993), Kitchens Of Distinction - "What Happens Now?" (1992), Swervedriver - "99th Dream" (1996).

Film School >> You're the only one that I have seen so clear

California Month, tremor #13:

Film School - "Time To Listen"

(Hi-Speed Soul Records, 2010)

Funk sista Lorelei takes the mic by storm on this truly stunning song, likely the best song of 2010.  Seeing them perform it live last September in a half-full Spanish Moon was one of the highlights of my concert-going life (which reached 20 years this month, I just realized).

"You're the only one that I have taken here / You're the only one that I have seen so clear / You're the only one who knows I'm here." = Such a brilliant way of singing about love without resorting to actually using the l-word... except that when I examined the lyrics more closely, I found out it's actually a breakup song.  Maybe this explains the album title?  I think the protagonist is not sure about whether the breakup should occur.  See the full lyrics here and decide for yourself.  This song really encapsulates everything that Blowtorch Baby stands for.  Its near-feline feminine grace opens up a whole new career vista for what was already one of the best bands in America, though they had made inroads to this style with the songs "Florida" and "Lectric" on their previous album.  It's warm and romantic enough that it would've been a perfect song to play over the closing credits of a John Hughes movie, yet it's icy and moody enough to use during the chase scene of a film noir from the '50s.  Even if it didn't erupt into that elegantly massive chorus at the 1:40 mark, it'd still be one of my favorite songs, just based on the tension in the verses.

According to the band's Facebook page, "The four designs we've chosen are Jellyfission, Zebra, TigerFish and
 Monkeyshine, starting with Jellyfission by Stella Lee (jstellalee.com), which we'll be selling on tour."

Two members of the band sporting a winning design

Cover of LP (all copies on clear vinyl), basically a solarized version of the CD cover shown above

After apparently being dropped by indie heavyweight Beggars Banquet (who are squarely to blame for never releasing "Two Kinds" as a single from their previous album... see my next post), Film School signed to a new label called Hi-Speed Soul.  HSS are mainly known for reissuing some classic Swervedriver recordings; the Swervies are one of Film School's biggest influences, and the two bands toured together in '08.  F.S. arrived at a poppier sound by adding more synths and female vocals (including lots of co-ed harmonizing) to their sound, which upset some of their post-punk-leaning fanbase.  The poppier new songs have more bite in concert than on record, one of the reasons why I hope Film School will release a live album someday.

Some pics taken in White Sands, New Mexico, in 2008; photographer unknown:

This is probably the best photo ever taken of a person.

If I had to spend the rest of my life doing nothing but listening to this song and gazing at that photo, I would die happy.  It reminds me a bit of the iconic film still of Jenny Agutter that I used in this blog's second post.

Planets with similar climates: Bleach - "Seeing" (1991), Lush - "Sweetness And Light" (1990), The Church - "Shadow Cabinet" (1984), Slowdive - "Sing" (1993), Band Of Susans - "Estranged Labor" (1990), Sonic Youth - "Becuz" (1995) & "I Dreamed I Dream" (1982), The Stone Roses - "I Wanna Be Adored" (1985/89), Puro Instinct - "Stilyagi" (2010).

Film School >> While we hide these highs and lows

California Month, tremor #12:

Film School - "Pitfalls" (edit)

(2006, Beggars Banquet Records)

A few years ago I had a friend crop off about two minutes of instrumental noodling at the end of this song, and adjust the overall volume level of it.  So when it comes down to it, this is truly a Blowtorch Baby exclusive.  It's basically just a teaser to get you to buy the album, and their two equally-great ensuing albums.  This song's funky bassline is just perfect, and the careening, psychedelic guitar line is beyond mesmerizing.  In fact, the guitar part sometimes runs on a continuous loop in my head for days on end.  But as with most of the band's songs, the bass is the star.

I bought this CD (self-titled) used at the excellent Skully'z Recordz in 2008, a few months after seeing them live.  I think Film School is the best band out of the last half decade or so when it comes to simply crafting great, memorable songs, which is such a simplistic / vague thing to say, but it's actually the highest possible compliment I can pay.  This album, their self-titled sophomore one, also has the urgently excellent "On & On".  I used to play the video game Pitfall (actually, thanks to YouTube, I'm certain it was Pitfall II) on our Commodore 64 in the mid-'80s in San Francisco, when we lived on the Presidio military base.  I was obsessed with it for a while, and would literally walk upstairs and play it immediately after coming home from school.  I haven't owned a video game system since I got a Sega Genesis for my 17th birthday.

The font used for the new script logo on Harley-Davidson stores is so incredibly badass; I saw it while driving by a dealership in Hammond last week.  Amazingly, I can't find an image of it online, but here it is being used for a model of theirs called the Sportster, so just picture the font used for the word "Sportster" being used for the phrase "Harley-Davidson":

If anyone knows what font that is, let me know.

Here is another cartoon collage I made last Thursday, in the second half of the Saints-Packers game.  I was watching it with my mom and sister, and my sister asked if I'd done any paintings lately, so I said no, but showed her my cartoon collage from 2000.  Then I jokingly decided to do one on the spot; I found out that the Times-Picayune now only has one page of comics rather than two, so it was a bit harder, but it was good as a practice run at least.  It was of course made on 9/8/11 using only comic strips from that day's newspaper, and I finished it at about 11:58 PM, still reeling from the injury to Marques Colston at the end of the game, while wearing my Colston jersey atop my Packers t-shirt...

Planets with similar climates: Spyglass - "Sleepyhead" (2000), The Cure - "Killing An Arab" (1979), Gang Of Four - "It Is Not Enough" (1982), The Comsat Angels - "On The Beach" (1980), Moonshake - "City Poison" (1992).

ILYA >> Time slips through my fingers

California Month, tremor #11:

ILYA - "Isola"

(Notsuperstitious Records [Japan], 2002 / Second Nature Recordings [U.S.], 2003)

ILYA, always spelled capitalized, were from San Diego, and their very uncatchy name was bogarted from a famous Russian writer.  This song is a nocturnal feast of dark corridors and regret, with two dueling tempos (fast drums vs. slow vocals) giving it a disconcerting overall feel.  It is possible that I have not put any song on mix CD's more often than this one.

This song originally appeared on the band's 2002 CD called Japanese Mini Album, which was released only in... Japan.  (That disc also has appallingly lame remix of the song by someone named The Snodgrass.  I listened to it over and over trying to convince myself to upload it here, but I failed to find anything good about it.  JMA does have some very good songs on it, though, especially "Celda.")  The mp3 I'm posting is from JMA, but it's identical to the one on the band's true debut album, Poise Is The Greater Architect.  I have recently ascertained that Poise was recorded from January to June of 2002, then was self-released locally by the band themselves in Nov. 2002, then was reissued nationwide in June 2003 by Second Nature Recordings.  And I found out that guitarist Duane Pitre is from New Orleans, hell yeah.

Inside view of the Japanese Mini Album CD

This song is not exactly what most people have in mind when they think of "California music," that's for sure...  There was also a more well-known, dancey band called Ilya in the '00s; they had to change their name to San Ilya, apparently since San Diego's ILYA were around first.  The dancey Ilya had an album called They Died For Beauty.  (So the one with San in its name is not the one from San Diego... confusing.)  AllMusic Guide said "It's pretty amazing that Ilya [sic] licensed music to several independent films, was nominated for Best New Artist in the San Diego Music Awards, was voted San Diego's Best Indie Band, ended up on the Urban Outfitters in-store play list, had a song on MTV's Sorority Life, and released this stunning debut all without a record deal.  The haunting group crosses Portishead with San Diego's chilling Black Heart Procession to make for a moody set of trip hop, jazz rhythms, atmospheric rock, and entwined piano melodies. On 'Isola,' Blanca Rojas' gentle, gin-joint vocals are a dead ringer for Björk torch-singing in a dive."

Here is a clip of Blanca Rojas laying down a vocal take (possibly the final take, in fact) for this song in the studio in 2002:

This very mpeg clip, which was posted on their website, ilyamusic.com, is the main reason I went to see them in Oct. 2003, though I think this show flyer which I got from a telephone pole on Tulane's campus was another main reason:

I became sort of obsessed with this song just from listening to its 30-second preview clip on a new little online gizmo called the iTunes Store.  So, thanks iTunes Store.  They were selling ILYA panties at the merch table (staffed by Blanca herself), but I don't think anyone bought any.  I did buy my Poise CD at that show, and I just opened it and found an ILYA sticker and a Second Nature sticker, plus a little sheet of paper talking about Pilotram (see below).  The other bands on the bill were The Gunshy, The Show Is The Rainbow (whom I missed), and locals Silent Cinema.  Since it was about a week before Halloween, Blanca walked through the crowd passing out candy during Silent Cinema's set!  Plus, it took place in the attic of a pizza place (Mama Rosa's Pizza) on the north edge of the French Quarter.  And I went to one night of the Canal Street Projection Project earlier that night.  To call it a very memorable night would be putting it mildly...  I took some low-quality video clips and photos which I'll post if I find them.
I drove almost 100 miles to Baton Rouge to see ILYA again the following June, on the night the Pistons beat the heavily-favored Lakers to win the NBA championship.  Mama Rosa's closed down due to Katrina; I never did eat any pizza there, since that was the only time I ever went.
Guitarist Duane Pitre is now somewhat well-known experimental / ambient composer based in New York City, under the moniker Pilotram.  I would have to presume he had a large role in creating "Isola"'s eerie background soundscapes.  (I unfortunately missed Pilotram opening for Tristeza in '05 because I got there late.)

In addition to kindly giving away a free mp3 of the great song "Disturbed", ILYA's label, Second Nature Recordings, gives this bio:
"Emerging out of the vibrant San Diego underground, ILYA creates languishing and soothing musical textures that tap into the subconscious stream of thought.  ILYA's full-length debut for Second Nature Recordings conveys a provocative blend of sounds and styles that are quiet and haunting one moment, a wall of sound and explosive percussion the next.  Combining elements of Portishead, My Bloody Valentine, The Black Heart Procession and Massive Attack, with caressing vocals reminiscent both of Bjork's breathlessness and Fiona Apple's poetic beauty, resulting in an elegant tapestry of trip-hop, atmospheric rock, electronica, and ambient jazz."

By the way, the climax of "Disturbed" was head-splittingly loud in concert, with the band's guitar & bass players practically falling over and onto each other while contorting their bodies; it came off as a possible spoof of the act of headbanging, but it was real... so real.  Blanca was always like a genie lost in her own little world, doing her interpretive body movements amidst the often threatening music being spun around her.

I found an exciting screenshot that someone named Azure Divina took of ILYA's website when it was ilya.com, circa 2003:

Fun Fact: The Poise cover model holding those eggs is someone named Sally Dalton, according to the CD booklet.

Planets with similar climates: PJ Harvey - "Down By The Water" (1994), Slowdive - "Missing You" (1993), Cocteau Twins - "My Love Paramour" (1983), The Emerald Down - "Heavier Than Ether, Lighter Than Air" (2001), Björk - "Army Of Me" (1995) & "Human Behaviour" (1993), Portishead - "Mysterons" (1993).

Psi Com >> There is no end to the figure 8

California Month, tremor #10:

Psi Com - "Ho Ka Hey"

(Mohini Records, 1985 / Triple X Records, 1993)

"Ho Ka Hey" is allegedly a rallying cry used by some tribe of Native Americans (I refuse to use the incorrect term "Indians"), which I heard means "Let's go get 'em!" or, more specifically, "Let's go kill 'em!"  As for why I'm posting this on 9/11, you can interpret it however you want, but I'm mainly doing it as a comment on the rush to war that most countries feel they need to do after being attacked.  I bought a copy of the Koran the other day for a few bucks, so that should be interesting reading, considering that I think the Bible and the Koran are responsible for setting the human race back tens of thousands of years.  But I like to skim them for entertainment value, and, oh yeah, here's the song you wanted.

It's not surprising that Psi Com would use such a term in a song, considering how most of these California post-punk / goth bands of the mid-'80s, such as Savage Republic, Crash Worship, Red Temple Spirits, etc., even early Red Hot Chili Peppers, used lots of tribal imagery and rhythms.  (And U.K. bands like The Cult and Fields Of The Nephilim did this pretty blatantly too, but in more of an image-based, black-cowboy-hat way.)  As for the band name, it was originally spelled Psi-Com.  I think it's slang for psychic communications, but I don't know.  I like how vague and clipped the name is.  This self-titled EP came out on Mohini Records in mid-1985 on 12" (only 1500 copies made), but over half of the pressing came warped from the factory, so quality copies are incredibly rare.  My favorite song on it is actually "City Of Nine Gates", but "Ho Ka Hey" is more visceral.  (And "City," though much more existential and cerebral, has some lyrics that would be inappropriate today, such as "The city's growing crooked / The city bleeds rosy veins to empty streets" and "Banging on the walls until they bleed.")

Psi Com was: Perry Farrell - vocals, some percussion; Kelly Wheeler - bass; Vince Duran - guitar; Aaron Sherer - drums

A band whose members refuse to even look at one another cannot last very long; photo from the CD booklet.

Perry went on to form a Led Zeppelin tribute act called Jane's Addiction and founded Lollapalooza and formed Porno For Pyros, etc., making him a cultural icon and Mr. Alternative Rock to many folks.  But with all due respect, nothing he did will ever come close to the quality level of Psi Com's EP.  It was kindly reissued in 1993 by Triple X Records on CD, cassette, limited-edition 12" (with several different covers), and numbered-edition 10".  Big ups to Triple X for giving it such a deluxe treatment.  I bought it on cassette in August '95, right before going off to start a bad year of college in Virginia, and quickly became obsessed with it.  This song's astounding bassline is obviously the star of the show, but the whisper-to-a-scream vocals and existential lyrics are top-notch too.  For example: "One end burns, one end freezes / The unlearned hold on to neither," "The answer comes before the lesson," and "The path we walk is not so straight / And there is no end to the figure 8."  Sounds like a lot of Buddhist or Hare Krishna mumbo-jumbo, but I kind of that sort of stuff.

It's kind of sad that Perry was doing pop songs as vacuous as "Jane Says" just a few years later.  You can find an enormous amount of info about this EP over at this great page.  I once read that the cover image is of a dead person during some war in Asia (lying on the ground) who was cropped out and reoriented vertically onto that image of a coastline.  I had always thought it was just Perry jumping in the air, during a particularly anorexic period of his life.  (When one is emulating Peter Murphy of Bauhaus, and/or Rozz Williams of Christian Death, and/or David Bowie, one has to forgo lots of calories.)

Helpful sticker on the 1993 Triple X reissue

Some more fond memories of California:
The blackberry field behind our condo, exploring Kirby Cove, Lombard Street, the occasional mini earthquake, feeding quails by hand in our backyard, seeing Joe Montana in a restaurant, going to a Warriors game, ice plants blanketing the hills of the Presidio, long drives to the big swimming pool in Marin County which often played Phil Collins songs on its PA system, a day trip to Silicon Valley, etc.

Informative and fashionable t-shirt I bought a few years ago

This is a photo I took for Fine Art Photography class at Loyola right before Halloween '97, late in the afternoon (hence the great shadows) in the French Market.  There were a lot of pumpkins being hawked.  I know it's a bit overexposed and hence  lacks enough dark tones, but I kind of like the washed-out, sunlit look of it.  According to his business card, his name was Zahdan Sterling, or maybe that was the name of his company.  Yes, there is a lot of brightly-colored, tie-dyed stuff in this photo.  I never noticed until after I developed it that there were two women hugging in the background.

I lost this camera, a fully manual old Ricoh or Nikon, when my rented canoe flipped in the Atchafalaya Swamp the following April!  One of the most harrowing experiences of my life... being stuck, alone, in water up to my neck, my bare feet on the muddy swamp bottom, about 100 feet offshore, in what is arguably the alligator capital of the world, with the tide rising and the sun about to set, peripherally worrying about getting some toes taken off by a snapping turtle.  After about 10 minutes, which seemed like 10 days, I figured out that to get back in a canoe, you have to hop in at one of the tips, so that the weight of the canoe and the weight of your body balance each other out.  Your first instinct is to try to get back in it on one of the broad sides, but it will keep flipping over every time.  The only reason I was there was to catch some reptiles and/or amphibians for my Herpetology class.  I did catch a cool water snake (a Nerodia fasciata, I think), and kept it as a pet for about a year before letting it go in Norco.

The only more harrowing experience I've had was when I was wandering in this unmarked grassy field in Chalmette or Violet, looking for... yup, reptiles and/or amphibians... in 2000.  I was holding only a tiny blue aquarium net.  Suddenly 4 dudes on ATV's peel up and surround me, one of them waving a rifle.  One of them may have been in a pickup truck, actually.  The armed one was an old redneck codger, screaming at me to get off his land.  I pointed out that there wasn't a No Trespassing sign, but this just made him angrier.  Somehow I weaseled my way out of it, and now I never do that sort of thing.  I guess a more harrowing thing that I witnessed was when my sister got swept away by a river current in the mid-'80s in California.  My dad and I ran along the bank, which was about a 10-foot high cliff, and I think he got her to grab onto his fishing pole or a branch.

Planets with similar climates: Bauhaus - "Kick In The Eye" (1981), Quicksand - "Fazer" (1992), Christian Death - "Desperate Hell" (1981), The Pop Group - "Colour Blind" (~1980), Sonic Youth feat. Mike Watt - "In The Kingdom #19" (1986), Moonshake - "City Poison" (1992), Fugazi - "Waiting Room" (1988).