Black Flag >> Try to stop us

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #65:

Black Flag - "Rise Above"

(SST Records, 1981)

This one is pretty self-explanatory.

Greg Ginn's breakneck 9-second guitar solo is one of the funniest and coolest things I've ever heard.  Who says punk bands can't do guitar solos?  I got into Black Flag backwards, having been a huge Rollins Band fan in the early to mid '90s.  Being too young to have experienced any of Black Flag's infamous shows in the '80s I've had to piece together an opinion about them from varied sources.  I would say overall I think they're quite overrated, but they definitely changed underground music dramatically.  I bought Damaged on cassette thru SST mailorder in summer of 1996, and got it on CD ten or so years later.  This is really the only Black Flag album that I can enthusiastically sit through, since I'm not a punk fan at all.  And I definitely get bored by the tedious metallic knuckle-dragging of their later LPs.  I specified "summer of 1996" above because a few months before that, I bought, read, and then tore up, page by page, a Henry Rollins book, because I was so fed up with the dude's self-righteous attitude.  In '93, I got a free white ROLLINS BAND sticker from The Mushroom and cut up the letters so that it made the phrase "NO SINBAD" (as in, the painfully unfunny comedian).  For some reason, I had this on the window in my room for many years.  The band posters I had on my wall / ceiling at this time included Faith No More (The Real Thing), Pantera (Vulgar Display Of Power), Public Enemy (Fear Of A Black Planet), Red Hot Chili Peppers (Mother's Milk), the Judgment Night soundtrack, etc.  And a life-size poster of David Robinson on my door, no joke.  So anyway, no matter what one's opinion of Henry Garfield (Rollins) is, "Rise Above" is just a phenomenal song that will always make the ol' neurons fire.  Even the possibly-comatose Mitch McConnell would go on an adrenaline-fueled rampage after hearing it.  I guess this song goes out to the Occupy Wall Street people, though they're hurting their own cause by this point with all their shenanigans.  I think this song is a good way to finish up the whole California Month thing, though it's not very representative of my overall musical likings.

Irony was always one of Black Flag's biggest weapons:

Here are some songs I ran out of time or energy to post during these epic California Months:

Concrete Blonde - "Scene Of A Perfect Crime" & "Dance Along The Edge"
American Music Club - "Last Harbor"

Fu Manchu - "Wurkin'"

The Black Watch - "Come Inside"

BPeople - "Time"

Bad Religion - "Suffer"

Idaho - "Sliding Past," "Save," & "Forever"

Deion Sanders - "Must Be The Money"

Tearist - some song or other

Richard Cheese - "Bullet The Blue Sky" (U2 cover)

Whirl (now called Whirr) - "Leave"

Pennywise - "The Secret"

Social Distortion - "Let It Be Me" & "Mommy's Little Monster"
Rollins Band - "Do It" (Pink Fairies cover)
The Kids Of Widney High - "Every Girl's My Girlfriend"
Red House Painters - "Drop" & "Down Through"
Fantômas - some song or other
Mellow Man Ace - "Hip Hop Creature"
They Eat Their Own - "Like A Drug"

...and may more

Planets with similar climates: Unwound - "New Energy" (1995), Suicidal Tendencies - "You Can't Bring Me Down" (1990), Fugazi - "Merchandise" (1989), Pennywise - "The Secret" (1991).

Amoeba >> Might look like we're drowning

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #64:

Amoeba - "Ignoring Gravity"

(Lektronic Soundscapes, 1997 / Release Entertainment, 1999; recorded in 1994 or '95)

Here is a beautifully creepy ditty by the Robert Rich-led duo Amoeba, from their sophomore album Watchful.  It's obviously ultra-indebted to Brian Eno in more ways than one.

How is this not one of the most-discussed/adored songs of the last few decades?  The guitar is just impeccably recorded, like the sun is playing it up in the sky in a dream or something.  The overall production values are just spectacular, as you'd expect from an audio perfectionist like R. Rich.  I got this CD in the early '00s, but seem to have misplaced it.  I'm almost positive I didn't sell it or anything, but I'm also not sure if I have the original version on Lektronic Soundscapes or the reissue on Release.  For now I can't regale you with much more info on the band / album, but this song should pique you enough to go do some research and want to dwell in their biodome of sound.  Their second and final album, Pivot, is worth hearing, but I have not heard their debut EP, Eye Catching.

I'm rushing through these posts tonight, trying to get in under the 11 PM ET deadline for the end of November, so the quality is not as amazing as you've come to expect.  Sorry?  Nah.  I'm mad that I ran out of time to post a bunch of pics of myself as a kid in San Fran, though.

Planets with similar climates: Bark Psychosis - "The Loom" (1993), Brian Eno - "By This River" (1977), Sting - "Fragile" (1987), Peter Gabriel - "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" (1985).

New Math >> I've been waiting in the cold moonlight

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #63:

New Math - "Invocation"

(415 Records [U.S.] / CBS Records [Europe], 1982)

I don't know much about this band, other than the fact that they changed their name to Jet Black Berries.  (I bought a cassette by JBB ca. 2006, but hated it.)  I bought this New Math EP, They Walk Among You, three years ago just based on the cool band name, cover photo, and album title.  The band members look pretty suave on the back cover.  (This mp3 doesn't want to play properly, so I might take it down at some point.  It's the only mp3 I've ever posted that has done this.  Sorry.)

Just a cool song, not much more to say.  I have to say it's uncanny how identical the present-day band The Horrors sound to this song, down to the singer's dramatic snarl and vocal phrasing.  (Well, prior to their laid-back new album Skying, anyway.)

I played some 21 on this court at the end of Annunciation St. today.  The guy I was playing was pretty good, and we each scored about 40 points total before his lunch break ended and he had to leave.  Later I met the darned sweetest girl ever, working at this plant nursery on the Westbank that I never go to.  She had that short indie-girl haircut that was prevalent in the '90s, and seemed quite caffeinated, but in a good way.  I asked if she was from Georgia, based on her accent, and she said no, she was from Shreveport.  I related to her that I had recently asked my dad if said city (approx. the 100th biggest in the U.S.) had any art museums, aquariums, etc., and he said "Shreveport has nothing of cultural significance."  She seemed to agree with my dad on this.  I bought a crassula and a phlox.

I've been meaning to post these for a long time, so I might as well now... I seem to remember that there's a labyrinthine history behind the popularization of the "Fuck you I'm an anteater" meme, so you can look it up if you want to, but why would you want to do that when life is so short?  The other one is just a spoof of it.

Planets with similar climates: The Horrors - "New Ice Age" (2008), The Sound - "Winning" (1981).

Duster >> The air is on fire

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #62:

Duster - "Topical Solution"

(Up Records, 1997)

This song is a beautiful slow-motion apocalypse, with some lullaby-worthy guitar plinking and what I like to call an overall "autumnal feel."  I think he says "The air is on fire" at around the 1:11 mark, but you really need to have ears the size of a caracal's to understand what this sleepy m.f. is singing, and I have been wrong about lyrics before.

Amazingly, Duster were formed by some dudes from a screamo band called Mohinder.  I got into Duster on the same Up Next sampler CD I mentioned in the Tiffany Anders post yesterday, and was immediately impressed by how they arrived with their own fully-formed sound, not to mention a cool name.  "Topical Solution" (dig that double meaning) is probably Duster's best-known song, since the mp3 page on Up's site has offered it as a free download for many years, over a decade by my estimation.  Rock out, rock out, rock out, rock out.  Duster's primitivist approach to instrument-playing is a breath of fresh air at first, but can wear thin over the course of a 17-song album, especially when the first half of this album (Stratosphere) has most of the highlights.  As a reviewer on rateyourmusic.com said, "Great music to mow the lawn to, thats how i got into it lolz."  I bought this CD in 1999 or 2000, and got their decent EP 1975 a little bit later, and got their other album, Contemporary Movement, in 2008.

While googling "duster stratosphere" to find a cover pic for this album in .000001 second, I found this photo, which I think fits perfectly with the song, and even eerily matches the three-color font scheme I had already chosen for the band / song / label / year field above:

Yes, I like using chaos theory / serendipity / synchronicity whenever possible... The pic is from this page, and is titled sottacquagrande.jpg, whatever that means.

Planets with similar climates: Codeine - "Kitchen Light" (1993), Lowercase - "Willing To Follow You Down" (1998).


Currently eating or drinking: Alouette Berries & Cream cream cheese; Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout (still brewed using water from a well dug in 1758; possibly the best beer I've ever had).

Trespassers William >> If I would dream your dreams

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #61:

Trespassers William - "Love You More"

(Sonik Wire Records, 2002 / Bella Union Records, 2003 / Nettwerk Records, 2004)

This song is from their 2002 debut album Different Stars, but I'm not sure which version: the original 2002 release on Sonik Wire Records (apparently the band's own vanity label) or the 2003 reissue on Bella Union Records, or the 2004 reissue on Nettwerk Records.  Yes, lots of labels have fought tooth and nail for this band.  Hilariously, I had this song for years under the name "Just Like This", but I found out just the other day when researching the lyrics that it's actually "Love You More."  Both songs have the phrase "Just like" in their lyrics.  (I'm not sure if they intentionally named this song after the famous Buzzcocks song of the same name.)  So anyway, I thought about posting "JLT" instead, but decided "LYM" is just as good, if not better.

When underfed lumberjacks attack

I don't think TW are still based on California, but they were when this album was recorded.  The band's name is some clever reference to Winnie The Pooh, but it still annoys me after learning that, and will never propel them to superstardom.  The singer, Anna-Lynne Williams, has the world's best cheekbones, but sounds like she's always on the verge of falling asleep in her cornflakes.  I almost bought this CD once for $2.50 but passed, because I knew I'd rarely listen to it, due to how energy-sapping it is.  I mean, this song even has the lyric "All of my songs are sad."  O rly?  The way she likes to stretch one-syllable words out into several syllables reminds me of Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star) and Denise Nouvion (Memoryhouse), and not coincidentally, those bands' tunes are in a similar vein as those of TW.
In order to escape constant scrutiny by paparazzi and to make sure her record sales don't balloon too high, Anna-Lynne has launched a solo career under the alias Lotte Kestner.

I went to see an Open Ears Music series concert by Rex Gregory last night, which was pretty amazing, maybe the most out-there experimental performance I've ever seen.  Who would've guessed that the mild-mannered sax dude from Sasha Masakowski's band and Tarik Hassan's band had it in him?  At 1:15 AM, at the end of 3 hours of mutated sounds, someone in the crowd (the show's organizer?) quipped "Okay, soundcheck's over... Time for the show to start," which made myself and many others LOL out loud.  The whole show will probably be posted in mp3 form at the Open Ears site soon.  They were also giving out "Occupy Your Ears" bumper stickers to anyone who tipped; I gave $5.  (There's rarely any cover at the Blue Nile.)  During the intermission at about 11:30, I strolled over to the book store on Frenchmen St. and bought Quartet by Jean Rhys, which I had seen there three weeks earlier.  The owner pointed out to me that the famous local painter Michelopoulos lives just a few houses down, in the pink building next to Yuki Izakaya.  I had brought up the topic of M. because the last time I was in there, I had overheard him telling a tourist couple that he used to see M. walking around the French Quarter selling his paintings for $100 in the '70s.  Here is a typical Michelopoulos, with thick globby lines, oversaturated colors, and bendy buildings... not exactly subtle on the Van Gogh worship:

My photography class visited his old studio (near where Royal St. meets Toulouse St., I think) in '97, but he now has a new, bigger one.

Planets with similar climates: Mazzy Star - "Into Dust" (1993), Memoryhouse - "Lately" (2009), Velour 100 - "Stare Into Light" (1997).

Steve Roach & Robert Rich >> Touch that space

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #60:

Steve Roach & Robert Rich - "Touch"

(Hearts Of Space Records, 1992)

Two of the main dudes of '80s ambient music got together for a crazy party, threw all the rules of ambient music out the window, let it all hang out, etc., and this is what we got.  Well, they didn't really throw all the rules out the window, and there was probably no throwing involved... maybe some tea, some fondue, and some Trivial Pursuit.  In any case, this track, the last one on the album, is particularly weightless and beautiful, so distant and ephemeral that it's barely even there.  I love the delicate guitar plucking.  The other tracks on it are more in a tribal, New Age-y (read: yoga-friendly) vein.

I bought this CD, Soma, several years ago but have only listened to it twice.  I found out on Wikipedia that while Rich was a kid growing up in the desert, he was a big fan of cacti and succulents, just like I am today.  The title of this post is the name of a tremendous rock song by Magic Dirt, which I found in about a nanosecond by simply typing "touch" into my iTunes' search field, and as soon as I saw said song title pop up, I smiled, knowing that Fortuna's wheel had spun my way.  I will be posting that song someday.

Speaking of touching space, this Mark Sanchez flinch has been cracking me up for three weeks straight:

Planets with similar climates: Biosphere - "Poa Alpina" (1997), Tangerine Dream - "Sequent C'" (1973), Brian Eno - "1/2" (1978).

Tiffany Anders >> There was a time when we saw eye to eye

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #59:

Tiffany Anders - "Runnin' From No Place To Nowhere"

(Up Records, 1998)

This is surely Tiffany's best-known song, since Up Records' website offered it as a free mp3 for around a decade.  I first heard this song on an Up Records sampler CD called Up Next in early '98, and immediately pegged her for indie stardom, like Cat Power with more dramatic pipes.  Info about Tiffany Anders is hard to come by online, but apparently she was born and raised in L.A., then moved up to the Northwest for a while, and now lives in Cali again.  I would have to guess Loretta Lynn is one of her idols.  Her mom, indie director Allison Anders (Gas Food Lodging), used to take a teenaged Tiffany to punk shows in L.A.  Some critics have been outright hostile in regards to Tiffany's singing ability or lack thereof, but I think her voice is just dandy, and easily one of the most distinctive I've ever heard.  And I have to wonder if Cat Power's "Keep On Runnin'" was directly inspired by "Runnin' From..."

This song was recorded at some studio called Bob's Place in Amherst, MA, but I think it still qualifies for California status.  Those high-pitched backing vocals are by none other than J Mascis, who had a bit part in Gas Food Lodging and did much of its soundtrack.  Tiffany's next album was produced by PJ Harvey (allegedly after Tiffany handed a demo tape to PJ on a New York City street), but garnered just as little attention as her debut EP did.  Unfortunately, she has apparently not released anything in the last ten years.  Cue sad faces across Indie Nation...

:(

Today I randomly stopped in at a new place on Freret called Dat Dog, which only serves hot dogs.  I got one with Guinness beer cooked into it, on a perfect sourdough bun.  They were loudly playing "music" by the Strokes and the Killers, so I made sure to eat outside.  But I give them points for playing it on an actual turntable.  Then I went to the Mushroom and spent about 3 hours listening to used CDs on their Discman, and bought many, and picked up around a dozen free ones that they were giving away by the stairwell.  Coincidentally, they had Del The (Tha) Funky Homosapien's first album on used CD (see previous post), so I gave it a listen, since I'd been wanting to hear it for almost 20 years.  It was pretty disappointing.  Cue sad face with three eyeballs.  (Update: Nevermind; I found out I had already rated it 1 star out of 5 on Rate Your Music a while back.)

Planets with similar climates: Cat Power - "Keep On Runnin'" (1998/2003), Neko Case - "Hold On, Hold On" (2006), Rainer Maria - "The Imperatives" (2002).

Del The Funky Homosapien >> Then I bury the hatchet

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #58:

Del The Funky Homosapien - "No Need For Alarm"

(Elektra Records, 1993)

Here's another major-label rap classic, which I have made non-downloadable (streamable only).

I bought this CD in October '94 as part of my first order from Columbia House or BMG music club; you know, that mythical first order where you select 10 or 12 CDs for 99 cents.  I also got Liz Phair's Exile In Guyville, Black Sabbath's Paranoid, Nirvana's In Utero, Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle, and probably some other noteworthy stuff.  And Green Day's Dookie.  No comment on that one...  Today I was trying to think about why I bought this CD, and I realized that it was because I was enthralled by the Del + Dinosaur Jr. collabo song "Missing Link" on the Judgment Night soundtrack, which I had bought a year earlier right after it came out.  And I had read that he was related to Ice Cube.  Anyway, "No Need For Alarm" is the title track from Del's second album, and puts most rap from the last two decades to shame.  It has too much bragging for my tastes, but oh well.  AllMusic Guide accurately said "Without a strong sense of direction, No Need for Alarm is frustratingly uneven, rich and transcendent one moment and aimless and repetitive the next. Still, it's a challenging, unique, and uncompromising follow-up, one well worth picking up for anyone interested in either the evolution of West Coast hip-hop or just the evolution of one of its most talented, eccentric, and gifted artists."

Del also co-founded the underground supergroup Heiroglyphics, and even drew their cool logo.  (You can see it on the little boombox he is holding on the cover of No Need For Alarm.)  I bought their album 3rd Eye Vision in about 2000 or 2001, and it's pretty good, but I haven't given it a second listen for some reason.  I also just remembered that Del has done some rapping for Gorillaz, but I've only heard like, two Gorillaz songs.

Today I assembled my new 6-by-8 foot greenhouse for the first time, and then checked out mini camcorders at Sears.  Currently watching the Saints shred the Giants to the tune of about 350 first-half yards; we pretty much never lose on Monday nights in the Brees-Payton era.

Planets with similar climates: Poor Righteous Teachers - "Can I Start This?" (1990), Aceyalone - "The Greatest Show On Earth" (1995), Above The Law - "Freedom Of Speech" (1990), Justin Warfield - "Teenage Caligula" (1993).

Minutemen >> Serious as a heart attack

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #57:

Minutemen - "Anxious Mo-Fo"

(SST Records, 1984)

The double LP Double Nickels On The Dime came out in '84, a CD version came out in '87, and another (remastered) CD edition came out in '89.  This mp3 is from my '87 CD.  I used the line "As serious as a heart attack" in my list of awesomest basslines.  There's not much to say about this album that hasn't already been said, and I think most of its songs are between mediocre and submediocre, so I won't sit here and pontificate about it.  Lots of mediocre albums have changed the course of music history, and this is one of them.  Almost every time I've gone to Euclid Records in New Orleans, the guy has played this album, so if you live in NOLA and have a hankering for some Minutemen, you know where to go.  I don't know if Flea would have a career without Mike Watt.  This song has so many astonishingly sick basslines that I almost can't believe my ears every time I hear it.  The drumming is also amazing, of course.  Overall, I just wish it was two or three times longer.  I prefer their album The Punch Line, though it's barely EP length.  I bought a Minutemen compilation cassette called Post-Mersh Vol. 1 from SST mailorder in '96, but didn't get Double Nickels until many years later.  As most people know by now, their song "Corona" was used as the theme song to MTV's show Jackass.

Another example of Watt's bass mastery is his guest playing on Sonic Youth's "In The Kingdom #19".

On the subject of heart attacks, my initials are CPR.

Today I found a little place in Houma called Mommie's Mediterranean Lebanese Market, which has been open for about a year.  I had a chicken shawarma sandwich (w/ free hummus and salad), a beef & lamb gyro (w/ same sides), two little spinach pies, and this sour / slightly spicy yogurt called labna, which I could only stand a few bites of.  Not bad for only $18, and comparable with Byblos in New Orleans, which I view as the gold standard for this kind of food.  I then hit Bed Bath & Beyond for some random little things, such as little plates to use as trays under my cactus pots; then shot hoops at Gray Park for 1.5 hrs. in windy 50º weather with puddles everywhere.  In other words: paradise.

Planets with similar climates: The Prime Movers - "In Touch With You" (1984), The Pop Group - "We Are Time" (1979), Bauhaus - "Kick In The Eye" (1980), Moonshake - "City Poison" (1992), Enon - "Murder Sounds" (2003), Sushirobo - "Talk Show" (2004), Pavement - "Stereo" (1996).

Constance Demby >> Hammer time travel

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #56:

Constance Demby - "The Longing"

(Gandarva Records, 1982 / Hearts Of Space Records, 1988)

Since this track constitutes half of the album's entire length, I will take it down at some point, and maybe put up a little excerpt, because I don't want to just give half of the album away forever.  Constance herself might show up at my door and beat that ass.

I bought this CD, Sacred Space Music, in summer of last year on a total whim at a pawn shoppe for about 50 cents, despite the religious-themed album title.  I guess I got it because I was somewhat familiar with Hearts Of Space Recs., and I'm a big fan of the hammered dulcimer, which sounds kind of like a mandolin crossed with a xylophone, and you know I'm going to be curious about any album with the phrase "space music" in its title.  She plays dulcimer and piano on this track, and the viola is played by someone named Toni Marcus.  At around the 11-minute mark, the dulcimer fades out, and the piano and viola take the spotlight for a few haunting minutes.  Apparently Demby is quite famous in New Age music circles, but this album deserves to be more than just a cult classic.  The other track on it, "Radiance," has some wordless "Ahh" vocalizing by Demby.

J-card from the 1982 cassette

You have to admire New Agers' lack of comprehending that they can come off as cheesy or overblown when talking about their music.  This year I bought another Demby album, 1986's Novus Magnificat: Through The Stargate, but I'm not feeling it quite as much.

In sarcasm-is-not-dead news, check out these Occupy-inspired pepper spray reviews on Amazon, partly set in motion by this offhand comment by Megyn Kelly last week.  It's kind of unfortunate, because in my opinion she's one of the few non-sociopaths on that whole channel.

Planets with similar climates - Trial Of The Bow - "Father Of The Flower" (1997), Macha - "Light The Chinese Flower" (1998), Andreas Vollenweider - "Belladonna" (1982).

The Autumns >> Birds of the night cry out and swoon like the blood won't dry

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #55:

The Autumns - "Boy With The Aluminum Stilts"

(Risk Records, 1999)

I wrote this entry a few weeks ago and it vanished on me, so this is a more bare-bones version of it that I'm writing from memory, sorry.  The quality of the song itself is readily evident, so I don't need to sit here and explain why I'm posting it.  It's really close to the perfect song, and even the way it comes to a sudden end is pretty cool.

I got into The Autumns in 1999 or 2000 via the shoegaze-oriented Blisscent mailing list, and I guess I bought this CD around that time.  I found out they played in New Orleans in December of '99 (I think) and literally not a single person showed up.  I don't even know if they played, or just left for the next city.  I can't believe I missed it.  This band had everything needed to become huge: a cool name, an ideal producer (Simon Raymonde of Cocteau Twins), passionate songs (verging on "emo" territory, in fact), pretension, cool haircuts, tight shirts, proximity to Hollywood, etc.  As for pretension, this album is actually titled In The Russet Gold Of This Vain Hour.  It came out in 2000, but "Boy With..." was released as a 3-track CD single in '99.  (Local store The Mushroom has it for a few bucks, and I plan on going back to snag it any day now.  It has a cover of "Garlands" by Cocteau Twins.)  The Autumns had a pretty fervent online fanbase, and I assume they still do, though I'm not sure if they are still recording or touring.  I had their debut album The Angel Pool and debut EP Suicide At Strell Park, but sold them both long ago.  I should probably undo that.

The music video is not superb, and I doubt it was ever shown on MTV:

Went to Winston's Pub last night for the first time and had some interesting happenings in less than an hour; drove Vanessa's new car for the first time while the music of pop phenom Rihanna was blasted.  Apparently every man, woman and child in America has a huge crush on her, and I can't say I blame them, but she is one messed-up individual.

Some trees flooded by the Mississippi River in Bridge City, LA; 6/13/08, not long before sundown:

Maybe it looks mundane, but to me those willow leaves at the top center really add the most amount of interest to it.  Especially since that species (Salix nigra) is considered a "junk tree" by plant geeks, since it's fast-growing, weak-wooded, and and susceptible to lots of diseases.  It's pretty much the predominant tree along the edge of the entire Miss. River, since it can grow on pure rocks and can take lots of flooding.  Anyway, I like how the willow leaves look like fingers or claws in this shot, and the pleated look of the water's surface shows that there are lots of tumultuous cross-currents going on underneath, due to all the big boulders there that you can't see.  It's just a really queasy and ominous photo overall, at least in my mind.  I remember this night well because it was insanely hot and humid, and I ran diagonals on the concrete sidewall of the levee, and when I got home, all the TV stations were doing lengthy tributes to Tim Russert, who had died that day.  I wish there were more dudes like him in our political media.

Planets with similar climates: U2 - "The Unforgettable Fire" (1984), Sunny Day Real Estate - "Disappear" (2000), National Skyline - "A Million Circles" (2001), Simple Minds - "Someone Somewhere In Summertime" (1982), The Joy Formidable - "Whirring" (2008).

Bethany Curve >> You will need something stronger still

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #54:

Bethany Curve - "Long Beach"

(Unit Circle Rekkids, 2001)

This band is so California that their name and this song's name are actual places in Cali, though their sound is strictly England ca. 1990-93.  This album is called You Brought Us Here, which is the best retort that a weary parent can make after their kids ask "Are we there yet?"

The vocal harmonizing starting at 3:05 is one of the most perfect things ever, and the guitar symphony near the end is a winner too.  The krautrock-y drum beat and undulating bassline round the recipe out perfectly.  This is arguably BC's best-known song, so I wanted to post a different one, but I didn't want to be a dumbass.  I have their two previous CDs, but those tend more towards gothy pouting, while this one is more melodic and shoegazey.  Richard Millang's vocals are beautiful, but are not exactly easy to make out; for a hilariously inaccurate stab at the lyrics, click here.  I'm pretty sure "You will need something stronger still" is an actual lyric, but maybe not.

I interviewed Bethany Curve for my zine in 2002, and I remember Millang telling me how Black Francis (Frank Black) is/was his all-time lyrical idol, something that you would surely never guess from his lyrics or delivery.  But that's preferable to someone simply aping his or her idol.  I remember jokingly accusing the band of stealing the inspiration for their name from Catherine Wheel (female name + word related to circles), and he told me he hated them.  (CW's album Ferment is my #2 favorite album ever.)  They were the first band that ever did an interview with me, so I have to give them big ups.  (Read my review of this album by clicking here and scrolling down to Cold Comfort.  Read all the other reviews on that page too, of course.)  BC never played in New Orleans as far as I know, so I never got to see them, but they might still be together.

I wore my Barry Sanders jersey today, but the Lions still got whupped; tomorrow is #1 LSU vs. #3 Arkansas.  A song about a beach is the only reason I need to post this TV still:

Lara Goodison on U.K. TV show Shipwrecked, 2008

Planets with similar climates: Slowdive - "Alison" (1993), Verve - "Slide Away" (1993), Tearwave - "Lotus Flower" (2007).

Angry Samoans >> I can't take it no more

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #53:

Angry Samoans - "You Stupid Jerk"

(Bad Trip Records, 1982 / Triple X Records, 1995)

This is from an Angry Samoans compilation CD called The Unboxed Set which I bought shortly after Katrina for 50 cents at a flea market.  It was badly water-damaged and the booklet was stuck together; I later gave it to a thrift store or threw it away.  The song is originally from their 1982 album Back From Samoa.  I don't think any of the band members were Samoan, or ever went there.  This song goes out to Newt Gingrich, as does the Samoans' more complex ditty "You Stupid Asshole."

The Muffs covered this song on their '93 debut album, under the name "Stupid Jerk."

Today I played basketball (a few games of four-on-four and several games of 21) for about two hours, and yesterday I shot by myself for three hours.

How much would I be willing to pay for a vial of Juliana Hatfield's sweat?  You might be surprised!

Planets with similar climates: Ween - "You Fucked Up" (1989), The Raincoats - "Go Away" (1980).

Choir Invisible >> Have you got the weapons?

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #52:

Choir Invisible - "The Distance From..."

(Frontier Records, 1981)

This is a pretty complex & intense song, representing yet another winner from Frontier Records.  It was clearly among the state-of-the-art creations of its era, an era which was very competitive when it came to this kind of music.  So of course this band went completely unnoticed.

I didn't like the rest of this (self-titled) album too much, but maybe you will disagree, so you might want to check the whole album out, but don't expect anything else like this song.  It has never been released on CD.  I'm not sure why they buried this song at the very end of the album.  The basslines in this song are really haunting, and the trebly, quavering guitar parts add some suspense.  Pretty much everything about it is great, to put it plainly.  Someone on the site Discogs.com with a tenuous grasp of English commented "[P]erhaps the one I that is most amusing to me is the fact the band photos on back are so strikingly similar to those on Siouxsie & The Banshees Join Hands released 2 years prior that you know there was quite a bit of thought put into it."  This reminds me of a local Interpol-worshipping called The Public who had a photo in one of their EPs that was identical to almost every Interpol photo; they even had their own Carlos D clone rocking some slick KROQ hair. 

Choir Invisible's family tree includes The Adolescents, The Flesh Eaters, The Three O'Clock, Flyboys, and surely others.  Choir Invisible apparently only put out this s/t LP and a 1984 EP / mini-album called Sea To Shining Sea.

Back to those two pics of Alex Wagner that I included in my last post... Something about them made me feel kinda weird at the time, and today I realized that militant conservative vigilantes like to post photos, and even home / work addresses, of their enemies, in order to make it easier for their quarry to be located by that one mentally unhinged Joe RedState who might want to know.  (This is especially done with doctors who perform abortions.)  So rather than simply print Wagner's Second Amendment soundbyte, someone made sure to stick it over a large, clear photo of her face.  And the other photo has the ominous Ammoland.com watermark on it.  For legal reasons, I will say that I'm not saying they want her to be targeted / harassed / killed, but let's not kid ourselves, these are maniacal gun nuts and they pick and choose parts of the Constitution to follow.  

Fun Fact: I had no plans to even mention guns in this post.  The song lyric I decided to pluck to use as this post's title is mere coincidence... and I just watched a movie called Serendipity.  (Bye-bye man card.)

This has been repeatedly voted one of the worst websites on earth, but it's hilarious and has made her a minor celebrity in the U.K.: Ling's Cars

Ling with her nuclear missile launcher truck

I've shown a few of the collages I've made using only one day's comic strips, but this is by far the best one I've done.  As you can see, it was made using only the comics from the 8/18/09 issue of the Times-Picayune:

Usually I make myself do them on the same day, but I did this one the next day for some reason.  (Read each row from left to right.)  I used the top from one of those gift box that you can throw gifts in if you're too lazy to wrap them, but I stupidly didn't buy any more of these boxes for future use.  I should actually put up a video clip instead, because the stars really do sparkle like crazy if you move your head the slightest bit.  I think that's what messed up my camera's autofocus and led to the bad pic quality.

I was planning to go see Indian Jewelry / Prince Rama / Kindest Lines tonight, but I called the club (Siberia) and found out that IJ cancelled for unknown reasons, and local band The Buoyant Sea were added as another opener.  So I'm gonna stay home and do situps while watching Terra Nova, which is supposedly gonna be cancelled soon.

NUH UHHHHHH!!! Mom And Daughter Video Themselves . . . FREAKIN It . . . To MY NECK MY BACK By KHIA!!! (The UNCENSORED Version)

Planets with similar climates: The Horrors - "New Ice Age" (2008), Autumnfair - "Collide" (~1989), Faith No More - "Kindergarten" (1992), The Church - "Constant In Opal" (1984), Joy Division - "Twenty Four Hours" (1980).

Psi Com >> The city bleeds rosy veins to empty streets

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #51:

Psi Com - "City Of 9 Gates"

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

The post I wrote about a band called The Autumns mysteriously vanished, so I had to turn to a quickie alternate plan, and my oh my what a Plan B it is.  I mentioned my longtime obsession with this song in my other Psi Com post, so I decided to finally pull the trigger and post it.  I think the lyrics might be about an acid trip, but hopefully not.

I've had a crush on Alex Wagner for some time now, based on her frequent guest appearances on The Rachel Maddow Show and other such cable political shows.  She even helped me forget about my huge crush on fellow MSNBC contributor Ana Marie Cox, which is no small feat.  So I was overjoyed to see her get her own show this week, NOW With Alex Wagner.  I was pretty surprised to learn she was the editor-in-chief of hipster rag The Fader from 2003-7.  I'll admit that I used to skim that magazine strictly to determine what bands to avoid, but I still think it's neato that she was so immersed in music.  Wagner is a pretty powerful last name in showbiz, but I don't know anything about her ancestry, other than the fact that she appears to be at least half Asian.  (A guy from Psi Com looked Asian too, but I forgot his name.)  She looks like she's about 15, and constantly has this infectious ear-to-ear grin, as though she knows she has the winning Powerball ticket in her back pocket, even when casually eviscerating a douchebag pol.  Much like Maddow, she has a mind like a supercomputer and totally guides any conversation she's in.  I've never really seen anything quite like it, so check her show out.  There are hardly any clips on YouTube of her talking politics, and there are only a handful of pics of her on the Google, but I assure you this will soon change as America falls in love with her charming ways and makes her its first female President in about 25 years.  You heard it on Blowtorch Baby first.  Hopefully she won't tap any of those stupid Fader-approved hipster acts to play at her Inauguration.  (Can you even imagine how much America's worldwide standing would plummet if The Rapture or Sleigh Bells screeched their way through the Star-Spangled Banner or "Jesus, Take The Wheel" or whatever it is that they sing at Inaugurations?  We'd become a third-world nation overnight.)
In the meantime, mouth-breathers on conservative websites are having a field day disparaging her for her comments about the Second Amendment.  For example, this unflattering pic in a post at a site named Ammoland.com (really) is titled Freedom-Hating-News-Annalist-Alex-Wagner.jpg:

"I will squash your guns into non-deadly metallic implements such as silverware or paper clips, and you won't even be able to shoot me while I do it."

ROFL... "Annalist"?  Was that supposed to be a clever pun, or was it just a typo by their tobaccy-chewing intern goon?
She inspired this hatred by using her pesky First Amendment rights to say:

This face kills fascists

I don't necessarily agree with that, but I don't disagree with it either.  In a perfect world, guns would have never been invented, but they have been invented, so you have to face about the old adage "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns."  And by "outlaws" I mean "Republicans and some random crackheads n' thugs."  (Go look up the origin of the word thug; it's not what you think.)  When I'm President, guns will still be legal, but it will be like in Holland where you have to prove you only want it for hunting, take a comprehensive course on using one, and submit to frequent home checks.  And even the tiniest offense will result in a lifetime loss of gun privileges.  Like, if you even cough on an American flag or pet a bald eagle's feathers in the wrong direction, NO GUNS FOR YOU.

Yesterday I donated some plants & a little cypress tree to Parkway Partners, then sold a bunch of CDs to Skully'z for the first time in 1.5 years.  Right before driving in to NOLA, I gave a baby Live Oak tree to an elderly guy who was walking down my street, who told me his name is Donald or Ronald Brown.  He was ecstatic.  While driving down Bourbon Street to Skully'z, I noticed a jazz singer with a great voice crooning in a courtyard, so I parked and then walked about a dozen blacks back to see who it was.  Her name was Eilleen, I think, and the place was called Cafe Beignet, you know, that place with those corny statues of Pete Fountain, Louis Armstrong, and Chris Owens out front.  It was my first time ever actually going in it, since it's so tourist-trap-y.  I watched her sing for about half an hour, with little finches perching on my table and on nearby wire chairs begging for crumbs, while I ate a blueberry yogurt on a crystal-clear, crisp (65º) afternoon.  It was pretty much my own little slice of paradise.  It was just her, a black lady, accompanied by a seated white dude on jazz guitar.  I finally went to Skully'z and bought Simple Minds' New Gold Dream on CD.  (Already had it on LP & cassette.)  We chuckled at a $400 Smiths box set he had just gotten in.  Then I headed to Domino Sound Record Shack and donated some free seed packets I'd picked up at Parkway Partners; I bought a nice Rahsaan Roland Kirk LP for 6 bucks, and the owner (Matt) let me have a bunch of The Wire magazines for free.  One of them has the band Broadcast on the cover, so I was reminded of their singer's recent death; I never liked their music too much, though.

Today I randomly ended up back to that part of town and saw that some sort of festival was going on, so of course I had to check it out.  Zion Trinity and Sharon Martin performed; I got some bland macaroni & cheese for $3.  An obese lady was sitting a table to sign copies of her book titled Wet, but I decided not to check out if it was about... that.  Apparently no one else wanted to either, because her table had no visitors.  I bought a few more things at Domino, including a Chameleons 7" I'd been wanting for many years.  Matt played some of Matana Roberts' new album and said he thinks it's a masterpiece.  Just another weekend of stumbling onto lots of cool shit in NOLA.  Not to rub it in or anything, but why anyone would want to live anywhere else on earth is beyond me...  Oh yeah, the heat, humidity, crime, govt. corruption, bad schools.  Well, they build character, as the dad in Calvin & Hobbes used to always say.  And another bonus is that Nicholas Cage recently moved away from here (I think), though he is allegedly constructing an elaborate pyramidal tomb in one of the cemeteries downtown.

Speaking of people with minds like supercomputers, I found this clip at about 2AM last night.  Many YouTube commenters have accused it of being a backwards video, but it looks legit:

Planets with similar climates: Catherine Wheel - "Ferment" (1992), Plexi - "Peel / He" (1995) & "Peel" (1996), The Sound - "Missiles" (~1979) & "New Dark Age" (1981), Christian Death - "Cavity - First Communion" (1981), The Chameleons - "Second Skin" (1983).

Cush >> Try stickin' to the pool and the dive

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #50:

Cush - "The Touch"

(Northern Records, 2000)

There are two David Bowie references in the lyrics: "Ziggy is dancing up a recall" and "Major Tom."  It also references the Stones ("I've been lookin' for satisfaction") and the Beatles ("Hey Jude, is that the best that we've done?").  So it has several strikes against it from a lyrical standpoint, but luckily they are overcome by its melodic and instrumental elegance.

I dig male falsetto vocals, and I was pretty shocked to find out Cush's singer was white.  I found this possibly-factual bit of information on a YouTube posting of this song: "The legendary first release by the mysterious revolving membership band called Cush. This album caused quite a buzz in 2000, especially due to the Cush Manifesto that was accidentally circulated at Cornerstone 2000. This manifesto, reprinted below, best describes their sound.
In a declaration of Truth and its winding road, members of the Prayer Chain, LSU [Lifesavers Underground], Honey, Fold Zandura, Duraluxe, Bloomsday, The Lassie Foundation, and Adam Again, have agreed to document below (the CUSH Manifesto) in which all members will seek the Truth and its Consequences. The result, A New Sound.
CUSH."

(This is presumably a spoof of Valerie Solanis' notorious SCUM Manifesto.)  So Cush was apparently a Christian rock supergroup, but you would never know any of this stuff from the CD booklet, which is pretty bare-bones.  I got it around 10 years ago, I think after hearing about it on the Blisscent shoegaze mailing list, and its cover photo of someone doing a flamboyant ski jump still cracks me up.  Some other good songs on the album include "Porpoise", which is dark and choppy with a nocturnal trip-hop soul; the elegiac "The Bomb Was Brighter Than The Stars"; and the shoulda-been hit "Angelica".

Yesterday in Hammond I heard one of my favorite songs ever on the radio in a Goodwill while buying some books:

I would wager that Cush are probably Talk Talk fans.

I bought some book about guitars several years ago just so I could rip out this two-page spread on the Fender Jazzmaster and hang it on my wall:

It's the coolest, sexiest and best guitar / musical instrument ever, and you can See Cush's guitarist using one in this live clip of "The Touch."  It was the guitar of choice for surf and shoegaze bands, and was the main axe of Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr., Elvis Costello, Magic Dirt, The Surfaris, and Curve, plus newer acts like Film School, The Horrors, A Place To Bury Strangers, Marnie Stern, No Joy, etc.  And, uh... TAD used one too.  I could write a whole article on it, and I think I will at some point.

Planets with similar climates: Nation Skyline - "Cadence Of Water" (2001), The Sundays - "Blood On My Hands" (1992), Mercury Rev - "Car Wash Hair" (1991) & "Sudden Ray Of Hope" (1995), Yo La Tengo - "Pablo And Andrea" (1995), Catherine Wheel - "Indigo Is Blue" (1992), Talk Talk - "Life's What You Make It" (1986).

Steve Roach >> Building something out of nothing

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #49:

Steve Roach - "Structures From Silence"

(Fortuna Records, 1984 / Projekt Records, 2001)

I will probably replace this with a shorter edited version in the future, or make it just streaming, but for now, here's the entire 28-minute monster.  (Note: This mp3 is from the original 1984 Fortuna CD, not the remastered 2001 Projekt CD.  The latter has a terrible alternate cover.)  Most ambient composers try to get the warmest, most liquid-y, analog sound possible; this track stands out because you can hear its unpolished digital veneer, giving it that intangible retro-futuristic feel that so many bands of today spend all day using ProTools striving for.

I got this CD a mere two years ago at a thrift store; coincidentally, the one to which I gave that cherry laurel tree a few days ago.  The first two pieces on it are decent, but this track blew me away right from the opening seconds, and always will.  You can download a free sampler medley of all three tracks here.  In October 2002, some magazine called New Age Voice named Structures From Silence the #4 most influential ambient album ever, with Roach's own Dreamtime Return occupying the #2 slot.  Brian Eno's Ambient #1: Music For Airports was a no-brainer pick at #1.  In December 2000, Yoga Journal voted it one of the top 10 albums to blast while doing... that.  AllMusic Guide gives it 5 stars.  You get the picture.

In '84, Roach said "For several months before actually committing the title track 'Structures From Silence' to tape, I would live with the music throughout my daily activities. Often I would sleep and wake with the music playing. (Since it is stored in the computer memory, it can play indefinitely.) This gave me the opportunity to fine tune the piece to a very sublime level. At the time I did not listen to any other music. I also spent much time in silence, a beautiful place. Feeling the music move through that space was vital in its development... For me the essence of this music is what is felt when it ends, a returning to the silence."
In late '94 & early '95, I sold all my CDs and tapes (I didn't buy my first vinyl, Soundgarden's Screaming Life 12" and Nirvana's Sliver 7", until the end of '95) and made myself drive around without listening to the car radio.  It seemed like this helped to get my sense of hearing reattuned and made me more in touch with some timeless force.  So I kind of know what Steve-o is talking about.  I was only 18 at the time, but I felt like I had to press the Reset button in my head.

"Structures From Silence" was used to score Roach's 1987 VHS tape of the same name, which I am dying to see:

In 1989, Roach put out another home video (on VHS & Laserdisc), called Earth Dreaming.  I have it on Laserdisc, but have no LD player, so I've watched the whole thing on YouTube.  It's SR's music combined with imagery by someone named Georgianne Cowan.  Wondrous desert scenes are the main focus, but GC interspersed female forms into it in several places.  The first third of it doesn't have much in terms of ladies, so check out the second part:

Now that's art in its purest form.  Kinda makes your little Strokes and Wu-Tang albums seem puny by comparison, no?

I've been thinking for a few years about joining Yelp, but have recently learned that's pretty much a scam which extorts $ from businesses in exchange for suppressing / deleting negative reviews.  An informative article can be read here.  I mainly wanted to join it to rate plant nurseries, record stores, small music venues, and other such things, not fancy restaurants or hotels.  And you can even apparently rate defunct businesses, so it'd be fun to rate the Mermaid Lounge, McLendon's Nursery, Metropolis Records, Sharkey's Reef, Racketeer's, etc., so we'll see.

I photographed this cool painting during Prospect.1 at one of the venues on St. Claude Ave.:

Francesca "Frahn" Koerner - Into The Vortex (2008, 62 x 46")

It was selling for $8,000, which I thought was odd for one of the art meccas of town that's more DIY / "punk" than the establishment Julia Street galleries in the CBD, but I guess $8,000 is pretty cheap for a big painting by someone who could be famous someday...

I watched the 2007 pilot episode of The Big Bang Theory today and I think I'm gonna be hooked on it.

Planets with similar climates: Seefeel - "Signals" (1993), Windy & Carl - "Antarctica" (1996), Aphex Twin - "#19" (1994).