White Cascade >> How it can be so far

White Cascade - "Fine As Usual"

(self-released, 2010)

This mammoth multi-part suite encapsulates the quieter aspects of White Cascade's sound, which can vary from noisy pop to long ambient drones.  It's from their self-titled debut EP (actually 40 minutes long, hence album length), which they self-released in June 2010 as a digital download and on cassette.  (Their follow-up EP consists of short, relatively spiky pop songs.)  The monster ambient intro really throws the gauntlet down.  As for the lyrics, your best approximation is about as good as mine.  I made out the line "How it can be so far" at the 7:52 mark, for what it's worth, and it rhymes with "Every second star" from the previous verse.  What matters is that this song is pure instant Prozac for the soul, especially if your soul is a fan of (The) Verve's flawless debut album A Storm In Heaven.  A Storm In Raleigh doesn't have quite the same ring, but I could be convinced to catch a plane there just to see White Cascade live.

This .jpg is in honor of White Cascade being the first North Carolina band in space, living up to the state's "First In Flight" motto

I found out about this band last year, but I don't remember how.  In true shoegaze / dream pop fashion, they have released two EPs, but no official album, though as I mentioned, their first EP is 40 minutes long.  Hopefully they can be convinced to go on tour, though their sound is, defiantly, and with clenched fist, the opposite of every prevailing trend in both "indie" and non-indie music.  Perhaps this is why they give their music away for free at their Bandcamp page; or at least they did last year, but it appears they're charging $1 per track now.  Which is good, because it shows their music is now becoming in demand.  See them performing in their newer, more upbeat style here: Sessions at Studio B with The White Cascade.  It also includes an interview.

Sat. Nov. 17: Donned one of my Plexi shirts and went to the Record Raid at Tulane on a pretty cold day.  Stopped by the Mushroom (a block away) first, to give the dudes & dudettes 3 mix CDs and some of my fav. beers, and my VHS of Paris, Texas.  Why?  Because they always give me good deals, since I'm always recommending them obscure stuff from the used stacks.  I stupidly forgot to take a pic of all 3 CDs together, but here's the first one:

(The second one was part 2 of the "Intensity In Ten Cities" theme, and the third one was all ambient music, titled "Ambient Assault."  Request them by name!)  Sam was enthused and said she was going to bring the CDs home to listen to them, and said she loved the Unwound CDs I'd recommended to her in September.  She burned me the Dinosaur Jr. cover album by The Electronic Anthology Project, and is gonna also burn me one of those Italian horror soundtracks that Goblin did in the '70s.  Best music buddy ever.  I was sad to hear she missed the Dino Jr. concert last month due to illness, since they're probably her second favorite band after Sonic Youth.  Was relieved to hear her family in NJ didn't get any damage from hurricane Sandy.  The store has been remodeled after the hurricane and looks really good.  At the Raid, I bought less stuff than usual, so I was pretty proud of myself.  My best find was American Music Club's extremely rare debut LP for only $5, plus their fairly rare California CD (33 cents), Pageninetynine (pre-Ghastly City Sleep / pre-Pygmy Lush)'s Document #8 CD (33 cents), Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's Experimental Remixes CD EP (33 cents), Roy Ayers Ubiquity's Vibrations LP ($5) (mainly for the heliocentric chillout classic "Everybody Loves The Sunshine").  Also got an amazing clear blue vinyl 7" by You Am I that I never thought I'd see in person (33 cents).  I had bought the Blues Explosion CD right when it came out in late '95, so it was quite sweet to nab it again after unwisely selling it ca. 2000.  Bought the sick Japanese edition of Trans Am's self-titled CD from Joey Buttons; it has a whopping 9 bonus tracks and cool neon orange cover art.  It turns out he was also at the Future Islands / Talk Normal show the previous week, and the vendor sitting right next to him was at it too, so we all discussed it.  Small world...  Joey also told me about his new project called Pressures.  Talked to Scott from Skully'z about a bunch of concerts too, incl. Cold Cave; he was wearing a Cold Cave hoodie.  Towards the end of the raid, I asked how they were doing, and he told me they had sold about $500 of stuff already.  Also bought a CD by punk "supergroup" OFF! for 33 cents and gave it to the Mushroom, since several of them had seen them live.  When I was walking up the stairs to the store, a guy who works there saw me and enthusiastically complimented me on the mix CDs.  I had him burn Bare Minimum's first CD so that I could give it to this guy who I always talk to at these Raids, whose name keeps escaping me (Jason or James?).  So yeah, I kept going back and forth between the Raid and the 'Room.  Took some free LPs that the Mushroom had put out in boxes at the foot of their stairs, incl. a mint copy of Yoko Ono's classic Season Of Glass and a Sesame Street album.  Drove around and tried to find the N.O. Book Fair, but failed, since it turns out it had moved to the Warehouse District.  So I went to this lame music festival on Magazine St. for about 15 minutes and endured Rockin' Dopsie & the Zydeco Twisters while looking at all the touristy art booths.  Apparently one can now buy a little glazed clay statuette or fridge magnet of every single noteworthy location in the city.  These "artists" are totally shameless in their pillaging of N.O.'s culture for quick dollars.  Dopsie (pronounced "Doopsie," for you non-locals) shouted his catchphrase "Somebody screeeeam!" at least five different times, and believe me, I wanted to after looking at all the aforementioned trinkets.  If you've ever walked on Royal Street and peered into the "art galleries" there, you'll know what I'm talking about, but the stuff at this fest was even lamer.  As I've mentioned before, I really refuse to call this stuff art, since it's really in the realm of just crafts.  Note: Was a bit saddened to see that the former home of Underground Sounds is going to become a Dat Dog location.

Planets with similar climates: Verve - "Already There" (1993), Slowdive - "Blue Skied An' Clear" (1995), SIANspheric - "Watch Me Fall" (1995), The Emerald Down - "Recondite Astral Traveler" (2001), Feverdream [Australia] - "No Stone Unturned" (1995), Catherine Wheel - "Girl Stand Still" (1993), Sonic Youth - "Karen Koltrane" (1998).