Poem Rocket >> At the point of impact, don't rule anything out

Poem Rocket - "Levy 9 R.S.V.P."

(Magic Eye Singles, 1998)

So by now you know what Poem Rocket was capable of in terms of harnessing atonality and melody into oddly memorable and gripping songs.  What would happen if they really let their hair down and drifted off into the outer realms, like a non-sucky version of Hawkwind?

You have to admit that "At the point of impact, don't rule anything out" would make a great tattoo or Nike slogan, as would "If it hits us, we'll say 'I told you so' with no regrets."  Stick around until the last minute for some eerie, softly spoken vocals concluding with the epitaph "Deep in the dense layers of hydrogen."  This song's lyrics are presumably based on the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, whose collision with Jupiter in July 1994 was a huge event amongst astronomers worldwide.  I don't personally remember it, but I vividly remember the Mars Pathfinder rover in '97 and Halley's Comet in '86.  I can't say whether Levy-9 was in the same general category of public excitement causation as those two, but I doubt it.

This song is from the Rocket's hard-to-find 1999 EP The Universe Explained In Six Songs.  According to the liner notes, it was recorded and mastered by the band itself, no small feat for such a sprawling, sonically-adventurous song.  The members of the band at this time are credited as: "Sandra Gardner (bass guitar, bowed bass, organ, violin, marimba, vocals), Peter Gordon (drums, piano, tape loops, harmonica, assorted mayhem) and Michael Peters (guitars, vocals, star shaker, drums)."  It comes in a cool mini clamshell (DVD-style) case with an interesting booklet.  I bought a copy ca. 2004, but the CD broke, so I bought another; I think I got both on eBay.  I have no use for the one containing the broken CD, so if someone wants it and is a somewhat-longtime reader of this site, drop me a line.

What you're looking at above is both of my booklets (front side; back side), the intact CD, the broken CD, and both cases (showing the white band / EP name stickers on the outside).

Inside the little Magic Eye Singles mailorder catalog (just one piece of paper folded in half) that came inside one of my Universe Explained CDs. (Pic added 2/23/13) Anything that contains the phrase "way better than Elliott Smith" gets a thumbs up in my book!

If you want to hear another Poem Rocket song in this spacey vein, check out "Contrail de l'avion" from their Into The Aether 10" (1994).  I actually was going to post that one instead, but opted for the longer, less hummable, more sui generis "Levy."

Illustration by Michael Peters from his book Vaast Bin; n Ephemerisi.  (The book has no page #s, but this pic is right in the middle.)

The happiest person on the planet right now has to be LL Cool J's manager.  His client just hosted the Grammys on Sunday, released (sorry, "dropped") a new single the next day, and is a dead ringer for the hopefully-late terrorist Christopher Dorner & is hence a lock to play him in the inevitable upcoming biopic.

Wed. 1/30/13: Saw Onuinu and Terrain at Siberia. I'm not sure if instrumental rockers Terrain are local, but the guitarist told the crowd it was their first-ever performance.  While Onuinu was performing (entirely solo) his catchy chillwave anthems-in-waiting, my sister and I kept telling each other "He's gonna be huge."  We bought a little too much merch after talking to him, just because of how nice and down-to-earth he is.

Thur. 1/31/13: Saw Chelsea Wolfe at the Spanish Moon.  Unfortunately, it was her "acoustic tour," and the crowd grew very antsy and belligerently talkative as it went on.  An actual quote I overheard: "It was amazing for the first 10 minutes, but after an hour I'm starting to hate it."  (It was an early show, with some sort of 80's Night beginning right afterwards at 10, so lots of obnoxious people were filling up the club.)  I was surprised C.W. didn't leave the stage due to all the talking and pool playing.  A local singer / songwriter named Erin Miley and her band opened with a set of post-Ani Difranco introspective pop.

Fri. 2/1/13: Termite treatment began.  Turns out one of the guys is a YouTube mogul who makes rap videos in New Orleans, but I forgot to ask for his YouTube name.

2/2/13: Went to the Mushroom for the first time since Nov. and learned my favorite employee and dear music buddy had quit.  Was crushed, speechless, etc.  I fittingly, and joylessly, bought Placebo's "Without You I'm Nothing" (one of my favorite songs ever) CD single for a buck.  Managed to go to the NFL Experience at the Convention Center with a bunch of my sister's friends and her fiancée right afterwards, but was sort of walking around in a depressed funk.  It didn't help that My Bloody Valentine released a dud of an album that night.  Was in much better spirits the next day on my birthday, though my prediction of Super Bowl tickets as a gift did not materialize.  Local product Jacoby Jones should've won Super Bowl MVP after setting the S.B. single-game yardage record, but he did earn a spot on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

2/8/13: Saw a sold-out show by the XX at House Of Blues with Em, Damion, Tace, and Alex, via free VIP lounge tickets.  I wore my School Of Seven Bells t-shirt, since their guitarist's cancer diagnosis was announced that day.  Opening act Austra went on at 9:30 instead of the heavily-advertised start time of 10:00, so we completely missed them.  I was looking forward to seeing them do their one good song, "The Beat And The Pulse," so I was pretty mad, especially since I missed a Toro Y Moi concert a few days earlier due to it being a sellout.  (In other words, I missed 3 bands on Wed. night, plus the opening band on this night, meaning I missed 4 of the 5 bands I ought to have seen in the week.)  After a long wait, the XX went on and delivered a very professional set with lots of cool lighting effects.  I'll admit I was skeptical about their ability to translate their hushed, "small" songs to the stage, but they really impressed me.  After hanging out in the posh upstairs lounge and listening to a DJ (forgot his DJ name, but it's 4 letters, maybe Flex?) spin such cutting-edge stuff as One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful," Beyoncé's "Single Ladies," and Lenny Kravitz' "American Woman" on CD "turntables," and talking to Jenn Howard for the first time since high school, we bailed.  Met Oliver XX and Romy XX outside afterwards (since most of the crowd had dispersed to the Quarter to check out Mardi Gras madness) and got our posters signed.  This is one of my sister's top 5 fav. bands, so it was pretty momentous for her.  A girl from Baton Rouge named Emilie and a guy in a wheelchair named Fuji were both elated after meeting the band, and Emilie honestly looked like she needed a cigarette afterwards.  Oliver XX even climbed over the barricade to talk to us (well, mainly to talk to Fuji), and was later blatantly propositioned by a leggy fan wearing an all-white denim outfit.  Also talked to their tour manager after I noticed his Beak shirt and told him we (Em & I) had seen Portishead at this very club in 1998.  Turns out he was Portishead's manager or tour manger up until 2007.  A very cool guy. We saw Jamie XX carrying a bag of records he had just bought at Louisiana Music Factory directly across the street, but never found out what exactly he bought.  We walked around amidst the thongs on Bourbon Street for a while and went in some mediocre bar, then I spent about 45 mins. trying to catch a cab.  Saw an obese African-American woman in a Misfits skull t-shirt walking in front of the Joy Theater while I was waiting.  The increasing ubiquity / market saturation of early punk bands ceased to surprise me long ago, but I have to admit this sighting made me do a double-take, mainly because she was walking with some decidedly non-punk friends.  As usual, sorry for the excessively detailed descriptions; just trying to capture some of the little moments that make up a night like this one.

Planets with similar climates: Bardo Pond - "Rumination" (1996), The Church - "Chaos" (1992), Juno feat. Jen Wood - "A Listening Ear" (1998), Verve - "Butterfly" (1993), Sonic Youth - "Expressway To Yr. Skull" (a.k.a. "Madonna, Sean And Me") (1986), CAN - "Father Cannot Yell" (1969), Polvo - "When Will You Die For The Last Time In My Dreams" (1996), Morphine - "Down Love's Tributaries" (1993).

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).

Juno >> When you turn off the alarm, I turn on you

Juno - "Leave A Clean Camp And A Dead Fire"

(DeSoto Records / Pacifico Records, 1998; Modern City Records [France], 2001)

This song really has it all: A ridiculously long, atmospheric intro, cool guitar textures galore, rocket-propelled drumming, a tsunami of psychedelic axe-mangling, and of course a monster climax to end all climaxes.  And only four lines of of lyrics in ten minutes.  And three guitarists.  Do the math.  You can see by the genre tags I used that this band was not exactly easy to pigeonhole.  I've always wondered where that word came from.

Due to the stealthy escalation of tempo, there is an 85-90% chance that you'll get a speeding ticket if you listen to this on ye olde American highway, so it's better to listen to it at bingo nite or any other time you need a quick pick-me-up without caffeine.  In order to stave off insomnia, I avoid caffeine after noon.  Juno covered DJ Shadow's "High Noon" on a split EP with DeSoto labelmates The Dismemberment Plan.

I first heard about Juno in a Jade Tree Records mailorder catalog in early '98, and almost ordered a 7" by them.  I read reviews of this album, This Is The Way It Goes And Goes And Goes, around the time it came out in '99.  But I didn't buy it until spring '03, when the Wherehouse Music (formerly Blockbuster Music) on Tchoupitoulas St. had a going-out-of-business sale and I snagged dozens of used CDs.  (That's the only time I've ever seen this CD for sale in the used bins in the 13+ years since it was released, since almost no one who buys it is dumb enough to sell it.  If you ever see it used, do not hesitate to open your wallet.)  Articles about the band always mention singer Arlie Carstens' former career as a pro snowboarder, and the grisly accident he sustained which forced him to focus solely on music.  His loss, our gain.  The review of the album in CMJ by Kelso Jacks said "Juno crafts its music slowly.  However, the brilliance of this album more than compensates for Juno's less-than-prolific nature.  The band relies on the powerful interplay of three guitars to churn up an expansive whirlpool of textures.  Juno's blasting, six-string complexities mimic everything from airplanes to waterfalls to banjo plucks.  Unfettered by convention, these Northwesterners follow their sonic muse without paying mind to the clock, allowing sweeping, 10-minute epics such as 'Leave A Clean Camp And A Dead Fire' to unfold with the kind of passionate aggression that makes potentially self-indulgent duration a moot point.  The brutal rhythm section adds to and controls the thunder using carefully measured accents and punctuations.  This raucous din is topped off by guitarist Arlie Carstens' intelligent, surreal utterances, which are processed through a fuzzbox to complete Juno's wall of intensity.  Truly worth the wait."  That's basically a clinic on how to write a compact and informative review, by the way, though he should've mentioned more than just one specific song.  (I omitted one discography-related sentence near the beginning.)  It concludes: "Marketing Data: A summer tour is possible, though Carstens is currently recovering from spinal cord injuries, the result of his severely being injured in a snowboarding accident, earlier this year."

Great live clip at an unspecified venue in an unspecified year:

Also check out the sublimely haunting murder ballad "A Listening Ear", featuring co-lead vocals from Seattle chanteuse Jen Wood.  It has some of the coolest slide guitar I've ever heard.  A band called The Sea, Like Lead named itself after the album's closing song, "The Sea Looked Like Lead."

This Is The Way It Goes And Goes And Goes was not originally released on vinyl, but in 2001 a European tour edition on double LP was pressed on a French label called Modern City Records.  Juno's live shows are the stuff of legend.  They never played in New Orleans, sadly, and believe me, I sat around staring out my window for several years, pining for them to come by and Junoify my city.  I guess Europe was a lot more inviting to them.  The only other three-guitarist band that I actually listen to on a regular basis is Band Of Susans.

2001 gatefold double LP with two different colored records; pic courtesy of discogs.com

Juno's stature in the indie rock community is such that a documentary film was made about their recent comeback, but I don't know if it ever came out, and its website appears to be in mothballs.

Fri. Oct. 5: Despite having some sort of sinus infection or cold, saw Merchandise and Glish at the Big Top.  It was kickass, and each band played the songs I wanted to hear, though it was evident that Merchandise's (very charismatic) singer was wasted off his ass.  More on this show in an upcoming post!  Oh yeah, I donated a book called For The Vegetarian In You to the NOLADIY / An Idea Like No Other guys so they could add it to the Iron Rail library.  And I requested that they order me a copy of the new Possession EP by this Portland band called Arctic Flowers.  Wandered around Frenchmen St. afterwards, mainly to catch the end of a photography exhibit called Velado by Melissa Stryker at Scott Edwards Photography Studio & Gallery.  The photos had naked ppl and were printed on huge aluminum sheets, but in my opinion were not as racy or scandalous as the artist probably thought they would be.  Here's the front and back of the postcard that made me decide to trek to the exhibit:

No, that's not Stryker in the pic.  I saw a few songs by a crazy funk / party band called Yojimbo that was playing at Maison.  Their singer / trombonist is a super-energetic, bespectacled redhead, and I was stunned to see she was wearing this bootleg Sonic Youth Sister t-shirt that is commonly sold by shady sellers online.  I got mine on eBay about a decade ago; I think I gave it away to my internet girlfriend Michelle, whom I am no longer internet dating.

I took some video clips of Yojimbo, if only as proof that the singer had this shirt on.  I didn't go inside due to it being packed and me being sick, but the open door and huge glass windows made it easy to see & hear inside.  This girl, Carly Meyers, will be a superstar.  In between jumping up and down as if on a pogo stick, playing her trombone pointed up at the ceiling, and laughingly wiping sweat from her face with a towel, she guided the crowd in holding up a blanket and urged them to "Get in the love tunnel!"  I found a great Merchandise show poster (a big one, different from the small one shown above) on Frenchmen, so my night was complete.

Sat. Oct. 6: Went to the Bridge House thrift store and bought some sweet books and NIN's The Downward Spiral on CD ($1), then played hoops at that Annunciation Street court.  One of the dudes was LSU's point guard in the late '80s / early '90s.  He was a stocky redhead who could fill it up from outside.  I mentioned that I went to LSU basketball camp in 1990.  Watched some of the #4 LSU vs. #10 Florida football game with my sister, then we tried to go to the Botanical Garden.  She was impressed by the raw power of "I Lived My Life To Stand In The Shadow Of Your Heart" by A Place To Bury Strangers on the drive over there.  NOBG was due to a wedding, so we walked around City Park and did some obnoxious stuff.  Came back and watched LSU lose in pathetic fashion.  I had lost track of my The Downward Spiral CD long ago, and was blown away by how fresh and visceral it still sounds.  I still have the promo postcard that Interscope sent me when the album came out, and my friend Warren and I listened to it all the time in the mid-'90s.  I had kind of swept the album under the rug of my mind as I got into better music over the years, but songs like "Reptile" and "Mr. Self-Destruct" are just inimitable and stand up to any sort of highbrow scrutiny.

Sun. Oct. 7: This was a pretty interesting day.  A cold front blasted through, bringing the temp. down by about 20º from the previous day's high.  I helped to stake some Chinese pistachio trees on Metairie Rd. with some Parkway Partners people.  I was wearing my red Drew Brees practice jersey since he was gonna try to break Johnny Unitas' streak of 47 straight games with a TD pass that night, and the NFL wisely made sure it was against the team that let Drew go, the Chargers, a team that is so inept that it actually got the name Chargers from the fact that it was founded by a credit card ("charge card") magnate.  Then Em and mom and I went to the zoo; Em said "Oh my God" so many times that mom and I had to tell her to limit it to one time per exhibit, but she couldn't even do that.  Then we ate at this pizzeria called Slice next to Whole Foods, then went to Whole Foods, then went home to watch the first half of the Saints game.  Drew got the record early with a pass that literally hit Devery Henderson on the numbers and in stride.  That means "The ball flew through the air and hit the receiver on the chest, and the receiver did not have to alter his running motion."  Found out that the Godspeed show already started, since the dumb promo postcard and poster had the wrong start times on them.  So Em and I drove over to Tip's, knowing that we had missed the opening act, G String Orchestra.  Luckily Godspeed were in peak form, beginning with a long (10-minute?) ambient drone, the one at the beginning of "The Dead Flag Blues" but unfortunately omitting the ominous dude talking about cars on fire, a thousand lonely suicides, etc.  Minimalistic film clips (sometimes just words) were projected behind them throughout the show; they also did this when I saw then in March '03 at TwiRoPa.  I was disappointed at a few downsized elements: The band was down to only one female member, and no longer had any cello; the venue was smaller than last time; the merch table was way smaller, with only the (brand) new album for sale (and only on vinyl), plus some t-shirts.  These are minor complaints, because it was a really challenging and uncompromising concert, the kind most "post-rock" bands wouldn't even dare attempt.  Even by GYBE's standards, the buildups were extra-long and the climaxes were done with a great flair for layering.  Mom texted me to say the Saints had won; I texted back "Fuck yeah."  Near the middle of the show a dude passed out and hit the ground with a huge thud right behind us, and had to be escorted out.  (This was nowhere near as cool as when a guy slashed his wrists outside a Humpers / Neckbones show that I caught in '97 at Monaco Bob's.  That show continued after only a brief pause, by the way.)  The finale was just incredible, with two of the greatest pieces of music I've ever seen, set to a backdrop of a factory on fire.  I'm pretty sure the last thing they played was "World Police And Friendly Fires."  There was no encore, despite lots of cheering.  Efrim didn't say a word to the crowd, despite the fact that he was practically a stand-up comedian at the A Silver Mt. Zion show in Feb. at One Eyed Jacks.  To celebrate the fact that her computer had not been stolen, despite being parked with one window totally down, we went to this bar called Ms. Mae's up the street.  It was as lame as my sister told me it would be, though I played two Interpol songs and Catherine Wheel's "Black Metallic" on the internet jukebox.  Some guy in a just-bought Godspeed (or G String Orchestra) shirt juked some Pelican and Russian Circles.  Uhh... No comment, Beavis.  A charismatic 59.9 year old art teacher at Tulane sit right down at our table and hit on Emily right in front of me, and kept claiming he had met us before.  So we had to eventually make a daring exit, which prompted him to desperately ask us "Are you guys on Facebook?"  "No, sorry."  We were, as the saying goes, so done with that.

I stupidly trusted the door time on the postcard rather than the door time on the ticket, hence why we missed the opening band

Sorry for all the pics in this post.

Planets with similar climates: Plexi - "Peel / He" (1995), Catherine Wheel - "Ferment" (1992), Kitchens Of Distinction - "Blue Pedal" (1992), The Sound - "New Dark Age" (1981), "Missiles" (1979) & "Whirlpool" (1985), The Church - "Chaos" (1992), Unwound - "For Your Entertainment" (1996), Pantera - "Hollow" (1992).

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).

Zombi >> It's never sunny in Pittsburgh

Zombi - "Challenger Deep"

(Relapse Records, 2005)

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

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

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

Back cover

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

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

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

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

Christian Scott >> Fear the whisper

Christian Scott - "Litany Against Fear"

(Concord Records, 2007)

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scenic >> Get in the boat

Scenic - "All Fish Go To Heaven"
(World Domination Recordings / Independent Project Records, 1996)

I was lucky enough to buy Scenic's sophomore CD Acquatica in late '96, thanks to reading a glowing review in Rolling Stone, by David Fricke, I believe.  That was a really key summer & fall for me, because I also got stuff like Loveless (My Bloody Valentine), Cheer Up (Plexi), Confusion Is Sex (SY), Isn't Anything (MBV), Nassau (The Sea And Cake), Blue Bell Knoll (Cocteau Twins), Hi Fi Way (You Am I), Bakesale (Sebadoh), Scum (Napalm Death), Psycho Candy (JAMC), some Modest Mouse (I know... but they were actually good then), etc.  Scenic evolved out of the L.A.-based tribal post-punk crew Savage Republic.  I guess the short story is that a couple of the members moved to Arizona, ditched the vocals, and concentrated on evocative, wordless soundscapes befitting the vastness of their desert locale.  (Someone should send a copy to Muammar Gaddafi to see if he agrees; I read that dude brings around a huge tent in which he holds all of his speaking engagements worldwide, so that he will appear truer to his region's Bedouin class, which is misleading because he never belonged to it.  I did a report on Bedouins in 6th grade, which was my first real exposure to Arab culture, and now I'm kind of obsessed with it.)  The album is filled with mysterious ebbs and flows, and a tasteful, nuanced instrumental prowess.  The animated flute on this song is what really gets me right in my soul, and as an aspiring marine biologist, the title immediately grabbed me.  The whole album is an understated tour de force, though maybe too ambient and minimalist over long stretches, so it might not please today's "post-rockers," who tend to demand a lot of aggression and/or metal influence in their "post-rock."  Well, a flute is made out of /MetaL\, bro, and having a flute in your band shows that you have more cujones than the latest Mogwai or Isis clone*.  Anyway, Acquatica was one of the flagship releases in the post-rock invasion when it came out, in my opinion is still at or near the top of that heap to this day.  By the way, Scenic's first album, Incident At Cima, is kinda boring.


*Yes, I know Mogwai had some flute on their first album, when they were still relevant for about 5 minutes.  Bardo Pond has also used lots of flute, played by their singer Isobel, and of course there's Yusef Lateef.  So flutes can be cool.


Some press quotes from the sticker on my promo CD (I also have the regular CD) for Acquatica:

"A vivid mind-photo of the Mojave Desert in all its sun-baked wonder, rendered with peyote-dream guitars and sparse, elegant percussion." - Rolling Stone

"If Nick Cave had spent his childhood in the Southwest, this is the kind of music he might've made - a sweeping, swirling, somewhat Stereolab-ish drone that's full of both darkness and wonder." - huH

Update, Aug. 2011: Here is a show flyer and a ticket that may shed light on the origin of the phrase "All Fish Go To Heaven."  It was apparently the name of a series of annual festivals in Arizona of bands in AZ's "Beautiful Noise" scene, which I guess was a take-off of the shoegaze bands that was known as "The Scene That Celebrates Itself" in the early '90s.

Flyer

Ticket

Planets with similar climates: Dif Juz - "No Motion" (~1982), Juned - "Sisters Of The Red Sun" (1995), 7% Solution - "Your Kingdom, Your World" (1996), Tortoise - "TNT" (1998),  Southpacific - "E10 @ 182" (1999).

I don't like fishing, which makes me an anomaly here in south Louisiana, where you pretty much just have to take a boat out on any body of water and then duck as fish try to jump into it, some of them even bringing their own charbroil seasoning along, as though they are happy to fulfill their one duty in life at any expense.  I took down my mini 10-gallon reef aquarium a few months ago, which means that for the first time since about 1986, I'm aquariumless.  Well, I was for about a year after Katrina, which killed my 90-gal. reef tank, but not by choice.  I now think that keeping living things in a little enclosure for my own amusement is not all that nice, though they are kept free of predation, so it's a pretty good tradeoff for them.