Vinyl Mine

This is ripped from a 2005 7" -- someone somewhere asked to post some Des Ark.


"stranger" - Bellafea
"Send Jolly to Raleigh" - Des Ark

... would be a cross of the utter sexiness of Chloe Sevigny, the looks of Michelle Williams, the common sense appeal of Catherine Keener and the smarts of Allison Anders. While I'll probably never find her, at least we have Sonic Youth in common.

Does this mean my ideal wingman wouldn't be a cross between Eddie Vedder, Mike Watt, Beck and Gus Van Sant?

1. New Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks CD
2. Old Nick Lowe singles
3. Team Fortress 2 - Uber Me!!!
4. My final four picks: Kansas, UCLA, Memphis, North Carolina (I know, I really went out on a limb here)
5. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford on DVD

But until then... Bomp Records has, along with Mick Farren, put out a Bomp! Magazine retrospective. I'm told the books are now in stock and if you order direct from Suzy Shaw, you get a T-shirt and CD to go along with it. Great thing to give or get for the you-know-what season. Here's some marketing verbiage from the widow Shaw:

When Greg died I knew it was the most important job I had, as this book is not just the story of BOMP and Greg Shaw, but a unique document of a time, place, and perspective in the history of rock and roll. This is a work beyond anything Greg and I could have dreamed of, thanks to the hard work and dedication of many talented people, and of course thanks to all of you, my customers, for making it all possible.

Order here

Other than that, I can't stop listening to that "new" (well, 2007) Shellac record... anyone else, uh,

hey

SIC ALPS recorded 10 songs (4 of em unreleased) live in the WFMU
studios last week for broadcast on Brian Turner's show today (tues
3-6pm EST) (in about an hour!) Listen @ 91.1 in the NYC area or at
wfmu.org The set
will also be available after airing at:

http://www.wfmu.org/Playlists/BT/

check it out!

What's the most embarassing place you did a Number OneTwo?

Mine was in an under-the-stairs closet in a small Pennsylvania city on a Sunday, during the daytime in July. I was playing a gig in the area but it was outside, a bit impromptu and all of a sudden that queasy gotta-take-a-shit-feeling snuck up on me and ... I couldn't find a bathroom. It was in a downtown area, no gas stations nearby, nearly everything closed, too young to get into a Pennsylvania bar... Finally got into some decrepit old office building with an unlocked door, snuck around trying to avoid the janitor cuz I knew chances are he would kick me out and expediency was of the essence... so not able to get into the real bathroom cuz ol' mop bucket guy was between me and nirvana... and I went into the closest darkest place I could find. Shat it out in my tighty-whiteys and left it there for the poor janitor to find, perhaps months later by the look of that dingy dusty closet (you hadda stoop to get in).... had it been night time I might have just found some place outside but hey, you gotta go, you gotta go...

• "You Kept Me Waiting Too Long Long Long Long Long Long Long Long Long (E*Vax [Ratatat] Remix)" - Television Personalities(downloaded via Audioversity - see also Indie Muse)
• "Secret Room" - Robert Colbert Orchestra (from the Dark Shadows soundtrack CD)
• "Shitty Bum" - C-Mon&Kypski (from the SXSW 2006 website)

I was tempted to put up Dylan's "If You Gotta Go, Go Right Now" but the song isn't about that and it's a bit too obvious-literal don't you think?

If you wanna respond with your own horrifying experience, use the comments - suggest a song or two to go along with your "experience"....

Labels: cocrophilia

Nice Strong Arm came to my attention back in the '80s pretty much how many bands came to my attention - got a record made with Homestead or SST or Touch and Go. Hate to admit that's how shallow I was but there was no college radio of any merit in the Washington DC area (at least that I could tune in - University of Maryland had a real limited coverage) and WHFS rarely touched anything without a major label behind it - so you either had fanzines or just had to trust a couple of labels to come up with something you'd like.

Overall, I'd give this record a solid B. IT's got some problems - the two drummers sometimes have trouble syncing and keeping basic 4/4 time, the bass is recorded kinda flat and often seems limp and there's some of that "goth" basso-profundo style vocals that I never really dug (Bauhaus, Joy Division crap) - most notable offenders are on Side 1's "Disenchanted" and "Date of Birth" which adds insult to injury with use of a cheap-sounding reverb unit to process the vocals.

The band also took a great deal of guff for sounding too much like Sonic Youth - in fact I can't get through the whole sequence of songs on Side 1 without constantly being reminded of "Confusion is Sex" - it's sorta like a concept record of variations on the chord progression. But anyway such crititique was pretty small-minded and narrow-casting. They also have similarities to Live Skull, Swans and other NYC no wave outfits as well as other acts of the period - Big Black, My Dad Is Dead - what I'm saying is that they perhaps were lost in the noise because it was too easy to dismiss them - that and they didn't seem to play the personality game - there is no mention of the names of the band, they didn't pose for publicity shots and so in effect had no personality beyond what was presented in the albums, shows and songs - there was no Gira or Albini or Moore or Michael Gerard saying outrageous or interesting things in the zines and papers.

Others have pointed out some link to the jangly early 80's Athens sound as well and I've already talked about the horrorshow influences, though not just the Brit stuff previously referenced but Cramps as well. Overall, it's a moody gloomy bunch at work here.

Whatever. Like I said, solid B.

I might even given 'em a B minus if Side 2 didn't have this great 3-song sequence in which they kinda show they are more than just a one-trick pony - take these three songs and do some attention-getting cover song and they mighta had a hit EP on their hands... unfortunately I don't have a time machine or a smart pet dog to build one so I could go back in time and give them some career advice...

first cut: "Life is So Cool" is kinda this epic romp built around, like so many of the songs, Kevin Thomson's spacey pedal-effects and amp feedback guitar sound - and again, it's hard not to imagine a big floating Thurston Moore buddha appearing in the air during the recording of this song but again SFW. ... the fucking effect is still stunning, no matter who is doing it, duh?

"Minds Lie" (the second cut on side 2 takes the band's sound into a different direction (here's where that early R.E.M. - Pylon reference might be drawn) with the bass handling the whole build-and-release structure of the song a bit more and bringing in some of that hurting style of singing that the Dischord bands had been peddling the previous year with Rites of Spring. The effect is this sort of one two punch - where "Life is So Cool" builds up the delusion of being cool and in a band or whatever and "Minds Lie" blows it all apart. The drummers actually sound somewhat in sync as well - maybe because the song is pretty short.

"Free At Last" then picks all the pieces up into something unlike anything else on the album - an almost acoustic guitar and bass riff that supports, what, ummmm ... uplifting vocals. I'm finding it hard to say I like "uplift" ever but there it is... there's a band that this reminds me of but I can't put my finger on it... I'll probably wake up in the middle of the night and remember who it is... any way.... these three songs are sort of like an EP within the LP for me and I more than I care to admit did the needle lift at the end of "Free At Last" to redo the sequence several times over the past month.

Vinyl Mine Recommended Mind-Blowing Nice Strong Arm Song Sequence Sample:

• "Life Is So Cool"
• "Minds Lie"
• "Free At Last"

Band Photo:
This rare picture of the band was taken by, provided and used with permission from Derek von Essen who has a real cool archive of band photos from this time period

Assumed band line-up:

• Kevin Thomson - guitar, vocals
• Jason Asnes - bass, vocals
• Jamie Spidel - drums (there's some female backing vocals I think here as well)
• Steve McMurray - drums

Nice Strong Links:

• A 1992 New Puritan ReView interview with Kevin Thompson responds to all the criticism about their influences:

The other band we got pegged with right off the bat was Sonic Youth, and at that time I think there was definitely a bit of an influence. We had all just learned to play our instruments, and you know, who impresses you the most when you start learning how to play is definitely going to have an effect on how you learn how to play. Which is why some people play a certain style of metal or rock, because when they first learned how to play, that's what they were hearing. Jason and I learned how to play our instruments at most four years ago - actually five, I'm gettin' older. Jason's been playing for even less than me.

Anyone who says they don't have an influence is lying through their teeth - unless they were living in a monastery, sitting with a Zen master who said, "Here's a Fender guitar and an amp...why don't you just figure it out, you know, think like one with the string." That doesn't happen. It wasn't like anybody tried to figure out what other bands were doing or anything like that, but that creeps in. It did on Reality Bath , and I don't think any one of us is gonna deny it that much. We don't think we sound like it, but we do feel that there is a bit of an influence there. It's not such a big deal, why does it bring so much derision upon your head, just because there's not twenty years between the two? Maybe some people should give it some thought.

• Trouser Press's Nice Strong Arm entry covers their three subsequent records
• Mr. Scaruffi has an Italian entry on the band plus some info (in English) on Kevin Thomson's post band activities
  
• Spin from Afterbirth of the Cool gives his own reaction to Reality Bath and Nice Strong Arm - his MP3 links are still active.
• Dana from Mystical Beast found the album too generic and "Homesteady" for his tastes.
• Kevin Thomson's latest project is Enablers and its gotten some recent traction in the blogs. I've only listened to their Myspace stream and the spoken word story-telling complements Thompson's atmospheric guitar playing pretty well.
  
• Jason Asnes current status is unknown but last I can tell he was in the ill-fated Crown Heights project with the late Jon Easley from Sorry.
• Right now if you want to own this piece of Americana, your best bets are going to be on an auction site or used record store. Start here.
  

Bonus Album Insert Scans:

card stock insert:


additional xerox insert:

Hello? Airto? Anyone know him? If Downbeat magazine had a crossword puzzle, he'd probably be in every one given that he's won their drummer award and has so many vowels in his name. Met him while he was in Return to Forever, my LP initiation into jazz really, I was like 12 years old and got to see them somehow in Philly. Airto was was this drummer shaman, never seen anything like that shuffling around the stage with a massive percussive set of toys slamming things around. Things I never heard before and never heard again he had at his fingertips. He played with Miles Davis -- the Bitches Brews session no less, before my time, ah ha and I knew nothing about that shit just that he was jamming with this band that my Uncle had inadvertantly turned me onto (via a John McLaughlin album which made me seek out other stuff like it). Immigrated from Brazil, married or lived with and still does live with singer Flora Purim, another Miles/Chick Corea alum. He also played in Weather Report, a band I didn't like as much as RtF but just as seminal among most jazz fusion fans. Turns out he's not as weird as I imagined - his web site makes him out to be a pretty cool personable cat what with all his first person stories about his life.

Identity (1975) was to be, I guess, his breakout - produced by the then uber-crosserover hot Herbie Hancock (still sizzling from his smoking Chameleon album and later to be canonized with the biggest jazz crossover song in MTV history) -- Identity had lots of cross-overish poppy Latin jazz (what we would call "smooth jazz" in the '90s was often Latin-ish pop jazz in the '70s) . The album echoes in many ways both Hancock's recent work and the second incarnation of Return to Forever but is centered around Airto's effusive and celebratory drumming and percussion. A couple great guest stints from Raul DeSouza (trombone on "Flora on My Mind") and Herbie on his then familiar sounding Arp Odyssey synth.

The opener ("Wake Up Song") really makes a case for Brazilian Latin pop jazz that I didn't feel back in the day. I think that's Herbie cutting loose with an awesome synth solo and certainly that's Wayne Shorter doing his just a little schmaltzy thing on the sax near the end.

Airto uses three different bassists here and almost all of their work is uniformly good - it's just the liner notes don't give you enough information to provide credit where credit is due - the open bass work on "The Magician" is so fine that I almost forget about Airto's sappy and slightly off-key vocals and the lyrics ("let meee geeev you alll my luuuuuv") but he can sustain a note and someone (is it Gismonti) does the George Benson scat along with the guitar thing, only faster and better. Still, it's another fine sonic jam.

The lesser tracks "Mae Cambina" is very electric pianoish, ballad thing like what Hancock put into some of his albums (again with Airto vox) but has some of his cool bird calls so I don't dislike it too much. "Tales From Home" is Airto's biographical duet with Flora Purim that gets the funk on and Purim's vocals are worth the price of the tune even if it probably goes on a verse or two too long.

Two cuts stand out for me and they're the final cuts. The title track, written by Airto, short and sweet predicts Airto's work with Mickey Hart on Planet Earth, primal and tribal, it's the least pop thing on this album and so much more wonderfully messy than Mickey Hart's rather self-conscious efforts at ethnic music probably cuz its much more genuine. I can't place the African style guitar here and can't find anything in the liner notes as to what instrument it is but it fits really well with the layered vocals - the female chanting and screaming bores into the brain with repeated listens in a good good good way.

The final track, "Encounter", is co-written by Egberto Gismonti (who arranged everything here) and I think that's him on acoustic guitar and wood flute. Who knows who is playing the awesome bass line (they just don't make bass like this anymore do they?!). The singing here, also, cool Latin is well integrated into the rest of the jam and cuz its in a foreign language (at least for me) I don't hung up on any sappiness in the lyrics. You can hear Airto's awesome bird calls here and the drumming outro is sublime.

Some MP3s to try him out (recorded from vinyl):

"Encounter" - Airto
"Identity" - Airto

Buy it!

The album was remastered a few years back and is still available as an import.

LINKS:

• Airto's website includes lots of cool stories about his life - enjoyed most his descriptions of meeting Miles Davis
• Fan site dedicated to both Airto and Flora Purim
• Drummerworld has a set of photos of Airto and his often artistic-looking percussion instruments
• Blogroll Buddies ickmusic on a recent Airto performance
• Airto does a one man drummer and scat thing on Youtube (the whole thing is kinda annoying but ffwd to 1:32 for some really nice Latin set beats)
  

Here's a sweet little Internet find I discovered through the ever-awesome Neatorama - a buncha kids from one of my old stomping grounds in Coronado, California doing cool covers on harp, mandolin and stand-up bass. I would have written them off as a novelty had I not heard their original, "Calvin," a high school flirt song with, I guess, a big reference to Cal Johnson. They already appear to be well on their way to becoming a YouTube band - their myspace blog recounts how they were freaked out after being approached at Coachella by a fan who discovered them from the video site and started talking mandolin technique with them.

MP3s (downloaded via their Sonicbids site):

"Calvin" (Melodica solo written by Peter Sprague)
"Such Great Heights" (Postal Service cover)
"Handle With Care" (Travelling Wilburys cover)

The Wrong Trousers Myspace (also includes what appears to be another stellar original - "Had")

Youtube:


Busker version of "Video Killed the Radio Star"


"Peach Plum Pear (live)" (Joanna Newsom cover) and a version of "Calvin"

The A-side comes off their 2006 Ace-fu release Be He Me and can be got here ("Brother") while the b-side comes off a lesser available EP Git Got. In case you've been hibernating from the indie rock world, Annuals are sort of America's version of Arcade Fire but angle in from the direction of Aphex Twin and Animal Collective rather than U2 and Smashing Pumpkins. Field and forest and mobile electric generator pop. An "It band" for a few seconds last year but don't hold that against them.

Packaging is pretty spare for this limited release single.

"Ease My Mind" - Annuals (buy this single here or here)
Bonus link: I prefer the insane studio version but this Coffeehouse version of "Ease My Mind" is a nice companion if only to suss out the chords.


Speaking of Aphex Twin, here's what's on that 7" giveaway if you bought the latest Blonde Redhead CD from certain outlets. Can't say I've fallen in love with their new CD ("23"), it all sounds so same-ish and lacks any of the punch (or hits) of their previous release but I'd have bought this single anyway, I think, since this song and to a lesser extent - the A-side (the sort of 70's soft rockish "Silently") are about the best results of those recent sessions.

"Signs Along The Path" - Blonde Redhead

Bonus link: Remix the "Signs Along The Way" and sample other people's versions here.



Stephen McBean's Pink Mountaintops has perhaps the best cover of the bunch. The A-side is a rocky, gargantuan sneering fuzz and organ tribute to the slacker/druggy life best listened to all the way up while B-side is where he downshifts, a hazey psyche slide guitar and organ trip. Both require copious amounts of pungent herb to fully enjoy. Looking forward with bloodshot eyes to his next long-player.

"My Best Friend" - Pink Mountaintops

(out of print - but still can be found)


(all samples recorded straight off vinyl so don't whine if you hate my cheap stereo equipment - go buy the originals yr damnself).

A sort of mellow late Spring - early Summer folk, Americana, electro pop mix, some popular well known artists, some not so well known for the holiday weekend drive home and something that won't hopefully be too objectionable from my fellow travellers - all tunes found on fellow mostly undersung MP3 blogs* you should check out - who also should have links to the artists and the where to buys (I can't do everything)...

• "I Will Dare" - The Replacements via Rock Sellout
• "Dead Flowers" - Townes Van Zandt via The Canals
• "Brand New Day" - Van Morrison via Badminton Stamps
• "Long Lost Penpal" - Hello Saferide via Stop Me...
• "Heart it Races (Architecture in Helsinki cover)" - Soft Tigers via Art Snob Solutions
• "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing"**** - Sufjan Stevens via The World Forgot
• "10AM Automatic (live)" - The Black Keys via I Am Fuel, You Are Friends
• "Blues Run The Game (live)" - The Decemberists via The Canals
• "Here I Dreamt I was An Architect" - Patti Smith via The Music Slut
• "Venus in Furs" - DeVotchka via Pitchfork*
• "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe" - Okkervil River*** via YANP
• "A Favor" - Okkervil River via The Music Slut
• "The Ghost of You Lingers" - Spoon via Pop Headwound
• "Girlfriend (Remix) Feat. Lil Mama" - Avril Lavigne** via Mixtape Maestro
• "Us Ones in Between" - Sunset Rubdown via Jacob Sudol

*Disclaimer: Pitchfork is not an MP3 blog
**Yes, Avril
***Leaked from upcoming album
****Yes, I know it's a Christmas song but it's also a Memorial Day song. So say I.

Photo entitled Memorial Day by LoneBlueLady on Flickr (CC protected)

(Toxic Shock Records, 1986)

I was walking around town today and apropros of nothing, the tune "Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" popped into my head, so I spent my liquor shopping time singing it under my breath. Not sure why it did that as I don't remember hearing it today on the ubiquitous radio-soundtrack-of-our-lives nor I'm not aware of anyone doing somebody wrong or even doing me wrong, though there's plenty of stuff I could gripe about in the past.

Raw Power was an early, early hardcore band from Italy, one of the first. The earlier tapes and releases lived up to the "Raw" part of their name and there's nothing intrisically wrong with this release, just nothing much to push it above the rest of the many records released in this time period of this genre. More metalish than previous outings - their Screams from the Gutter is considered a superior record, I guess. There's a lot of head-nods to NWoBHM here and a little bit of acknowledgment of the post-hardcore scene even (your opinion may vary). Some of the first use I remember of the cringey Satanic scream-vocals that were so in vogue in 2004 Headbanger's Ball videos came from singer Silvio - but back then when he did it, it all seemed quite new and novel. Mauro replaced Silvio here I think on lead vocals. Another novelty of the time, they did that call and response thing that System of a Down have turned into an (annoying) science.

Drummer seems to be one of those guys that if he has an instrument he wants to play it - cowbell fills and the use of those still-cringe-inducing Bad Company electric drums (the ones that sound like high-pitched castrated dog woofs) but other than he keeps the beat and you can mosh to it.

My fave song of the bunch is "We Shall Overcome" - that is if you don't try to over-analyze the title or the lyrics ... Italians singing about "red Indians" - their words -- is like me singing about, I dunno, Mario Roatta's persecution of Slavs during World War II... instead give them props for pushing out against the more prevalent exhausting polkas and guitar grinders on this album.

Here's some highlights from the record - which you can buy on a CD combined with the previous album here:

"Buy and Pay"
"Is There Anything You Like"
"We Shall Overcome"

Band:
Giuseppe (RIP) - guitars+vocals
Helder - drums
Mauro - vocals
Silvio - guitars + vocals

The band is still together although one of the founding members died a few years ago. I saw them live once and all the things people say about how albums can't capture a good live show are operative here.

They're heading out on tour on the West Coast this month - via Myspace:

May 23 2007 8:00P	Knitting Factory - Hollywood Ca
May 24 2007 8:00P	The Blue Café - Huntington Beach
May 25 2007 8:00P	The Juke Joint - Anaheim
May 26 2007 8:00P	Jumping Turtles - San Marcos
May 27 2007 8:00P	OFFLIMITS - Chico
May 28 2007 8:00P	Thee Parkside - Berkely
May 29 2007 8:00P	The Phoenix Theater - Petaluma
May 30 2007 8:00P	The Haz Mat - Oakland
May 31 2007 8:00P	The Distillery - Sacromento
Jun 1 2007 8:00P	Hells Kitchen - Tacoma, WA
Jun 2 2007 8:00P	The Funhouse - Seattle
Jun 3 2007 8:00P	Mount Tabor - Portland, OR
Jun 4 2007 8:00P	The Stork Club - Oakland, CA

Further Research:

Raw Power official website is not kept up to date - The RawPower myspace appears better tended... here's a summary page on Raw Power from the always useful KFTH

Labels: hardcore punk

At the request of a reader and by kind permission of Mr. Truax (who is in the midst of a UK tour) and despite my reservations previously stated, here's the entire Spook Show LP. See the original posting here.

• Boo!
• Spook Show
• Above Your Bed
• Amethyst
• Touch The Dreamscape

I tried this last night - but I used Canadian bacon instead of regular bacon - RECOMMENDED!

From the electrical audio forum:

Boil water. Salt it. Add rigatoni. while it is boiling, sautee some onions and apples (apples in 1/2-inch pieces cubes) in olive oil. Season (salt and pepper, maybe some thyme) everything. If you have some, throw in some bacon or pancetta cut in little cubes. When the apples are starting to brown a little bit, throw in a bunch of chopped garlic. If you have some, throw in a mess of diced celery.

Just before the pasta is al dente (it should still be firm at this stage), drain it and dump it into the skillet with the stuff, along with some of the pasta water. Toss to mix and continue cooking until the pasta is nicely al dente. Just before service, crumble a bunch of gorgonzola into the skillet and toss until it is somewhat melted and coats the pasta a little bit.

Serve with fresh herbs chopped fine as a topside garnish. I like mint and parsley together.

Labels: recipe

I'm probably about a 10th of the way through these... no rhyme or reason to this, just the cream of the crop.

"I Knew" - 22-Pistepirkko. It has a gong in it and guitar played like bouzoki. What more do you need?

"Drove Through Ghosts To Get Here" - 65daysofstatic. A descriptive title for this ghostly electronica instrumental.

"Mystic Song" - The Berg San Nipple. French Indie-tronica in the Album Leaf - +/- style.

"Throw It Away" - The Pink Reason (photo via band myspace) Not reverb-drenched. Reverb-waterlogged. The kind of really awful good stuff that only works in lo-fi. I wasn't surprised to read after this made my hit list that the band has a 7" out via Siltbreeze.

"Wake Up Heroes" - Sally Crewe and The Sudden Moves. They sound like early Elvis Costello and The Attractions in this 1:19 chartbuster but she's got way better lines such as "If this car had a backseat, we'd be in it" - something I'm sure Ed Begley regrets about his electric car.

Labels: sxsw