I watched this, Jarmusch's latest, twice this weekend. I was hooked by the soundtrack and the score. The soundtrack is dripping with droners. Oddly the drones never come off as spooky or grinding, etc. They are almost kind and very complimentary to the enigmatic vibe of the film. I was really caught off guard when the first track kicked in but it quickly became comforting and nurtured the script.
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01. Bad Rabbit - Intro 02. Boris with MichioKurihara - Fuzzy Reactor 03. La Macarena - Saeta 04. Bad Rabbit - Sea Green Sea 05. Boris - Feedback (TLOC Edit) 06. Manuel elSevillano - PorCompasi n Malaguenas 07. Boris - Farewell 08. Sunn o))) & Boris - N.L.T. 09. Carmen Linares - El Que Se 10. Bad Rabbit - Dawn 11. The Black Angels - You on the Run 12. Earth and Bill Frisell - Omens and Portrents 1: The Driver (TLOC Edit) 13. Taleg n de C rdoba & Jorge Rodriguez Padilla - El Que Se TengaPorGrande 14. Sunn o))) & Boris - Blood Swamp (TLOC Edit) 15. Ensemble Villa Musica - Schubert 2. Adagio (Strin Quintet in C, D.965) (TLOC Edit) 16. LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk is PLaying at my House 17. Boris - ” ” (TLOC Edit)
Andy Cohen, Vocals/Guitar Tim Midgett, Vocals/Bass Michael Dahlquist, Drums Joel RL Phelps, Vocals/Guitar(1987-1994) Ben Koostra, Drums (1987-1989) Matt Kadane, Keyboards (2002-2005)
Formed in 1987, Missoula/Seattle/Chicago
Faded Flannel: Silkworm began in the town of Missoula, Montana. They moved to Seattle at the beginning of 1990 and in 1992 released their first record, L'ajre, on their own Temporary Freedom label. In 1994, C/Z released In the West. The following year saw the release of Libertine, which in turn led to their signing to Matador. Somewhere in the interim, Joel left the band to pursue his own music, and the band continued to tour almost religiously as a three-piece. After several records with Matador, the band jumped ship and city, signing to Touch and Go and moving to Chicago.
Silkworm is one of Seattle's most underrated, yet celebrated, independent post punk bands. The band's career is being celebrated by an documentary film called "Couldn't You Wait". The film will detail the bands career (1987-2005), interviews with producer Steve Albini, Sean Nelson (Harvey Danger), and passionate fans around the world.
The film also pays respect to the untimely, accidental death of drummerMichael Dahlquist. The filmmakers are currently looking for donations to help with the completion of the film. Check out the film's website and movie trailer:http://www.couldntyouwait.com
Trouser Press: In the West cuts down substantially on the spectrum of crib notes, letting three subtly different songwriting voices — some of the better ideas seem to come from bassist/vocalist Tim Midgett — provide a sense of anticipation for what might be lurking around the next corner.
Midgett's loping basslines — one part post-funk, one part underwater wooze — give an intangible propulsion to spare tracks like "Garden City Blues" (which also draws some charm from drummer Michael Dahlquist's inexact percussive spurts).
When the aggro level is raised too high (as on "Incanduce" and the overly Burma-like "Pilot"), Silkworm grows awfully shrill.
But as a whole, the exquisitely spacious album's deep rhythmic caverns invite and demand casual lingering.
Able Tasmans and 3Ds both inspired a Kiwi bent of late which led me to this incredible slice of early 80's Dunedin Sound. The pacing and indexing is outstanding for a comp, it really reads as an album instead of just a collection. Not much else need be said, if you don't have this it's sort of a must. I think this is still out of print, someone should rerelease this.
The Dunedin Double EP was a seminal record in New Zealand music. An unusual format, it contain two 45rpm 12" discs, and at nearly 50 minutes length, it is longer than many albums.
Released in 1982, the compilation was one of the first releases from the newly formed Flying Nun Records label (catalogue number DUN-1), which over the course of the next ten years was to become the biggest independent record label in New Zealand. Many of the label's top groups came from the South Island city of Dunedin, and established that southern city's music scene as the leading source of guitar-based bands in New Zealand throughout much of the decade. The bands from the city which had music released on Flying Nun were grouped under the loose banner of Dunedin Sound, and several of them went on to not only national but also international success.
The Dunedin Double EP established the names of four of these groups, each of which was represented on the double EP by one side. The four bands concerned were The Chills, Sneaky Feelings, The Stones, and The Verlaines. The Chills' song Kaleidoscope World in particular became very popular, gaining considerable airplay for the band (It later provided the title for the band's first album, a compilation of their early singles and EP tracks.
Though the sound quality of the Dunedin Double EP was distinctly lo-fi (it was recorded on portable 4-track by Chris Knox), the release of this record provided a major impetus both for Flying Nun records and for the four bands involved, as well as providing inspiration and momentum to the music scene in Dunedin.
There hasn't been a whole lot to smile about lately, so why not let Smiley and Co. blow all of that bullshit right out of your ass. Take the frazzle off your dazzle. Smiley knows where it hurts and what ails you, he's been here before. So get yer ya-ya's out and prepare for the big showdown, 'cause this shit ain't over.
AMG sez: On this two-record set, each disc provides a different side of the versatile Smiley Winters. The first three cuts -- the entirety of disc one -- are all free jazz barnburners with explosive playing by all. Fans of jazz releases on the ESP or BYG labels should know what to expect here: lots of free blowing with some very intense moments. Among other things, four extra drummers and Donald Rafael Garrett's yelping vocals on the title track make the first disc an exhausting but highly rewarding experience. Particularly impressive are multi-reedman Bert Wilson (on soprano sax, tenor sax, and bass clarinet) and trumpeter Barbara Donald. On these numbers, Wilson slashes and soars to Ayler-esque heights and Donald just flat-out rips. These tracks either employ no discernible predetermined structure or ones similar to, say, Sunny Murray's Sunshine on BYG (i.e., quick runs of three or so notes apiece that don't waste any time dissolving into free improvisation). The second disc changes gears with an alarming halt. Its opener, "Frank's Blues," is a piano blues for trio that wouldn't sound out of place on an early Freddie Redd session. Otherwise, expect another, decidedly more post-bop Wilson and Donald workout as well as the Latin-tinged "Just Steppin'." The bass and drum duet "Smiley's Mini Drum Suite" closes out the set. In a perfect world, Bert Wilson and Barbara Donald would be stars of the late-'60s free jazz era, but they aren't, so the opportunity to hear them on this fine record (as well as on Sonny Simmons' Music From the Spheres) is one that fans of spirited free improvisation shouldn't miss. Highly recommended.
Caustic groove with jah foundations and that Lydon snarl. Perfect in places, absolutely horrible and unlistenable in others. Altogether a nice artifact. There are moments of hilarious pure pretentious Rottenness. I always wished they'd done a dub version of these first few records (in other words, sans Rotten's dogmatic moaning: yeah Johnny I get it - McLaren's a twat)). Always felt ripe for an adventurous remix.
Still, Metal Box is tits, like boobs.
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Allmusic.com: PiL managed to avoid boundaries for the first four years of their existence, and Metal Box is undoubtedly the apex. It's a hallmark of uncompromising, challenging post-punk, hardly sounding like anything of the past, present, or future. Sure, there were touchstones that got their imaginations running -- the bizarreness of Captain Beefheart, the open and rhythmic spaces of Can, and the dense pulses of Lee Perry's productions fueled their creative fires -- but what they achieved with their second record is a completely unique hour of avant-garde noise. Originally packaged in a film canister as a trio of 12" records played at 45 rpm, the bass and treble are pegged at 11 throughout, with nary a tinge of midrange to be found. It's all scrapes and throbs (dubscrapes?), supplanted by John Lydon's caterwauling about such subjects as his dying mother, resentment, and murder. Guitarist Keith Levene splatters silvery, violent, percussive shards of metallic scrapes onto the canvas, much like a one-armed Jackson Pollock. Jah Wobble and Richard Dudanski lay down a molasses-thick rhythmic foundation throughout that's just as funky as Can's Czukay/Leibezeit and Chic's Edwards/Rodgers. It's alien dance music. Metal Box might not be recognized as a groundbreaking record with the same reverence as Never Mind the Bollocks, and you certainly can't trace numerous waves of bands who wouldn't have existed without it like the Sex Pistols record. But like a virus, its tones have sent miasmic reverberations through a much broader scope of artists and genres. [Metal Box was issued in the States in 1980 with different artwork and cheaper packaging under the title Second Edition; the track sequence differs as well. The U.K. reissue of Metal Box on CD boasts better sound quality than the Second Edition CD.]
PIL on American Bandstand. Not sure how this happened but it is amazingly awkward.
The last few weeks have shown us life in all its misery. Haiti is but one example. It's enough to cause us to drop to our knees and implore the heavens...
Or just play this 32 minutes of humans' deeply moving plea of just five words.
Whether or not the obvious clicking we hear throughout the first six minutes of Miserere is the sound of a censer bathing the basses in incense as they embark on their mammoth (32-minute) journey through the five words of text on which the entire work is based, it seems entirely appropriate that it should seem so; for this is an intensely spiritual, imploringly prayerful work in which Gorecki responds with heartfelt passion to the political events of 1981 (a sit-in by members of Rural Solidarity, the violent breakup of which and General Jaruzelsk's subsequent declaration of "a state of war" ultimately led to the democratization of Poland). This is as intellectually demanding and emotionally compelling as anything by Goreckl yet released on disc. Lovers of the Third Symphony will fall under its spell straight away, but it should gain respect from those less easily swayed by the opulent orchestral textures of that work, for here Gorecki is using what is probably his favourite medium, the unaccompanied choir. The voices enter in a series of layered thirds until, at 2600", all ten parts commence an electrifying ascent through the word "Domine" to the work's climax which, with the first statement of "Miserere", suddenly bathes us in a quiet chord of A minor—a moment as devastatingly effective as an orchestra full of banging drums and crashing cymbals.
John Nelson directs a hypnotic performance which wants for nothing in its impact, his choral forces both emotionally committed and technically excellent.
Oh snap zombies! I LOOOVE this. I'm back from a mental hiatus and ready to shiver some timbers. Start with this fuchers and get crazee this weekend.
Hot Venom! Is there any other kind?
Rebirth, now with BOUNCE.
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Allmusic.com:The release of Hot VenomHot Venom may turn off some listeners; however, if you can get past that (it's worth it!), it doesn't take away from the overall party groove the Rebirth band delivers. Tracks finds the Rebirth Brass Band adding a definite rap element to the traditional brass band music indigenous to New Orleans. Rebirth is successful in combining the community-based traditional brass bands (which have always been a street art, featuring music that is used for parades, burials, celebrating) and injects the current urban sensibilities of rap and hip-hop, creating a potent brand of hot venom. While brass band purists may find this new direction appalling, it is the next logical step for the younger musicians to keep the form from dying, or, worse, becoming a museum piece. A word of caution: this may be the first brass band album to contain a parental advisory sticker.
Hard Work? So, melodies from these records have been haunting me so much lately that I was eventually compelled (nay DRIVEN), down to a dark, damp, dour corner of our basement, to a box in a drawer, in order to retrieve the ancient, cinder-block-sized, externally-powered, USB 1.0 80GBHD (ha! ha! ha-ha-hah!) that I had stashed them away onto eight or so years ago, and then laboriously offload and reformat and upload and try to remember my password so that I could get the fuck back on this here blog and SHARES... ( we do the lordz work).
Well, Worth It! These record have aged (matured) very well over the last two decades. I was ecstatic to find those melodies intact and mesmerizing all over again. Oh, where have all the sharp wiggly guitars gone? (And Oh, "Dreams of Herge," where have you been all these years? Oh right. in the basement). FWIW, these records have way more staying power than your average state-of-the-art digital media storage device.
They had some beautiful record covers.
did they not?
P.S. Thought:
do Pavement owe 3Ds anything?
[hear "Hairs" or "Sing-Song" fer chrissakes!]
There seems to be a rather direct connect to my ears now,
and these Kiwi Kids certainly had it on the Stockton Set by a few years.
(oh whatevs, i suppose it was all in the ferment. just bubbling away...)
someone's doubtless done a dissertation or two by now.
Allmusic.com: Igor Stravinsky was one of music's truly epochal innovators; no other composer of the twentieth century exerted such a pervasive influence or dominated his art in the way that Stravinsky did during his five-decade musical career. Aside from purely technical considerations such as rhythm and harmony, the most important hallmark of Stravinsky's style is, indeed, its changing face. Emerging from the spirit of late Russian nationalism and ending his career with a thorny, individual language steeped in twelve-tone principles, Stravinsky assumed a number of aesthetic guises throughout the course of his development while always retaining a distinctive, essential identity.
Although he was the son of one of the Mariinsky Theater's principal basses and a talented amateur pianist, Stravinsky had no more musical training than that of any other Russian upper-class child. He entered law school, but also began private composition and orchestration studies with Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. By 1909, the orchestral works Scherzo fantastique and Fireworks had impressed Sergei Diaghilev enough for him to ask Stravinsky to orchestrate, and subsequently compose, ballets for his company. Stravinsky's triad of early ballets -- The Firebird (1909-1910), Petrushka (1910-1911), and most importantly, The Rite of Spring (1911-1913) -- did more to establish his reputation than any of his other works; indeed, the riot which followed the premiere of The Rite is one of the most notorious events in music history.
Very excited to get my hands on a copy of this. You should be too, fool!
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Allmusic.com: Composer Luc Ferrari's two works "Interrupteur (For 10 Instruments)" and "Tautologos 3 (For 11 Instruments)" were first recorded by EMI in 1970 and have never before been issued in the United States. The significance of these two works from Ferrari's wildly diverse catalogue is that they are both departures from his animated and active music of the '50s and '60s. "Interrupteur" is an orchestral stasis point that begins to move. In the stillness created by the strings, time becomes one long block that creates the opportunity for various timbres and textures to rub against it, creating muted colors and shades. The events that occur inside the written score are chance actions (flurries of woodwinds or brass, a shriek from an errant viola, etc.) and cannot help but to move against that which is already unmoving and therefore deconstruct it gradually and methodically but without the purpose of transforming stasis into anything else but another form. "Tautologos 3" is a score that is cyclic in nature and uses a limited scale of notational devices. Utilizing standard orchestral instrumentation and the electric guitar, and magnetic tape, it is a work that is as hypnotic as it is maddening. The musical "cycles" or themes are short in measure and are played over and again in a patter than moves forward and backward but remains in some way familiar to the listener. During the editing and mixing process, Ferrari manipulated and spliced tape to create other cycles to overlay over the original compositions to that some span of time (as in minutes) would become familiar against a backdrop of something less movement oriented but nonetheless changing as it interacts with the previous cycles (as in weeks). The result is a piecemeal score that drifts and drones its way into the listener's consciousness and changes right at the point where familiarity is established. Both works took Ferrari's fans by surprise, but they followed him anyway, because, true to form, his restlessness took him to further points of abstraction before the end of 1971.
A dreamy definitive example of that New Zealand sound commodity. Lighter and more psyche than what you may expect, making it a nice easy endeavor. Would fit in well with that Paisley Underground feel. Very melodic and very layered with just enough reverb to take the edge off. Feel a little Love here too.
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Allmusic: On this mini-album this obscure New Zealand group delivers some of their best upbeat Byrds-esque guitar pop on record. Of the five albums they produced in the late '80s/early '90s, the signature of their sound is the keyboard-driven melody, subtle acoustic arrangements, and propulsive rhythm section. The sound is quite close to a more folk-sounding Stereolab, with vocal harmonies from the Brian Wilson songbook.
Resolutions are for the weak. If you must, if you admit your weakness, at least resolve to listen to a wide variety of good music, such as...
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Allmusic: Arnold Dreyblatt's 1995 Tzadik release, Animal Magnetism, includes many juxtaposed sections of repeating, skip-like structures that come off in a simple, lovely way. It is entirely likable with a lilting, pots-and-pans schizophrenia that insists we hear what normally doesn't work, what normally isn't called art. Embedded with quirk-pop elements, the pieces resemble deconstructed dance tunes reflected in a room full of mirrors. Slightly carnival moments, tweaked ska counter rhythms, percussive foregrounds overlying slide effects backgrounds, barely-contained marching band funk -- all these are part of Dreyblatt's musical world.
