Kraftwerk- K4 Live Bremen Radio 1971
Kraftwerk+Neu!=Heavy Metal Kids

maybe their best recording. totally heavy motorik grooves from the pre-robot era with the Neu! dudes before they split to pursue the repetitive krautpunk grail.

Uncle Wiggly's Favorite Albums of 2007 which may or may not be in any order at all:

• Silvester Anfang- Kosmies Schlactaval (Belgo cult mutants rape the corpse of freak folk, best album cover and artwork of the year= pictures of goats and girls licking skulls)
  
• 16 Bitch Pile-Up- Bury Me Deep (imaginary 80s slasher soundtrack from the queens of noise. sound effects pounding the inside of your brain. headphone album of the year)
  
• Panda Bear- Person Pitch (now let's stop talking about how sweet it is)
  
• Cadaver in Drag- Raw Child (pure fucking evil, Julian Cope's album of the month so you know it's good, right?)
  
• The Bad Trips- s/t (amazing.)
  
• Flower/Corsano Duo- The Radiant Mirror (stonedrone masterpiece)
  
• Wooden Shjips- s/t (or anything else they put out this year...)
  
• Kemialliset Ystavat- s/t (these fairie-piss-drinkers continue to raise the bar for finnish psych folk noise)
  
• Burning Star Core- Amelia (well, everything C Spencer Yeh put out this year ruled, but this one got the most plays on my stereo)
  
• Group Inerane- Guitars From Agadez (best Sublime Frequencies release yet? heavy Nigerian guitar sounds that kicks that overproduced Tiniwaren album's ass)
• Sword Heaven- Entrance (intense feral monstrosity from one of my favorite live acts of the year)
  
• Caribou- Andorra (the perfect summer album... two months too late. thank goodness for the internets)
  
• Eric Copeland- Hermaphrodite (too fucked for words)
  
• Hair Police- The Empty Quarter (they rule.)
  
• Black Dice- Load Blown (if you're too cool to dance, get the fuck out of the way)
  
• Blues Control- Puff (this is what tangerine dream should sound like)
  
• Acid Eater- Virulent Fuzz Punk A.C.I.D. (Masonna reincarnated as the second coming of ? & the Mysterians. it was bound to happen eventually...)
• Islaja- Ulual yyy (maybe not her best record, but give me a couple months and i'll be laying on the floor crying uncontrollably while listening to it. thumbs up for pulling off the addition of saxophones)
  
• Mats Gustafsson & Yoshimi- Words on the Floor (ummm... wow.)

you can find a bunch of these in the archives. or you could go buy them, jerk. i'm probably forgetting a bunch of great records, but it was a busy year. here's to another year of mind-melting music!

Uncle Wiggly's link round-up, just in time for not-jesus'-birthday:

Raven- Back to Ohio Blues (1975)
Les Rallizes Denudes boxsets & other goodies at Bruitage...
Fantastic Planet Soundtrack at Tonton Manhood
Lots of amazing South American Psych at En Busca...

and of course...

A John Waters Christmas at Multiple Maniacs

Flashlights-Eckords


Eckords 'is the first release by Flash Lights, the duo of Liz Harris
(better known as Grouper) and Bay Area sound sculptor Jorge Behringer.
Here, Liz's spectral vocal transmissions (the ones that blew our collective
minds on last year's superb opus "Way Their Crept") are augmented by
disorienting field recordings, bubbling electronics, meditative guitar lines,
and Jorge's angelic, processed viola. Each piece is unique and bursting with
vibrant, otherworldly energy, running the gamut from almost poppy (!)
songforms, to distant choral ghost codas, and moving effortlessly from
seering blasts of electronics to calm, glacially evolving, painstakingly
wrought towers of dynamic vocal murk. Beautifully mastered by Pete Swanson,
presented in a sleeve adorned with Liz's wonderful black and white artwork.'-Complicated Dance Steps

Kelly's Birthday Winter Mix


Happy Birthday Kelly. Here's your Birthday Mix. Which is probably the most epic mix I've ever made. It's certainly the longest. I did my best split it into two halves while keeping a decent flow. The first "side" is all the moody wintery stuff. The second is mostly ice cold beats and shit. I bookended it with a few slower pieces to bring it all full circle. And then I tacked on an Elliot Smith song on the end, cause duh.

All in all it's 30 songs long, and along with being your birthday mix, and a winter mix, it's also contains mostly songs released in 2007, with a small handful of exceptions. So maybe it's a year in review mix. No, fuck that. There's a bunch of songs I left off of it that would need to be on there.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. I'll see you next Tuesday.

xo,

Jowel.

P.S. I'm pretty sure it won't be in the right order when you open the .zip so here's the tracklisting:

Lee Moses-Adorable One
Atlas Sound-Recent Bedroom
Caribou-Yo Yo
Cocteau Twins-Ice Pulse
Clinic-Sunshine Boy
Panda Bear-Take Pills
John Cale & Terry Riley-The Soul of Patrick Lee
Radiohead-Reckoner
George Delerue-Camille
The Tenniscoats-Oetsu to Kanki no Nanoriuta
Jens Lekman-Shirin
Caribou-Irene
Giles, Giles, & Fripp-Little Children
Feu Therese-Nada
-
Otis Redding and the Pinetoppers-Shout Bamalama
Glass Candy-Getto Boys
M.I.A. ft. Bun B & Rich Boy-Paper Planes
Fred Falke & Alan Braxe-Rubicon
DJ Copy-Tha Crossroads
The Field-Everyday
Crystal Castles-Airwar
Gui Boratto-Beautiful Life
John Maus-Do Your Best
The Chromatics-I'm on Fire
Antony & The Johnsons-Fistful of Love
Bonnie "prince" Billy-Kelly
Bjork-Boho Dance
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band-Peon
Radiohead-4 Minute Warning
Elliot Smith-Whatever (Folk Song in C)hg?%^

Horrific Child - L'étrange Monsieur Whinster
Creepy French progadelic ethno freakout from Jean-Pierre Massiera (of Les Maledictus Sound & Chico Magnetic Band's killer "Pop Pull Hair"). The cover should indicate how much you need this album.

Basil Kirchin- Worlds Within Worlds Pt. 1
early drone/experimental sounds from legendary soundtrack composer & king of library music, Mr. Basil Kirchin.

Fuck Buttons-Sweet Love for Planet Earth




















Beach House-Devotion












Lee Moses-Time and Place

Jonny Greenwood-There Will Be Blood Original Score

Radiohead-In Rainbows CD2

For those of you too poor to shell out $80. Note: this is not the full cd quality version of the disc, as I haven't received my discbox yet. But it's sounds fine nonetheless.

Silvinha- Silvinha (1971)
Another great album of completely bat-shit insane pop music from brazil. it's got some jazzy brazilian pop sensibility but also features some wailing psych fuzz guitars and Silvinha's bizarre scream singing, which turns most of it into some kind of funky acid soul rock freak-out. no matter how poppy they tried to make this one, silvinha's vocals are always really weird, even on the kinda icky orchestrated song. a strange and fun album from a very drug-induced era of Brazilian music... "Voce Já Morreu E Se Esqueceu De Deitar" makes me wanna dance around my apartment like a drunken fool.

Wu Tang Clan-8 Diagrams Mixtape






















John Maus-Love is Real

Review excerpts from John Maus's myspace profile:

"It took this Ariel Pink cohort five years to write and record his debut album, and only five minutes to become more annoying than Ariel Pink.
- CMJ

For me, this is just too weird. The first couple of tracks make this the most skip-able album of 2006.
-Subba Cultcha

Apparently, Maus spent five years working on this album, which is a shame because, frankly, its awful.
-Vice

There isn't one song you could call 'good' on the whole album.
-Music Zine

Overall, I can't recommend this album even as a novelty listen. Maybe I just don't get it. It seems as if Maus sabotages practically any hint of an interesting melody, lyric, or instrumental part with a blatantly grating one at almost every turn.
-Indie Workshp

Maus's baroquely deadpan voice - and thats being polite - effectively spoils many a song. Some will hear a little Nick Cave in it; others will hear a man crapping out of his mouth.
-Drowned in Sound

If it is supposed to be funny, it is not. If it is meant seriousy, then Maus needs some SERIOUS help.
-Another Zine"

PURPLE IMAGE- PURPLE IMAGE
Cleveland's finest 70s funkadelic heavy acid soul rock band's only album. the opening track "Living in the Ghetto" is one to add to your mix tape... the 15 minute phased-out closing track is a bit excessive, but overall it's another great lost album that needs to be heard.

people who do noise.

V/A-Pop Ambient 2008




























Glass Candy-Beat Box

time for robot sex music from the analog synth lounge.

T.O.N.T.O.'s Exploding Head Band- Zero Time

Dear Frequent Seize, please click here.

if you haven't been following the underground hype so far, here's a quick update. Les Rallizes Denudes were a group of Japanese noise terrorists who, from the late 60s until 90s, played the loudest, most misanthropic, minimal 'rock' music never recorded. due to leader Takashi Mizutani's hatred of recording studios, the band never released a studio album (except for the posthumous 'mizutani'), so the entire history of the band has to be researched by diving into a massive amount of semi-official bootlegs and cd-r box sets. LRD's sound is characterized by retardedly simple "my girl"-meets-krautrock bass grooves that sound like they may collapse at any moment. when Mizutani decides to 'sing', he unleashes various yelps, gurgles and frail, damaged melodies all sent through way too much echo. and all of it is buried under the unholy amount of feedback coming from Mizutani's guitar amps. a comparison to the Velvet Underground is the closest thing anyone can come up with... they also had an exploding plastic inevitable-style lightshow for a while. they were originally connected to experimental filmmaker/performance artist shuji terayama, who kicked them out of his theater troup when they refused to turn their amps down. and they continued to play the loudest, most fucked up music in existence for the next 30 years... despite their total obscurity outside of japan (or in japan, for that matter) up until recently, they've been extremely influential in the world of Japanese psych/noise/rock; it's doubtful that the Acid Mothers, High Rise, LSD March, Boris, Keiji Haino or any of the others would be quite the same without their influence.

December's Black Children is probably one of the better quality bootlegs out there, it's from 1980. find out why this is my favorite band...

Surrent-Little Internets

The Cool Kids-Totally Flossed OUt EP


I'm going to se M.I.A. tonight at The Roseland. I'm almost as excited to see The Cool Kids as I am her. The snare on "88" reminds me of the maintenance guy at The Everrett Street Lofts. He was this really srange Californian who listened to a lot of Bread and would always show up in the weirdest places without any warning to stare me down as I walked by. Once he scared the living shit out of me by popping up out of heavy refuse dumpster when I was taking the garbage out. I never really knew him all that well. Our relationship centered around me occasionally peering into the van he was living out of in the garage. But he loved Mark. And used to tell him about chasing crack dealers off the block by pounding a baseball bat on the curb, red-faced and screaming, "NO, DO YOU HAVE THE TIME, MOTHERFUCKER!?!?!"

Bonnie "Prince" Billy-Ask Forgiveness EP

Burial-Untrue

White Williams-Smoke

2MinuteMediaPDX-Bastardgeist

Last Spring my good friend Armando approached me about doing a short film on Bastardgeist for a series he was working on in conjunction with another Portland filmmaker. I, of course, ecstatically accepted. When they finally came to shoot, however, I was completely unprepared. I had been working long late night hours at the Portland Art Museum (which, ironically, is where I'm writing this post from), watching Shannon's unruly four year old during the day, and trying to figure out how in the hell I was going to make a three month tour through the EU work with no money in my pocket, much less the bank. Fortunately, this hectic lifestyle and my utter lack of planning for the shoot beforehand ended up working in my favor, as I feel I come across a bit like an eccentric genius.

It's also worth mentioning that while performing a stirring rendition of "Black, Blind, and Blonde" I got naked.

Many thanks for everyone at 2minutemedia for the opportunity.

my new favorite blogs:
jap rock, no wave, oddities at sector 2814
cleveland protopunk, japcore, general misanthropy at spending loud night
(you are required to check out the cleveland confidential comp and the mirrors album- they will greatly improve your life)

Id- Where are We Going (1976)

ultra-rare psychedelic texan weirdness... hyperactive speed fuzz guitar and lots of lo-fi phasing effects on this acid rock classic. obviously too many drugs were involved in the making of this record, if you don't like endless guitar wankery that doesn't really go anywhere you probably won't enjoy this. for those of us that love lost weird private press albums, this one's essential.

be sure to check out bravo juju for some cool eclectic stuff (like the derek baily & the ruins album!). and if you want to hear some acid fuzz rock with steel drum, check this one out.

although i am not a Sun City Girls fan, i have been enjoying Sir Richard Bishop's recent solo albums. lots of acoustic finger-pickin' goodness, sort of a mutant strain of John Fahey/Django Reinhardt acoustic adventures exploring the murky backwaters of folk musics with a hip flask of moonshine and a jimson weed cigarette.


Fingering the Devil

The Flower Corsano Duo-The Radiant Mirror





Remember that time when Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty played at the church? Well if Mick Flower, a founding member of the Vibracathedral Orchestra, had been there wailing on his pedal enhanced "japanese banjo" we probably would all be walking around right now with melted faces. Such is the listening experience of The Flower Corsano Duo's latest release.
Immediate and mind-expanding The Radiant Mirror probably won't get the attention it deserves. But if you have even the slightest inkling of interest in improvisational music, it would behoove you to give this instant classic a couple of spins.

Serge Gainsbourg- Histoire de Melody Nelson

this is the essential album for when you're drunk and trying to seduce underage girls. seriously, no woman can resist the sleaziness of Serge Gainsbourg... (link fixed)

Wooden Shjips-s/t

It's not possible to communicate how much Radiohead means to me. Every album seems to shift the paradigm in such a way that I experience all other music differently. I'm trying to speak as conservatively as possible when really what I want to say is that this band is the greatest single accomplishment in human history. But that's obviously not totally fair.

However it goes, In Rainbows will end up being recorded in my own private history as a landmark album if for no other reason than that you aren't here to enjoy it with me.

Black Dice-Load Blown

I was reminded that I hadn't posted this yet when I noticed Ian's bulletin petitioning for someone to go see Henry Rollins in Ann Arbor with him.

Load Blown is fucking revelatory. On this record the boys in Black Dice dive ever further into the cracked rhythms, and day-glo collage orgies they started toying around with on Cone Toaster and before. Rock it on your stereo or in your headphones or on the little radios you put in your shower (P.S. Those things are dumb).

san ul lim is a korean garage psych band of three brothers and a sister. super fuzzy goofy psych music, very DIY, with lots of great vocal harmonies & fuzzed-out guitar riffs... their third album is apparently them trying to sound like ACDC but failing because they're a bunch of nerdy Korean kids. great stuff. if anyone's interested i also have a record rip of some of their demos, including a bitchin' cover of 'jingle bells'.

1.Ah! Already
2.As Laying Carpet on My Mind
3.My Heart

kim jung mi- songs of shin jung-hyun

kim's probably the best known Korean psych folk pop singer thanks to the internet's proliferation of her albums "Wind" and "Now". this is her debut album, it has some kinda funky pop songs with music by shin jung hyun himself. i really really like the track "i can't forget". if you downloaded the shin jung hyun albums you might recognize a song or two...

well, they did it. they finally killed music.

LIQUORBALL- HAULS ASS/FUCKS THE SKY LPS
LIQUORBALL- LIVE IN HITLER'S BUNKER/STERNKLANG I
BAD TRIPS- S/T

if you haven't been convinced to download these just by the titles, i can only begin to describe the sounds within as sounding like a black mass circle jerk between members of tivol and warmer milks, while hawkwind pounds whiskey in the corner and swears loudly. bad trips is newer and slightly more musical, or at least less holy-fuck-what-is-wrong-with-these-guys. but only slightly.

(thanks to the original posters of these monsters, i am indebted to you forever.)

shin joong-hyun is a major figure in South Korean music, his early bands were the first uniquely Korean pop bands in a time when Japanese-influenced pop ruled. by the late 60s, shin was getting in trouble with the authorities for his leftist politics and marijuana use, leading him to being banned from the radio until the 80s. this didn't stop shin from being influential, whether he was putting out amazing epic psych rock records under his own name or doing the producing and backing music for some of Korea's best pop and psych folk singers. he recently retired, so i'm going to give you a taste of some of my favorites. "it's a lie" is one of the best psychedelic albums ever, featuring great korean melodies stretching out into massive jams with shin's amazing guitar playing battling organ and electric oboe. "in-a-kadda-da-vida" is a live album, the first half of which is dedicated to mutilating the classic iron butterfly tune beyond recognition, plus the best garbled english this side of krautrock. side two features guest singers and a bizarre version of the wilson pickett classic "funky broadway". yes.

more korean psychedelia coming soon, including some more stuff with shin jung-hyun, probably some san ul lim too.

shin joong-hyun & the men- it's a lie
shin joong-hyun & the questions- in-a-kadda-da-vida

Ten days. Ten short days.

Yeasayer-All Hour Cymbals


More proof that the sounds of Genesis are coming back in a big way. This band also released one of my favorite singles of the year, the earlier posted "2080".

the pinnacle of human achievement: heavy motorik biker spacerock. this band fucking destroys. go buy all of their albums right now. your life will be better. why is every band from finland so fucking killer?

TIVOL- INTERSTELLAR OVERBIKE

THE SLITS_ LIVE 6/15/80

not the best quality, but it's still an awesome time capsule. note to those of you on the coasts who were lucky enough to see the slits on tour this summer: i hate you.

Sunburned Hand of the Man-Fire Escape


































Six Organs of Admittance-Shelter From the Ash

The Chromatics-IV (Night Drive

andy crash is an outsider musician from West Milgrove, OH. his main influences are johnny cash, hank williams, and early 80s hardcore. THE ELECTRONIC COWBOY INVASION is one of the many cds and tapes andy used to hand out at shows. the cover is a crudely hand-drawn picture of hank sr. the label on the back says: most of this is improve just an old Andy Crash practice tape in true shitleg fashion. one long track of andy practicing his set of classics like "Broke Ass Road", "Take My Chevy Apart" and "Fuck You Piss Off". for fans of jandek, legendary stardust cowboy, the fugs, syd barrett, captain beefheart... in other words, this one's going out to all those mutants out there!

Jackie-O Motherfucker Overdose

John Wiese-Soft Punk


I'm not completely sureI haven't already posted this record. But I'm too lazy to rifle through the archives to check. And anyhow, it's good enough to post twice.

Supermayer-Save the World

finnish psych folk explosion at bloodistruth

ethiopian jazz blast at chocoreve

what more could you possibly want out of life?

The Wipers- Youth of America
The Wipers- Over the Edge (from ???)

another great Portland band. perfect guitar sound. perfect underground alt post punk goodness. just a perfect band, period. fuck, i just can't get over that chorus guitar sound.

yeah, i know... most of you probably hate pink floyd. and i do too. the majority of their music is mind-numbingly boring, egotistic and perpetually in the same key. if i ever hear the fucking wall again i'm going to beat some teenage stoners to death with their own bong... This, however is THE pink floyd, with the one and only Syd Barrett, lysergic saint, musical visionary and infamous 60s casualty. Syd's lyrics always prove who the real talent of the band was. 40 years later, this thing STILL sounds like it fell out of the sky. the origin of space-rock, jangly paisley psych, epic psychedelic grooves... re-released in both stereo and the supposedly superior mono mixes (which is kind of dumb since it's digitally remastered and therefore ruined) and a bunch of neat bonus tracks. a new way for gnomes to say hooray?

PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN

BONUS TRAX

by request:

Anthony Braxton & Wolf Eyes- Black Vomit

PJ Harvey-White Chalk

tetes lourdes

oh yeah... 70s french heavy metal goodness. this compilation has enough cheesy riffs and falsetto screams to fuel your late-night drinking binges for weeks. these bands definitely worship under the altar of the almighty heavy metal axis of Heep, Deep Purple & Black Sabbath, except most of these bands are actually pretty good, as opposed to the majority of their english speaking counterparts. crank up the stereo and sit down with your favorite cheap beer, because it's about to be 1973 all over again!

GRINDERMAN is Nick Cave's new band, which is basically the same line-up as the Bad Seeds, but with more of a loud-and-scary-as-fuck sound like the Birthday Party. Play at maximum volume.

LES RALLIZES DENUDES- LIVE 1972
speaking of loud and scary, LRD have been doing it for 40 years in the murky depths of the Japanese underground. Without them there would be no High Rise, Acid Mothers Temple, Boris, Keiji Haino, etc. Yes, they rule. This show has limitations (as in it was recorded by some guy with a tape deck) but it's still pretty killer and makes "The Legendary Guitar Amp Tapes" sound tame.

"that wolf eyes shit is bananas" -anthony braxton

Wolf Eyes & Anthony Braxton Live in Victoriaville

Prefuse 73-Preparations

Beirut-The Flying Club Cup

I am in Ohio. It's been both refreshing and a bit difficult. However, I've managed to push aside my anxieties for the moment. Thank you Harp. Thank you Leinenkugel. Thank you tequila sunrise that tasted like chalk.

I want to make sex with every guy in this town. It's sick how much I missed American men. Especially straight men.

if anyone was interested in the japanese erotic record posted earlier, you might want to check out different waters, who has a bunch of reissues of rare pink records from the seventies. and be sure to check out the meiko kaji record, she is a badass femme who will kick your ass.

Silvester Anfang- Kosmies Slachtafval

a brand new disc from Belgium's premier satanic cult/funeral folk ensemble, trading in their acoustic instruments for electric guitars and keyboards to create some evil sludgey jams that are up there with warmer Milks' "Radish on Light" for creepiest record of the year. dig it.

The Black Lips-Good Bad Not Evil

Sunset Rubdown-Random Spirit Lover

Sally Shapiro-Disco Romance

For around a year now I've been having these sporadic disagreements with my cigarette addiction. It's been happening more or less in a two to three day cycle. And, as is the case for most people my age who smoke, it's inextricably linked to my drinking habit. Usually after the second or third day of drowning my hangover in alcohol I'm ready to take a day or two off of everything. So I'm in the middle of that right now. It's especially fantastic as we've arrived in our Parisian flat on the 15th floor of probably one of the most hideous buildings on the face of the planet, in a section of town that is probably one of the tackiest urban areas on the face of the planet. I'm not exaggerating. The flat is owned by a friend of a friend's family and the organizing of our stay was more than a little complicated, especially considering the French tendency to leave out many important details whenever brokering anything more involved than a handshake. Such as directions to the building after we got off the metro or the fact that we would have to negotiate the key out of the tyrannical hands of reception once we arrived. The people who was generous enough to lend us the flat are a family of rich Iranians who fled to Paris in the late 70's at the start of the Iranian Revolution. Apparently they decided to bring their taste in grotesque home furnishings with them, as the entire flat is decorated in Louis XVII factory knock-offs with dusty moth eaten slip-covers half draped over them. There are about a
million individually framed, faded photos of the family, the overwhelming majority of which no one is smiling in. And in the living room is prominently displayed a gigantic portrait of who I can only assume was/is the matriarchal head of the household. The view is even better. It's like living in an Air video or those old stock films of the gangster era Las Vegas strip right before the casinos are all imploded. No one actually lives here. All the kids are grown up and the parents, or at least the mother, spends most of her time in Iran. So for the next three days I'm hiding away in the part of Paris everyone has forgotten about. I hope they don't decide to demolish this beautiful, ancient monstrosity while I'm inside.








Eric Copeland-Hermaphrodite




Eric Copeland is a member of Black Dice and Terrestrial Tones. Hermaphrodite is his first solo recording and precedes the new Black Dice record, Load Blown, which comes out in October. There are some familiar themes inside of Hermaphrodite. It overflows with the same textural emphasis and expresses the same penchant for Terry Riley style repetition I've been hearing from more than one direction so far this year. However, rather than wearing it emblazoned on its sleeve, Hermaphrodite's appeal is in its subtle, more intimate references. Sort of like a diary entry of referneces.

Don't get it twisted. I'm not suggesting that Hermaphrodite is even as contemplative as a Black Dice record. On the whole, this music is downright celebratory, yet another parallel to the work of Mr. Copeland's peers.

In the next couple of days I will attempt to catch up on the blog. Things have been absolutely insane and exhilarating. I've always been, for the most part, comfortable with my decision to forego higher education and focus on my music for awhile. But I've never been so confident about that decision. This has been hands down the most rewarding and amazing experience of my entire life. I can't wait to share all the juicy details with you.










M.I.A.-Kala




Until then, listen to this. Not much I need to say to sell this one I'm sure. I won't say just it's my favorite release of the year just yet. But I have already probably listened to Kala as much as Person Pitch when it leaked.

som imaginario 1971
the second self titled album from one of brazil's weirdest bands. nothing quite as killer as "morse", but still equal to their first s/t. check it.

transitions

Mushroom with Eddie Gale


Masterpiece. Many things to do. More later on this god damn thing. Here's what you should know: Eddie Gale (Blue Note superstar), Mushroom (San Fran psych collective). result: one more reason to quite your day job and start eating dirt.

ummm... what? i guess i'd rather have andre shilling organic food than diet soda or something, but this is still bizarre and unsettling. is he going to rap about the wonders of fresh produce? maybe a song about freshly baked organic bread or the ridiculous WF deli? the olive bar?


anyway, tonight i present to you an album by the great Mr. Kim Fowley, or as this album claims, Kim Fowley Jr. somehow existing as both an outsider musician and as one of pop's top producers, Kim is possibly one of the weirdest of the rock and roll mutants: he started out as a kid in Hollywood with actor parents, started his first band with Phil Spector and Sandy Nelson, recorded countless 60s novelty singles (Alley Oop, Nut Rocker, etc) and sat underneath the piano during Zappa's "Freak Out" sessions before moving to England and working with every up and coming star in the mid 60s (cat stevens, yardbirds, etc, etc) then coming back to the states to record hundreds of gold records, recorded a bunch of Kiss albums, started the Runaways in the late 70s, pioneered synthpunk in the 80s, and still had time in between all the gold records to make a couple thousand solo albums with absolutely no commercial potential. oh, and he's REALLY FUCKING CRAZY! "Son of Frankenstein" is one of his better albums of the 80s, featuring the notorious spoken-word freakout 'Invasion of the polaroid people' and a handful of bizarro pop hits in typical Fowley stream-of-consciousness style. if you, the audience, approves, maybe i will post his late 60s solo albums where he sounds like iggy pop on mushrooms backed by booker t & the MGs. now THAT'S entertainment!

i'm not sure what to think of joanna newsom. yes, she's a good harpist, but her voice sounds like a pixie stoned on nitrate singing bjork covers. plus she hangs out with that pedophile-folk creep devendra banhart. but maybe i'm just horribly pessimistic about any musician that gets recognition by the music magazines (i am, after all, a bitter and cynical human being that is unable to appreciate 'popular' music). either way, this album has some nice songs that are good for a rainy day like today, and it also has some songs that are pretty forgettable. don't believe the freak-folk hype, kids.

milk-eyed mender

I had a dream about Dusty last night. It happens every couple of months. They're always really pathetic. And when I remember them in the morning I always feel this odd, slightly self-righteous sort of loneliness. There's a pattern to it. I could probably make it into a song or something.

Anyway, now there's a German in the room who speaks very good, very concise English. Full of command sentences. He ends up sounding very demanding. I find him hilarious. But he doesn't know that.


Here's a pretty solid release from the pseudo-legendary Bronx duo Camp Lo.




Camp Lo-In Black Hollywood