Maybe Next Year, Maybe Never
The Academy Awards are my Super Bowl. That said, I was very disappointed that Mickey Rourke did not win Best Actor for his role in The Wrestler. However, Sean Penn’s acceptance speech for his Oscar scored some powerful political points with his pointing to the shame those that voted for Proposition 8 should own. Milk writer Lance Dustin Black also noted that true equal rights in our nation will indeed exist. Head over to You Tube to watch Mickey Rourke’s ultra-hilarious acceptance speech for his award given on February 21st by Film Independent’s Spirit Awards. I would love to know who ‘Gap-Tooth’ is - bringing to mind a recent episode of The Office. I would imagine one could also find Robyn Hitchcock’s performance from the Spirit Awards where he played “Up To Our Nex” from nominated film Rachel Getting Married. Perhaps it’s no Bride Wars….”Up To Our Nex” is one of Hitchcock’s best songs since “Madonna Queen of the Wasps” and the album Fegmania. Mickey deserved better. Just spend some time with Diner and Angel Heart.
Robyn Hitchcock - Up To Our Nex
Wavvves is Nathan Williams (w/ Ryan Ulsh live) and has to be about the biggest breath of fresh air since last year’s Nouns by No Age - with whom they have played shows - not to mention sharing stages with the likes of Crystal Stilts and Blank Dogs. Lo-Fi experimental pop of the highest order, the band’s self-titled album will be released by Fat Possum on March 17th (originally issued February 3rd on another label). All noises, and sonic catastrophe never come at the expense of the song. Could these guys with Times New Viking be the ultimate glorious ear splitting bill?
Whose Better, Who’s Best
Remember the films where the hero pursues the woman that is all wrong for him, while the right one is underneath his nose the entire time? Seattle band Kinski is the right woman in a sea of wrong. In a steaming heap of hyperbole between the Mogwai’s and Tortoise’s of the world, Kinski is occasionally misplaced in all the nooks and crannies that fall between these post rock polars. What a crime considering Seattle’s space rock quartet Kinski is perhaps Underground Rock’s greatest unsung treasure. As much as I love Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky - Kinski’s melodies and the force in which they are delivered are completely unrivaled. Beauty and the beast. Cocteau and Sam Peckinpah…
Certainly Sub-Pop Records does not take the band for granted. The venerable label has released three of the bands long-players and looks set to release the newest sometime in 2009. The band has reportedly stated that the next albums will feature vocals on every song, with not a single one eclipsing the four minute mark.
Kinski is Chris Martin (Guitar, Vocals), Lucy Atkinson (Bass), Matthew Reid-Schwartz (Guitar), and Barrett Wilke (Drums). When I first caught the band some years back opening for Silkworm (whom they promptly, and yet politely blew this incredible band off the stage), they were transitioning from their airy Spacemen 3 / My Bloody Valentine phase and moving into a more aggressive, direct approach that became 2001’s Be Gentle With The Warm Turtle. The signing with Sub-Pop yielded Airs Above Your Station which dove deeper into murky, ambient waters and followed by 2005’s Alpine Static, which to this date appears to be the band’s loudest and most beautiful documenting of sound. Down Below It’s Chaos, released in 2007, saw the band move more towards psychedelia and seventies monster rock with positive, resplendent results.
If all of this sounds good to the ears, one might want to check Chris’s radio show on KBCS Thursday Nights at 11 p.m. where a listener can hear everything from Mouse on Mars to Windy and Carl to the Lilys and Teenage Fanclub. The Show is called Ampbuzz the same name as Chris’ ambient solo project whose fantastic album called This Is My Ampbuzz is available from Strange Attractors.
Kinski - That Helmut Poe Kid’s Weird
from Be Gentle With The Warm Turtle (Strange Attractor 2005 Reissue)
Kinski - Hiding Drugs in the Temple Pt. 2
from Alpine Static (Sub-Pop Records 2005)
Kinski - The Snowy Parts of Scandanavia
from Alpine Static (Sub-Pop Records 2005)
Kinski - Passwords and Alcohol
from Down Below It’s Chaos (Sub-Pop Records 2007)
Here’s to a weekend of love and NBA All-Stars!
Nate Robinson 5′9″ over Dwight Howard 6′11″!
Alex Chilton - With a Girl Like You
Sebadoh - Soul and Fire (Acoustic)
Peter, Bjorn and John - Objects of My Affection
Wolf Parade - This Heart’s On Fire
The Lemonheads - Into Your Arms
The Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love?
Leonard Cohen - Chelsea Hotel No. 2
Explosions in the Sky - Your Hand in Mine
The Mixed Tape that Keeps on Giving
Wyatt C. was and is one of those friends that couldn’t wait to share and spread the word on great bands and great music. I probably couldn’t begin to catalog all the bands Wyatt turned me onto. Versus and New Radiant Storm King were notable in that they became two of my very favorite bands. Then again Wyatt’s enthusiasm for Mocket and The Swirlies also left me with the inner prime directive: purchase now! No matter the time and place, Wyatt would always have either a cassette full of Swirlies song or mixed tapes loaded with great bands - usually with some great cover replete with correction fluid pasted all over a magazine cut-out collage.
Besides the aforementioned bands Wyatt turned me onto The Sweet Things. The Sweet Things had moved from New York to San Francisco in the early nineties. The band, named after a Shaggs song, was inspired by Love Child (pretty decent skewed pop band with music on Homestead Records) whom also attended Vassar College to pick up some instruments and get to work. The Sweet Things issued a couple singles (1991’s Deliver and 1992’s Teen Guitars) before releasing Hangin’ Out With The Sweet Things in 1994 - which fell somewhere between an EP and full length. Lo-Fi Is a Four Letter Word (available from CD Baby) collects everything on one compact disc. The Sweet Things recordings all tend to have that ‘four-track / first take’ charm whether it is true or not. The songs veer wildly between Hall Newbegin’s primal Lou Reed fuzz punk and Pete Gowdy’s more tuneful Big Star leanings. The dual / dueling personalities to the band are what make it fun, memorable and essential. At least some guy named Kurt Cobain thought these guys were essential, as The Sweet Things were one of his favorites.
Angel Hair, whose members moved forward to form the VSS and Pleasure Forever is included only because I was always so intrigued with the fact that Wyatt found as much beauty in the aural assault as he did in jangly guitars. A paradox that his former band Track Star played perfectly. Just how much I loved that band will have to wait for future post…
The Sweet Things - Sad Eyed Girl
Angel Hair - Witch Hunt Scene From Star Trek
If my aged rock mind remembers right, Mike Watt once declared that genre labels were a fascist decree laid down by record companies only to sell product and reap the Capitalist gain…nonetheless I find the genre label game amusing, even if it means a dinner conversation with Mr. Watt would be short and snappy. I hope not, I’d think we have alot in common, and who wouldn’t want to have a sit down with one of underground rock’s more interesting, influential characters…
If this were my record store, I would have to have a place card for my assigned New Haze rack. I would think New Haze a fitting label for bands Deerhunter, Lotus Plaza, and one man assemblage Benoit Pioulard among others. The bands take floating, ethereal vocals, and shape-shifting guitar shades from the Shoegaze Generation, and inject all with a tunefulness similar to New Wave but smacked with the angular aggression and fortitude of Post-Punk. Of course one might argue that albums filed under New Haze could be confused with the bands in Space Reggae…
Deerhunter is no secret to anyone awake and listening to music in the last few years. Cryptograms was an unexpected surprise, but Deerhunter’s Microcastle from 2008 gave an even bigger wallop of sound and thrills. Now guitarist Lockett Pundt of Deerhunter is set to release his band’s premier album The Floodlight Collective through Kranky on March 23rd. The band is Lotus Plaza and gives concrete evidence that Deerhunter has at least one other genius on board besides Bradford Cox (whose other band outside of Deerhunter is Atlas Sound).
Lotus Plaza - Different Mirrors
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Slumberland Records have been renown for releasing early Stereolab, Velocity Girl, Henry’s Dress, Aislers Set, and more recently, the wonderful Crystal Stilts. Count The Pains of Being Pure at Heart the self-titled release by the band of the same name as on par with any classic from the revered Slumberland Catalog. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart remind me of a local band Case For Radio, and early Pavement, in that the songs sound like less strategy and maps, and more importantly, a heartfelt expression mirroring an all encompassing love of music. Insert any and all ’summertime’, ‘boy/girl crush’ hyperbolic analogies. Consider an intoxicating blend of My Bloody Valentine and Beat Happening. Consider in the age of Obama and Happy Go-Lucky, it’s no longer dorky to be the optimist with hope an omnipresent reality….and how ultimately thrilling to hear a band as exciting as this wearing the heart on the sleeve of influence - and yet, what was once new is old and new yet again. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are heralding 2009 as my new favorite year, my new favorite band, and my new favorite song(s).
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Young Adult Friction
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Gentle Sons
Austin’s And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead will release The Century of Self on February 17th and if its content is anything like this advance song, long time fans are in for a treat. The albums following Source Tags and Codes fell somewhat short of their ambitious predecessors - but this album looks to be a return to form. The band will be touring on through the spring with a March visit in nearby San Francisco. Idealistically speaking, this blog is about sharing that one favorite song. So, let it be…
And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - Ascending
Happy Birthday Sean Douglas Dylan Harrasser
Losing touch with your friends means remembering that his or her birthday is either February 1st or 2nd….as is the case with my good friend Sean. I am guessing he is crossing the four decade threshold. Sean was a friend whom from the very onset introduced himself as the Devil (using the German Language). Sean was and is the kind of guy that cared just enough of Bob Dylan’s songcraft that it meant denying himself the urinal to be able to stand stock still, piss his shorts, and soak in all of “Like a Rolling Stone’s” majesty. Sean Douglas Dylan Harrasser may have owned a 28th Day promotional poster which he held over our heads as some sort of torture that could only affect our silly peer group. Sean’s the kind of guy whom could scale Mt. Shasta in the day and open for The Afghan Whigs at night and down a few Spatens before last call. A man whose favorite pick-up line was “I Love You” - his relationships were always themed, rather it be Whippets, Dinosaurs, or Undersea Odyssey.
What follows is a brief sampling of a couple of Mr. Harrasser’s bands. Harvester was briefly on Geffen - having signed following an (literally) underground performance in a Nevada City Mine. The Vertels were his first band in Chico, CA - and simply were because they couldn’t bring themselves to call the band The Spirit of Cole Marquis.
Ladies and Gentlemen…