little feat

Nurse With Wound - "The Bottom Feeder"/Jiri Barta

ZXCV Theater, vol. 2

Backyard wrestling, British style.

Best line - "Beat the meat out of his eye!"

ernie kovacs

The Walker Brothers - Nite Flights

I've had my fill of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - I'm coming home for holiday. And I couldn't think of anything more appropriate than to post Nite Flights.



Nite Flights is pitch perfect in every conceivable way, down to the title - watching whole cities pass you by - cities with no names, with people you'll never talk to...lights gone.

This is Scott Walker's nightmarish renderings of disco and post-punk. Maybe with Joy Division you can see the bottom dropping out from under you, but when you follow this album and Scott Walker's other three uber-death-rattle-schizo-sinatra albums, Climate of the Hunter the Tilt and the Drift, what you get is such a cohesively fragile piece of reality whose mood can hardly be described in words - you really have no clue where he is going to lead you.

There's no hold
The moving has come through
The danger passing you
Turns its face into the heat and runs the tunnels
It's so cold
The dark dug up by dogs
The stiches torn and broke
The raw meat fist you choke
Has hit the bloodlite

Actually the first four tracks are the only ones worth mentioning - the 6 after were composed by the other two members, the whole a very disjointed reunion album. Considering, the last tracks might have made for a decent album on its own, but Mr. Scott's compositions cast a very large shadow on everything around him..

ZXCV Theater, vol. 1

1. Insert "zxcv" into youtube (asdf works too, but qwerty is too played out).
2. Sift through detritus.
3. ???
4. Profit.

This guy really sucks. As do the captions. I do however, like his really awkward hand-off of the phone at the end.

Volcano the Bear - Amidst The Noise And Twigs

Wow...gotta say I'm pretty happy about stumbling across this one...



From Avanto Festival 2007, Helsinki: "Volcano The Bear...combines improvisation and playful experimentation with a conception of music that borders on the anthropological. Their extensive knowledge of the traditions of both experimental and folk music, combined with their other influences, makes the band a difficult one to categorise. Although VTB has been mentioned in connection with bands such as Vibracthedral Orchestra, Jackie-O Motherfucker and No-Neck Blues Band, VTB differs from the aforementioned as it consciously avoids the trance-inducing pulse in its music. Rather than trying to reach a trance through repetition they set up a ritual space where a large number of instruments associate freely. Absurd humour and eclectic ways of producing sounds are characteristic of VTB's live performances, which are largely built on improvisation. Familiar themes can be introduced as milestones on a journey towards a result, which remains unknown. The band records everything they play, and uses these recordings as raw material for their albums. For Volcano The Bear, post-processing is part of composing; their records are reminiscent of how This Heat and Faust used collage methods in rock music...The surprise element of their performances is further emphasised by the fact that their records - combinations of disciplined studio work and recorded improvisation - often sound nothing like the music played by the band on stage.


As mentioned above, if you do like Faust, This Heat, or Nurse With Wound (Who produced one of their albums) I highly highly recommend you check them out - sorry I don't have time to post just one of my favorite tracks, but if you like this there's a whole lot more to hear...


Admidst the Noise and Twigs

(Also, these guys put out a lot of limited edition releases with special packaging and other goodies which'll make that import price a little more worth it - pick it up while the bands still movin!)

Jan Svankmajer

Mainly recognized for his 2 most popular movies Alice and Faust Jan Svankmajer's work has been one of the major inovative roots in stop frame animation. The Brothers Quay, Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton and Guillermo Del Toro have all agreed he's been an influence in their work. He's gained a reputation for his nightmarish surrealism and his distinctive way of using stop frame with sound. and fortunately a lot of his shorts are on youtube! here are a couple favorites of mine. enjoy

-joe

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Fordlandia [4AD]

I purchased Johann Johannsson's new album, "Fordlandia," today with mixed levels of anticipation. Johann's last album ("Jóhann Jóhannsson: ibm 1401, a user's manual") was pretty much a let down for me. The concept was basically combining extremely pretty orchestral movements set behind someone reading passages from a computer manual. Yeah, I don't really get it either. Seems like kind of a waste of composition of you ask me.

I am a fan of his other stuff though. I put this album on tonight as the sun was beginning to go down and it couldn't have played during a more fitting context. The track runs about 14-minutes in length but doesn't have an excess note throughout. If you need a solid dose of classical/orchestral music, check this out.

Find track one of "Fordlandia" here. If you dig it, please support this man and purchase the album.

-bobby

Holy Shit.

Anyone need a "HOLY SHIT!" moment to start their weekend off right? Look no further.

The picture (above) is the first picture of a planet not in our solar system. Amazing. It's orbiting another sun...

But alas, still no E.T. as of yet - "The planet would not be capable of supporting life as we know it. At 11 billion miles from its star, about three times as far from its sun as Pluto is from ours, it would be too frigid for life."

Read on: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-planet14-2008nov14,0,7848401.story

Scott Walker - 30 Century Man

I have no idea why I haven't seen this film anywhere. Apparently it's available on dvd but only in the UK (here).

Scott Walker - 30 Century Man Trailer


If you haven't heard Scott Walker before, get ready. The two reoccurring words used to describe him are "God" and "Genius". This man makes some of the most intense music I have ever heard. I'll definitely be posting his stuff soon.

Also check out Stephen Kijak's other film, Cinemania. I can only say that these people seem to be so out of touch with the real world, yet completely in tune with what life really is. Which might be slightly depressing for the rest of us.

Cinemania - Trailer


Cinemania Clip

Aphrodite's Child - 666

Now it might be a bit of an understatement to call an album which does a musical interpretation of the Book of Revelations epic. No, it's a bit more than that.

This is an album called 666 made by new-age icon, Vangelis.

This is an album recorded under the influence of Sahlep, a drink made of an orchid of the same name. 666 got banned in quite a few places because of bad translation (under the influence of "Satan")

I mean, my god, look at these guys.


They look like they should be playing rummy with my grandparents on a Carnival cruise.
But they made this


Everything about this album is unreal. Take a gander at the track list to get an idea of what you're getting into.

Disc one

1. "The System" - 0:23
2. "Babylon" - 2:47
3. "Loud, Loud, Loud" - 2:42
4. "The Four Horsemen" - 5:53
5. "The Lamb" - 4:34
6. "The Seventh Seal" - 1:30
7. "Aegian Sea" - 5:22
8. "Seven Bowls" - 1:28
9. "The Wakening Beast" - 1:11
10. "Lament" - 2:45
11. "The Marching Beast" - 2:00
12. "The Battle Of The Locusts" - 0:56
13. "Do It" - 1:44
14. "Tribulation" - 0:32
15. "The Beast" - 2:26
16. "Ofis" - 0:14

Disc two

1. "Seven Trumpets" - 0:35
2. "Altamont" - 4:33
3. "The Wedding of the Lamb" - 3:38
4. "The Capture of the Beast" - 2:17
5. "∞" - 5:15
6. "Hic et Nunc" - 2:55
7. "All the Seats Were Occupied" - 19:21
8. "Break" - 2:59

I'll go ahead and post the whole album since it's sort of hard to come by.

666 Disc 1

666 Disc 2

Post Mp3's

After some research I finally found a website which hosts and plays embedded mp3's which you can use for your posts -

http://boomp3.com/

Arthur Russell - 'Love is Overtaking Me'

What we have here is yet another in the recent series of Arthur Russell compilations. Following "First Thought, Best Thought" (which may be my personal favorite of the post-humous Russell releases), "Love is Overtaking Me" showcases a lesser-known and heard sound.
This is an Arthur Russell as seen in a very different mindset. Not so much production. Not so much in complexity of songwriting. But, this is definitely still the same dude.

The four songs I've posted are a decent reflection of "Love..." "Hey!" How Does Everybody Know" is one of the catchiest songs I've heard in a while. "Goodbye Old Paint" is kinda creepy in it's meandering-accompaniment floating around in the background. "Eli" is incredible just because it's about a guy and his love for the mutt he owns and everyone tells he should get rid of...

Find my sample of the album here.

Finally, be on the look out for the new documentary coming out in the next couple weeks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uziDEMpJmAo

-Bobby

-p.s. - Listen to how Russell tries to sound like Cat Stevens. It's almost as strange as Lou Reed ripping off Dylan back in the day.

-p.p.s. - Seriously check out "First Though, Best Thought," it's fucking good.

Hiranao Tsuboi Minimalist LED Watch

Settling Soup and Dirty Fingertips

Thanks to the mythical combination of boredom and the internet I find myself running across quite a few things per week that I'd like to share. Now, what usually follows with my discoveries are text messages overladen with exclamation points which scream "I am listening to/watching this now and I think the whole world would be better off experiencing this." (I apologize to everyone who received the man-goat post - after showing a few people this video I realized that maybe not everyone would find it as funny as I did. But, c'mon, who doesn't like God's Humor?)

Give it a few days, water settles, and the enthusiasm just sort of trickles over.

So here's a chance to redeem myself just a little - if I'm feeling compelled to show people something I'll take the time, write about it, and post it here. Due to the fact that I am employed I now have a surplus amount of free time (...) so hopefully I'll be making posts often.

I'd also like other people to post things of interest on this blog as well (in particular, Bobby, Matt, Joe, Mariana, and Patrick) since many of the amazing things I see are shown to me by other people.

My only request is that if you are posting music, please only post individual songs. The people who can afford to purchase the albums should, and those who can't will find other ways to procure it. If it's out-of-print go ahead and post the whole album, and if you find an album through another blog post a link to the blog.

Look forward to hearing from you

Josh