Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Art for Spastics v. 103

.
Download AFS v. 103

...or stream it

BILLY BAO // Bilbo´s Incinerator // Bilbo´s Incinerator 7" // W.M.O. 2005
BRAINBOMBS // Urge to Kill // Burning Hell // Blackjack 1992
NOXAGT // Coefficient Ascender // Self-Titled // Load *new
LEPRECHAUN CATERING // The Roar of Pizza Boxes // Male Plumage // White Denim *new
ICH BIN // A.I.N.Z. // Obéis! // Poutré Apparente *new/1990

LAWRENCE WASSER // Der Lift // Der Lift 7" // Le Vilain Chien *new
LAKE OF DRACULA // Four Teachers // Skeletal Remains // Savage Land *new
COUCH // Doctor Power // Glass Brothers 1993-1994 // Bulb 1999
SILVER CREME // title unknown // Perfumed Metal // Self-Released *new
WHO'S YOUR FAVORITE SON, GOD? // Celestial Titanic... // Out of Body Diva // KDVS Recordings *forthcoming

SAPAT // Krackhausblooze // Tongue-Tied & Staid 7" // Black Velvet Fuckere *new
CAR COMMERCIALS // Last Man // Grant's Dead cassette // Leaf Leaf *new
HAIKU AMBULANCE // untitled // Live at Food Hole // ideath *new
INCA ORE & LEMON BEAR'S ORCHESTRA // The Garden of the Awakening Orchid // The Birds in the Bushes // 5RC *new
VICEKOPF // Principia Schizophonica // Principia Schizophonica 7" // RRRecords 1991
FAMILY UNDERGROUND // Vengeance Valley // split 7" w/ Quintana Roo // Not Not Fun *new
PUMICE // Brawl // Live from the KDVS Hallway // KDVS Recordings *forthcoming
SO SO MANY WHITE WHITE TIGERS // No One // The Greatest Hits of Acid // No Label *new
PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT // Quasar // Who Let the Dogs Out? 7" // Columbus Discount *new
THE STAPLER // Orange // Metaphysical Haircut // Columbus Discount *new
HOME BLITZ // GT Performers // split cassette w/ Friends & Family // Leaf Leaf *new
BRIAN WILSON SHOCK TREATMENT // Drop Me on My Head // Saviours Of Rock // Slutfish/Poe *new
HANK IV // Family Adam // Third Person Shooter // Hook or Crook *new
THE DELPHOBICS // Emotional Cripple // Emotional Cripple 7" // Fake Doom 1980
THE FANS // Deathwish // True b/w Deathwish 7" // Blue Beam 1980
ABE VIGODA // Gallop // Summer Tour CDR 2006 // Self-Released *new
WEIRD PAUL // Nacho sin Casa // Lo Fidelity, High Anxiety // Homestead 1991
ZOUNDS // Demystification // The Curse of Zounds! // Broken Rekids *new/1981
X // I Don´t Wanna Go Out // Aspirations // X Music 1979
NECROPOLIS // Cloud 151 // The Hackled Ruff & Shoulder Mane // Columbus Discount *new
SIC ALPS // Making Plans // The Soft Tour in Rough Form // Mt. St. Mtn 2006
PINK REASON // Slate Train // Self-Titled 7" // Savage Quality 2006 *request
MOME RATHS // Jungle Consulate // v/a: Silverware: Audraglint Fifth Anniversary Compilation // Audraglint *new
TUNNELS // Vexations // Vexations/Reflections/Partitions // Yarnlazer *forthcoming
NINO NARDINI // La Planete Oubliee // Musique Pour Le Futur // Creel Pone *new arrival/1970




Billy Bao is Nigeria’s answer to Stickmen With Rayguns-era Bobby Soxx. On the back cover of his debut 7”, Billy describes his journey, beginning in Lagos where he was an ignored songwriter and soloist looking for a creative spark and outlet. It was in San Francisco, Spain, in the Basque area of Bilbao, that Billy discovered punk rock’s primal energy, and he became inspired to make this abhorrent pummeling scuzzrock that is so extremely harrowing. He hooked up with the drummer of La Secta and other local SOB’s and made this three-song EP of unbridled anger and despair which was released about a year ago, but is only finally starting to get distributed to the States. A full-length CD also came out a few months ago, and I’m anxious to hear it, too. This stuff is as scathing, violent, and agonizing as the Brainbombs.

Hence, we revisit our favorite Swedish reprobate rockers the Brainbombs with this punishing cut off Burning Hell. The next sleazy slice of Scandinavian sonic discipline is from Norway’s noiserock force Noxagt. Self-Titled is the third Noxagt album, and the first to break away from Nil Erga’s viola which had been my favorite aspect of the band’s first two albums. I was worried that personnel move would render Noxagt useless to me, but the bass and guitar are more throttling, doomy, and sinister…more complex than ever before, and now this album has grown on me quite a bit. A late bloomer for me. I’ve been raving about Load’s September batch before finally giving the veritable two-thumbs-way-up for this one.

Ridiculous images run through my mind whenever I think of the band name Leprechaun Catering, like little green munchkins climbing on each other’s shoulders to unlatch the Tommy-Lift gate and unload the typical buffet of lukewarm chicken cordon bleu, pasta primavera, and Caesar salad (with Lucky Charms instead of croutons). While it may indeed be incredible luck to run into a leprechaun just as the sun peaks out between rain showers, I can only assume that leprechauns shouldn’t be serving us humans food from the back of a truck. That can only be bad news. Promiscuously pillaging rock and jazz, noise and electro, and all shades in between, this Baltimore band’s slapdash straw vote of sounds seems as mischievous as those tiny Irish magicians might be at your corporate luncheon event.

Speaking of ridiculous…Far be it from any industrial band this side of maybe Pankow or the first Nitzer Ebb album to be crazed dorks, but in the late 80’s and early 90’s, Ich Bin from the island of Corsica made this outstanding album of electro-industrial that is courageously kooky, yet as dancefloor-oppressive as Simon Legree whipping a Palladium full of rivetheads and goths from atop a mound of 20” woofers and Roland TR-808’s. That’ll teach ‘em to have a healthy sense of humor! (Read more about Ich Bin in AFS v. 84.)

Here’s more humorous dancefloor oppression from the Belgian artist, Lawrence Wasser (officially with a “W” although it’s spelled L-A-U-R-E-N-C-E on this record). This may actually come dangerously close to that mostly poopy “dancepunk” genre or even “post-punk revival,” but the humor and the extreme vigor and ingenious catchiness completely redeems this from too-late-for-the-trend-that-was-a-sucky-trend-anyway status. Now, could someone please clue in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs that 2003 is over?



Fortunately saved from the Fall 2004 release schedule of Troubleman Unlimited (thanks to Savage Land Records from Lyon, France), the perfect denouement to the story of Lake of Dracula has finally been released. Skeletal Remains collects rare performances of the mid-90’s Chicago now-wave all-star group which otherwise only appear on outta-print 7-inches or were never released, such as most of their KFJC live on-air set which sounds absolutely great! I’ve never heard drums sound that awesome on a live radio broadcast before!! These tracks were all remastered by Weasel Walter to excellent effect (I compared this particular song to the sound of the Kill Rock Stars singles club 7”, and it’s a major improvement), and now they are ready for competition-level car audio system bumping. Another odd surprise is how certain moments of Lake of Dracula seem to foresage the early work of the A Frames.

Couch is one of the bands from the L.o.D. family tree, as they shared a singer in Marlon Magas, who continues to do outstanding work as a solo artist making electro of astounding cleverness. (Hear the newest Magas work on AFS v. 97.) I remember really enjoying Couch at the time it was new, but 12 years later, it seems like a had to sift through a lotta filler to find the few nuggets. Each of the three Couchmen went onto bigger and better things, such as Aaron Dilloway’s stint in Wolf Eyes and Mr. Velocity Hopkins’ various works up to and including the first two or three 25 Suaves records (before suckitude set in and attitude went through the roof), but especially Prehensile Monkeytailed Skink, one of the greatest bands of all time!!!

Rising from the ashes of Hustler White, Silver Creme is a brand-new Portland (OR) band featuring the implacable clobbering of Meghan Remy’s drums and the textural twin guitar of HW’s Nick Bindeman and Kelvin Pittman (previously of Portland Bike Ensemble, and himself a one-off sax-skronker for Hustler White at a Spring 2005 performance in Seattle). Just hours before the cutoff for a weeklong tour of California, the band completed a 19-track demo CDR which has echoes of Glenn Branca and even more so Rudolph Grey. Some of the songs are underdeveloped as you might expect of a 19-track CDR hastily recorded for the purpose of having a merch piece for a brief tour, but kernels of excellence are easily detectable on fully half of this disc, and I expect great things in 2007, if not even sooner, by Silver Creme.

The first release of KDVS’ record label is coming very, very soon…hopefully before Who’s Your Favorite Son, God takes the stage at Plainfield Station to kick off KDVS presents “Operation: Restore Maximum Freedom IV” on Saturday, October 7th. WYFSG are a brilliant Sacto-area trio of calculus-level math/psych sorcery including Robby from The Advantage and Zac Nelson, formerly of Princess Sweepstakes and about a dozen other amazing projects on his Scenery Audio Archive label. This is the most straightforward cut from the entire album, and one of the few, if not only, instros. I’m very proud that (a) our radio station is starting a label and (b) that our first release will be such a tremendous band that I’m very excited about.

From the mysterious Black Velvet Fuckere label, here’s some kind of a bizarre psych-damaged mavel as weird and paradoxically forbidding and beautiful as the Karst topography of Kentucky, where Sapat is from. Obviously recalling “Dachau Blues,” the A-side’s “Krackhausblooze” is one of the most effective and convincing Beefheart impressions ever heard in the 37 years since Trout Mask Replica, with its oblong jittering and skittering rhythm, brain-tickling psych/blues guitar mutations, and vocals that sound an awful lot like Don Van Vliet himself. Midway through the song, the band shifts as smoothly as possible from the trembling boogie to a discordant free jazz skronk ‘n’ treble-fest before dissipating into thin air. I’ll be sure to flip this over for you next week. A serious entrant in the 7” of the year sweepstakes!

Car Commercials is a New Jersey band featuring Daniel Dimaggio, becoming much-loved in this area of blogosphere for his main band vehicle, Home Blitz. A new cassette album of Car Commercials is a pleasantly perplexing program of poetic warbling punctuated by freeform fractured guitar, with occasional songlike forms coming out just when a dose of charm needs administering. It’s sorta like an American boy’s analogue to the Shadow Ring. Almost. I dunno…it’s hard to describe, but I really like it.



Haiku Ambulance is a Portland (OR, again (will a band from Maine please send me their CDR?)) improv duo of drums and guitar who toured together down to California with Silver Creme last week. They primarily work the fluttering, barely-there angles while just the right frequency of guitar feedback noise is achieved, at which time Mark (also formerly of the Portland Bike Ensemble) surfs that wave like Kelly Slater (that would be the guy known as “The Michael Jordan of surfing”) around outta the amplifier and around the room, swirling like a moshing circle-pit of ghosts, while Dottie’s drums accelerate in speed and intensity. Two CDRs of Haiku Ambulance exist, and the better (more dynamic) of the two in my opinion is Live at Food Hole, which is presented in one long track.

You can backtrack to last week’s AFS v. 102 for extensive explanation and effusive praise for Inca Ore & Lemon Bear’s Orchestra’s The Birds in the Bushes; this week, I’ve offered you a glimpse from the album’s chatteriest and clatteriest hellraising. It’s like they were chasing demons outta their house that night.

Next up, I’ve layered a spoken-word piece by pioneering speech pathologist Prof. Vicekopf and some mighty massive atmospherics by Danish drone-gods, the Family Underground. This is part of a new trend of drone-centric releases by the stalwart label and fave of AFS, Not Not Fun.

From New Zealand and sounding every bit like it, Pumice is Stefan Neville’s one-man-band which alternates mostly between hopeful basement punk jangle and haunting droney texture, recalling shades of Dadamah, the Dead C, and other greats of the Land of the Long White Cloud. “Brawl” is my favorite song from his live session which was recorded in the hallway of Lower Freeborn Hall, just outside the KDVS lobby. About a dozen extra mics were used to capture the little whorls of echo in far corners of the hallway, and it makes this recording sound especially like a long, lost memory coming back to mind. This is also slated for eventual release on KDVS Recordings.



Here’s another surprisingly subtle burner from the swansong CDR of So So Many White White Tigers. A song of gradual unraveling, “No One” goes from forlorn to desperate to a raging tantrum by the end. Read more about these farewell recordings in last week’s AFS.

Nope, still can’t get enough of this Psychedelic Horseshit. A Crispy Ambulance lyric I think about sometimes is “stuck somewhere between, the unsightly and serene,” and that perfectly describes the keyboard riff in “Quasar.” It’s such a cute lit’l melody, but such a gnarled-up, dirty tone, and I love it! See kids…”Lofi” is not an excuse to suck. You’re supposed to make “lofi” sound awesome! This is a perfect example of how it’s done! And so is The Stapler! Columbus does “lofi” like no other city, including South San Francisco (sorry, “budget rockers” of the post-Mummies era (but I still love you all)).

As I mentioned earlier, Daniel Dimaggio is much loved here for his band Home Blitz. Both Home Blitz 7-inches are great, but they’ve been blogged about a lot elsewhere. This split cassette release, however, doesn’t seem to be mentioned, so I will tell you now that it is also fantastic, but I will warn you punkers out there that this does work a lot more on the experimental angles, kinda splitting the difference between the Home Blitz records and the Car Commercials tape. Cute, clever pop-songs poke out between haphazard guitar deconstruction (and if you go a few weeks back, you’ll hear a cover of New Jersey’s immortalized Killed By Death punks Public Disturbance that is gloriously mutated). With the bands Sex With Girls and Weirdo/Begeirdo no longer among us, I crown Home Blitz the foremost free twee band on the planet on the strength of these songs. I can do that because “free twee” is a genre I made up. My genre, my rules.

It was a couple years ago that I coined “free twee” to conveniently describe the music of the courageous Portland band Sex With Girls (formerly Sex With Girls Is Rad) without having to launch into a several paragraph-long explanation of each of their wildly varying releases. I defined it as a combination of elements of twee pop—especially those which are knowingly and unabashedly cute—with an acclivity toward free noise and improv and/or integration of stylistic influences that run counter to formulaic indie pop music. The noisy songs of early Half Japanese and the least songlike songs of Beat Happening are forerunners of the genre, as are the most simplistic songs of artists for the L.A. Free Music Society which have a Mary-Had-a-Little-Lamb-sorta melodic sensibility (e.g. The Pablums). The prettiest moments in certain Gang Wizard jams are right in the free twee realm. And now Home Blitz is on its pinnacle.



Can anyone please tell me the current condition of Billy Syndrome? We love the guy’s music here on KDVS. A renaissance man of garage, punk, psych, and “anti-folk,” Billy was reported to have lapsed into a long-term coma some time ago, and I lost track of his status. But now I’m kinda encouraged because KDVS just received a new CD of one of Billy’s bands, the Brian Wilson Shock Treatment. This one’s a live album, and the performance is an absolute scorcher! I really hope he’s doing okay.

Also appearing at the Maximum Freedom IV festival is the San Francisco band of punk veterans (with credentials aglow from such legendary bands as Crime and the Icky Boyfriends and should-be-legendary bands like Bum-Kon) who make the best four-minute songs in punk rock this side of the Anteenagers M.C. from France. Here, listen to a righteous swinging punk song from their brand-new album on Hook or Crook. If it sounds good to you, expect it to rule even harder when you see ‘em play it live at the festival. These guys are outstanding live!

Next up, I’ve unearthed a dusty 7” from our catacombs which looks like it hasn’t been played in two decades. The Delphobics were a NYC band who made two 7” singles, and this is the A-side of the second from 1980. “Emotional Cripple” defies its name with upbeat singsongy chorus and enthusiastic jangle. It’s certainly ripe for inclusion on a Hyped2Death “Homework” compilation because it slipped through the cracks during the 90’s boom of bootleg punk and powerpop comps. Surely the song was just a tad too pop for Killed By Death or Bloodstains, but far too punk for Powerpearls.

The Fans were a band from Atlanta, Georgia, in the late 70’s and early 80’s who made a few singles. The included Kevin Dunn, who was also in the dB’s, I think. At any rate, this band is considered squarely within the uprights of the powerpop goalpost, but “Deathwish” is actually rather weird and psychedelic…almost paranoia-inducing with those cloying authoritarian voices and their reverbed reading of computer code: one!, zero!, zero!, one! This is the best Fans record!

I heard some news about Abe Vigoda possibly getting a deal or something, but I forgot the details. Is this true? If so, congratulations to the label for being so smart. I remember in the days of emo, there was a band called Chino Horde, but they mostly sucked, and all of the songcraft skill in Chino, CA, must have actually been horded by Juan, Michael, David, and Reggie. These guys are scintillating melodic artpunk with shades of Swell Maps, Desperate Bicycles, and other British DIY, but also some occasional neo no wave aggression. If it’s not true, and you’re a label looking for a great young band, Abe Vigoda is the one!



Seems like I hafta play at least one band from the Homestead Records stable circa the late 80’s every week now. Just when I said that label was mostly mediocrity, I keep finding the nuggets. First Nice Stong Arm, Great Plains last week, and now Weird Paul. Weird Paul was a kid from Pittsburgh named Paul Petroskey. A perfect Pittsburgh name, n’at. Yinz wanna hear another precursor to the “free twee” vanguard? Lo Fidelity, High Anxiety is another good one. It’s got a million fun silly songs ranging from bedroom acoustic skeletal scrapings to bouncy funnypunk to the most un-macho goofball thrash/HC. It’s like Half Japanese wanted to make a record for Dischord or something, but then it got too weird and it wound up on Fountain of Youth.

Curse of Zounds gets reissued from time to time, and Broken Rekids has done it right! Double vinyl, top quality, nice insert. Smart postpunk from Rough Trade and Crass Records…for many years, Zounds were perhaps the most criminally underrated UK band of that era.

X will always mean X from Australia to me. Their first album—“Aspirations”—should be universally recognized as a landmark punk album of the late 70’s. But I’m sure you know why the band has an identity crisis here in America. It was reissued on CD by AmRep back in the mid-90’s and then again on LP by Rock & Roll Blitzkrieg. Both labels are defunct, and the reissues have long gone outta print and are hard to find. Here’s to hoping that someone can make it new again. A brigade of bloggers is ready to help sing the praises.

In the week since I debuted the LP by Columbus’ Necropolis to the AFS audience, I’ve just realized who this band reminds me of…100 Flowers. Certainly this song is referential to Pere Ubu, but it especially reminds me of 100 Flowers. Pretty sweet!

Here’s another enticement for you to check out the Maximum Freedom IV fest. Sic Alps is playing, and their “Making Plans” is one of the hits of Summer ’06 in my book. Beautiful sweeping post-garage with one of the most dazzlingly stylish fadeouts in the history of recorded music. Ex-Coachwhips, ex-Henry’s Dress, ex-other awesome bands that I forget at the moment.

Another contender for 7” of the year is this Pink Reason EP from Green Bay, WI. I keep saying that everywhere, on all my internet haunts. But it’s so good. In case I haven’t said so here at my AFS blog headquarters, I am gonna burn all of my remaining paid vacation time at work—and perhaps temporarily burn bridges with family by skipping out on Thanksgiving dinner—to roadie Pink Reason up to Seattle and back. Yeah, that is how much I love this record. And if you are reading this and you’ve heard the wonderfully weird murk of Pink Reason’s psych/folk/blues/artpunk, maybe you can help fill the gaps in the tour itinerary…

Venues needed…
Fri Nov 17 – Oakland
Wed Nov 22 – Olympia
Thu Nov 23 – let’s eat! (Portland or Olympia)
Sat Nov 25 – anywhere in Oregon or CA “Northstate” (e.g. Arcata, Chico?)

All other dates are looking good.

Mome Raths were a band from Portland (OR) who included Joshua Blanchard (now of Plants and formerly Point Line Plane) and other friends who landed in bands such as Space Hawk and the Dendrites, and they might have been forgotten—what with the city of Portland having a current inventory of some (est.) 1500 active bands—but Audraglint snatched a sweet track of PDXYDIYKosmische-Muziek from the Mome Raths repertoire for inclusion in their awesome Silverware fifth anniversary compilation CD.



Tunnels is the ambient experimental solo project of Nick Bindeman, who we already heard this week playing guitar in Silver Creme. Nick is probably one of the three or four most featured musicians on KDVS, up there with other incredibly prolific people like Nic Hughes of Vancouver, BC, or Brian Miller, Noel von Harmonson, Chris “Vice Cooler” from XBXRX, KIT, and a dozen other bands, Robert Pollard, et al. Haha…what an unlikely list that makes! This is the third Tunnels release I’ve heard, and as always, it is beautiful, transcendent psych/drone ambience built in layers from synth and organic instruments such as bells. It reads and studies and drifts off to sleep well at low or medium volumes, but when played loud, it can be really great for analyzing and enjoying. Tunnels is also great headphone music. I’m just old enough to remember when everyone who was serious about music and stereo equipment had an expensive set of advance headphones. My folks did. I think I can remember my mom putting headphones on me when I was about eight years old so that I could hear a new world within the sounds of Santana’s Abraxas (the cover was my first sight of a nude woman). Of course, there was so much better headphone music out there, but my parents weren’t cool enough to be O.G. Krautrockers. Not even Tangerine Dream or Eno, whose best ambient works are indeed rivaled by Tunnels.

Finally, we hear from another Creel Pone reissue…this time, a forgotten classic of Nino Nardini, a French musician who was considered an electronic pop pioneer. Musique Pour le Futur is not pop, though. It’s literally Nardini’s concept of the sounds of outer space.

See you next week!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Art for Spastics v. 102

.
Download AFS v. 102

...or stream it

SILENTIST // House on the Hill // House on the Hill // Celestial Gang *new
COUGHS // Intentional Community // Secret Passage // Load *new
COUGHS // The Horse, He´s Sick
VAMPIRE CAN’T // Two Cheers // Key Cutter // Load *new
THE USA IS A MONSTER // The Greatest Mystery // Sunset at the End of the Industrial Age // Load *new
BERNARD BONNIER // Blue Marine // Casse-Tête // Creel Pone *new/1979
MOUNTAIN TOPS // Isolation // v/a: Silverware: Audraglint 5th Anniversary Comp. // Audraglint *new
RUTH WHITE // The Cat // Flowers of Evil // Creel Pone *new/1969

INCA ORE with LEMON BEAR’S ORCHESTRA // Glossolalia // The Birds in the Bushes // 5RC *new
PLANTS // 1000 Swarms // Totem // Self-Released *new
EL-G & CHARLENE DARLING // Du Bearre // Au Grand Dam du Jour // Self-Released *new
SO SO MANY WHITE WHITE TIGERS // Bell // The Greatest Hits of Acid // No Label *new
PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT // Phony Detectives // Who Let the Dogs Out? 7” // Columbus Discount *new
THE STAPLER // Temple of Fortuna, Part Two // Metaphysical Haircut // Columbus Discount *new
NECROPOLIS // Colors & #´s // The Hackled Ruff & Shoulder Mane // Columbus Discount *new
NECROPOLIS // Ultraviolent
GREAT PLAINS // Love to the Third Power // Born in a Barn // Homestead 1984

THOMAS JEFFERSON SLAVE APARTMENTS // You Can´t Kill Stupid // You Can´t Kill Stupid 12” EP // Datapanik 1992
THOMAS JEFFERSON SLAVE APARTMENTS // Bottle Island // split 7” w/ Monster Truck 5 // Datapanik 1991
GAUNT // USA // Whitey the Man 10” // Thrill Jockey 1992
MONSTER TRUCK 5 // Piece of Work // split 7” w/ TJSA // Datapanik 1991
THE LAMPS // Hot Plate // Self-Titled // In the Red 2005
EVOLUTIONS // Busy Kids [The Huns] // Primate Not Ape 7” // Kryptonite 2000
M.C. MONKEY & APE WITH AN ATTITUDE // Human Zoo Pt. 1 // Human Zoo 7” // Kryptonite 2004
PUS DEL RECTO // 1970 [The Stooges] // v/a: Supersonic Sounds of the "Fuck You" Movement // CNP 2003
[RETARDS] // String Theory Will Collapse Without Primality // Kicking Against the Micks 7” // Rimbaud *new

CHANNELS 3 & 4 // Jesus Is Free // Christian Girls 12” // Summer Lovers Unlimited *new
CHANNELS 3 & 4 // A Pied // Christianity (album sampler) // Summer Lovers Unlimited *new
JERK // Jimmy Sled Dog // Reverse Vampire // Banana Seat Girl/Soundesign *new
WOLF EYES with JOHN WIESE // 44:31 // Equinox // Troniks *new
STEVE BIRCHALL // Poseidon´s Meditation // Reality Gates // Creel Pone *new/1973
MIKAEL KARLSSON & ROB STEPHENSON // Little Rebellious Aspects // Dog // Please Music Works *new
BROMP TREB // Daughters & Sons of Perpetual Limp // v/a: Zum Audio vol. III // Zum 2006
BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL // Reversing Spiral Galaxies // Curved Surface Destroyer 3xCD // Last Visible Dog *new
THE GOSLINGS // Dinah // Grandeur of Hair // Archive *new
BURNING WITCH // The Bleeder // split CD w/ Goatsnake // Hydra Head 2000

On two previous CDs, Portland’s Silentist has been the solo project of Mark Evan Burden, who’s probably best known for his stint in Get Hustle. But for the third Silentist CD, the band has expanded to a duo. The first Silentist CD, Nightingales, was drastic brutal prog of epic proportions, and the second, Chariot Swing, was no less epic of drastic, but much more beautiful and psychedelic. Mark’s piano work on the latter seemed to tip the listener to his fascination with the pummeling minimal cascades of player piano scrollwright Conlon Nancarrow. House on the Hill revisits—and actually exceeds—the brutality of Nightingales, with deathvomit growls, flurries of blastbeats and guitar-shred, a couple short/fast/loud anti-epics, and pained sandwich-in-throat bleating that brings to mind Man Is the Bastard. But on longer songs such as this title track, it still resonates with progfreaks who also appreciate modern compositional art music and Nancarrow.

Silentist has been a powerful live experience even as a solo project, but I suspect that as a duo, it may be more mindblowing as they may make less use of tape. If you’re in any of these cities, go enjoy the show and collect all three of these stunning CDs…

Sep 22 Boise, ID @ Pussygutt House w/ Dhoom, Murder & the Media Machine
Sep 23 Denver, CO @ Monkey Mania w/ Coaxial, Sexy Time Explosion
Sep 24 Wichita, KS @ Electric Snake w/ A New Low, TBA
Sep 25 St. Louis, MO @ 1102 Yale Ave. w/ Child Abuse, Panicsville, Ghost Ice
Sep 26 Chicago, IL @ Nihilist Loft Space w/ Child Abuse, Panicsville
Sep 27 Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern w/ Child Abuse, Thee Scarcity of Tanks
Sep 28 Poughkeepsie, NY @ Vassar College w/ Child Abuse
Sep 29 Boston, MA @ Twisted Village w/ Child Abuse
Sep 30 New York, NY @ Cake Shop w/ Child Abuse
Oct 1 Bethlehem, PA @ Globe Cafe
Oct 2 Brooklyn, NY @ TBA w/ Yellow Swans, Valet, Grouper
Oct 4 Charlotte, NC @ Lunchbox Records w/ Valet
Oct 5 Birmingham, AL @ 120 18th Street, South w/ Newton, Mugu Guymen, Valet
Oct 7 Austin, TX @ The Parlor w/ Storm the Tower, the Roller, Valet
Oct 11 Los Angeles, CA @ The Smell w/ The Terrors, Neil Patrick Hardcore, Valet
Oct 12 San Francisco, CA @ The Eagle w/ I Will Kill You Fucker, Valet, the Hospitals
Oct 13 Oakland, CA @ Lobot Gallery w/ Laudanum, Valet
Oct 14 Eureka, CA @ TBA w/ Vaelt, Starving Weirdos
Oct 15 Portland, OR @ Rotture w/ Valet, +TBA

Still can’t get enough of the new Coughs CD after repeated listens. This thing really picks up from track three onward and never lets up, dud-free, filler-free. A couple of tracks are freeform experimental interludes showing the band as very capable of abstractions that are every bit as momentous and relentless as their songs, as heard on “The Horse, He’s Sick.” Secret Passage also excels past Bent Babies and Fright Makes Right by better capturing the power of their massive mountain of makeshift percussion, played by two drummers, even if they stopped short of using a microphone per drum kit piece. That would probably require 30 microphones! The most captivating features of the Coughs sound remains Anya’s imperious vocal dynamics and the bullish, clunky discordant steamroller of anti-melodic oozing, undulating rhythmic mulch of elemental guitar, bass, keys, and sax.

Vinyl LPs of Secret Passage are apparently imminent, although they’ve been delayed. Just get the CD already and the LP later. It’s one of those albums you’d want on both formats.

Also from September’s Load litter is Vampire Can’t, a collaboration of Vampire Belt (including Chris Corsano) and the artist Can’t, also known by her given name, Jessica Rylan. Can’t is known for her intimate lofi cracklebox noise, which on this album is almost entirely overpowered by the brash free-jazz-influenced noise avalanche and screeching guitar and destructive drums.

I’ve already extreme-blogged about the greatness of the new USA Is a Monster album. Read down a couple weeks if you missed it. They were great in Sacramento on Tuesday night, they’re still in the middle of tour now, so if you’re on this route, go see them…

Sep 21 San Francisco, CA @ Hemlock Tavern w/ Sixes
Sep 22 Arcata, CA @ The Placebo
Sep 23 Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern
Sep 24 Olympia, WA @ a house
Sep 25 Portland, OR @ Towne Lounge w/ Sholi
Sep 26 Missoula, MY @ Raven Café
Sep 28 Minneapolis, MN @ Church
Sep 29 St. Paul, MN @ Big V’s
Sep 30 Iowa City, IA @ Hall Mall
Oct 1 St. Louis @ Lemp Arts
Oct 2 Bloomington, IN @ Hospital
Oct 3 Columbus, OH @ Skylab
Oct 4 Cleveland, OH @ Church of Ayler
Oct 5 Buffalo, NY @ Soundlab
Oct 6 Providence, RI @ Redrum
Oct 8 Long Branch, NJ @ Brighton Bar
Oct 9 Hudson, NY @ Bard College
Oct 10 Purchase, NY @ SUNY-Purchase
Oct 19 Boston, MA @ TT the Bears

Bernard Bonnier’s LP, Casse-Tête, has been reissued in a limited CDR edition from Creel Pone, and it sounds like an excellent example of cool cosmic Krautrock converging with musique concrete and bizarre early electronic art music, yet it’s from Montreal in 1979. But it’s such an incredibly limited reissue, so I wish you the best of luck trying to find one of those original LPs. You’ll hafta compete with me!

I know nothing of these Mountain Tops other than this one contribution to the various artists collection, Silverware: Audraglint Fifth Anniversary Compilation. Much of the music featured here is top-drawer experimental electronic ambience, but a dash of sweet sweepy indie-folk guitar floats in and out throughout, and there’s even an appearance by the very underrated Bügsküll. You’ll hear more of this Portland-centric comp in the coming weeks for sure.

From another Creel Pone CDR reissue of an outstanding overlooked nugget of experimental electronic music history, I’ve administered you a second dose of Ruth White’s Flowers of Evil in as many weeks, and I had to do it because it was only two weeks ago that this astoundingly eccentric album seared itself into my forever memory. This is my favorite reissue of the year! Ruth is like a brave psychedelic sorceress reciting psalms of the occult over phasing drones and punctuating bleepbloops of early synthesizer pulses. Totally trippy!!!

I got big kudos from Eva Inca Ore for playing Ruth White last week. She told me how Ruth White made a profound impression on her, and y’know…it really makes sense when you compare the two artists’ sound and spirit. And that’s why it should be no surprise that I juxtaposed them.

Inca Ore with Lemon Bear’s Orchestra have released a brilliant album called “The Birds in the Bushes,” and it’s the result of months of intensive jamming, practicing, and recording in an isolated beachhouse on the Oregon Coast. First, Inca Ore met Lemon Bear, and they fell for each other, retreated to this short-term coastal rental, and they yin ‘n’ yanged out this incredible album. And when I say “yin ‘n’ yanged,” I mean both Inca Ore and Lemon Bear applied their rather opposite approaches to push each other into territories that were perhaps unfamiliar to each, and the result arguably takes us listeners to uncharted territory, too. Think vocal jazz a’la Abbey Lincoln, but make it go free and wild and occasionally eerie and introverted before breaking out again into soaring ecstacy, like Lincoln scat-singing and chattering and casting spells while Albert Ayler blows insane. Inca Ore is known for taking the inspiration of the moment and flowing beautifully off the dome, but Lemon Bear’s approach has been described as academically rigorous and obsessive about practice and technique. This may be more intense an album than Inca Ore could make solo, and it’s probable that it’s more spiritual than an album Lemon Bear could make alone. Regardless, it’s a wonderfully intense and spiritual album for everyone to enjoy.

Two more lovers recently recorded an album on an Oregon Coast retreat, and that’s newlyweds Joshua and Molly of Plants. Their first release from earlier this year on Audio Dregs, The Mind is a Bird in the Hand, was beautiful mystic psych-folk with a sorta post-apocalyptic feel, like…sorry for the loss of billions of lives, but hopeful for the future of the planet and its few environs. Deep in its simplicity. I dunno…I’m in territory that I’m poor at writing about, but really, this was a lovely album. However, its instrumentation was scant, and on the new CDR album, the duo has expanded to a full band including Howard (who partnered for a while with Joshua’s previous band, Point Line Plane), Michael (formerly of another of Joshua’s past bands, Mome Raths) and Sara (also of Space Hawk, Portland’s most cosmic band ever), and others who shall go unnamed only ‘cos I haven’t personally met them (we’ll do lunch sometime!). I get a blissful hippie Kraut vibe with this expanded lineup, and it’s a much more complex flavor that I’m rather enjoying, analyzing in layers, and savoring. No vocals are detectable, and I look forward to that changing for the third Plants thing, which I hope to hear soon.

As you know, I will only segueway one band into another if it makes sense, and I’m sure that if you’re only looking at this on your computer screen, you’re wondering…How the hell is he gonna get from post-apocalyptic psych to the wild scuzz barrage of So So Many White White Tigers? The French artist El-G and Charlene Darling made this stirring, swirling psych-folk anomaly. Quite a paranoid beauty! But also, the White Tigers closed the gap with a positively weird folky intro for this song, from the brand-new last-ever recordings of the band before guitarist Ned Meiners' move to NYC. The recordings were presided over by John Dwyer, who must have imbued the session with some OCS/Oh Sees vibe, and it makes “Bell”—and the entire 17-minute CDR—a really interesting listen. I saw the last ever show of the White Tigers at the Elbo Room warming up for a Flipper show, and I think I remember “Bell” as the song where Gerald took a break from drumming to play keyboard, and Ned laid his guitar down on the drums and began beating on his guitar with the sticks. Liza Thorn’s feral feline screech is more restrained, but also seemingly more complex. I loved this band so much…I’m sorry to see them go, but this is a nice swansong.

I may add more later...

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Art for Spastics v. 101

.
Download AFS v. 101

...or stream it

COUNT VERTIGO // X-Patriots // X-Patriots 7" // Cool 1979
SQUARE COOLS // I Don´t Wanna Die for My Country // v/a: Not So Quiet on the Western Front // Alternative Tentacles 1982
(IMPATIENT) YOUTH // Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition // Don´t Listen // Lost and Found 1988/1980
TOXIN III / I Rock I Ran // I Rock I Ran 7" // Vinyl Solution 1982
HATED // Seize the Middle East // v/a: Killed by Death #7 // Redrum 1993/1980
JAH WOBBLE // Journey to Death // Bedroom Album // Lago 1983
FEARLESS IRANIANS FROM HELL // Chant // Die for Allah // Boner 1987

FEARLESS IRANIANS FROM HELL // Pushing Armageddon // Holy War // Boner 1988
BORN AGAINST // Resist Control // The Rebel Sound of Shit and Failure // Vermiform 1995
BORN AGAINST // Intermission // Battle Hymns of the Race War 10" // Vermiform 1993
ATILA // Middle East // International Sandwich // Fish Ranch 1983
SAVAGE REPUBLIC // Procession // Tragic Figures // Independent Project 1982
MUSLIMGAUZE // Fatwa (Religious Decree Giving Recourse To Terrorism) // Abu Nidal // Limited Editions 1987
GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR // The Dead Flag Blues // f#a#? // Kranky 1998
POREST // Let´s Roll // Tourrorists! // Abduction 2006
C/A/T // Enemy Within (Terrorfakt Remix) // ATF // Crunch Pod Media *new
EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN // Haus der Lüge (Live) // Strategies Against Architecture II // Mute 1991/1984
COUGHSM // Life of Acne // Secret Passage // Load *new
SLEETMUTE NIGHTMUTE // In Adulthood. . . Black Steel Sick // Unreleased LP tracks + demos // No Label 2004 *request
FUCKWOLF // White Strokes // Self-Titled // Kimosciotic *new
SEX GANG CHILDREN // Killer K // Song and Legend // Illuminated 1983
SHEARING PINX // Chaos Patent // Caves 7" // DNT *new
CHANNELS 3 & 4 // Nite Out // Christian Girls // Summer Lovers Unlimited *new
MEN/EJECT // Apologize // Apologize b/w Draw 7" // No Label 1980
AMPS FOR CHRIST // Secret Voice/Solartube // v/a: L.A. Noisescape // Bastardised *new
THE USA IS A MONSTER // Sunset at the End of the Industrial Age // Sunset at the End of the Industrial Age // Load *new
RUTH WHITE // The Litanies of Satan // Flowers of Evil // Creel Pone *new/1969
PINK REASON // New Violence // Self-Titled 7" // Savage Quality *new

AEROSOL
CONSTELLATIONS
// Oh! Great Wall of China // Self-Titled CDR // Isolated Now Waves/Thankless *new
BERNARD BONNIER // Le Grinçant Mr. Smile // Casse-Tête // Creel Pone *new/1979
JON APPLETON & DON CHERRY // Oba // Human Music // Creel Pone *new/1969
L. de MEESTER // Spielerei // v/a: Elektronische Produktie Van I.P.E.M. // Creel Pone *new/1962
PYTHAGORON // track 1 // Self-Titled // Creel Pone *new/1977
DOUGLAS LILBURN // Poem in Time of War // v/a: New Zealand Electronic Music // Creel Pone *new/1967
FIREBLOOD ANGEL BAND // In Every Heart // AA Day of the Trumpet 7" // Siloam 1982

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Art for Spastics v. 100

.

Download AFS v. 100

...or stream it

WOODEN SHJIPS // Clouds Over Earthquake // Dance, California b/w Clouds Over Earthquake 7" // Sick Thirst *new
WOODEN SHJIPS // Shrinking Moon for You // Shrinking Moon for You 10" // Self-Released *new
IMPRACTICAL COCKPIT // Squeezing Mileage // Poverty Is Violence/Adopt a Mindfield // Trd W/D 2003
IMPRACTICAL COCKPIT // Fromage // Trashed Is Good // Trd W/D 2002
NICE STRONG ARM // Disenchanted // Reality Bath // Homestead 1987
LIVE GIRLS // New Quest for Action // split 7" w/ Nons // Grotesque Modern *new
NONS // Operators // split 7" w/ Live Girls
MUTATORS // Francine´s Bad Dream // Nerves 7" // Grotesque Modern *new
SHEARING PINX // Caves // Caves 7" // DNT *new
IN FLUX // 888 Slugs // Heroine Chic CDR // Isolated Now Waves *new

LEPRECHAUN CATERING // Hippy ID // Male Plumage // White Denim *new
DOORMOUSE // Chmura // v/a: Closet Full of Clothes // White Denim 2004
GIRL TALK // LC and Lo // Bone Hard Zaggin' 7" // 333 Recordings *new
SAGAN // Young Man´s Pleasure: owner´s basket // Resting Pleasures 7" // 333 Recordings *new
THE USA IS A MONSTER // The Spirit of Revenge // Sunset at the End of the Industrial Age // Load *new
JAWS // War Harmonizerz // 3rd CDR-EP // Self-Released 2004
SALLY STROBELIGHT // Transcend the Obvious // Starships in Silhouette // Weird Forest *new
DENDRITES // Fishing Cat // Tanuki Crossing // Self-Released *new
EL-G & CHARLENE DARLING // La Myopathie // Au Grand Dam du Jour // Self-Released *new

LE CHEVALIER DE RINCHY // Bérénice // Mes Plus Belles Chansons d´Amour 7" // Le Vilain Chien *new
RENALDO & THE LOAF // Lime Jelly Grass // Songs for Swinging Larvae // Ralph 1981
RENALDO & THE LOAF // A Medical Man
LE CLUB DES CHATS // Pump Up the Seed // Pump Up the Seed! 7" // Le Vilain Chien 2006
LAWRENCE WASSER // Die Frogg // Der Lift 7" // Le Vilain Chien *new
ERASE ERRATA // Giant Hans // Nightlife // Kill Rock Stars *new
DUCHESSES // The Virgin Monkey // Demo CDR // Self-Released *new
COUGHS // Colors and the Way They Make You Feel // Secret Passage // Load *new
NIGHT WOUNDS // Jam Itune Master // DBA Tape Club split cassette w/ Friends Forever // Deathbomb Arc *new
VAMPIRE CAN'T // Self-Titled Debutante // Key Cutter // Load *new
TRALPHAZ // untitled // v/a: The Fruit Will Rot vol 2 set of nine 3" CDRs // Deathbomb Arc *new
ECO MORTI // Grizzzzlyspottedowlllll // v/a: The Fruit Will Rot vol 2
RIOTSLUG // Dancing at the Bit Terminal // Impossible Body Rotation // Selva Elettrica *new
MULTIPLEX // Wing Over This Land // v/a: To the Marrow ~ Japanese Deathnology // Toy´s Factory 1993
SADISTIK EXECUTION // Voltage by Sadism // K.A.O.S. // Shock 1996
SIEGE // Drop Dead // Drop Dead EP // Relapse 1984/1998
PSYCHO // Public Relations // Riches and Fame 10" // Ax/ction 1991
BULGE // Don´t Touch Me // Penis Rising 10" // Fudgeworthy 1991
BULGE (feat. GG Allin) // Interior Depths
RANCID VAT // Destroy Nature // Justice Is What We Do to Traitors // Brilliancy Prize 1989
NO TREND // Fashion Tips for the 80´s // Too Many Humans... // No Trend 1984
TOXIC ATTITUDE // War Crimes // Stupid Teenage Music 7" // Depression 1983
TOXIC ATTITUDE // Tainted
SPLAYED INNARDS // Social Retard // Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance 7" // Self-Released 1996
PUBLIC HUMILIATION // Pepperoni Pizza // It All Started When I Was Five // Goon 1989
MIKA MIKO // See You There // C.Y.S.L.A.B.F. // Kill Rock Stars *new
PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT // Quasar // Who Let the Dogs Out? 7" // Columbus Discount *new
TT // Hypnogogia // demo CDR // Self-Released *new
HOME BLITZ // Safe // Live Outside 7" // Self-Released *new
ABE VIGODA // All Night and Day // Summer Tour CDR 2006 // Self-Released *new

After reading unanimous and uproarious approval for the Wooden Shjips on every new music blog I consider crucial, I became determined to track down their records before I was left in the dust of a feeding frenzy. But thanks to Soriano acquiring a limited stock of the Wooden Shjips' 10" and 7" EP's, now I can do my part to fill these Shjips' sails and send more record-geeky goonies aboard this new vjessel [sic] on their own hunt for future eBay treasure. These fellow bloggers who first discovered the Wooden Shjips received the 10" which the band apparently sent for free to a shrewdly honed recipients list, and thus esteemed tastemakers from Byron Coley to Brian Turner and Tom Lax began to herald this band as one of the present and future's brightest hopes.

Like a ghostly galleon emerging from a dusky fog, both Wooden Shjips records are shrouded in mystery with nary a mention of personnel or origin to suggest the band's time or place. Indeed, their Krauty godhead psych-fuzz space-scuzz sounds like a timeless classic, echoing Munich in 1971, Cleveland in 1976, the Lund, Sweden, of 1979, the best lesser-knowns of the Nurse With Wound list. Not surprisingly, Coley and co. waxed rather romantically about this precocious new San Francisco band, and I became a bit concerned that I'd be a little let down upon finally hearing them. But no! The Wooden Shjips do deliver!!

The 7" features a sublime, chiming opioid jam of soothing fuzz, meandering leads, and reverbed mouthbreathing, recalling heavier moments of early F/i and Spacemen 3. The B-side is a relentless artpunk instro seemingly cut from the Kraut mold. The 10" starts with a sidelong stunner of brilliant blistering fuzz locked into a mid-paced motorik groove. The lead guitarist is unconsciously savage. The B-side reveals the band's penchant for abstractions which still pack a lot of beauty and power.

Next we hear a couple by Impractical Cockpit. I remembered seeing an excellent performance by this New Orleans-based band at the Loft in Sacramento in 2001, and I bought their first LP from them which was lo-fi in the bad way, obscuring their brilliance. And then I never heard about them for four years until Load put out their amazing CD album, "To Be Treated," which so far ranks as one of my faves of 2006. I had read on the Load website that "To Be Treated" was their sixth album, and I was surprised to learn I'd missed the middle four. When, where, and how did they discover how to make a great record, I wondered. Of course, I was very stoked to find two of these middle LP's at Mississippi Records in Portland on last week's Pacific Northwest roadtrip. Surely, "To Be Treated" remains the best stuff I've heard by them so far, but both of these albums do have their great moments. Much murky noise, droning bleats, neurotic shrieks of distress, and yet more than a glimmer of hope. The 2003 album has a drum machine on it, which is an asset on "Squeezing Mileage," but a hindrance to (or more like an unnecessary distraction from) other songs.

Some friends were recently re-discovering My Dad Is Dead when one suggested that a lot of great stuff came out on Homestead Records back in the late 80's. I don't recall it being a lot of anything except mediocrity, interspersed with a few great moments. I also recalled that this "Reality Bath" LP by Nice Strong Arm was a favorite of mine in high school, so I had a listen for the first time in about ten years to see if it still sounded good. Alas, half of it's pretty dire, but this song and "Date of Birth" still charm me. I still liken it to a cross between Joy Division's doom and gloom and their contemporaries such as Scratch Acid.

Next up are two new bands from Vancouver, British Columbia, sharing a split 7" from a new label. Live Girls do not have a female singer, but the Nons do. One or both of the bands include someone from Channels 3 & 4 and/or Shearing Pinx. Both bands do the frosty emotionally detached punk of passive/aggressive ambivalence, and it's mighty tasty. Hope to hear more soon! From the same label come Mutators, also dark and nasty and sorta post-punk with the emphasis on the punk. Very compelling female vocals on that one! Their tour which had been planned to include California was shortened unfortunately, but if you're in Portland, you should definitely go see them. I'm actually tempted to make it up there myself for that Food Hole show.

More Vancouver radness continues with a raucous now-wave rocker from Shearing Pinx, who along with Abe Vigoda and Yikes are one of best bands today to use dual guitars to creative darting/inter-weaving effect. The guitars just sorta snarl, gnarl, coil, and strike, and then splinter away during dramatic breakdowns. The clamorous reverbed vocals of Nic (also of Channels 3 & 4 and his solo N.213 project) build up like stifling English Ivy up the hulking trunk of sound, threatening to suffocate everyone else. It's a rather paranoiac ride. Two thirds of the Pinx also contribute to In Flux which emphasize destructive and volatile lo-fi electro dysphoria.

Leprechaun Catering come from Baltimore, and while I missed their much-lauded debut record, this new second effort is the sound of all experimental music genre ghettos getting shelled in a mortar shelling of record-breaking proportions. Really wild and great! I'm sure glad to see White Denim back in the biz of making beautiful records, too. This one's on razzle-dazzle orange vinyl and comes in a sleeve with a screen that may absorb you into boffo perplexion. The following Doormouse track is hyper breakcore by Wisconsin's greatest on one of White Denim's other pretty records.

Girl Talk from Pittsburgh has a great new full-length CD out, but when you still crave more unthinkable juxtapositions of sample material integrated through the craftiest of editing, reach for this 7". Only 333 exist, so hurry! On this particular song, we get Bell Biv Devoe, the Doobies, CeCe Peniston, Nirvana, and a buncha rapstars in an audio equivalent of Pop Rocks and Coke. I can listen ten times in a row and find something else to laugh about with every Girl Talk creation. Also new from 333 are 333 copies of cosmic IDM from Sagan, a Bay Area electronic conceptual supergroup.

The new album by The USA Is a Monster just dropped on Load, and through three back-to-back-to-back listens, I think it's my favorite by them so far. I say that every year on the day the new USA Is a Monster album comes out. But they are a great band that keeps getting better. No one is any more interesting than them when it comes to the concept of vocal rhythms...at least, no other band I know of.

Rob Girardin (a.k.a. Jaws), I'm so glad you are back in California! Welcome back! In an effort to keep his legend alive in well in Davis, I've included in this week's AFS show Jaws' incredible anti-war protest song, and in my view, the best Dubya-era protest song so far. No child...left behind!

Sally Strobelight is best remembered around these parts as the vocalist and bassist of Eat the People, but now she is a solo artist in Portland, and her new vellum-enclosed translucent album is a stunner of droney psych anesthesia which sometimes straddles electro and freak-folk fences unlike any band or artist this side of Indian Jewelry, and maybe the Dendrites, too, whom we hear here off of their latest CDR of spontaneous compositions.

Él-G & Charlene Darling offer a wonderfully weird CDR of warped folky psych that is totally gripping. I'm reminded of another of my favorite releases of 2006 so far, the "Evangelista" CD by Carla Bozulich, although this is not quite as brooding and seems to have a bit more sense of humor. Expect to hear a lot more, as Él-G sent me everything he's made so far, and it all sounds very good to downright awesome.

Now for the oddest and potentially most offputting record of the playlist...the new 7" by Le Chevalier de Rinchy. Taken in five-second doses, there's nothing too alienating about it unless you are one of those flag-wavin' idiot Americans who still orders freedom fries with their burger. But this contrapunctal baroque tickle-punk alternately flits, minuets, and waltzes out of a different musical keepsake box every five seconds! It's so decidedly fractured and bizarre, so very French, and sucking helium and laughing gas. I LOVE IT! But no one will be lukewarm about this one. Caveat emptor!

Painted into a corner, the only possible way to segueway outta Le Chevalier de Rinchy is Renaldo & the Loaf or Caroliner. It's Renaldo's turn this week, so enjoy his most hysterical moment.

I may finish this later...