AFS v. 110 Postponed for Pink Reason Tour!

(I'll post v. 110 on 11/28!)

Hello Friends!

This band came outta nowhere (actually, Green Bay, Wisconsin) to make one of the very best records of 2006.

The band is called Pink Reason.

Here's the MySpace presence...
http://www.myspace.com/secondculture

Pink Reason's music is so diverse, it's probably able to appeal to the majority of people targeted to read this scattershot cross-post email. It takes at least a good long paragraph to explain, but in a nutshell, I call it "ultra-drugged sleazy freakblues-psych-artpunk of thee highest order!" (But with hints of folk, electro, and even a hint of gothiness (in the best possible way, mind you!)).

Remember the guy who loved the Remington electric shaver company so much that he bought the company? Well, I love this band so much, I'm ready to drive them up and down the West Coast and roadie them myself. I'm burning up all my remaining paid vacation days for this, so I know it'll be worth it for you to walk, bike, bus, drive, take a cab...


P.S. Here's the entire tour itinerary...

Fri 11/17 @ the Bakery, 3407 Harlan St., Oakland (w/ New Flesh, Sexual Tourist, Universal Baltimore)
Sat 11/18 @ Delta of Venus in Davis, CA (w/ Nothing People/Art Lessing & the Flower Vato)
Sun 11/19 @ Hemlock Tavern in SF, CA (w/ Nothing People)
Mon 11/20 @ Food Hole in Portland, OR (w/ Blow Up Nihilist/New Flesh/Argumentix)
Tue 11/21 @ Funhouse in Seattle, WA (w/ Kount Fistula/Nice Smile/Hopscotch Boys)
Wed 11/22 @ Other Space, Cambie @ Georgia, Vancouver, BC (w/ Hot Loins/Fun 100/International Falls)
Thu 11/23 @ Pub 340 in Vancouver, BC (w/ Shearing Pinx & No Feeling)
Fri 11/24 @ Rotturé, 315 SE Third, Portland, OR (w/ Haiku Ambulance + ????)

I've included some words by some folks who are influential in the blogosphere to get you more interested in Pink Reason...

Doug Mosurak's "Still Single" review column at Dusted
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/features/511
Pink Reason might be new, but totally reaches back to that period of musical isolation, with a truly frozen, loner vibe that is all but lost on those who are playing outside of sex/drugs/rock/roll motivations. No, demons are being let loose here, the kind that smell like mildew and haunt basements. It's one mysterious guy named Kevin and he's channeling the solitude in a way that hasn't felt this complete since Luxurious Bags hung it up. Claustrophobic mope done right; a 5 A.M. comedown vibe that shivers where it would otherwise warm, with ten-dollar organ floating in and around the premises, even-keeled and truly on its own amidst a sea of garage-punk types. "New Violence" gets close to Kate Bush territory regardless of the speed it's played at, and is my favorite here, though the other tunes are definitely no slouch, and "Throw It Away" comes as close to a conventional psychedelic figurine sound as anything I've heard recently. Challenging, inspired, and not easy to shake. Intense Myspace presence to boot.

Tom "Siltbreeze" Lax's "Siltblog"
http://siltblog .blogspot.com/2006/06/malice-in-dairylandpink-reasons-st-7.html
They seem to have a pretty good take on the woeful ennui that make Saxon hearts (& veins) flutter & I wouldn't be suprised to meet this band & find'em wrapped in scarves that had once been owned by JG & Ch 39 or other, lesser known phlegmatic Deutsch masters that worship at the Reed, Chilton, Richards alter. From a more jovial, Quixotic perspective (mine or theirs, no matter) this could also pass for liquid take, pre Ohio Demo's from the Cramps; the wet, nascent beat of gravel 'n blues has a loose & rickety DIY presence that would make any right-headed Anglo murk-shuffler light up like a radial bonfire. The best record of it's ilk to ooze outta Wisconsin since Hollywood Autopsy slithered into exile.

Hear Pink Reason's live session in WFMU...
http://www.wfmu.org/listen.m3u?show=20231&archive=29766&starttime=2:02:39
Brian Turner's pre-show comments:
Green Bay, Wisconsin is the smallest locale in the USA to own a major league football team, has some hellish winters, and also is the home base of a guy named Kevin who has sent forth one of the stranger 7" singles to pass through WFMU in recent memory. Capturing the stumbling blues of early Royal Trux, the creeping synth and echoed percussion of the Legendary Pink Dots, and the android alienation of Gary Numan (if he was recording some 70's DIY demo with a cheap organ in a dank basement), there's about four other unpeggable things floating around in each one of these songs that I just have to shrug my shoulders and stop trying to be so analytical all the damn time. Check out what's sure to be an interesting live session today.

From Larry Dolman at http://www.blastitude.com/
2006: THE RETURN OF THE WEIRD DIY 7-INCH! YOU HEARD IT HERE LAST!"
"First of all, what a gem of a 7-inch by Pink Reason, two sides of gloriously weird underground pop/rock/something from Green Bay, Wisconsin -- how often does that happen? First song "Throw It Away" is the one that slays me the most -- acoustic guitar pounding out a three-chord mantra, with droning electric guitar melodies winding over it, and really strange multi-tracked venusian/manphibian vocals singing great hooks. The two shorter songs on Side B take the same basic elements and actually dress 'em up a little weirder by slowing down the pulse and adding
even more helium to the vocals, along with other odd overdubs like flutes and music-box keyboards. 300 pressed here, probably long gone, West Coast tour coming up in November, and word is that Siltbreeze is putting out a full-length soon, which I honestly can't wait to hear."

From Phil Honolulu's http://lettershavenoarms.blogspot.com/
It's good stuff. The one that comes up first on my browser "Throw It Away", has a the same ramshackle, um, 'vibe' that early Royal Trux has, like you were lucky enough to walk into the best part of a two hour drone when everyone was hitting everything just right. The drum fills are subtle and great, the ominous guitar lines fit in snug. An evil howl of dark feedback vocals almost overpowers the song, before it lilts off into a meandering acoustic fade. I dig the relax crawl of the tempo; it's like the song instinctively knows it's good and doesn't have to go fast to impress anyone. 'New Violence' has some great echoed drums and nicely bizarre synth. It has a seat of the pants, semi improvised feel to it, and the deceptively simple little synth riffs are perfect in context, plodding organic blurps over the chime. 'Slate Train' lazily drifts on subtle synths and echoed percussion, like a far more calm track on the first Intelligence LP. Here's hoping someone will make a Pink Reason LP. I would certainly purchase it.