Art for Spastics: AFS v. 235 ~ Let's Get Smart Again!

Friends of Freeform KDVS and AFS in Sacto and Davis will surely be pleased to know that Zac Nelson, the solo artist known alternately as Hexlove and/or Faulouah--and the chief creative force behind Who's Your Favorite Son, God?--will be back in the area with his new band project, Trawler Bycatch, which also features Zach with an "h" from Danava. Zac and Zach last teamed up in Princess Sweepstakes, which was really how everyone at KDVS became aware of these guys when we flipped for their one and only LP--I Love You in Case I Die this Christmas, Man--in 2005. It was a fateful night...that first time I unwittingly saw Danava at Ptomaine Temple in Oakland opening for Glass Candy and the Chromatics....they blew us all away, so I wiped their merch table clean, and they told me the story about Princess Sweepstakes: "This band is a lot different...more like Residents and Pere Ubu and stuff like that...but it's basically all of us, but with this other guy, Zac, who moved down here somewhere." Down here turned out to be Sacto, so we met, and I got about a dozen of his other projects, and much of that was also pretty thrilling to hear. Soon, he was conspiring with some of the most theoretical envelope-pushers in the Sacto next-level math-rock community which had been revolving around Hella, but Zac's broader influence funnel (which thankfully included things as visceral and direct as early Butthole Surfers) made his local band projects different, and at many a Who's Your Favorite Son, God? show, the barrier between "punks" and "hippies" was eroded. It wasn't just G.I.S.M.'s slogan anymore! Judging by the three tracks on this sneak preview CD (and the fourth new song on their MySpace), Portland's Trawler Bycatch still mutates advanced math with

gnarlier noisepunk touchstones such as the Buttholes, and it still soars and flutters along with Zac's vocals. West Coast fans of next-level noiserock, be warned....They are coming our way in late October and early November, all the way down to San Diego and back.

If you've been listening for the last couple years, then you know that I've repped the live show of Eternal Tapestry as one of the best for wah-stomping, face-melting psych-out guitar-slaying over mighty motorik chugs. But some of you are still waiting for them to deliver on that description on vinyl. With their newest LP on Not Not Fun--The Invisible Landscape--it's finally happened! This is surely P.S.F.-strength white-hot psych-jam-rock dedicated to thee infinite riff. If you suspect that I'm desecrating the name of Munehiro Narita with these comparisons, then I challenge you to track this LP down (NNF's stash for direct mail-order's already sold out, but check their distributors for remaining stock) as soon as possible. For fans of the more nebulous, meandering, and subtle style of previous E-Tap releases, I recommend you to search out the new Plankton Wat LP on DNT. That's the solo project of E-Tap's Dewey Mahood

which is psych/folk. Tonight's selection is the brightest-burning number from the album which also features guest flute-squalling from his precocious and adorable 7-year-old daughter, Harper. Elsewhere on the Dawn of the Golden Eternity, the mood is beautiful ur-drone for late-night beard-stroking, meditation, and deep contemplative headphone-listening. Bias disclosed...the E-Tap family have become great friends with Miss Malt Duck and I, and we crash on each other's couches whenever we're in each other's towns, but regardless...I was a fan of this band before the friendships really blossomed, and I can definitely say objectively that this band and its family tree of projects have been on an outstanding trajectory trending toward their very best stuff. And watching Nick and Dewey playing guitars that last couple of summer tours has been every bit as thrilling as all the times I'd ever seen High Rise or Mainliner.