Asides and B-sides

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Artist: Bad News from Houston              
Title: In the Valley of the Cloudbuilder
Label: Post-Consumer Records (2013)

Bad News from Houston is the new name for John Dieterich (Deerhoof) and Thollem McDonas (Tsigoti) making often-noisy instrumental compositions using only an acoustic guitar, a piano, and a bunch of recording studio computers/equipment. Dieterich and Tsigoti have lately been playing with Mike Watt’s Hand to Man Band.

All clean, all instrumental. Recommended: Any, 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10

(Source: Spotify)

Artist: V/A             
Title: Ethnic Minority Music of Southern China
Label: Sublime Frequencies (2013)

This is the fifth volume in Laurent Jeanneau’s series documenting vanishing indigenous music of the rural Asian frontiers. Jeanneau emphasizes that he is a hobbyist and not an ethnomusicologist, but, having collected some 55 CDs worth of material since 2006, he is doing work that must be done: as the number of ethnic minority groups in China drops with every census, there will be a time (likely in our lifetimes) where much of this music — and even these languages and instruments — will have disappeared from the world. I hear many resonances with the Lomax recordings from Appalachia, especially those of the all-but-lost pickers and shape-note singers — anyone interested in preservation (or in government policy) will find plenty of rewarding material here.

All clean, all recommended.
Maybe start with: 1, 2 (inst.), 4, 6 (inst.), 9, 10, 11

Playlist, Tuesday 21 May 2013

  1. [new] Nadia Sirota, “Tristan Da Cunha (comp. Paul Corley)” (Baroque) New Amsterdam
  2. [new] Jace Clayton, “Gay Guerilla, Part II” (The Julius Eastman Memory Project) New Amsterdam (n.b.: Jace Clayton = DJ/Rupture)
  3. DJ/Rupture feat. Sindhu Zagoren, “Mole in the Ground” (Special Gunpowder) Tigerbeat6 

  4. [new] Anomonous, “[Track 5]” (Anomonous) Prom Night
  5. [new] Big Boys, “Spit” (Where’s My Towel / Industry Standard) Modern Classics Recordings
  6. [new] Man or Astroman?, “Defcon 5” (Defcon 5..4..3..2..1) Chunklet/Communicating Vessels
  7. [new] Superchunk, “Void” (Void/Faith 7”) Merge
  8. [new] Dangerous Boys Club, “Guillotine” (Pris) DAIS

  9. [new] T.D. Skatchit & Company, “Ear of the Storm” (Ear of the Storm) Edgetone (n.b.: Lead instruments are skatchboxes: noisemakers constructed from combs and cardboard boxes.)
  10. Cinematic Orchestra, “The Awakening of a Woman (Burnout)” (Man With the Movie Camera) Ninja Tune (Library lotto!)

  11. [new, local show] Chuck Johnson, “On a Slow Passing in Ghost Town” (Crows in the Basilica) Three Lobed (@ Pinhook Thursday 5/23)
  12. [local show] Jenks Miller, “Babylon Destroyer Part VI” (Approaching the Invisible Mountain) Holidays for Quince (@ Pinhook Thursday 5/23)
  13. Build, “No Response” (Build) New Amsterdam

  14. [local show] Twilighter, “Devils” (Did Feel Good) Tiny Canvas (@ The Station w/ Melissa & The Swinglers Wednesday 5/22)
  15. [new] Saturday Looks Good to Me, “The Everpresent New Times Condition” (One Kiss Ends It All) Polyvinyl
  16. [new] Pandercakes, “Fogwalk” (Paint By Numbers EP) Fork and Spoon (n.b.: Columbia, SC)
  17. [new] The Bats, “It’s Not the Same” (Free All the Monsters) Flying Nun (@ Local 506 in June!)

  18. [new] Oliver Lake Big Band, “The Whole World” (Wheels) Passin’ Thru (n.b.: Outkast cover.)
  19. [new] Bad News from Houston, “Middle Man Problems” (In the Valley of the Cloudbuilder) Post-Consumer Records (n.b.: John Dieterich (Deerhoof) and Thollem McDonas (Tsigoti))
  20. [new] Implodes, “You Wouldn’t Know It” (Recurring Dream) Kranky

  21. Fungus Brains, “27 Steps” (Ron Pistos Real World) Dr. Jim’s Records (n.b.: 1980s Weird Australia)

Playlist, Saturday 18 May 2013

In a rare PM appearance. Gave away a pair of tickets to !!! at Motorco. CD #3 fell asleep while I was reading the concert calendar, resulting in many mostly meaningless syllables to fill the time until it woke up again. Lots and lots of rain.

  1. [new] Ceramic Dog, “Lies My Body Told Me” (Your Turn) Northern Spy (n.b.: Marc Ribot)
  2. [new] A Giant Dog, “The Grand” (Bone) Tic Tac Totally (n.b.: Austin)
  3. [new] Human Eye, “Outlaw Lone Wolf” (4: Into the Unknown) Goner (n.b.: Detroit)
  4. [new] The Thermals, “I Go Alone” (Desperate Ground) Saddle Creek (@ Local 506 Friday 5/31)

  5. [local show] !!!, “Take Ecstasy With Me” (Take Ecstasy With Me b/w Get Up single) Touch and Go (@ Motorco Sunday 5/19. Cover of The Magnetic Fields.)
  6. [local show] Robes, “Perfect Silhouettes” (Robes) Potluck (@ Motorco Sunday 5/19)
  7. [new] Inspector 22, “A Cup of Tears” (Passin’ Time) Hot Releases
  8. Single Frame, “Exact Copy of This in the Basement” (Body/End/Basement) Volcom Entertainment

  9. [new] Micah, “Part I: He’s A Dreamer / Look Around You / So You Can See / I’m Only One Man” (I’m Only One Man) Shadoks (n.b.: 1971; of Terre Haute, Indiana)
  10. Kim Fowley, “Big Sur, Bear Mountain, Ciro’s, Flip Side, Protest Song” (Another Man’s Gold: Lost Treasures from the Vaults 1959-69 Volume Two) Norton

  11. [new, local show] The Love Language & Twelve Thousand Armies, “Hippie” (Waste of Time: A Tribute to Paint Fumes) S/R (LIJA-palooza @ Slim’s in Raleigh, night 2/2)
  12. K-Holes, “Nothing New” (Dismania) Hardly Art
  13. [new] Georgiana Starlington, “The Ocean” (Paper Moon) HoZac (n.b.: feat. Jack and Julie from K-Holes)
  14. [new] Snapper, “Hang On” (Snapper EP) Captured Tracks/Flying Nun (n.b.: 1989)

  15. [new, local show] Chuck Johnson, “Mine Creek” (Crows in the Basilica) Three Lobed (@ Pinhook Thursday 5/23)
  16. Roscoe Holcomb, “Motherless Children” (The High Lonesome Sound) Smithsonian Folkways
  17. This Frontier Needs Heroes, “The Secret Book” (The Future) Heroic Endeavors (Library lotto!)
  18. [new] Jerry Miller, “Moon Fallin’” (New Road Under My Wheels) Signature Sounds

  19. [new] Golden Gunn, “A Couple of Blackbirds” (Golden Gunn) Three Lobed (n.b.: Hiss Golden Messenger + Steve Gunn)
  20. [new] Everyone Involved, “A Liberated Man” (Either/Or) Guerssen (n.b.: 1972)
  21. [new] Bizarros, “New Order” (Complete Collection 1976-1980) Windian (n.b.: Akron, Ohio)

  22. Dakota Suite / Quentin Sirjacq, “As Long as Forever Is (part I)” (The Side of Her Inexhaustible Heart) Glitterhouse

Artist: Colleen Green             
Title: Sock It to Me
Label: Hardly Art (2013)

Colleen Green sounds rather like if one rogue time-traveling member of a ’60s girl group spent all her record-making time listening to The Ramones and The Descendents, slacking off, and getting high, then realized the album was due, like, tomorrow and made it by herself with a guitar and a drum machine all in one go the night before. While that’s apparently not exactly what happened in the creation of Sock It to Me (a dude friend dropped by to help out on 2, 5, 7, and 8), it is nonetheless good windows-down, fine-weather hangs music. This is L.A. resident Green’s first full-length release on Hardly Art and second overall.

Notes: Tracks 2 and 4 get some New Wave-y synth. “Yr So Cool” (3) references the film True Romance. “Taxi Driver” (9) borrows its (v. enjoyable) drum machine programming, central riff, and misanthropy from The Magnetic Fields. The closer, “Number One” (10), is a cover of the song by The Queers.

Recommended: 1, 2, 3, [7-IND], 9, 10

(Source: Spotify)

Playlist, Tuesday 14 May 2013

  1. [new] Ellery Eskelin, “Just One of Those Things” (Trio New York II) Prime Source (n.b.: Cole Porter.)
  2. Kelan Phil Cohran and Legacy, “White Nile” (African Skies) Captcha (n.b.: Recorded live in 1993 at a planetarium in Chicago.)

  3. [new] Barn Owl, “Pacific Isolation” (V) Thrill Jockey
  4. [new] Umberto, “The Summoning” (Confrontations) Not Not Fun
  5. [new] Xander Harris, “Vultures of Tenderness” (The New Dark Age of Love) Not Not Fun
  6. [new] Wolf Eyes, “Born Liar” (No Answer: Lower Floors) De Stijl

  7. [local show] Father John Misty, “Everyman Needs a Companion” (Fear Fun) Sub Pop (@ Cat’s Cradle Wednesday 5/15)
  8. Adam Green, “What Makes Him Act So Bad” (Minor Love) Fat Possum
  9. [new] David Grubbs, “Abracadabrant” (The Plain Where the Palace Stood) Drag City
  10. Rebecca Gates, “Lure and Cast” (Ruby Series) Badman (Library lotto! Of the Spinanes, feat. John McEntire (Tortoise).)

  11. [local show] Titus Andronicus, “Upon Viewing Oregon’s Landscape with the Flood of Detritus” (Local Business) XL (@ Motorco Friday 5/17)
  12. [new] Apache Dropout, “Constant Plaything” (Garage Swim) Adult Swim
  13. [new] The Numerators, “Dead” (Dead b/w Finally Sees 7”) Suicide Squeeze
  14. [new] Bass Drum of Death, “Such a Bore” (Bass Drum of Death) Innovative Leisure
  15. The Beets, “Walking to My House” (Let the Poison Out) Hardly Art

  16. [new, local show] Luke Winslow-King, “Moving On (Towards Better Days)” (The Coming Tide) Bloodshot (@ Pinhook Thursday 5/16)
  17. [new] Glenn Jones, “Like a Sick Eagle Looking at the Sky” (My Garden State) Thrill Jockey
  18. [new] Sam McGee, “Knoxville Blues” (Imaginational Anthem Vol. 6: Origins of American Primitive Guitar) Tompkins Square
  19. [new] Charlie Poole with the Highlanders, “Richmond Square” (The Complete Paramount & Brunswick Recordings, 1929) Tompkins Square

  20. [new, local show] Flesh Wounds, “Surf Party Apocalypse” (Waste of Time: A Tribute to Paint Fumes) S/R (Lijapalooza @ Slims Friday 5/17 and Saturday 5/18)
  21. The Only Ones, “Another Girl, Another Planet” (Special View) CBS
  22. Twerps, “Work It Out” (Work It Out EP) Chapter/Underwater Peoples
  23. [new] Free Time, “Nothin But Nice” (Free Time) Underwater Peoples

  24. [new] Chelsea Wolfe, “Fight Like Gods” (Chelsea Wolfe & King Dude Sing Songs Together 7”) Sargent House

May 7

Playlist, Tuesday 7 May 2013

Choked on coffee during Colussus, got a call about Jason Anderson, and received the gift of very fresh salad greens.

  1. [new] Frederic Rzewski, “Variations 13-18” (The People United Will Never Be Defeated: 36 Variations on a Chilean Folk Song) Bridge (n.b.: 1975. This is “Melodies,” the third of six cycles on the album. Ole Kiilerich on piano.)
  2. Mariachi Coculense de Cirilo Marmolejo, “La Cantinera (Ando Borracho) (The Barmaid) (I’m Drunk)” (Mexico’s Pioneer Mariachis Vol. 1) Arhoolie (n.b.: 1926-1936.)
  3. John Santos y El Coro Folklorico Kindembo, “Modupue Yemaya” (La Guerra No) Machete (n.b.: Traditional.)

  4. [new] Black Bug, “Threads” (Reflecting the Light) HoZac (n.b.: “Three Swedish transplants living in Bordeaux, France.”)
  5. [new] Sujo, “Pests” (Ondan) Inam (n.b.: #20/30.)
  6. [new] Colossus, “The Coming of the Destroyer Queen” (…and the Sepulcher of the Mirror Warlocks) S/R

  7. [new] Crime & The City Solution, “The Colonel (doesn’t call anymore)” (American Twilight) Mute (n.b.: Simon Bonney, back after 22 years; band feat. Jim White.)
  8. [new] MMOSS & Quilt, “Sandy” (New Hampshire Freaks 10”) Beyond Beyond Is Beyond

  9. [local show] Dessa, “Kites” (Castor, The Twin) Doomtree (@ Local 506 Sunday 5/12)
  10. Doomtree, “String Theory” (No Kings) Doomtree (n.b.: feat. Dessa.)
  11. [new] Pharmakon, “Pitted” (Abandon) Sacred Bones
  12. [new] Jenny Hval, “Mephisto in the Water” (Innocence Is Kinky) Rune Grammofon
  13. [new] Angel Olsen, “If It’s Alive, It Will” (Strange Cacti) Bathetic

  14. [local show] Jason Anderson, “Citizen’s Arrest” (The Wreath) K (@ The Pinhook Wednesday 5/8)
  15.  Wolf Colonel, “The Emperor in the Sky” (Vikings of Mint) K (n.b.: a.k.a. Jason Anderson.)
  16. [new] Connections, “Jeni & Johnny” (Cindy, Jeni & Johnny 7”) Anyway (n.b.: from Columbus, OH.)
  17. [new] Rollin Hunt, “Criminal” (The Phoney) Moniker
  18. Alaska, “Broken” (Emotions) B-Girl (Library lotto!)

  19. [local show] Band of Horses, “Monsters” (Everything All the Time) Sub Pop (@ The Ritz Wednesday 5/8)
  20. [new] Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy & Marquis De Tren, “Solemns 119” (Solemns EP) Drag City (n.b.: Marquis De Tren = Mick Turner from Dirty Three.)
  21. Iron & Wine, “Winter Prayers” (Ghost on Ghost) Nonesuch
  22. Willie Nelson, “Nuages” (Let’s Face the Music and Dance) Legacy (Happy 80th, Willie! by Django Reinhardt.)

  23. [new] Jazz Gillum, “Gillum Blues” (Classic Harmonica Blues) Smithsonian Folkways
May 3

Artist: The Lonely Wild               
Title: The Sun As It Comes
Label: Thirty Tigers (2013)

The Sun As It Comes is the first full-length release from The Lonely Wild (Los Angeles).

Recommended: 2, 3 (horns), 11, 12, 1

May 2

Artist: Bill Baird                        
Title: Spring Break of the Soul
Label: Pau Wau Records (2013)

Austinite Bill Baird (Sound Team, Sunset) is currently pursuing an MFA in electronic music at Mills College in Oakland, CA, and he’s been working for the last couple of years on this collection of West coast weirdo psychedelic pop refreshed with calypso, yacht rock, mutated cello, and voice modulation. Conceived as a double album with four discrete sides (1-3, 4-8, 9-13, 14-17), Spring Break of the Soul is, as Baird puts it, “Samuel Beckett meets Pee Wee Herman meets Captain Beefheart meets Lush dreamlife.” Other reference points include Van Dyke Parks, Syd Barrett, and Ariel Pink. The commercial version of the release comes with an extensive booklet containing sheet music and an original film script (the album was originally planned as a musical).

Note: “Sailing” (2) is a Christopher Cross cover.

Recommended: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 13, 16, 17

May 1

Artist: Israel Martínez                        
Title: The minutes
Label: Aagoo (2013)

On his 7th album, The minutes, multimedia artist Israel Martínez blends field recordings, loops, samples, and ambient electronics into a reflection on his home country of Mexico during a period of uncertainty and anxiety about occupying public spaces. 

Recommended: 2, 4, 6, 10

(Source: Spotify)