Category Archives: 2014

2014, albums, music, songs

New release: Illum Sphere – “Ghosts Of Then And Now”

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First of all Bleep’s website makes it ridiculously difficult to listen to anything at all. You can listen to each track in pieces because after the 30 second sample is up you have to slide the player over to the next 30 seconds etc. etc. I mean, I can understand why they do it, but I would be happier being able to hear one entire song than having to mess with the player to hear detached pieces of a track.

Thankfully Ninja Tune, the label that released “Ghosts of Then and Now,” was kind enough to upload some of the tracks to Youtube.

Anyway, the reason that I head over to Bleep regularly is, well they send me their newsletter, and I’ve been listening to a lot of Autechre lately and it has given way to a new fascination with electronic music and it’s where you can get Autechre’s albums. So, I’ve been looking for similar artists to broaden my horizons.

Listening to Illum Sphere (as much as I can anyway), with the ultra thick bass and synth that buzzes through most of the tracks, it reminded me in some ways to Baths’ “Cerulean” album from a few years back.  But there’s also hints at proto-IDM like Kraftwere, which I hear heaps of in “Sleeprunner.” The kraut-rock, motorik sound has an undeniable influence throughout the track with its heavily cyclical and repetitive synth line, though it  takes a gradual turn toward the end.

The album has been out for a few weeks now, and it’s a really interesting listen, worth checking out. From the motorik synths of “Sleeprunner” to the Wurlitzer sound of the titular track, there is a lot to grab onto. I wouldn’t quite say that it’s similar to Boards of Canada, but it’s definitely closer to their output than it is to anything Autechre has done. Check out “Sleeprunner” (above) and “Ghosts of Then and Now.” (below) The album can be ordered from Bleep on CD, 2xLP, or various downloads, as well as on iTunes. And if you head to Bleep, you too can have fun trying to use the audio player. Hours of enjoyment. Test your skill.

2014, albums, miscellaneous, music, personal, thoughts

In Memoriam Sonic Youth XIV: “Rather Ripped”

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The release of “Rather Ripped” really came as a surprise to me, and it was such perfect timing. I was finishing up my undergrad, and I remember that the weather was getting warmer when I was introduced to it, or when I learned that the album existed and everything was just perfect. When I think about it, and when I hear the first few notes of “Reena” all of that comes rushing back. And as I sit here in Oregon, where it hasn’t stopped raining for at least the past several days and the sun hasn’t been out for more than 5 minutes at a time since September, I am still able to feel like I did when I first started listening to the album.

This is definitely a poppier album than maybe any other that they have ever released. The closest thing you get to experimental on here is maybe “Do You Believe in Rapture?” with its endlessly ringing harmonics that create all sorts of complex clusters of pitches behind Thurston’s breathy vocals. But for the most part the album just sounds like the band is happier, like they are energized, and very happy to be doing what they were doing. Maybe I’m projecting, or maybe they were projecting onto me.

More importantly to me, is that this is the album that Sonic Youth was touring on when I saw them live for the first time. After being a fan since about 1993 I finally had an opportunity to see them in Toronto on August 8, 2006. Got to spend the day wandering around Toronto with a fellow die-hard SY fan (and all around awesome person who was also seeing SY for the first time that night), which in and of itself is pretty awesome, but then when they came to the stage things got all sorts of awesome.

I’m trying to remember as much as I can from that night, but I think that it would be best summed up by saying that they opened their set with “Teen Age Riot.” They tore through stuff from almost every era  all the way back to Confusion is Sex, playing “World Looks Red” toward the end of their set (for the first time since 1995). The venue was kind of weird and echo-y, but I don’t think I remember really caring at all.

All of those things come to mind when I listen to the album now, and I still think of it as their “latest,” blurring out all the releases that surround it, making “The Eternal” feel more like a coda than a follow-up release.

As for some of the songs specifically, I am wondering right now what the impetus behind “Sleeping Around” was. Like I mentioned in the last post, I wonder how far back one could go to hear lyrics that would point us to Thurston and Kim’s inevitable break-up. However, it is interesting that “Sleeping Around” is followed by “What a Waste.”

Anyway, none of that is really of any importance at all.

The song that I really connected to was “Pink Steam.” I can’t think of any other song in the Sonic Youth catalog that focuses so much on an intro. I could go back and listen to the opening few minutes over and over again, and I’m sure that I have at least a few times. Sometimes they are really surprising in their structures like that. On an album full of verse-chorus-verse songs they go and stick an extended instrumental track that ends up having some lyrics at the end after all.

Overall the standout tracks belong to Kim, this is really kind of her album. Besides “Reena,” setting the tone for the entire album, there is “What a Waste,” “Jams Run Free,” and “The Neutral,” and all of them have the typical Kim breeziness to them, and she moves away from her usual breathy rasp an really sings passionately on every track. It doesn’t sound as forced as her voice could sometime come off previously.

If I had hopes of Sonic Youth going on forever, they got stronger after I became obsessed with this album. Listening to it right now is making me feel all sorts of nostalgic and obsessive again. I prefer not to remember that in six years it would be over.

2014, week in review

Week in Review: February 17th-21st, 2014

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Here’s what went up on the blog this past week, in case you missed it:

Monday: The 13th part of my continuing trip down Sonic Youth memory lane. This week’s post focused on “Sonic Nurse.” Only a few more to go.

In Memoriam Sonic Youth XIII: “Sonic Nurse”

Tuesday:  More music from the endlessly prolific Ty Segall. This tune coming from his latest project, Fuzz. The 7″ single also features a track by CCR Headcleaner with all proceeds from digital download sales going to help music education programs in schools.

Stream: Fuzz/CCR Headcleaner 7″

Wednesday: Purling Hiss is re-releasing their debut album on a very limited number of LPs and cassettes. Grab ’em while you can:

Stream: Purling Hiss s/t 2009 limited edition re-release

Thursday: Stream latest from Chat Logs. Their EP “Am I Right, or Am I Right?” was released on Already Dead Tapes and is definitely worth a listen.

Stream: Chat Logs – “Am I Right, or Am I Right?”

Friday: Squarepusher writes music and has it performed by robots for some reason.  Check out the video.

Video: Squarepusher w/Z-Machines – “Music For Robots”

2014, EP, miscellaneous, music, news, thoughts

Video: Squarepusher w/Z-Machines – “Music For Robots”

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I had this thought pop into my head for no reason at all this afternoon. I was imagining myself as teaching a one-on-one music composition lesson, just like the ones that I used to have on a weekly basis when I was an undergrad. I was thinking about what the first thing that I would say to a first-time student would be, as I still remember my first lesson, and there are some things that I know now that I wish I had known then, that I wish someone would have told me long ago.

What I came up with was, “Ok, the first thing that you have to realize is this: everything has been done already.” I do believe this is true, and I think that for someone that is just starting out writing music that is an important thing to hear. Just practice and get better, develop your voice and everything will fall into place, don’t spend all your time (or any time for that matter) trying to convince people of how brilliant you are.

Then I happened upon an email from Warp Records touting the forthcoming Squarepusher EP. Of course I was excited. I love Squarepusher, even being lucky enough to have seen him perform live this past Summer. The man is a genius, and a virtuoso instrumentalist. His sound is recognizable  from only a few pitches.

According to the man himself:
“In this project the main question I’ve tried to answer is ‘can these robots play music that is emotionally engaging?’

I have long admired the player piano works of Conlon Nancarrow and Gyorgy Ligeti. Part of the appeal of that music has to do with hearing a familiar instrument being ‘played’ in an unfamiliar fashion. For me there has always been something fascinating about the encounter of the unfamiliar with the familiar. I have long been an advocate of taking fresh approaches to existing instrumentation as much as I am an advocate of trying to develop new instruments, and being able to rethink the way in which, for example, an electric guitar can be used is very exciting.

Each of the robotic devices involved in the performance of this music has its own specification which permits certain possibilities and excludes others – the robot guitar player for example can play much faster than a human ever could, but there is no amplitude control. In the same way that you do when you write music for a human performer, these attributes have to be borne in mind – and a particular range of musical possibilities corresponds to those attributes. Consequently, in this project familiar instruments are used in ways which till now have been impossible.”
Sure, that’s all well and good, but while I was listening to the track my question of “why?” just never went away. The composition is undoubtedly Squarepusher. Everything about it has his voice all over it. But, it’s just off. It just doesn’t sound quite right. Sure his character is in those notes, but the personality is gone. The personality and delicate shading of timbres that, yes, are still possible (and noticeable!) in electronic music, are replaced with rigidity and coldness. Sure, robots can play anything, absolutely anything. I would argue the “emotionally engaging” part though. How can music engage someone emotionally if all of those subtle shadings, the things that are impossible to notate, and impossible to mimic verbatim, and utterly, unmistakably human have been extracted?

Sure, they are playing live instruments. The human, emotional element doesn’t lie in the instruments. Even someone that composes pure, fixed media electronic music, needs to finesse that music so that there is a human connection. They take the machines, and the computers and they sand down (so to speak) what makes them sound like machines. The human element is inserted, it’s not something that just comes out through notes and rhythms.

Yes, it is fun to hear (and watch) music be performed by robots. It’s not an original idea though. The simple answer to the question is, I don’t think that the music created by these robots is emotionally engaging at all. Intellectually engaging, sure, but after about 30 seconds of the stolid, precise rhythms and the wind-up music box timbres, I was done.

Why bother with the robots if you can pull the stuff off yourself?

“Music for Robots” will be released April 8th digitally, on CD and vinyl. Pre-orders from Bleep and iTunes will come with a download of “Sad Robot Goes Funny.”

2014, Bandcamp, EP, music

Stream: Chat Logs – “Am I Right, or Am I Right?”

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I know that I have mentioned before of my recent conversion over to the cult of the cassette tape. This has lead to some great discoveries, of course forcing me to ask the question, “What have I been keeping myself from for the past couple of years?”

It was through another tape purchase that I discovered the band Chat Logs. Maybe part of my love for this batch of songs is partly because of the element of surprise. I wasn’t planning on buying this album, didn’t even know that it existed, and now I have it here with me

What I got was an aggressive bass assault with grinding guitars and menacing vocals. The perpetual, circular bass-line of “Eat Your Heart Out” is intermittently interrupted by a heavily echoed, distorted and pitch shifted guitar that’s doing it’s best interpretation of a blues break, but is run through a experimental noise-rock filter. And many of the songs take on a similar structure, with persistent bass holding everything together while the guitars and vocals buzz, screech and echo all around it.

“Am I Right, Or Am I Right?” clocks in at just over 19 minutes with its 4 tracks, the perfect EP length. Personal favorite “Mooks” is mostly instrumental (or at least has a lengthy instrumental break in the middle) with a great winding lead guitar line that sounds like a more unrestrained Constantines track.

The album is available now through Already Dead Records and Tapes, a limited run, specialty press label run out of Chicago that is absolutely worth checking out for fans of sometimes obscure, experimental, electronic, hard-edged garage and all other genres in between.

2014, albums, Bandcamp, music

Stream: Purling Hiss s/t 2009 limited edition re-release

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Ultra distorted, lo-fi psych punk. That just about sums it up.

If you know anything about Purling Hiss, and Permanent Records that originally put this album out back in ’09, it’s that they are both synonymous with fuzzed out, lo-fi (sometimes to an extreme) psych/stoner garage rock.

This recording is overblown, in the red nearly the entire time, really capturing the energy and immediacy of a debut release. Since this album came out 5 years ago Purling Hiss has gone on to release tons of stuff on other labels like Woodsist and Drag City to name a few. Purling Hiss has gone from the solo project of Mike Polizze to becoming a full-fledged band, jamming non-stop on endless tours across the country.

“Almost Washed My Hair” lays out an 8 minute guitar solo over static harmony that explores almost every classic rock guitar idiom known to man while simultaneously slicing through squeals of feedback and an incessant wash crash cymbals. “Montage Mountain” takes the noise element up a few hundred notches, with guitars bleating and screaming wildly, trying to find their place. Both tunes stretch on for what seems like an indefinite period, again, just a noise, feedback jam session. And I didn’t even bring up the track “Purple Hiss,” the longest on the album, clocking in at 14 and a half minutes.

And now that we have a better idea of what Purling Hiss sounds like in their current incarnation-specifically a Sabbath influenced, stoner rock guitar riffage band-it’s interesting to be able to hear where that all started. Head on over to the Permanent Records site to grab one of the limited edition cassettes or vinyl while you can, as I’m sure they aren’t going to last very long. If you miss out, you can still head to their bandcamp and get in on the download.

Purchase LP (limited to 250)//Purchase Cassette (Limited to 100!)//

2014, Bandcamp, EP, miscellaneous, music, news

Stream: Fuzz/CCR Headcleaner 7″

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First of all let’s just get out of the way that the opening guitar chords that jerkily shift up and down the fretboard sound an awful lot like (read: exactly like) those of “Bubblegum,” the Kim Fowley track that I, and I’m sure many others, came to know through the Sonic Youth cover that appeared as a bonus track on the CD version of their 1986 release, “Evol.” Well, this is a cover too. Ty & Co. are offering up “Till The End of the Day,” originally by The Kinks. Ty and crew definitely do their best to soup it up as much as possible.

I’m glad that Ty is continuing to release more stuff with Fuzz. He’s really been tearing it up lately, and I think this incarnation of his writing process is his best yet. Similar garage rock sound, but Fuzz moves more toward the stoner-ish, jammy end of the spectrum due to Charlie Moothart’s virtuosic interjections, than his solo stuff (which has been more on the sad-bastard side of things lately). “Till The End of the Day” is a two minute barn-burner blasting through your speakers at light speed and never stopping to rest.

The B-side to this limited 7″ release features the slow, enveloping sound of CCR Headcleaner. Their track “Free the Freaks” stomps through with a mix of distorted guitars with clean steel strings in equal measure; with requisite vocals buried below the surface and left to echo in the distance.

The 7″ is available for order now for $6.60, while the 2 tracks are available as a download for “name your own price.” Don’t be cheap, and here is why:
100% of the digital proceeds going to the Ariel Panero Memorial Fund at VH1 Save the Music – a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring instrumental music education in America’s public schools.
Bandcamp//
2014, albums, miscellaneous, music, personal, thoughts

In Memoriam Sonic Youth XIII: “Sonic Nurse”

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I have Sonic Nurse on vinyl. Not that this is something that is particularly novel, it isn’t by any means. The truth is I have a ton of SY vinyl, early stuff, rare stuff, the SYR recordings etc. The reason that I think of Sonic Nurse as an album that I have on vinyl is because the digital copy that I have I recorded directly from that vinyl to my computer, and I am reminded of that every time that I listen to it.

In 2004 the common practice of “download code inside” that we all take for granted now, was not the case so much back then. And by “not so much the case” I mean that it wasn’t at all the case. So this was maybe one of the first times that I had bought an album brand new, without having heard it first, on vinyl. Anyway, the sound of my digital files is pretty bad. It’s tinny, thin, nasal, too quiet. Basically I didn’t know what I was doing when I ripped it to my computer. I still listen to it this way though. I’ve gotten used to it and I kind of like it this way now.

But the truth is, I didn’t actually buy this album until a few years after it came out. I got Rather Ripped and then went back to Sonic Nurse after I realized that there was an album out there that I didn’t have. I’m glad that I did because there are a lot of great tracks on here. “Pattern Recognition” starting it off, with its lengthy noise freak-out at the end is so great to hear after not getting too much of it in the past couple of albums.

Of course Jim O’Rourke was still in the band at this time, which means there was some more interesting guitar interplay throughout the album. Things really take off with songs like “Stones” and “New Hampshire,” though. Dense layers of melodic interplay that more closely resemble some sort of free-jazz improv session than they do anything else that Sonic Youth has attempted before. Sure, their stuff has always had an element of noise and experimentation to it (that’s why we’re here, isn’t it?) but when 3 different guitarists start attacking the same patch of silence all at once, coming at it from completely different angles, all spreading out and crossing over top of each other, well that sounds different than the usual blasts of noise and feedback that we’ve been getting.

Interludes that feature melodies that closely resemble real-life actual guitar solos like in “Unmade Bed” start to appear, and really add an interesting dynamic to the staid gestures that the band has been adhering to for the past couple of decades.

What’s funny about writing this is that my memories of getting to know this album are continuing to this day. It wasn’t really all that long ago that the album came out, barely 10 years now, and I’m pretty much still continuing on down the same path that I was starting out on when this album came out in 2004. Back then I was in the 2nd year of my undergraduate program, and now I’m in the 3rd year of a doctoral program, with only a little break in between. So in a way I’m still coming to know this album little by little. Sadly I know that I tend to neglect it in favor of Rather Ripped or some of the classic stuff.

I have been thinking though, as I listen to this and the albums that come after it, about Kim and Thurston. Now that it is 2014, and they have been separated or divorced or whatever for a few years now, how far back did what lead to that start? And what lyrics or songs would indicate that a separation was in the works? Does it go all the way back to Murray Street? Does it start here, or on Rather Ripped? There may have to be some pretty detailed lyrical analysis to figure it all out.

Either way, listening to this album I’m just thankful that the band decided to continue on the path that they returned to on Murray Street.

Lots of things were starting to come to an end, not only Kim and Thurston’s marriage, but also the band itself. They would leave DGC after releasing Rather Ripped two years after Sonic Nurse, and only one more non-SYR album in 2009. At this point in their career, and at this point in my being a fan, Sonic Youth was just a given. I thought that it was a pretty safe bet that we would be getting albums from them well into the next decade, that they would never stop, and it would just be something that went on in perpetuity.

I guess I was wrong.

2014, week in review

Week in Review: February 10th-14th, 2014

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Here’s what went up on the blog last week in case you missed it:

Monday: Continuing on down the Sonic Youth trail. Coming up to the final chapters soon with “Murray Street” this week. Only a few more to go.

In Memoriam Sonic Youth XII: “Murray Street”

Tuesday: There’s a new Guided By Voices album, “Motivational Jumpsuit,” set to be released this coming Tuesday, February 18th.

Guided By Voices – “Motivational Jumpsuit”

Wednesday: Take a listen to Nothing’s “Guilty of Everything” with its  90’s, Smashing Pumpkins and Hum reminiscent sound.

Stream: Nothing – “Guilty of Everything”

Thursday: Stream FIM’s super fun, synth driven psychedelic new-wave “Alien Beach Party.” Limited vinyl still available.

Stream: FIM – “Alien Beach Party”

Friday: You’ve probably already been listening to this by now, but I couldn’t not write about it any longer. It’s the latest from Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks. “Wig Out At Jagbags” is out now, and the band has just begun an expansive U.S. tour.

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – “Wig Out At Jagbags”

2014, albums, news

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – “Wig Out At Jagbags”

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For some reason there are some albums that I listen to a lot, but refuse to write about. I think that sometimes I just want to try to focus writing on bands and artists that aren’t getting much (or in some cases ANY coverage anywhere else), but I also listen to a lot of music every day, and I develop obsessions with albums that last for months at a time.

One of the albums that I’ve been stopping myself from writing about is the latest offering from Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks. This was probably the first significant release of the new year, and also the first album that I started listening to on a daily basis.

Unfortunately Malkmus is never going to be able to escape the shadow of Pavement, and his solo efforts are always going to be compared to their brilliant albums that have reached the heights of required listening to all up and coming indie music fans. I think that “Wig Out At Jagbags” is just as solid a release as his past solo efforts, each of which should be considered outside the bias that inevitably happens when reviewing his work against that of Pavement.

Lead single “Lariat” is more radio-friendly and just more welcoming in general than some of the more angular material that can be found on “Pig Lib” and “Mirror Traffic.” It seems as though Malkmus is more comfortable indulging his proggier side with a few additive rhythms here and there, some odd phrase structures, maybe a few dropped bars; he’s tinkering with form. Take for example “Houston Hades.” That opening (after the noisy intro) that goes on to become the textless chorus, features a bit of hypermetric irregularity. By that I mean that he’s shifting the measures around 4/4 + 2/4 + 4/4 + 2/4, which all adds up to 2 full bars of common time, but the accents are shifted around. That idea carries through to the outro section as well.

Malkmus’ songs make shifts like this, and all sorts of other aberrations of typical structures, sound smooth, and they are hardly noticeable unless you really make an effort to focus a bit on them. The buzzing, sustained guitar lead line that opens the album is placed over one such aberration, with the rhythm section chugging along in a protracted additive rhythm that blends right into the first verse. Sure, it sounds a touch off-kilter, but it is certainly not the focus of the section.

What I find particularly interesting about the songs, on this album as well as on past solo efforts, are Malkmus’ lyrics. Words strung together that partly resemble free association, followed by internal rhymes, allusion, word play and assonance (check out the line that leads into the titular line on “Independence Street” for example). At first listen it might just sound as though the words are thrown down as he sings them, without a care. The truth is is that his lyrics are regularly brilliantly constructed. It’s poetry done right, all of which is sung (with terrific prosody, mind you) in a natural, almost conversational delivery.

Well, I guess I take that back. Lyrics aren’t always delivered as such in every song. In fact, on “J Smoov” Malkmus does his best blue-eyed soul, singing in falsetto, supported by horns with the guitar pared down significantly.

Standout tracks, for me though, have to be “Chartjunk” and “Cinnamon and Lesbians,” the former of which features more use of horns, some rolling, bouncy guitar work and 3-part backing harmonies. “Cinnamon and Lesbians” is just a fun tune with a great deal of the aforementioned wordplay (as is the track “Scattegories” that precedes it), and of course it also has a (terrible) video that interprets each of the lyrics literally.

Malkmus has more tunes than he even knows what to do with. He makes everything sound so effortless and carefree, but if you dig a little bit it’s plain to hear that there is a lot of attention to detail within every line of every song. “Wig Out At Jagbags” came out last month on Matador and they just started the North American leg of their tour a few days ago, so make sure to get out there and see SM and Jicks. Apparently they are going with the hashtag #wigoutacrossamerica

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks “Wig Out Across America”

Fri Feb 14, 2014
Columbia, MO | Mojo’s |

Sat Feb 15, 2014
St. Louis | Old Rock House |

Sun Feb 16, 2014
Omaha | The Waiting Room |  *

Tue Feb 18, 2014
Minneapolis | Cedar Cultural Center |  *

Wed Feb 19, 2014
Madison | High Noon Saloon |  *

Thu Feb 20, 2014
Chicago | Lincoln Hall |  +

Fri Feb 21, 2014
Ferndale, MI | The Loving Touch |  +

Sat Feb 22, 2014
Toronto | Lee’s Palace |  +

Sun Feb 23, 2014
Montreal | Cafe Campus |  +

Tue Feb 25, 2014
Boston | Paradise |  +

Wed Feb 26, 2014
NYC | Bowery |  +

Thu Feb 27, 2014
Brooklyn | Music Hall of Williamsburg |  %

Fri Feb 28, 2014
Washington DC | Black Cat |  %

Sat Mar 1, 2014
Philadelphia | Theatre of Living Arts |  %

Mon Mar 3, 2014
Carrboro | Cat’s Cradle |  #

Tue Mar 4, 2014
Atlanta | Terminal West |  #

Wed Mar 5, 2014
Birmingham | Bottletree |  #

Thu Mar 6, 2014
New Orleans | The Parish @ HOB |  #

Fri Mar 7, 2014
Houston | Fitzgerald’s Upstairs |  #

Sun Mar 9, 2014
Dallas | Granada |  #

Sat Mar 15, 2014
Portland | Star Theater |

Thu Mar 27, 2014
San Francisco | Slim’s |  &

Fri Mar 28, 2014
Los Angeles | El Rey |  &

Sat Mar 29, 2014
San Diego | Casbah |  &

Sun Mar 30, 2014
Pioneertown, CA | Pappy and Harriet’s |  &

Tue Apr 1, 2014
Phoenix | Crescent Ballroom |  &

Wed Apr 2, 2014
Las Vegas | Beauty Bar |  &

Thu Apr 3, 2014
Salt Lake City | Urban Lounge |  &

Sat Apr 5, 2014
Missoula | Top Hat |  &

Mon Apr 7, 2014
Calgary | Republik |  &

Tue Apr 8, 2014
Edmonton | Starlite Room |  &

Thu Apr 10, 2014
Vancouver | Rickshaw Theatre |  &

Fri Apr 11, 2014
Victoria | Lucky Bar |  &

Sat April 12, 2014
Seattle | Neptune |  &

( * with Tyvek)
(+ with Disappears)
(% with Endless Boogie)
(# with Purling Hiss)
( with Sun Foot)
(& with Speedy Ortiz)