Monday, March 29, 2010

mix: Broken Deer Songs for Imbolc

"Rock-A-Bye Baby"

Crafted "to celebrate the halfway point between the dark and light season," Broken Deer's Songs for Imbolc crawls into ones consciousness like a mistaken memory tiptoeing ever-so-softly down a rickety hallway. "Shh," you tell yourself, thinking you heard something but wholely unaware of what's lurking in the midst. More intimate than being sung to sleep by your grandmother from the old country, Broken Deer's pitched falsetto runs the gamut from obliquey fascinating to borderline annoying before swaying back into utter fantasy, the sort of sure-hearted tonic that drowns all concerns in lust-lorn thunderstorms. She sings the songs you wish you had sung to yourself walking home through the rain in the middle of the night. Songs for Imbolc is perfect for a rainy morning like today, or basically any other solitary moment. Also, be sure to check out Alice Cohen's video for "White Woman", which will be released on Broken Deer's next record, POLARAURA, due out this June on Gandhara Recordings.



Friday, March 26, 2010

video: Raw Thrills "Komich Traveling with Vampires"

"To Outerspace"

"Komiche Traveling with Vampires," featured on the Report compilation and Raw Thrills Dead Set, hits like a rocket shot into your nasal cavity, only to burn up and fizzle out as it reaches the outer layer of Earth's atmosphere. It exists in a parallel universe where the China Club is inhabitated by junk'd out terrordome fashionistas, ala Escape from New York (or LA), and rocket cars are the most popular mode of transportation. But they ain't nice rocket cars. They suck, actually. In the post-WW7 world, the most advanced technology is rusted over and coroded, fucked up beyond recognition, but still somehow viable. Get all the Raw Thrills hotness, including another recently released CD-R at IMSOSORRYDAD. Weekend...blast off.

tape: Sacred Harp Feast of the Green Corn Tape


When I first saw this on Mirror Universe, I knew I had to have it. A sucker for homespun celestial acoustics, Sacred Harp promised a similar vibe as Numero Group's Wayfaring Stranger: Guitar Soli compilation, a collection which, if you aren't familiar, I highly suggest you spend a few nights alone with, drinking amongst blankets. Cheesy, yeah, but seriously profound. Sacred Harp is quite similar. In an age of scuzzy pop, blistering psych and assualting noise, Sacred Harp plays just like it sounds. Sacred. The sounds of the Gods tinkering with the planet, tilted on its axis, singing to the beat of a star so far away we call it a Sun, and even then, we still don't know anything about it. It's primitive and pure, the sort of wondrous alchemy that could only be harvested by the most righteous of farmers (in this case, Mirror Universe). It's wondrous. I'll say that again. It's wondrous. Purchase a limited edition of Sacred Harp's Feast of the Green Corn tape from Mirror Universe, I swear it'll make the everyday bullshit weighing down on your shoulder feel more like fluff, the type that goes well with peanut butter on a sunny afternoon. (Ed Note: Digitized versions of these tracks do nothing for the way they sound on analog tape.)

Thursday, March 25, 2010

post-SXSW: Speculator

"Enjoy"
Been digging on Speculator since Friendship Bracelet first featured his zonked out new(no)-wave grooves on FBC2 (and subsequently FBC3). Last week I had the opportunity to check out Speculator live and in the flesh, tape-decking out in the Austin sun. Flanged grooves woggled over magnetic tape until the grooves just unwound, spitting thousands of manipulated notes into a vast ocean of mega-notes. Regurgitated soundscapes form the basis of highly vibeable car tunes, the sort of wonked out bliss William Basinki would be into if his rotting tapes were Billy Ocean, rather than some avant-experimental whatever the fuck. That said, Speculator's recently released split with Luke Perry is a quintessential sewar banger, the sort of slo-soul that's been devolving in a vile of ooz for years without once being subjected to total darkness (or total light, for that matter). Purchase the Luke Perry/Speculator split tape here.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

post-SXSW: Big Troubles 7"

"Bat Bomb"

So I went to SXSW. It was fun. I had a good time. Hung with a lot of cool peeps, ate tons of Migas, stayed out of the chaos, and, for the most part, chilled super hard. Not surprisingly, SXSW felt like a vacation home. All Brooklyn & Jersey homeys chilling hard on Spring Break, drinking free Lonestar and trying to find someone with rolling papers. One of the acts I saw everywhere was Big Troubles. Every five feet or so I'd look around and see Sam or Alex or Ian or Luka or Mr. Gooch. Of course, I didn't even see them play, but I did manage to snag a copy of their super limited first pressing of their new 7" on Olde English Spelling Bee. The single is actually the test pressings for their new 7" and comes enclosed in a gold sleeve with custom collage art unique to each disc. Highly limited to 55, it is easily one of the coolest things (along with Sleep Over's erotic art zine) that I picked up in Austin. The 4-track 7" includes Big Troubles live staples "Drastic & Difficult" and "Grey Dayz" on the B-side, while "Bad People" and "Bat Bomb" compose the A-side. This 7" is really wetting my palette for the bomb that is sure to be their debut full-length.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

mp3: Run DMT "Spruce Bringsteen"

"Take You Under"
Sock hop dodgery and mystical instrospection running wild like a pair of harmone huffing teens heavy petting in the back seat of a rusty MG is sort of what Run DMT's new "Spruce Bringsteen" reminds me of. It's all greaser, head-bobbing with your lady friend in saddle shoes, but beneath it all there's a deep desire to look inward while moving outward, exploring the depths of binges and gorges alike, while moving at the speed of a locomotive, or crawling on the floor. Easily one of the most infectious tunes of the year. (And one of my favorites.) ("Round and Round" included.)

Monday, March 15, 2010

tapes: The Curatorial Club


[Ed Note: The Curatorial Club is a new project-based imprint founded by the founder(s) of Chocolate Bobka, which hopes to make available projects that were previously unavailable. We will be working with our favorite artists, labels, creators, etc to bring these little nuggets to life.]

That said, happy to announce the release of three new tapes by three of our favorite artists; Twin Sister, Alex Bleeker & Run DMT. All releases are limited and were created by loving hands at home. As Aquarium Drunkard touched on, Twin Sister's Alternates is a collection of demoes from their old EP, as well as a preview of the material from their soon-to-be-released Color Your Life. Download the A-Side right here. It's a gem.

TCC 002 is a C20 by Alex Bleeker. Mad Dog is an "audio sketch book" that spans a year of bedroom recording Alex did, mostly "lying on my back in bed." The cassette is an invitation to view the work in progress, to hear loose picking evolving into the skeletal framework for songs like "Summer," which Bleeker notes "was literally the first time i had played it." "The first thing ["Mad Dog"] was something I did randomly on Matt's 8-track while I was waiting for him to get ready to leave. Then I found the handheld in my closet a few days ago because I wanted to record the last 'song' on there...It spans from December '08 to now.

The third release in the first batch from The Curatorial Club is Run DMT's physical debut. This C60 collects his initial work, Bong Voyage & Get Ripped or Die Trying, which were initially intended to be released as a two-sided tape. In addition, to the instant classic mixes, the tape is speckled with unreleased, exclusive Run DMT magic dust. Individually designed j-cards by Run DMT himself. Limited run of 20.

Learn more about The Curatorial Club and order releases here.

mp3: Real Woods "No Rain" (Blind Melon Cover)

"All I Can Do"
(Photo by Frankie Pancakes)
After announcing that they would tour together, it was pretty apparent that a Real Estate/Woods tour would birth some serious cross-polination. Birds had been chirping of Real Woods in the weeks leading up to their first show at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Rumors of "bongo flying" practices flooded town, and when it came time, during the encore portion of Friday night's show, the bands did not disappoint. Bleeker took to the lead vocal, while the rest of Real Woods got jubilant, as hippie moshpits took over the front rows and tambourine dancing ensued on stage. And then they were called out for another encore, in which they played Graham Nash's "Military Madness". Great show. Of course, NYC Taper was there to capture it all. In other show/cover news, NYC Taper also has Real Estate's cover of "My Molly," which you should definitely snag.

radio: Sunday Brunch Ep5

"Getting By"Torrential downpours set the tone for yesterday's edition of Sunday Brunch. Dark Nor'Eastern heavyness flooded North Brooklyn, only to be washed out by fuzz'd out lucid pop of the rapid-eye variety and wonked cuts with international flavor. The entire set was mixed live on two turntables, except for the Twerps "Good Advice," City Center's cover of the Grateful Dead's "Box of Rain" and Alex Bleeker's "Getting By," the later two of which are both featured on the most excellent new Woodsist tape comp Welcome Home. If you see a copy at SXSW or on the Woods/Real Estate tour, I highly recommend picking one up. You won't be dissapointed.

Magik Markers- The Diamond Guitar of Tico Feo
The Wizards from Kansas- She Rides with Witches
Kurt Vile & the Violators- Good Looking Out
Vivian Girls- My Baby Wants Me Dead
Crystal Stilts- Sugar Baby
The Pretty Things- LSD
Big Troubles- Freudian Slips (alt version)
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti- Evolutions a Lie
The Oh Sees- In The Shadows of the Giant
Pure Ecstasy- Baby
Blues Control- Paul's Winter Solstice
Dylan Ettinger- Smokin'
Lotus Plaza- Quicksand
Panda Bear- Bonfire of the Vanities
Pocahaunted- Veil
Grouper- False Horizons
Pigeons- Envie
Bruce Springsteen- State Trooper
Ioannis Halikias '"Jack Gregory"- The Loser
La Bandas- Waiting
Janka Nabay- Top Suhl Bah (33 rpm)
Rangers- Ross Downs
The Delfonics- Didn't I Blow Your Mind this Time
Yo La Tengo- My Little Corner of the World
John Phillips- Holland Tunnell
City Center- Box of Rain
Julian Lynch- Garden
The Twerps- Good Advice
The Bearies- I've Paid My Dues
Comet Gain- Love Without Lies
Fluffy Lumbers- Mutant Barrymore
Alex Bleeker- Getting By

Thursday, March 11, 2010

radio: Sunday Brunch Ep4

"Cat People"
This past Sunday was quite the celebration/burn out zone at Newtown Radio. Our hangover relief special came in the form of a videochat broadcast from Sleep Over. Something tells me two spirits may have gotten loose in Austin and crept into Sleep Over's living room practice zone. After a mystifying set, Charles spun hits from movies that were nominated for Oscars, movies that weren't, and movies that never were, followed by a live in-studio set from Family Portrait, fresh off a particularly fun night and ripe for their first national tour. It was pretty familial, sort of like the riff-raff from the prior nights house show wandered into the studio and sat in a circle around the band, indian style, just trying to get a grip on the day. Good times.

Sunday Brunch Ep4"

Rose Royce - I wanna Get Next to You [from Car Wash]

live Sleep Over set (via iChat)

Tangerine Dream - Betrayal [from Sorcerer]
Giorgio Moroder - To The Bridge [from Cat People]
Vangelis - Wait for Me [from Blade Runner]
Trevor Duncan - Grip of the Law [from Plan 9 from Outer Space]
Pink Floyd - When Tigers Broke Free [from The Wall]
Popol Vuh - Gemeinshaft [from Coeur de Verre]
Quincy Jones - Hangin Paper [from In Cold Blood]
Final Solution - Brotherman [from Brotherman (fake movie)]
Steely Dan - FM [from FM]
David Bowie - Cat People [from Cat People]
Johnny Greenwood - Prospectors Arrive [from There Will Be Blood]
Wendy Carlos & Rachel Elkind - Main Title Theme [from The Shining]
Gyorgy Ligeti - Overture: Atmospheres [from 2001: A Space Odyssey]
Tex Ritter - High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me) [from High Noon]
Barry Adamson - The Big Bamboozle [from Oedipus Schmoedipus (fake movie)]
Bob Dylan - Billy 1 [from Pat Garret & Billy The Kid]
Giorgio Moroder - The Chase [from Midnight Express]
Ennio Moricone - The Ecstacy of Gold [from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly]

live Family Portrait set

Download Sunday Brunch Ep 4 (featuring Sleep Over and Family Portrait)

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

video: Candy Claws

"Hidden Lands"

Hibernating in the woods can really pay off. At least, it did for Thoreau....I think. The same reclusive introspection can also be said of Candy Claws, who've been quietly penning and producing their next record in the sylvan wonderlands of grand ole Colorado. Not so secret as it once was, the band is now keeping track of their work on their new blog, and will even leave the confines of their humble abode for the calamities of SXSW. If you're heading to Austin, be sure to catch them as they do not play in public very often, if ever. Expect a forthcoming record this summer on two syllable records.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

video: Fluffy Lumbers, Alice Cohen at CMJ

"Back to the Wall"


Lost in some blackhole-time warp, these two recently unearthed videos of Fluffy Lumbers and Alice Cohen live at the UP/OESB/BOBKA really bring me back to that hazy night at the now defunct Monkeytown during CMJ. To view is to be transported back in time to a realm that existed for a few hours on some odd day in October.

mp3: Games "Midi Drift"

"PROGRAM-A-JAM"


Funk me where the pampers is?! It's another GAMES track. The trifecta to join a now holy trinity. Here's what GAMES have to say about it.
this track started w/ a video idea in which joel and i are 90s high tech corporate dads, except our cubicles are party jam stations comprised of drum machines and synths and tactical flowcharts on how to make the best music possible. we meet by the water cooler and i give joel a folder on it that says PROGRAM-A-JAM and i point at my watch, like ‘get it done by 5 dude or my goose is cooked.’ later on joel bumps into a ~really~ fine girl in the hallway and her folders fly everywhere. she ends up taking the PROGRAM-A-JAM folder and he takes one that says TOP SECRET KGB STUFF on it. he takes it back to his desk and send me links to hot pixxx of her getting railed by the boss in the boiler room. we go to chilis at some point probably. the babe keeps getting hotter/more naked and is seen programming hot jams with a Jupiter 8 after-hours. We are wearing uncool jeans and corporate fleece pullovers and have salt & pepper beards. we drive off into the sunset in toyota camrys.


Games- Midi Drift

Monday, March 8, 2010

pics: Real Estate House Party

"These Pretzels Are Making Me Thirsty"
Photos: Erez Avissar
The so-called 'bloguettes' of the Micro-Pixel-Rites Presents hosted a rager on Saturday night to help raise funds for the porta-potties at their SXSW show and, well, it's Monday and I'm still recooperating. Evening began with a set by Alex Bleeker and the Freaks and continued with pals Family Portrait, freshly reformed for the first time since August. Later the freaks re-configured as Real Estate to close out the evening with an Ariel Pink cover, a cover of the Clean's "Anything Can Happen" and a swooping rendition for "Happy Birthday" for Emilie. The cops came. However, subject to the vibes at hand, they seemed like super chill cops. Must've been the projected Seinfeld.












Wednesday, March 3, 2010

video: Sun Araw CoCo 66

"The Phynx"

Ray just sent me this recap of the Sun Araw show at Coco 66 this past Sunday, which was, to say the least, some really HEAVY shit. All night. (Aside: Bigs up to Upstairs CDR, the KGB Man himself, and DJ Bryce (?) who was in the front bar spinning shit all slo'd out and drawly-like.) OPN killed a set too, but thats a whole different story. Sun Araw came in from Cali the night before, after getting stuck in LA because of weather, Airline-delays, etc in NYC. Dude took the red-eye and landed at LGA at 9:30 AM Sunday Morning, days after his supposed arrival. Yet somehow, despite delays, Sun Araw instantly cast a mega-aura over the greater Greenpoint area. The sky got all neon green. Except the ooz sky wasn't poisonious, it was just glowing mist. Like tie-dyed fog. Everything was real fresh. Super zones. (RC on a different plane of existence with this one. Right on.)

video: Forest Swords "Visits"

"Miarches"


Slithering like a cobra out of a cave into the desolate streets of some god foresaken place, "Visits" memorializes the striking difference between non-chalant everyday moments and foresakingly dramatic turns. As witnessed in the third installment of the Forest Swords video trilogy, the young boy, once free and full of life, is brought to the ground by his surroundings. They are so pristine, engaging and, perhaps, lethal that the boy literally can't help but keel over. And so is life. As OESB notes, "Visits," like many of the cuts on Dagger Paths, invokes a "Morricone Western flick vibe." The perils are dark, the sun peaking, blistering skin and minds, until falling prey to the inevitable is all that's left to do. If you're wondering to yourself, 'well, self, what DO I DO now?' My answer is (re)view the initial installments in the Forest Swords series, then check out a seperate video directed by Leftist Nautical Antiques Alex Davis, who also release Forest Swords tape earlier this year.

Pick up the new Forest Swords release here.


Tuesday, March 2, 2010

mp3: John K.

"She's Out There"

John K's "Or We Could Be Lovers" is the initial brain sentiment associated with being lost in the back of a club, clinging to your last drink and trying to come up with something clever to say to that girl in the electric red lipstick. You're certain this particular femme fatale isn't so fatale, and might be someone you'd like to romp around a music video set with. The video vixen, big blown out hair, the smell Aquanet getting you all hot and bothered, while a fog machine pumps out chem smoke that clouds your line of sight.... She's gone.... Never to be seen again. It's all fantasy, of course, well, sorta. In that moment, one wonders "We could be friends, or we could be lovers."

Monday, March 1, 2010

radio: Sunday Brunch Ep3

"The Last American Hero"
Another Sunday come and gone, another Sunday Brunch in the proverbial can. Recently back from European tour, Real Estate bassist and lead Freak Alex Bleeker joined me in the studio this week to spin classics by the Feelies, the Boss, and the Zombies, as well as selections from the killer new batch of releases from Olde English Spelling Bee. Specifically, Forest Swords tunnel banger "Hoylake Misst", Rangers "Bel Air" and an excerpt from James Ferraro's The Last American Hero. Download the two-hour all vinyl mix below, and be sure to tune in next Sunday at 2pm on New Town Radio.

Sunday Brunch Ep3
James Ferraro- The Last American Hero (excerpt)
Islaja- Pysähtyneet planeetat
Damon + Naomi- This Car Climbed Mt. Washington
Bonnie "Prince" Billy- Senor
Bonnie "Prince" Billy- Going to Acapulco
The Zombies- Hung Up On a Dream
Ganglians- To June
Sun Araw- Hey Mandala! (excerpt)
Forest Swords- Hoylake Misst
The Millenium- The Island
Woods Family Creeps- Twisted Tongue
Vashti Bunyan- Jog Along Bess
The Incredible String Band- The Mad Hater's Song
George Cromarty- Flight
The Feelies- High Road
The Oh Sees- She Said to Me (Demo)
Fleetwood Mac- Over My Head
John Lennon & Yoko Ono- (Just Like) Starting Over
Joseph Bentley & Al-Hammel Rasul- Don't Give Up (from Oneness of Juju)
The Righteous Brothers- You've Lost That Loving Feeling
Rangers- Bel Air
Sunbirds- Ocean Song
Yo La Tengo- Spec Bebop
Koushik- Corner of Your Smile
Ariel Pink- Can't Hear My Eyes
Kate Bush- Running Up That Hil
Dennis Wilson- River Song
Bruce Springsteen- Prove It All Night