PORTAL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emrBZZtGFgI ok so this show actually happened before the EHG god show but i wasn't moved enough to blog about it till after i gushed about EHG. In general i was pretty interested in seeing Portal play hearing how they were more or less the new "cutting" edge in death metal and what not. The show had lots of appeal too.. you know touring from Australia, and playing with Krallice at a small club i like (kungfu necktie) seemed like a winning combination. but at the end of the night i was sort of underwhelmed in general. The band wore "costumes" which to me is a huge lets hide we suck by playing Halloween with our dress up party. If you try to dress up the visual element and presentation of your band is that because i'm uninterested in what you're doing??? Back to EHG and one of the refreshing Black Flag elements of that band that i love is that they are what they are kids!!!! But anyway if you watch the youtube clip of Portal i agree that shits pretty impressive. Live maybe I'm underwhelmed because all that sick technical playing is sort of hiding by the lack of of it being conveyed in a shitty small club with a mediocre sound system. They had a pretty impressive mechanical Armageddon type of throb but what they are doing live i just don't think it translated enough in the setting i saw them play in.

post brought to you by even more Yuengling forgive all the bad grammar and spellings

NEW SHOWS

fuck yeah fuck yeah ... Eye Hate God/ Brutal Truth in Philly. 20 something years later EHG are pretty old hat but god damn they were just blistering in Philly last week. and all ages show at the church basement that i assume was sold out and sweaty and hot as hell. Amazing stuff heavy wild and even reasonably tight for EHG. I was thinking about this while they were playing that for a guy about my age and 5-6 years younger seeing EHG is more or less our Black Flag. just a totally different edge to them then every other band you're going to see these days. nothing seems premeditated and they truly seem dangerous and explosive on stage and un-contrived in anyway. and sonically they just smoking. Hats off to the sound guy/ mobile sound guy from the Church (John something or another). If anyone knows me they know i hate hate hate house sound men with a passion. laziest fuck heads in club who just want to get shit over so they can smoke out back. But fuck yeah dude had the balls to run guitars through the PA!!! Hats off!! recording is smoking you rule.

Beyond gushing about EHG Brutal Truth was pretty cool as well. I don't know though I'm not a huge grind guy, unless your Discordance Axis or something I'm generally unimpressed or mildly entertained.. I mean its nice as a change of pace to see some non-psych rock thing now and then and get some speed on but in general i'm like this is dumb.

Funny thing too prior to the show i was trolling online and saw some Sonosax recorder and it jogged my memory that i own one of these Sonosax sx-m2 mic pre's. basically its a portable phantom power unit that DPA recommends to be used with my mic set (4052's). I had been using the 48v phantom power that's built into the Sound devices 722 recorder that i use and its always been pretty good but lately I've been really bummed out when i can't use my millennium media tube preamp to run my mics. Something totally magically about tubes isn't their??? Anyway, so i remember i had one of those portable sonosax pre's that i used literally twice like 4 years ago. I tracked the thing down pulled it out and stopped at Home Depot on the way to the show to get batteries. ( fucker uses 2 9volts for about 8 hours of record time) rigged it all up in the uni-bomber bag i carry. So after the show on play back after dodging crazy stage diving and the chaos of the show recording totally smokes. It's not as sexy as the millennium tube piece i use when i have access to power, but fuck for a portable unit standing in a crowd running my music stealing device out of a bag it fucking kills. why wasn't i using that thing for like the last 4 years?? duhhhhhhh. awesome stuff

Then on the back end i get bummed about the label taking a total shit.. recording is so good, the band was so raw and gnarly, just a totally shame no one hears it?? Be cool to just do like a bootleg club for like a nominal fee like $5-10 to cover expenses and postage and have 50 people pre-subscibed to just get random CDR offerings in the mail of recordings. no copy write bullshit, just stuff that was cool and sounds great in minimal packs. No respect for what a band wants to do or any of that shit. I can post shit on the blog i guess but MP3's are such totally shit. (ok i wont go back to a rant on mp3's and the Ipod but fucking A compressed music sucks)

PS this Sunday night rant has been brought to you by yuengling

NP sisterfucker!!!!!!

PICS SORT OF RECENT SHOWS

From top to bottom

BIRDS OF MAYA MEGA BOOZE BAND from the jack rose Philly record release show, Harmonica Dan leading the way

FLAHERTY/ MOORE / CORSANO and others at the jack rose record release show

MIKE GIBBONS and NACHO GIBBONS at some horrible show in south Philly. the Bardo guys don't talk much about Nacho he's sort of like the brother they keep locked in the basement.

KRALLICE at the Mroom in Philly.
BLUES CONTROL art gallery show in Philly

STEVE GUNN art gallery show in Philly.. check out his pretty great record on Threelobed.

NOW PLAYING vulture club on Utech.. whatever happened to the follow up for this awesome disc????

EMAIL ABOUT PITCHFORK

some email correspondence i got about the pitchfork thing.

Hey,

Just read the article/interview on Pitchfork and was a bit disappointed to see that filesharing got blamed for the decrease in sales. I'm quite sympathetic to your frustration but I don't think it's directed at entirely the right issue.

The example of The Goslings / Warmth split not attracting the same amount of sales, for instance: for whatever reason, in 2009 the album didn't attract nearly the amount of hype and solid reviews that Grandeur of Hair did. Blogs and review sites lavished praise over it, while hardly any sites talked much about the split.

For instance, on RateYourMusic, a database of people keeping track of their MP3 or CD collections, you'll see that Grandeur of Hair has 329 ratings and Heaven of Animals has 16.

http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the_goslings/grandeur_of_hair/

http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the_goslings_and_warmth/heaven_of_animals/

If filesharing were to blame, don't you think there'd be the same level of interest generated, yet fewer sales? From what I've noticed, filesharing seems to be part of the marketing hype cycle of generating interest, especially in niche markets. Perhaps the fickle hype processes might be more to blame?

http://rateyourmusic.com/label/archive_recordings/

Michel

My reply

Hey didn’t know the article was up.. I just cruised it and I think its pretty well written.. I will say we did talk about a lot of things that have taken place in the market place and I would say there are a whole host of different factors on the table currently that can be linked to the more or less wide scale drop off in sales (this is the case with nearly every label I’ve talked to) He’s focused on the downloading file sharing for his piece, which I think might make up the lions share of the issue?? But certainly things like the fans fickle taste, current worldwide economic situation in the last two years, the over glut of product out there to consume, and maybe the people that used to buy my releases have just grown less interested in what I’m doing???

So I agree with your valid observation as noted below, but one thing I can tell you is the landscape is very different for me then it was two years ago, the ultimate reason is most like some type of combination of all of the above..

All good though life long music lover here and will stay that way.

PITCHFORK

http://pitchfork.com/features/columns/7804-the-out-door-3/ link to a pitchfork piece i was interviewed for.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/business/media/10audio.html?hp NYTimes article about the music industry that i found interesting also

old tubes

Picked up a old Melo ps1 phono pre-amp the other day in an estate sale through a third party.. awesome unit lots of gain, great tube sounds, flexible in use, and most importantly sounds really sexy. 20mins in the first listening session hmmmm whats that smell?? something burning? maybe some dust burning off the tubes from it sitting around for a while? dead... no sound? oppsss the separate offboard power supply fried. What the fuck. Ahhhh what can you do. A quick google search found a repair guy who works on the Melos units and knows the circuitry well enough so off in UPS it goes to Brooklyn. Hope it doesn't run me too much??



Saw Blues Control at an art gallery in Fishtown last week. Pretty good super nice folks also. wasn't super woowed but was a fun time all the same. Lots of drink at this gig



Went to the Alcest show in Philly which was on a Monday night. Was expecting like 3 people to be there but low and behold basically sold out. Seemed like a pretty lame crowd just by visual inspection of who was there. I had high hopes for the show but bailed before they even played.. too crowded, too hot.. and basically wasn't feeling it. I got this email the next day from Adam of Comoros strange psychic abilities you possess.alcest were terrible... beyond terrible, they were embarassing and emo and awful. how did you know? hahahaha pretty funny, well some times you win i guess??? Also bumped into the vocalist of OAK http://www.myspace.com/oakdoom at this gig. super nice guy lots of conversation about old metal. West coast heads keep an eye out they are trying to make out that way over the next few months. One of the best house shows i ever saw was them in South Philly at disgraceland. not so much drink at this gig.



Bardo Pond had a show at JB's back like two weeks ago. 2nd band that night CARLTON MELTON http://www.myspace.com/carltonmelton maybe a less freak out more rocking version of Earthless. really excellent stuff though. I didn't record though duhhhhhhh. I generally rely on good intelligence in these circumstances when an opening band is playing that i don't know and i didn't get "hipped" to these guys prior to them playing. Lots of drink had this night.

LATEST SHOWS

Caught a few gigs last week. Bardo guys finally playing some shows. First ones is months as far as i can tell. Always good to see those guys out and about. Saw a bunch of boring metal bands play with Krallice. I did enjoy Krallice though glad they opened so i didn't have to sit around through Tombs, Lucidra (spelling?? i forget) and Lair of Minotaur. the last three bands i mentioned were all ok but i just found them really boring and predictable. At least Krallice had some weirdness going on. Mick's abstract circular rhythms with variations mixed in. Kind of hypnotic for a metal band. Alcest play here on Tuesday so I'm fairly keen to see them. http://www.myspace.com/alcestmusic It's billed as French black metal or something but i don't think its that at all sounds more progressive then that to me. but we'll see??? Anybody else catch them on US dates out there???

BORIS AMPLIFIER WORSHIP

So i heard the Boris epic amplifier worship release is getting a vinyl pressing via southernlord. Stunner of a record recorded in 98. I think it was basically the record that launched Boris as more then just the Japanese melvins. I scored a promo copy of this record pre-release and i just remember being totally stunned the depth of the sounds, the drumming, the construction of the entire CD and how all the sections flowed together so perfectly with vocals matched to the right sections. Dynamics all over the place and what an amazing production. Master piece really.

I was thinking the other night while i seeing some bands how long its been since I've been totally awe struck by a band or a release? been a while now few years maybe?? I guess since the first time i saw OM at the knitting Factory in something like 2004-or 05 was the last time i was really dropped by something?

Anyway the picture above. I always found the layout for the Japanese pressing of Boris Amplifier Worship and Earth Pentastar sort of the similar in a subtle kind of way with color scheme and font and just very general makeup. Not in a rip off kind of way maybe more in an influence kind of way. Hmmmmm maybe I'm grasping for straws with that?? One of my fav. Earth releases as well.

WEED

Been despondent lately not listening to music and or going to shows for more then a few weeks. Skipped on fairly consistent bands like High On Fire and Acid Mother Temple during recent annual trips through Philly. Label sales have dipped off to next to nothing and I'm basically taking the label ceasing to exist sort of personally. Feels odd coming home from work and not having some details of a new release to work on, or mail orders to fill?? But anyway got back on the horse last night went out to the Khyber to see Weedeater play with Gates of Slumber, Black Tusk and some other band. Weedeater are a truly excellent band though. Maybe under impressive on record, and they don't invent any new new tricks so to speak but god damn are they an impressive band sonically, visually, and as a spectacle. A drunken Khyber crowd didn't hurt either to make the set come off as pretty much a total chaotic mess. Had a great time last night. Just like old times down at the Khyber to see some heavy ass band work through a set, record bootleg style, and I didn't have to talk to anybody that i didn't want to. Just good to see some great music, record, and go home.

HOTDOG ENCOUNTER

Amazing chance encounter today with the famous vintage Oscar Myer wiener mobile!! don't why but i felt extremely compelled to give chase and beep the horn?? ain't life funny

LAR'S LET US DOWN

So it's bad enough having a micro label these days with blogs postings coupled with sendspace and filesharing links floating all around message boards with your content on them, but dealing with download sites hosted out of Russia is just another totally different animal. I used to think that this stuff cant be controlled and not to worry about it. Further more its the label responsibility at this point to produce a nice and interesting physical presentation for the music and that the full size files are no substitute for owning a compressed mp3 faxed copy. At least i thought so but things have been so super stale i think i doubt that view point any longer and have quit more or less with trying to compete with my free self so to speak. I was talking with Max from the Goslings a while back about this topic and basically I'm like Max i don't want to press your music I'm not interested in losing $2000 dollars so a bunch of people can download load it for free after i sell 50 copies. We were also talking some and i told Max you know what if when all this downloading music shit first hit instead of Lar's from Metalica being all corporate and getting all businessman and lawyer on that napster kid what if he got some MIT techy nerd's to just write a bunch of nasty virus code and upload that shit as Metalica releases?? You download MP3 files and your harddrive blows up or windows gets whiped clean off your machine.. downloader beware!! damn that would have been fun!! would knocked that shit out at ground zero.

ANYWAY HERE'S AN INTERESTING ARTICLE I READ ABOUT THESE RUSSIAN SITES

Buying pirated music with credit cards: potentially risky
Downloading cheap songs from foreign Web sites raises concerns
By Craig Guillot

Few music fans like to think of themselves as thieves, but those who use their credit cards to buy songs from controversial Russian-based Web sites may be engaging in international piracy. At iTunes.com, the latest Alicia Keys album "As I Am" costs $9.99 but at the Russian-run MP3sparks.com, it's a mere $2.40. While there's no difference in sound quality at either site, the music industry says there's a big difference in legitimacy and legality.
A number of Russian-based Web sites such as MP3sparks.com, MP3fiesta.com and MP3skyline.com currently sell the latest downloads from Top 40 American artists for pennies on the dollar. Until its closure in June 2007, the site AllofMP3.com reigned as king of the Russian music Web sites and was often engaged in legal battles contesting its legitimacy. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Russian-based Web sites violate international laws by selling copyright-protected works without permission. In December 2006, RIAA slapped AllofMP3.com with a $1.65 trillion lawsuit for 11 million songs downloaded between June and October 2006.
RIAA was never awarded the sum, but it was instrumental in helping shut down the site. However, MP3sparks.com immediately popped up in its place and the Russianf government and RIAA have since played MP3 whack-a-mole. In the meantime, music fans enter a grey legal world when they use their credit cards to buy downloads at such sites. While MP3sparks.com offers the same quality downloads found at legitimate sites such as iTunes, RIAA and other music industry organizations say that downloading at such sites constitutes complicity in piracy and theft.
Eric Garland, CEO of the online media tracking firm Bigchampagne.com, says that the Russian MP3 pirate sites are unlikely to disappear anytime soon because they offer convenience and low

prices for the newest songs.
Since the advent of file-sharing and P2P networks in the late '90s, music fans have long debated the morality of downloading copyrighted works for free. Dan Cutler, a 24-year-old musician and radio production assistant from New Orleans, regularly downloads music through file-sharing networks. Like many Americans who download music, he doesn't know much about the Russian sites, but doesn't necessarily rule them out simply because of the legal status.
"I think I'm of the age when P2P file sharing was popular and not yet illegal, so I don't really have a crisis of conscience about it. Sometimes I use iTunes, but there is a bunch of stuff they don't have so I often look elsewhere," says Cutler.
Music fan Scott Sullivan from Highland Park, Ill., also regularly uses P2P networks to download music or try out the latest albums before he decides to make a purchase. Sullivan has been aware of the Russian sites for a while, but has not used them because he is concerned about using his credit card at a Russian-based site engaged in legal battles.
"You don't really know where your credit card numbers are going. I just think once you cross international boundaries, there is a big gray area and no one there to back you up if you end up with [fraudulent] charges," says Sullivan.
Paying at a site such as MP3sparks.com isn't always a simple matter anyway. After taking the standpoint that AllofMP3.com was engaged in illegal activities in November 2006, Visa and MasterCard both stopped accepting transactions through the site and set a precedent for dealing with future pirate sites. Many U.S. consumers report that their cards are declined on such sites, but the Russians respond by constantly running payments through new systems, front Web sites and new countries. Payment methods have become so complicated that there's even a message board where users can learn about new payment methods and how to skirt the system.
Shane Keats, a research analyst with McAfee SiteAdvisor, says that that sites hosted in Russia are among some of the riskiest on the Web. SiteAdvisor checks Web sites for "drive-by downloads," malicious scripts, spyware and other problems. Although SiteAdvisor ranked MP3sparks.com and most of the music sites as safe sites to visit, there isn't always a way to tell whether credit card information is truly secure. Keats says that while the sites may be engaged in copyright infringement, they probably have a vested interest in keeping credit card information safe.
"These sites have a real business model and I suspect that they treat credit cards reasonably securely because if they didn't, customers would eventually stop coming," says Keats.
As the credit card associations and music industry organizations clamp down, many consumers are seeing an increasing threat of lawsuits. Although the RIAA has filed thousands of lawsuits against file sharing users in the past, it recently had a monumental benchmark when it won a first case against Minnesotaresident Jammie Thomas in October 2007 for $222,000, or $9,500 for each of the 24 copyrighted songs she made available on the Kazaa network. Eric Garland says that while the end users of file-sharing networks have little risk in being busted, those who use Russian Web sites may be in more danger because they leave behind a paper trail with their credit cards.
"Somewhere there is a database and a record of these transactions and unless you can prove that someone had unauthorized access to your account, the presumption is that you could someday be a part of some enforcement or litigation," says Garland.
To comment on this story, write Editors@CreditCards.com.

http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/credit-card-downloading-music-5125.php

PENIS SUBSTITUTE

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HARVEY MILK

Harvey Milk 3.6.10 KungFu Necktie Philly
-OBSERVATIONS
1- whose the fat chick on stage with the guitar.. ohh fuck that's Creston, slow down on the happy meals big guy
2- Goddamn Creston's sweat glands are out of control.. fucker is drenched in 5mins.
3-How come Tanner doesn't sweat? or hell even look like he's trying??
4-New record is going to be awesome, a lurching sludgy thing
5-Harvey Milk are always great live best bet in live music

A SUNNY DAY IN PHILLY

Philly's newest residences, can you feel the positive vibes??

KIDS BOOKS

spotted this kids book for recommended readers between the ages of 5-7 at the Barnes and Noble when i was there with my brat. I thought the concept of writing a story about a city that gets covered in lava burning all the people alive in an entire city made an odd choice for a kids book but what the hell do i know??

GUITAR AFICIONADO

So trolling the new stand the other day i grab the issue below and started to thumb through it when out pops a multi page spread with Devendra Banhart. Paraphrased taglines to swanky looking pics of ultra hip Devendra in thrift store duds "Photographed in cloths picked out by Devendra himself to show of his unique sense of fashion" Wonder if that guy has actually learned how to sing into a mic yet? Amazing how his shining little star just really took off out of nowhere. Also funny how in the grand scheme that the poster boy for "new weird America" has way eclipsed Michael Gira who really sort of put him on the map in the first place? And since I'm ranting on the topic of new weird American Joanna Newsom has a new triple CD out on Drag City?? are you fucking kidding me a triple CD of solo harp and vocal warble??

JACK ROSE DVD

OK so here's the full length trailer for the Jack Rose Glenn Jones DVD goes on sale as I'm told 4/6. The footage is pretty fantastic esp. the stuff capturing Jack in such a natural state in a sunlight loft in Brooklyn playing to a few friends. Note at about 4:53 you can see my bald head off to the far right side of the screen doing knob tweaking during the Philly live set. As a side note that Byron Coley guy does strike me as a smug little prick. I don't know the guy or anything but i have seen him do some "readings" before (big fucking yawn) and as far as i can tell he's mostly famous for being Thurston Moore's friend. What a fucking brilliant idea what famous clown can i latch onto with "friend" status to gain creditability for my stupid nonsense???

LURKER

Philly basement scuzz mess home CDR thing induced fuzz feedback and lo-fi fuckery
http://www.archivecd.com/image/DEEP%20POSSUM%20EDIT.mp3
enjoy the malaise

LOUDEST SOUND IN RECORDED HISTORY

Saw a show on some HighDef channel (I'm a sucker for anything on Hidef TV) about Krakatoa.

The loudest sound in recorded history occurred on August 27, 1883, just off the coast of Jakarta, Indonesia.
A volcano on the small island of Krakatoa was undergoing the cataclysmic stage of its months-long eruption. At 10:20 AM the volcano exploded with a sound heard, literally, around the world.
Scientists estimated the explosion's sound to be around 180 decibels, which is a great enough force to instantly kill all hearing tissue within a human ear.
For comparison, 180dB is about 13x as loud as a jet engine from 100 ft, or as loud as a rifle shot at point blank range. People 2,200 miles away in Perth, Australia could clearly hear the eruption immediately after the explosion.
The explosion spewed a cloud of lava and ash that killed all 3,000 people living on an island 8 miles away. Tsunami waves caused by the volcano crested at over 100 ft.
The eruption sent a shockwave of energy that traveled around the world approximately 7 times and registered on measurement instruments for 5 days after the eruption.
Tsunami waves reached the coast of South Africa over 8,000 miles away, and smaller waves registered on tidal meters as far away as the English Channel.
However, the English waves occurred too soon after the explosion to be remnants of the tsunami. Scientists believe these disturbances were instead a result of air displacement caused by the sound of the eruption

More nerdy sound factoid stuff.. dont know if this is true or not but sounds feasible i suppose

But if you're talking about sound in decibels at the recording source, it's a different story. The loudest sound possible in air is 194 decibels. What does this mean? It means that anything with a higher energy density cannot travel as a sinusoidal wave through air--the wave breaks down, causing turbulence and friction at the wavefront (like comparing smooth ocean waves to the breakers on a beach that happen when a wave gets too big). Such energy in air would turn into heat and even possibly light or plasma rather than sound; it only turns into sound under 194 decibels. You could imagine that in the first split second of a nuclear blast, the fireball has an energy density greater than the equivalent of 194 decibels, and instead of "sound" you get instant supersonic wavefront of destruction. Once the energy density breaks down, the shockwave travels out at the speed of sound, starting at 194 decibels and getting quieter as it radiates outwards. Probably the people who live to tell about nuclear blasts have heard sounds in the lower 100s of decibels or less. Recording equipement and ears actually get destroyed at sounds lower than 194dB, for example supposedly your hearing tissue gets destroyed pretty instantly at 180 decibels, and even 150 decibels will make you go deaf in a short while. So: loudest absolute sound is some sort of cataclysmic explosion volcano, meteor impact, big bang, etc. Loudest sound in energy density is 194dB and occurs at the edge of destructive events, such as major explosions, suicidal blue whales, supersonic aircraft, etc, but this sound is not heard or recorded by the observer; it diffuses by the time it is heard or else it kills the listener.

STEREOPHILE

Was trolling through stereophile http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/the_recording_angel/ and saw an article about some blind test with recorded music and live music and noticed John Atkinson's recording rig consisted of two different pairs of DPA mics the 4003 and the 4011's and Millennia media mic pre's.. good call John.. the past few years i've been running the DPA4052's (same family as the other 4000 series DPA mics minus a mic body) and the Millennia media M-2B tube mic... All of the bigjar books recordings were done with this rig and of particular note i think the Religious Knives CD came out particularly awesome sounding if i don't mind patting myself on the back too much.

COLD CAVE

I started to hear some buzz about this band like 6 months ago and was intrigued by the name, which i liked a good bit.. i later heard one of the dudes was from Philly, and Hospital records was doing some spanky limited tape releases from them. Alright so time to google that shit and check out myspace tracks. Mind you i never download music online because as a general rule i hate listening to music off a shitty PC with $50 speakers, but myspace I'll cruise to sample shit out as its so easy. Anyway back to story, I punched up the COLD CAVE myspace page http://www.myspace.com/coldcave and the jams immediately started to flow... I was mixed with a handful of emotions, the most powerful of which was being thankful i hadn't been 6 months late to the party this was utter shit.. I lasted 20secs on the myspace page and was pronto out of there. I did get a fair chuckle thinking it was pretty funny that some one currently could take Depeche Mode and twist that into some current underground rebirth that was "cool" once again. What a fucking scam!! sheer genius. Like 3 weeks later i was cruising some audiophile nerds blog off the stereophile website http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/ Stephen Mejias who i guess is from the NNJ area as he writes about the Princeton record exchange and NYC a bunch. Anyway I'm cruising his blog finding amusement in lots of different shit when fucking cold cave pop up with a big gush attached to it.. "2009 single of the year" voted by him.. no wonder i cant sell releases anymore my taste must be even shittier then before. For the record this youtube video didn't make me burst into as much hate as the myspace track but i still don't like it. Yours truly grumpy old man signing off.

SHIZUKA

Apparently Japanese underground vocalist and guitarist Shizuka committed suicide early this month. A fairly under documented band and artist that really summarized all the stuff i love about the Japanese psychedelic world of Tokyo pre- 2000. Haunting, mysterious, shrouded in darkness, delicate but yet dashed with moments of blissful shredding guitar feedback. Her band featured guitarist Miura Maki on guitar, and Kosugi Jun on drums, who if I'm correct both served time in Haino's Fushitsusha. A pair of PSF CD's can be found without too much trouble one being a studio album and the Live Album traditional aesthetics which was recorded in 95 from Osaka but not released till 2008 is maybe one of the best releases PSF has done in years in my eyes.

JACK ROSE RECORD RELEASE SHOW

So big show last night in Philly to mark the launch of Jack Rose's most recent studio release which will be out on Thrill Jockey records i suppose any day now? if not currently for sale. Lots of great bands played all of which made sense in the context of who and what Jack was. PELT, MICHEAL CHAPMAN, THURSTON MOORE/ CORSANO/ FLAHERTY/ NANCE/ + voilin girl, MEGABOOZEBAND, PELT, BLACK TWIG PICKERS, GLENN JONES, MEG BAIRD+CHRIS FORSYTH, WILLIE LANE and D CHARLES SPEER. Practically a mini fest sort of line-up. Hosted at the Latvian society in Philly (pretty kick ass venue actually) which featured lots of cool foreign beers. Anyway lots of great music, nothing really jumped out at me as being particularly awesome but was a cool collection of bands that were different enough to make keep it interesting. Between sets they played some video exerts of Jack in performance and interview that will be part of an upcoming DVD release on strange attractions. Below is a small trailer for the release
The DVD project was worked on by Jesse Sheppard and features some truly fantastic footage of Jack and Glenn Jones playing in a loft in Brooklyn on some sunny afternoon, along with interview footage conducted by Byron Coley from the same location. Also included is some concert footage from a Philly gig (i did external audio for this portion). All and all its a fantastic looking release and based on all the parts I've seen to date it does create a understanding of how Jack evolved into one of the the most prominent pickers of today. I've heard an early April release date for the the DVD but I'll post more when i hear about it being confirmed.

AI ASO

Three consecutive snow storms of roughly 2 feet this winter which is an absurd amount for an area that might get 12" in an entire winter. Driving around at about midnight during the most recent storm on empty roads taking iphone pics to a soundtrack of Ai Aso's Lavender seemed very fitting and peaceful.

WALMART OF LABELS

So i meant to comment on this before when i first heard about it so finally had the time to share my thoughts.

IMPORTANT RECORDS SALE http://importantrecords.com/releases/44_66_sale.html
44/44 & 66/66 The Important Records 2009 Holiday Sale44 cds for $44 66 cds for $66shipping for either is:$7 in the USA via media rate (priority or UPS is available)$16 Canada/Mexico via airmail$42 overseas via flat rate global priority w/ tracking+ all cds will have a small drill hole in their barcode+ double cds count as 2

From a consumer prospective this is an absurd deal no doubt, their are like 300 or some odd releases on Important with lots being things i own currently, things I'd like to own, or things I would have liked to have released on my own label (minus the generic packages and shitty horrible ugly inner CD slipcase info commercials). But lots of great audio content, and 66 CD's is a shit load of music for that price. From a label perspective i suppose its a way to recoup some cash flow that is tied up potentially in junk stock that you have sitting around. A good way to jump start some sales and i suppose much better to get things out of the basement and warehouse and out to people who will listen to the stuff.. Hell that's the purpose of doing a label of love after all isn't it, even with selling the releases at a loss. But if i was a distro from either overseas or in the US i'd be mad as hell. What if i was Aquarius records for example. How the hell am i going to sell any Important record back catalog CD's against that deal he's running? I'd also be annoyed if i was the guy that two weeks prior i bought 3 or 4 titles from the site at regular price. I'd be feeling pretty cheated right about now, knowing that i could have had all the same discs for $1 each if i had waited. I'm reading way too much into this but does feel like some walmart moving into some small town dumping prices which forces the close outs of all the local stores on the main drag. http://www.newrules.org/retail/news/walmart-charged-predatory-pricing
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/24/business/wal-mart-on-trial-on-predatory-pricing-charges.html?pagewanted=1
I suppose i shouldn't care?? but i was basically glad i wasn't trying to release new shit the same month against that sale. I mean does the guy who bought 66CD's in one shot really need to buy anything else for the next 2-3 months???

MISSIONS FOR THE YEAR 2010

Been a little while since my last batch of ragging blog posts so here's some pics and comments on 2010 shows I've seen in you guessed it 2010. from Top to bottom.

-OUTER SPACE 1.15.10 rotunda. John Elliot from EMERALDS terrible boring and predictable name for this duo analog synth project. I'm pretty partial to liking this type of stuff and i did enjoy their set, sort of brief but was cool enough. They played to visuals to the movie Ghost which i found kind of funny.. check out this excerpt from the email that came out for the gig

.......will be joined on analog synthesizer for this performance by Jeff Hatfield, best known as half of Fragments, who manage a singular fusion of rust belt basement electronics and Schnitzler-esque cantankerous opacity. This is the incarnation of Outer Space represented on the recent "Stereo Constellations" cdr and the forthcoming "Lightyear Demonstrations" double cassette. At a cultural moment in which many emerging artists are rightly charged with reliance upon facile nostalgia-qua-nostalgia, Outer Space represents a studied and gracefully substantive engagement.

Jesus what a shit load of verbal wankery. Exhibit A in things i hate about music reviews, press releases, and one sheets.

-TELECULT POWERS 1.15.10 Rotunda http://www.templeofpei.com/telecultpowers.html Never heard of this group before, but another duo from Brooklyn. They took a long ass time to setup, which included the lame presence of lots of candles on stage. Visually they used two film projectors pointed at these round curved mirror things that bounced onto the backdrop. The source materials were spacey film strips the kind of shit you'd see in science class in elementary school in the 70's.. ( I should know what that's like i was there the first time around) I think they ran the audio sources through a bunch of hand built oscillators, effects, and electronics and the effect was pretty excellent. Best set of the night i think by far. One complaint was the dude on my side of the stage with ass crack hanging out the whole time. Photographically I've decided to share this with all you.. note pic above.

-DAN MELCHOIR 1.15.10 Marvelous Records http://www.myspace.com/dasmenace same night as the electronic gang bang which was literally right next door to the Rotunda. By the way right dead in the middle of both of these shows geographically was some Philly style stickup shooting that brought like 10 million cops and police helicopters all over the area. Pretty intense shit http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local-beat/Movie-Theater-Shooter-Still-at-Large-82215812.html anyway didn't know what to expect from this thing, Jason Kourkounis (Bardo Pond+ lots of others) hooked up with guitar guy and bass chick without ever actually playing together before. Pretty great all in all excellent guitar chops on this old UK punk dude.

DANIEL HIGGS 1.29.10 Brickbat books a hugely crowded show at my personal fav place to see shows. Daniel was pretty awesome and if you told me that he was one of those guys in west Virginia that danced around in religious trance with rattle snakes i think I'd believe you. http://www.sullivan-county.com/nf0/ep/snake_bite.htm Recording sounds pretty awesome although I'm not 100% sure how much i like the dab of reverb that was on his voice. I think i may prefer him just totally dry with no PA or vocal mic, he projects so intensely on his own. But anyway if the label wasn't so much in the shit can financially I'd be all over him to do a release. on the same bill was ZOMES http://www.holymountain.com/artists/zomes/who played a bunch of short droney tunes (the Romones of drone??) on analog synth overtop of pre-recorded tapes of simply drum beats. This was pretty fantastic, some of the tunes totally reminded me of EARTH extracapsular extraction minus guitars. I'll post side my side mp3's later. Stellar Om also played and that sucked but made a good break for beer drinking and bullshitting with all the usual Philly characters. Although i have to say i very much missed Mr Rose who would have no doubt had been there.

-TOTAL FUCKING DESTRUCTION 1/??/10 kungfu necktie Rich Hoak's grind core band with two new dudes.. haven't seen them in some time but still got to hear great jams like "box cutter" and the "necro anarchist" on the same bill was a band i hadn't heard before MAMMOTH GRINDER kick ass trio of young kids from Texas who i though smoked through a 15min set of a feedback induced metal. On relapse as it turns out (sorry) http://www.myspace.com/mammothgrinder renewed hope that not all new metal music from younger kids isn't Pelican or Isis driven copy drivel.

-JUICFER 1/??/10 kungfun necktie Have'nt seen them in a few years and they have'nt learned any new tricks.. fairly OK. Some Melvins style bullhead Leach mixed with some fast sections. A bit awkward in execution in my eyes but OK all in all. Lots and lots of gear on stage but ironically not nearly as loud as you would think (the meters never lie) I think i heard Greg Anderson refer to their setup one time as "looking like a garage sale on stage" pretty funny line actually.

THIS IS TERRIBLE

OK i was going to ignore the fact that i walked into a GROWING show like 6 months ago and was shocked into a state of senseless recognition by how horrible the new material they play is. I mean come on a band has to progress or degrees and is free to do something new for better or for worse. Just because i don't like it anymore doesn't make it worthless.. Then tonight while randomly looking online to see if i could find out where the Growing live Brooklyn tape was recorded i stumbled on this!! http://punkcast.com/1495/index.html i dare you to watch these video clips... WTF??? nice guys but god damn this sucks total ass

I was flipping through old pics the other day and i really really though around 2005-06 Growing was going to make this huge breakthrough of tone and guitar noodling that was just going to be a perfect blend of transcendental bliss... just complete perfection of stripped down bareness. purity extracted exactly everything i was looking for in music.. it was right their, right in the finger tips of Joe and Kevin i could feel it smell it..... but it just didn't happen?? fuck music is such a fleeting fickle beast, taste such an intangible. weird how that works huh????? In some ways i look at a band like emeralds or expo70 as bands making the records i wanted Growing to make in 2006 and beyond?? Pic from around 2005 at the old Vox Populi space in Philly opening for Comets on Fire

END OF THE YEAR BULLSHIT

Seems the thing to do at this time in the year is to make a list of "records" or "releases" that were the best of the year. To be honest I'm not sure i listen to any records that were recorded this year. I will say some one randomly sent me a promo copy of VIC CHESTNUT'S AT THE CUT. (might have been Henry from Chunklet? not really sure but thanks all the same who ever you were) Anyway that record was one of my favorite releases from the year that i listened to a good bit and i was really looking forward to seeing Vic live next time he passed through town. But i hear within the last few weeks he took his own life. Other then that I'd be hard pressed to tell you anything I've been listening to that was released in an official capacity. Lots of live stuff I've recorded makes the play list around here and older shit finds time in the CD tray.. Stuff Like recent Blue Cheer live gigs from Philly, Jack Rose stuff, Peaking Lights seeing them live this year was a highpoint. the Axemen from NZ fame was a pretty sloppy punk garage mess that i enjoyed a good bit. getting Goslings masters in the mail kicks pretty big ass also. Been rocking some older OM live sets with the real drummer that i love. Weedeater sets from back a few years ago also. .. So ok here's the current stack of loose shit on my floor that is getting played
ZAIKA +STEVE GUNN 1.10.09 brickbat books
WITCH "2.22.09 JB'S Philly" EHHHHH pretty whatever
UNLABELED DISC??? who the fuck knows?
AIDAN BAKER/ TIM HECKER "11.21.09 Kungfu Necktie Philly. funny when i was at this gig i was talking to Aidan about how to best record the sets since he plays all direct line to the board i was going to do a board patch but they have this fucked mixing desk at the club with no analog outs so i was going to patch directly off his on stage mixer, we asked Tim about it after Aidan introduced me and he was like "well what are you recording for" and i gave him the smart ass answer of "to steal your music" go figure he didn't seem to interested in letting me record direct. The aud. recordings actually sound pretty great all the same, which in general is always my preference since i don't have to talk to the sound guys who i fucking hate- Normally sound men are one of three things 1. Fat 2. Lazy or choice 3. retarded. I remember once at this fucking lame show Aidan played in Philly at the 4040 the sound guy gave me all this shit about plugging a XLR cable into the board... he was all like "well we need to know about this in advance.. was it on his rider"?? are you fucking kidding plug that shit in takes 2 secs. The other thing i like about aud recordings is most of the music i like is heavily amplified and a lot of the elements never even run through the PA so the mix can be screwy... in the case of something like Aidan Backer or Tim Hecker all that stuff runs through the board but i still like some of the presence that airborne recordings give. Its sort of an interesting dichotomy of something that's very electronic having an added analog element to it. Plus i always feel like its more of a fuck you to the sound guy whose help you don't have to ask for.

JACK ROSE "7.10.09 BRICKBAT BOOKS Philly" Jack playing with a guy on keys and Harmonica Dan very intimate setting at the bookstore.. sterling gig of course and one of the first few times the trio played together. Jack really started to hit a groove during the past year or so playing more and more in interesting small groupings. Shame the man left us with some many great ones on the table still to come. I miss you guy!
BARDO POND "4.15.09 KHYBER PASS Philly" tuneup gig for NOFUN fest. Heard they were pretty good at nofun but i could bare to go this year had the worse time the year prior and seemed like a repeat fest so no point in going. Plus Sonic Youth played the same night and i hate them.
CURANDEROS "APRIL 09 KUNGFU" free jams with Gibbons brothers, Aaron Igler, and Khoutek drummer.
HEAVY WINGED/ US GIRLS 10.24.09 some house in Philly. great US girls set shitty HW mix
BLANK DISC
BEEMASK "DANGER DANGER HOUSE Philly sept. 09 analog electronics from some philly kid
OM not sure which set ?? probably JB's in 2007?
AANAL BEEHEMOTH finish old style stuff this is an actual release
KAORU ABE disc 2 of the passe-temps CDR set.... total shit disc of horrible recorded material
S. Philly show 2006 not sure what this disc is?? i think it has the BATHRUB SHITTER live set on it though recorded at some fucked up little flop house.
AI ASO "brickbat books Philly" wonderful
KHOUTEK 11.7.09 M ROOM Philly" with Clint from Bardo on bass.. pretty awesome set
DAVID DANIELL "PLAYS AND PLAYERS spring 2009 Philly"
BLANK DISC
AXEMEN/ MADSCENE "11.15.09 kungfun Philly" currently playing. New Zealand invasion Axemen were pretty great front man i couldn't decide if he had down syndrome or was really really fucking drunk or possible both.. current re-issue record on siltbreeze. Check out this FMU blog that has links to mp3 files from some in studio session http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2009/11/new-zealands-axemen-at-wfmu.html

FIRST MISSION OF 2010 on the 6th JUCIFER then on the 7th TOTAL FUCKING DESTRUCTION fear of a black metal planet Rich Hoak is the man!!!