cold storage.

2017, in no particular order.Visible Cloaks - ReassemblageJlin - Black OrigamiBing & Ruth - No...

Wed, 20 Dec 2017 11:31:18 -0500

2017, in no particular order.Visible Cloaks - ReassemblageJlin - Black OrigamiBing & Ruth - No...

“I’ll come back later and pick up my stuff when the flipping...

Thu, 10 Mar 2016 11:24:48 -0500

“I’ll come back later and pick up my stuff when the flipping place don’t stink so bad.”

Heard the radio edit version of Dinosaur Jr’s “Freak Scene” this morning (”don’t let me freak now will you”) and it got me thinking about the crazy art of over-dubbing in music and films. To make them, y’know, more family friendly. Alex Cox was even generous enough to add a few deleted scenes to the TV cut of Repo Man, including this one with the now-classic replacement of “motherfucker” with “melon farmer”:

The line “I’m going indie” caused a lot of confusion in my indie-rock addled, mostly (at the time) un-Americanized brain when I first saw it.

D12′s “Purple Hills,” their heavily altered version of “Purple Pills,” is kind of a masterpiece of this genre, if it can be called that. It’s actually pretty inventive. Favorite line: “He’s upstairs wrestling with Elton John” (changed from: “He’s upstairs naked with a weapon drawn”).

With google translate working as an unreliable narrator of...

Mon, 09 Nov 2015 16:29:40 -0500

With google translate working as an unreliable narrator of sorts, this appears to be a Japanese commercial for Jim O’Rourke branded sake. Made by the “music vibration aging process” [via McKuw]. Of course, Simple Songs makes a whole lot more sense now the air has finally turned crisp outside. I couldn’t quite get back to the right head space when I first heard it, but now it’s a lovely soundtrack when crushing leaves underfoot.

danselzer: Teaser for new Harmonia collection showing pastoral...

Sat, 24 Oct 2015 12:51:55 -0400

danselzer:

Teaser for new Harmonia collection showing pastoral garden performance footage.

Great footage, coming off like a group of krautrock legends mistakenly turning up on the set of Mike Leigh’s Nuts in May. At one point there seems to be a mildly disgruntled bloke leaving in a huff, his beige colored afternoon perfectly ruined by this group of longhairs. And they’re playing under a fucking garden umbrella. Priceless.

Been working furiously recently, with barely a moment to raise my head above the parapet. Somehow...

Wed, 21 Oct 2015 22:18:06 -0400

Been working furiously recently, with barely a moment to raise my head above the parapet. Somehow...

A feature I had the pleasure of putting together on the...

Fri, 21 Aug 2015 16:11:10 -0400

A feature I had the pleasure of putting together on the Bristol-based Flying Saucer Attack/Third Eye Foundation/Movietone/etc scene. Must admit that Instrumentals 2015 kind of drifted over me–decent enough, but it didn’t feel like there was much to hold onto. I saw FSA at one point in the 90s, at an endearingly ramshackle show. Pearce played the entire gig through the same model of (cheap, tiny) practice amp that my parents bought for me when I was a teenager. There’s something great about seeing really crappy, unreliable gear on stage, not just for the anyone-can-do-this feel, but also because there’s a certain thrill in knowing everything could go horribly wrong at any moment.

This is the “Moog” version of Stereolab’s “Super Falling Star,”...

Tue, 04 Aug 2015 10:42:11 -0400

This is the “Moog” version of Stereolab’s “Super Falling Star,” taken from a magazine/CD compilation issued at some point in the ‘90s. If the ‘lab do ever come back, and I guess that possibility is still open, I wouldn’t mind at all if it sounded something like this. Stripped down, no drums, getting closer toward the kosmische side of krautrock rather than Dinger’s metronomic precision. It’s got beauty, sadness, and a few playful tweaks of star-trailing synth, all just quietly whirling in time.

Been on a 4AD kick lately, largely due to reading Martin Aston’s...

Fri, 24 Jul 2015 18:32:27 -0400

Been on a 4AD kick lately, largely due to reading Martin Aston’s great Facing the Other Way: The Story of 4AD. The cover of Big Star’s “Holocaust” above is a particular favorite. I like how Howard Devoto, for it is he singing, wasn’t too reverent–definitely a wise move considering how hard it would be to get down to the blackness that was encircling Chilton at the time.

Dif Juz have been a good discovery from the book that I hadn’t heard before, although they can get a little too chilly and uninvolving for my tastes. Surprised at how many ructions there were in the 4AD family, it always seemed so unified from the outside. There’s not much love lost between Ivo and Robin Guthrie, although most or all of the acrimony seems to flow from the latter toward the former. I guess that’s the problem when you attempt to stamp a brand identity across multiple artists.

Love this circa-1969 track from Brazilian psych-rock heads Os...

Wed, 25 Feb 2015 09:54:25 -0500

Love this circa-1969 track from Brazilian psych-rock heads Os Brazões, who were essentially Gal Costa’s backing band indulging in a great wall of fuzz. The signature sound that runs through it, the one that sounds like a strangulated buzzard, is surely ripe for sampling. And the album it’s from, I think their only recording, is getting reissued right about now.

Here’s something I wrote about the new Carter Tutti...

Wed, 18 Feb 2015 09:37:16 -0500

Here’s something I wrote about the new Carter Tutti record.

My bedroom walls are papered with the stripes of Newcastle...

Mon, 16 Feb 2015 10:43:00 -0500

My bedroom walls are papered with the stripes of Newcastle United
Between which I perceive the presence of a horse-headed figure
Holding aloft a flaming quiver of bramble silhouettes
He is the King of Children
Singing like a boiler: ‘Tomorrow is on its way’

I hadn’t seen the video for this until last week, which is no bad thing because I think it’s best viewed in tandem with this recently published (incredible) interview with Dawson on the Quietus. Something I like about Dawson is how he sees some form of magic in the everyday–the mundanity of Newcastle United’s stripes with a horse-headed figure bursting through them, like Rust Cohle parsing Alan Sillitoe through the imagined face in the water from the first volume of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle.

Usually I don’t care to read too much about process in art, and from the Quietus piece it seems Dawson is of that mind as well. But I like how he trails a few clues about his method through the interview. The first thing I thought when I heard the lyrics above was of sleep paralysis–a condition where you’re caught somewhere between sleeping and waking, your body momentarily unable to move, while vaguely terrifying hallucinations play out somewhere between your mind and the room you’re in at the time.

I’ve only suffered one instance of sleep paralysis–I don’t even know if “suffered” is the right word–where a large hole appeared to open up in the wall across from the bed I was sleeping in at the time. There was something trying to get through the hole, although what it was I don’t know, and I’ve subsequently been torn between feeling glad I didn’t find out and really wanting to know.

Being unable to move in that instance was far more terrifying than the actual hallucination, it was like my entire body was a dead weight, pinning me down, becoming as one with the bed underneath. It’s rare that you get a real sense of how much human body parts weigh. I once lost feeling in one of my feet after working in construction on a film set, a problem that eventually got solved via acupuncture. But the most remarkable aspect of it was just how heavy the weight was down there once it became dead meat I was temporarily schlepping around.

This ties into something else I like about “The Vile Stuff”; the frailty of the human body, through an inability to process alcohol, or heads cracking open, or fractured cheekbones, or a Philips-head screwdriver piercing through young flesh. It doesn’t surprise me that Dawson spends so long on his lyrics. There’s so much detail strung across a few words, and he can easily turn specificity into suggestion in a heartbeat, which is no mean feat. Fingers crossed he makes it to these United States in the not-too distant future.

I wrote about this great track by Lotic here. Basically, “The Ha...

Thu, 05 Feb 2015 11:08:51 -0500

I wrote about this great track by Lotic here.

Basically, “The Ha Dance” is to ballroom what “Sing Sing” is to Baltimore club or “Pulse X” is to UK grime: a song that’s been hacked to pieces and turned inside out by thousands of versions and bootleg remixes.

Quote from this RBMA feature. Somehow, as this track demonstrates, there’s still more mileage in there.

Let’s get this day started off right.

Thu, 29 Jan 2015 09:12:43 -0500

Let’s get this day started off right.

#2014 Here’s a long list of my favorite albums of 2014. It’s...

Sun, 21 Dec 2014 15:14:00 -0500

#2014

Here’s a long list of my favorite albums of 2014. It’s interesting that we’re about half way through the decade and it feels a little rudderless so far, although defining qualities are usually easier to ascribe after the fact. Lots of tiny micro scenes, but not a whole lot that adds up to an over-arching narrative.

For me, the highlights of 2014 came through extremely specific talents—the pointed observations of Sleaford Mods, the scissor-sharp methodology of Richard Dawson. If something does tie together the music coming out of the UK at present, it’s in a strong end-of-things vibe: the brick wall electronics of Actress, Fat White Family partying in the face of calamity, Girl Band pulling out (of all things) the tendrils of arsequake.

My favorite writing of my own from this year, what little of it there was, is here, here, here, here, and here.

01 Todd Terje: It’s Album Time
02 Ariel Pink: pom pom
03 Swans: To Be Kind
04 Aphex Twin: Syro
05 The Body: I Shall Die Here
06 Actress: Ghettoville
07 Sleaford Mods: Divide and Exit
08 Ben Frost: A U R O R A
09 Richard Dawson: Nothing Important
10 Flying Lotus: You’re Dead!

11 Shellac: Dude Incredible
12 Grouper: Ruins
13 Perfect Pussy: Say Yes to Love
14 Brian Eno, Karl Hyde: High Life
15 Sunn O))), Scott Walker: Soused
16 OOIOO: Gamel
17 Pharmakon: Bestial Burden
18 Fatima Al Qadiri: Asiatisch
19 Roman Flügel: Happiness Is Happening
20 Sculpture: Membrane Pop

21 Kassem Mosse: Workshop 19
22 Bitchin Bajas: Bitchin Bajas
23 Nils Frahm: Spaces
24 Andy Stott: Faith in Strangers
25 Container: Adhesive
26 Perc: The Power and the Glory
27 FKA twigs: LP1
28 Blank Realm: Grassed Inn
29 Viet Cong: “Cassette” EP
30 Klara Lewis: Ett

31 M. Geddes Gengras: Ishi
32 Objekt: Flatland
33 EMA: The Future’s Void
34 Real Estate: Atlas
35 These New Puritans: Expanded (Live at the Barbican)
36 Torn Hawk: Through Force of Will
37 Ought: More Than Any Other Day
38 Oren Ambarchi, Stephen O’Malley, Randall Dunn: Shade Themes From Kairos
39 Sun Kil Moon: Benji
40 Clark: Clark

41 Sun Araw: Belomancie
42 Pan Sonic: Oksastus
43 Tinariwen: Emmaar
44 Mr Twin Sister: Mr Twin Sister
45 Marissa Nadler: July
46 Lee Gamble: KOCH
47 Leyland Kirby: Breaks My Heart Each Time
48 Copeland: Because I’m Worth It
49 Fennesz: Bécs
50 Bing & Ruth: Tomorrow Was the Golden Age

Here is a history of Boredoms I was invited to write by Red Bull...

Wed, 12 Nov 2014 09:26:05 -0500

Here is a history of Boredoms I was invited to write by Red Bull Music Academy. This was a lot of fun to do. One of my favorite things I stumbled across while researching it was this last.fm shoutbox for “Acid Police”, in which people offer their interpretations of what EYE is singing. “I said, polish shed” being a particular favorite.

Really enjoying the astringent Body/Head cover art, it feels...

Thu, 23 Oct 2014 09:32:00 -0400

Really enjoying the astringent Body/Head cover art, it feels like a lot of thought goes into it. Also, it’s by far the most impactful post-Sonic Youth project to my mind.

Thanks to the Dissolve for letting me write about Stanley...

Fri, 26 Sep 2014 06:42:24 -0400

Thanks to the Dissolve for letting me write about Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, “Daisy Bell”, and early computer music here.

I’ve seen Shellac many times, both inside and outside the...

Fri, 19 Sep 2014 00:00:00 -0400

I’ve seen Shellac many times, both inside and outside the rolling behemoth that is (was) ATP. One of my favorite memories is of an early London show by the band, where some guy up front was thrashing around and generally doing whatever he could to spoil everyone’s good time. Steve Albini paused the show for a minute or two in between songs, pulled out some money from his pocket, and offered to refund the guy’s ticket if he’d leave the venue. Surprisingly, the guy complied, took the cash, and (as far as I know) got the hell out of there. Here are some words on the excellent new Shellac album, Dude, Incredible.

Here’s something I wrote for Pitchfork’s half-decade...

Fri, 22 Aug 2014 07:27:54 -0400

Here’s something I wrote for Pitchfork’s half-decade feature, about the past five years, Peaking Lights, and my son, Jacob.

frenchtwist: Generous time by Sawada Shin’ichi, 1974

Sat, 12 Jul 2014 07:13:02 -0400

frenchtwist:

Generous time by Sawada Shin’ichi, 1974