The Melting Paradiso U.F.O. Returns! - Excepter Releases New Album on 5RC - Xiu Xiu Fans Are Muy Intelligente - & MONO Makes Another Death Threat!

Barely 11:30 and already I've done a fair share of writing today, granted most of it was in email form- working on some section ideas for the Phoenix with Mona. I also managed to draft a review of Starless & Bible Black Sabbath by The Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno (pictured above), which was released on Alien8 Recordings sometime in March. Also, The Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paradiso U.F.O. have returned for a year-long hiatus, releasing Have You Seen the Other Side of the Sky, on Ace Fu Records. That's two records, by two different configurations of the same band- there's still time left in 2006 to make that 3. I can guaruntee you will be hearing more my thoughts on Makoto Kawabata's profusely prolific "soul collective" in the months to come.

In other musical goings on...

Eceletic, free-electronic experimentalists Excepter released their first full-length album, Alternation, on 5 Rue Christine yesterday. As the title suggests, the album alternates seamlessly between live and studio recordings, blurring the lines between composition and performance, mind and body, and constantly confounding listeners in either setting. I was a huge fan of 2005's Throne, released on LOAD Records, but was decidedly split in my feelings towards their Sunbomber e.p., which was dropped in January of 2006 on 5RC.

Here's a taste of what you can expect from Excepter:

Rock Stepper (from Alternation)

Dawn Patrol (from Sunbomber)

Xiu Xiu will be releasing their next full-length, titled The Air Force, on September 12th, 2006. Covering your ears and cowering in a corner already? Listen to what the Wikipedia entry on The Air Force has to has to say about the album's intruiging title: "The album's name was picked so that google generated ads would bring up advertisements payed for by the US Armed Forces and therefore waste the war monger's money on Xiu Xiu fans who are intelligent and well versed in global politics, capitalism, and empire." Did you hear that? Xiu Xiu's fans are intelligent and well versed in global politics, capitalism, and empire! Wowee Zowie! I always found Xiu Xiu's music to be more dissonant and cacophonous than pretentiously radical, but leave it to Jamie Stewart to prove me wrong with an album cover that features the face of Jesus- whose two teary eyes represent the Twin Towers. My only hope is that The Air Force is an improvement on La Floret, which despite the positive review I gave it, was nowhere near as enjoyable as 2005's Fabulous Muscles.

And last, but certainly not least...

Japanese post-noise rockers MONO are also scheduled to release a new record on September 12th, titled Palmless Prayer/Mass Murder Refrain- a collaboration with electronic musician Katsuhkio Maeda, more commonly known as World's End Girlfriend. Not content with just one MONO release? Well you are in luck my friend. August 22nd will see the reissue of MONO's explosive second album, One More Step And You Die.

You Dig?

Peace.

-Christian

Dreamt For Light Years...

I have been waiting for this for a very long time...

Kev Kharas for Drowned in Sound has recently reported that the pseudonymous Mark Linkous, better known as Sparklehorse, will be releasing Dreamt For Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain, on September 25th, 2006.

It has been five years since the release of Sparklehorse's third somber opus, It's A Wonderful Life, an album I consider one of my most personal of favorites; a record I've pushed upon every genuine music lover I know. It's hard for me to express just how much this record has meant to me since being introduced to Sparklehorse some four long years ago. How time passes.

On Dreamt For Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain, Linkous will be accompanied by a number of conspirators, including; Tom Waits, Danger Mouse, Christian Fennesz, and Stephen Drodz (of The Flaming Lips). Waits was previously featured on It's A Wonderful Life's cellar-stompin' trip-hop excursion through the "Dog Door". What this cast of creative luminaries will bring to Dreamt For Light Years...I can only imagine.

The full tracklisting for Dreamt For Light Years...is as follows:

'Don't Take My Sunshine Away'
'Getting it Wrong'
'Shade and Honey'
'See the Light'
'Return to Me'
'Some Sweet Day'
'Ghost in the Sky'
'Mountains'
'Morning Hollow'
'Knives of Summertime'
'It's Not So Hard'
'Dreamt For Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain (aka Maxine)'

Dreamt For Light Years in the Belly of a Moutain is my most anticipated release of this year, and I couldn't recommend a better time to get better acquainted with the quiet magic of Sparklehorse.

-Sea Money

and you will know them both by the Trail of Bloody Death Blood!

Christian: Come, oh ye October- let the strangled screaming eagle commence it's bloodcurdling call! Let the Trail of Dead's fifth album be released on Interscope Records, October 3rd- may it rock with fury of Thor's mighty hammer, and be as grandiose as the Dark Side of the Moon itself! Blessed by Billboard Magazine for the divine message of this record release date. Also, blessed be TinyMixTapes for bestowing upon this humble blogger the divine knowledge that Young Machetes, the latest release from the deliciously deviant Blood Brothers, will see the light of day on October 10th, 2006, delivered unto us by V2 Records. It shall be a glorious month indeed- with more orchestral sweeps, battered instruments, and screaming boys in too-tight black t-shirts than the world has ever known!

The tracklisting for Young Machetes is as follows (note: the sequence is yet unconfirmed):

Set Fire to the Face on Fire
We Ride Skeletal Lightning
Lazer Life
Camouflage Camouflage
You're the Dream, Unicorn!
Vital Beach
Rat Rider
Spit Shine Your Black Clouds
1, 2, 3, 4, Guitars
Lift the Veil, Kiss the Tank
Nausea Shreds Your Head
Johnny Ripper/ Stevie Ray Hendixson
Huge Gold Ak-47
Street Wars, Exotic Foxholes
The Giant Swan

All: Huzzah!

Christian: (Aside) And you will know us by the Trail of Dead's last album World's Apart, might have been a overambitious to a fault- if not overproduced- it was by no means the piece of lamentable trash most of the critics and pretentious online press *coughPitchforkcough would lead you to you believe. Worlds Apart was a well-written album, performed with waves of heartful passion rising leagues above the shallow pond of whatever was deemd hip in 2005. Even a year later I find myself listening to the album it from start to finish, still roused by it's genuine energy, passion- a quality which I find is true of all the Trail of Dead albums I own. And you will know us by the Trail of Dead make an appearance on very nearly every mix-tape or cd I make; a band that is worth both your money, time, and attention. Hark! All ye with measure of courage: rescue these artful lads from the void of your local major music retailer, and deliver them unto your iPod our home stereo.

Christian: Come October 3rd, you will know me by the much rejoicing betwixt mine ears!

Angels Who Dig on Trail of Dead: Hark!

-Christian

Wisdom (news)

Does anyone besides myself and my close friends remember The Red Light Sting? In the years since their split, former member Andy Dixon has been making some brilliantly incognito electronic music under the nom-de-plume Secret Mommy. Andy's albums are often centered around specific themes such as; the tropics, recreational activities, mammalia, etc. Well, Winnepeg's Sublight Records is now accepting pre-orders for his latest jilted IDMasterpiece- The Wisdom Ep. Wisdom is composed entirely of, you guessed it, samples taken from Andy's wisdom tooth removal. The 6 song mini-album features remixes by Joshua Kit Clayton, Sun Ok Papi K.O., and Piers Whyte- each track flowing sweeter than bubblegum flouride.

The Wisdom Ep will be released August 29th, 2006, on Sublight Records.

Also seeing an August release will be the North American debut, and first-full length album from Japanese guitar and drum demolition team- 2Up. Teenage Mondo Trash will be released August 8th on Vancouver's Ache Records. As the press release on Ache Records describes:

"Roaring through sixteen jagged, mishappen, pieces of punk rock in less than 30 minutes, Tokyo's 2UP sweat and wiggle wildly. Teenage mondo trash will bring to mind the lost art of punk-house energy and screwball spirit."

Think Melt Banana + Ruins + Hella, and you'll get the picture- all Dadaist paint smeared, drooling from a fried amp's electric cartoonish grin.

Check out these quick tracksss from Teenage Mondo Trash:

2Up - Monpe
2Up - Semedain

Peace everybody.
-$ea

Hella Ain't Shit But Good People + News + Admiring Ruins (review)

Aw now you know that just isn't true!

Not only are Zach Hill & Spencer Seim fine human beings, but they are also Hella amazing. I'm not just talking two of modern music's most prolific amped-up jazz spazzes, I'm talking about two guys who make a racket so fiercly electric they give Lightning Bolt a run for their money! Hella are a masterfully crafted force of freakin' nature, and they've recently made an announcement- they're going Acoustic. On September 12th Hella will be releasing the Acoustics Ep on 5RC records, revamping several of their old calamitous classics into acoustic jam freakouts.

Here's the tracklisting:

1) 1-800-Ghost Dance
2) Women of the 90's
3) Cafeteria Bananas
4) Biblical Violence
5) Welcome to the Jungle Baby,Your Gunna Live!
6) The Devil Isn't Red

I say, Hell-Ya! But if that wasn't quite enough...

Hella will also be releasing a new full-length in January 2007 on Ipecac Records, featuring- get this- a 5 piece band! Hella are planning to take the year off to release the Acoustics Ep and finish recording their Ipecac debut. They are currently on tour with The Advantage, Mick Barr & Zach Hill, and These Arms Are Snakes, and can be found on their merry way towards the following cities:

06-23 Visalia, CA – Howie and Sons Pizza
06-24 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill
06-25 Sacramento, CA – The Library
06-26 Portland, OR – Loveland
06-27 Olympia, WA – The Capitol
06-28 Vancouver, BC – Red Room
06-29 Seattle, WA - Neumos

In other news...

M. Ward will be coming out with the follow-up to last years Transistor Radio on August 22nd, 2006. The album is called Post-War, and features 12 songs including, of all things, a Daniel Johnston cover!

===============

Ruins - 1985:1992 & Vrresto
Released on Skin Graft Records (2004, 2005)

Released in 2004 on Skin Graft Records, 1985:1992 is an unbelievable reminder of just how revolutionary the explorations of Tatsuya Yoshida's Ruins were- and would continue to be if Yoshida could just find himself a new bassist. The Japanese progressive rock underground has long been noted for taking Western musical forms, subverting and infusing them with Japanese artistic sensibility and traditional music tropes- Ruins, however, were something utterly alien in the Japan of 1985. A combination of the several specific aesthetic influences; a variation on the operatic vocal stylings of Zeuhl- made infamous by French drummer Christian Vander's progressive rock group Magma- numerous punk and progressive rock groups, and the magnitude, craft, and spirit of various shrines, temples, and landmarks- all led to the creation of a mind-blowing drum and bass duo for which there was simply no precendent.

To try and put Ruins into the context of when these songs first appeare, consier this: this was a time before Lightning Bolt, Pink and Brown, Hella, or any of the ever-multiplying wave of "noise rock" bands and LOAD Records imitations we know (and sometimes love) today. Many of these releases were on obscure Japanese labels, or Yoshida's own Magaibitsu imprint- which he still maintains to this day. 1985:1992 was culled from 5 Ruins albums- three of them confusingly all titled Ruins, later tracks featured from the landmark releases Stonehenge and Burning Stone. Yoshida remastered each composition on the record, somehow managing to give the impression that they were all recorded at the same time. In their remastered form, classic Ruins compositions like Zasca Cosca and Praha in Spring, sound even better than they did in their original forms- on Stonehenge and Burning Stone, respectively.

Vrresto, the second Ruins album I picked up from Skin Graft, was remastered in 2005 by Yoshida, and was originally released in Japan in 1998. Vrresto marked the appearance of Ruins' fourth bassist, Sasaki Hishashi- an incredibly gifted musician with a wild thirst for improvisation matched only by Yoshida's own. Vrresto is a transition record, to be sure, and only on occasion does its anarchic structure give shape to the incredible, and occasionally beautiful complexity featured later on albums such as Pallaschtom and Tzomborgha. That being said: Vrresto is a delirious document in Ruins history, and when listening to it one really gets the sense that Yoshida is not simply going through the motions of shouting his ridiculously operatic pseudo-Kobian vocal workouts- but is actually having a great time fucking around with Hishashi. Hisashi, not content with simply being a virtuoso on the bass, also operates a midi-controller while playing- adding colourful synth splashes into the already deliriously exhuberant mix. Vrresto is the sound of two neo-prog warriors fighting a war of absurdity- racing each-other up a mountain of Fun.

Vrresto & 1985: 1992 are both highly recommended to any fan of noise-rock, avant-jazz, Zeuhl, or just joyful, fucked up fun.



Peace

-Christian

Know Your Mothers (review) + News!

A Confession: I do not care for Frank Zappa. In fact, for many years I loathed both the man and the music. Why? Good question. I've always had a profound respect for his talent for mind-numbing electric freakouts and classical composition, but joke albums like Sheik Yerbouti and Apostrophe*/Overnight Sensation are about as appealing to me as hearing Paris Hilton "perform" a duet with Carlos Santana while sodomizing Weird Al Yankovic with a strap-on dildo. Fuck Carlos Santana!

But I digress...

We're Only In It For the Money by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention was the album that would forever alter my opinion of Zappa; an album so ahead of it's time, and so scathing in it's indictments of the love generation, the Beatles, and the Brain Police, that it practically presents itself as an alternative version of History as we've been led to believe. People often wonder why the dreams of the 60's died. Recorded in 1968, We're Only In It For the Money answers that question in a bold fashion- presenting itself as the ugly antithesis of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Police murdering helpless hippies in cold blood, secret concentration camps on the Moon, and the cash-grab commercialization of "psychedelic truth"- themes of fascist oppression and capitalist exploitation provide the basis for Zappa's deconstructive thesis statement. The second half of the album provides a hopeful alternative to what Zappa sees as being the cruel and meaningless void North American society was becoming via increased State sponsored violence, substance abuse, and the exploitation of art and sexuality. This message is particularly embodied in the surrealist doo-wop of "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance" which segues into a reprise of "What's The Ugliest Part of Your Body?" to which Zappa answers frankly- your mind.

I realize at this point I've said nothing of the music, which is beyond eclectic. While there are several points in the album that will warrant repeat listening on their own, at 35 minutes, We're Only In It For the Money is a record to be experienced from start to finish. Over the course of barely a half-hour, Zappa & The Mothers satirize The Beatles' bloated pretensions, their dream pop sound, and studio gimmickry with irreverence, ingenuity, noise, and real rock'n'roll spirit.

Highly recommended.

================

And in the news today...

I just read on TinyMixTapes that Sean Lennon is finally coming out with a proper follow-up to his near-classic, Into the Sun. And yes, Cibo Matto's Yuka Honda will be appearing as a guest musician. The album, Friendly Fire, will be released September 26th on Capitol Records.

Which brings me to my next daily digression...

There are a lot of fucking great records coming out in the fall of 2006!

Seriously. This year began with such a slump, and now it seems as if every band worth hearing is coming out with a new record between now and the end of the year. Danielson, you had better watch yourself, or you might just find yourself shipwrecked on my Best of 2006 list.
Which really, only means I'll have to spend more of my precious income on cds. Nooooooooooooooooooo!
Yessssssssssssssssssssssss!

Peace Everybody
-C$

Sex Panther

Oneida's Happy New Year, their eighth full-length album in 10 years, was released today. Pitchfork gave it a 7.2 & Matt Weir from TinymixTapes gave it a 3.5./5 . Marissa Brown of the AllMusicGuide gave the record a slightly more positive review, and CokeMachineGlow's musings were just positively wordy. Normally I don't give much credence to Pitchfork's oft-unbalanced reviews but this one was well considered- a critical review coming from a fan who enjoyed a good record from a group of incredibly talented musicians who could've done better. As for what I think, you're going to have to wait a while to hear my review, as it is going to be printed in the first issue of The Phoenix, along with reviews of Danielson's Ships and The Fiery Furnaces Bitter Tea. The Matthew Friedberger, Kaki King, Mars Volta, and Cansei De Ser Sexy reviews are going to have to wait for subsequent issues (beginning say, mid-September?), but you might see working versions of them on here before they hit newstands in Kelowna.

In the meantime, check out "Up With People", the single from Oneida's Happy New Year.

Oneida - Up With People

Speaking of the paper- it's gonna be really good this year. Well, I can't speak for the entire paper, but the A&E section is gonna be The Balls. I'm talking totally Sex Panther, smellin' of rich mahogany and all that. Yeah.

On a different note, it was reported today by the Associated Press that Syd Barrett is dead. He was 60 years old, living in his mother's home in Cambridge, England, spending most of his adult life painting and gardening to pass the time. Syd's music has and continues to inspire generations of artists, and his story continues to serve as a warning to those who would try and reach the Sun within their own minds, only to suffer a lifetime of being lysergically burned out and left a bare shadow of their former selves. A sad story to be sure, but one that tends to overshadow the music of a truly oddball original. Hope you are happier Syd.

And to the rest of you crazy diamonds, keep on shinin'.

Peace.

-Christian

Viscera Eyes Opened

The Mars Volta have uploaded a new song onto their Myspace account from the upcoming album Amputechture. The song is called "Viscera Eyes", and because of its nine-minute length, had to be divided into two parts. It's definitely something. If this song is to be taken as any indication of what the rest of the album is going to be like, then The Mars Volta have moved further and further from their YES/Pink Floyd comparisons and deeper into the kingdom of King Crimson. I'd be lying if I said I don't have high hopes for this record, especially after the disappointing overproduced mess of a live album that was "Scab Dates", but I'm going to try and give The Mars Volta the benefit of the doubt.

And maybe it's just me, but is Cedric actually trying to make his voice sound somewhat intelligble here?

Things just keep getting weirder and weirder.

Eschew the Tattoo!

Spent my morning thus far working on a short presentation I'm going to be delivering at this conference I'm assisting to organize for the GN Interdepartmental Committee on Climate Change (or, GNIC3 for short). But in between I've been braingasming ways to spend the delicious amount of money I'm going to be flying off this island with in 6 weeks time, and looking at the art of Ken Kagami (see above). At first I kept hearing echoes of "get another tattoo! get another tattoo!" ringing in my head-space, but then it occured to me. This is the first time in my life I'll actually have been able to afford a real, brand-new, instrument. I've been talking about getting a Korg or a Moog for about a year and a half now, and I've decided that seeing as I'll be living in a house where every roomate is a musician, writer, and artist of some stripe- it's time to get back into learning to play something (and having a basement studio/practice space doesn't hurt much either). So middle of next month, say on the 15th of August, I'm going to order myself a Korg microKORG synthesizer/vocoder.

I've tossed figures around in my head and on paper, and it looks like if I eschew my desire to get a new tattoo I can afford to buy all the Korg related gear I'll need/want, and still budget for my rent, cd habit, and steady diet of marijuana, Jagermeister, Heineken beer, and bike rides to the Urban Oasis for vegan samosas mwa hahaha. This year I'm going to have to back off on DVDS and games and all that extraneous bullshit though. Sigh, growing up is tough- and now- with keyboards!

• Sound Generation Method: Analog Modeling Synthesis System

• Synthesizer Program: Multi Timbral=2 (max, Normal/Dual Mode)

• Voices: 4 voices

• Sound Source: 2 Oscillator + Noise Generator,

• Multi Mode Filter (-24dB/oct LPF, -12dB/oct LPF/BPF/HPF), EG x2, LFO x2, o Virtual Patch x4

• Vocoder Program: Voices = 4 voices

• Programs: 128 programs

• Effects: Modulation effects (3 types), Delay (3 types), 2-bandEqualizer

• Arpeggiator: 6 types• Keyboard: 37 Keys (mini-keyboard, velocity sensitive)

• Inputs: AUDIO IN 1, and 2

• Level switch: LINE/MIC,

• Outputs: L/MONO, R and Headphones

• MIDI: IN, OUT and THRU

• Display: 3 characters x1 line with 8 segment LED

• Power Supply: DC 9 V (AC adapter), or six AA alkaline batteries (sold separately)

• Dimensions: 20.63"(W) x 9.02"(D) x 2.8"(H)• Weight: 4.85 lbs.

• Accessories: AC adapter (DC 9 V, 600 mA), Condenser Microphone

Man Capitalism, you've give me so much stuff, but what about AFRICA? You've changed Capitalism, you used to be cool...

PeacecaeP

-Christian

Mango, I Choose You! + Awesomer (review)

Yesterday Rob told me the news that I would be moving into Mona's old room- and I needed to celebrate. I went to the grocery store and bought and ripest mango I could find, and a firm block of smoked gouda. After I came home from the grocery store I went on a long hike, hoping to make it all the way to Apex, but I decided to turn back after wiping a mosquito out from the corner of my left eye. I don't roll like that. When I got home, I sliced that mango up and ate half of the gouda- my dad came home from work and told me that mango was a "fag fruit". Redundancy never tasted so good!

It's no small secret that I can't wait until August because it means I'm able to get the fuck outta here- once and for all, but it has recently come to my attention that there are more reasons to look forward to next month. In fact, there are at least 4 additional reasons.

1) The Mars Volta (what, the greatest modern rock band is coming out with a new album BEFORE the summer is over, how can I not get excited?) - Amputechture on August 22nd
2)Kaki King (she trades in her sick-ass ovation acoustic for a freaking electric!) - Until We Felt Red on August 8th
3)Matt Freidberger (one half of The Fiery Furnaces is releasing two seperate solo albums- packaged together!) - Winter Women / Holy Ghost Language School also on August 8th
and last but not least
4)The "Find Your Inner Tobias" Party. (If you haven't seen Arrested Developement before, it doesn't mean you can't get drunk while wearing cut offs, smeared in blue paint, and rocking out to the Blue Man Group!)

Man I wish I had brought some of that sweet fag fruit to work with me.

Oh, and you'll buy Oneida's "Happy New Year" on July 11th if you know what's good for you (american krautrock, that's what!).

============

Blood on the Wall - Awesomer

Blood on the Wall are a group of indie-rock alchemists from New York; mixing the blood of the Minutemen, the sex juice of Sonic Youth, and the pubes of The Pixies into a concoction that's as shamelessly fun as it is self-aware, and as manic as it is laid-back. “Stoner Jam” steps in with a swagger, black sunglasses, and barely a shrug, but as “Heat from the Day” crashes the party- bottles are smashed, furniture is set ablaze, and some guy you didn’t invite is admiring the deuce he just dropped from the window onto unsuspecting passers-by and screaming “Hey, You! Get the fuck off my cloud!”. While a joyous riot, there's little substance to Awesomer's angular, terrible racket. The album practically reads like the cliff-notes any veteran indie-hipster has already memorized- or at least written on the inside of their palm (cheaters- I'm on to you!). A dash of D.C. Hardcore there, a little Loveless here- you get the picture.

Sister Courtney Shanks has that pack-a-day smoker seductress appeal, and her bass has a smooth, deep tone that keeps the groove tight throughout the night. Her brother Brad on the other hand, is an altogether different story. His broken-glass guitar riffs and shrill, squealing pipes make for a listening experience that would cause Frank Black to wince- wailing lyrics that smack of “everyone is gonna know I wrote these five minutes on used napkins before band practice, and it’s gonna be so awesome”. And much as I'd like to criticize, it is pretty awesome. Nay, it's Awesomer. So go ahead- drink your face off, shake your ass, pick your friends up off the floor, and try not to get a bangover.

-Christian

Good Morning Ma!

taken from an actual email i sent my mom this morning.

"hey mom good morning. how's it going so far? me? feeling good but not looking the part. in my haste to get out the door it seems i missed shaving a part of my face so i've got a wonky little sidemouth moustache. gonna have to get rid of that at lunch time. on top of that, i think i'm constipated. i haven't taken a decent crap in like, at least a day and a half, and it's starting to worry me (i think aside from the screaming inuit ladies, barking dogs, and incredible heat, that's part of why i couldn't sleep last night). if the situation doesn't resolve itself before the day is over we need to go to the pharmacy in the brown building and hook me up with some laxatives.

hope your morning is going as swell as my belly.
-Sonny boy"

her reply.

"Hey bud,

I actually watched that lady screaming last night……..she was walking with a kid coming from the
Apartments across the street, and walked up our driveway and inbetween our place and next door (with all the kids) screaming all the way……..

And then the dogs………..

Even me I have a belly ache this am, which tells me I’m eating too many sweets and not enuf ruffage……..time to make some bran muffins……..maybe I’ll quickly do that at lunch time, cause they only take like 15 minutes to bake……..that will help a lot! So time for more salads, and less sugar!
That’s all it is my love, don’t worry.

Well, wonky boy, I’ll ttyl………I have nothing to do and I hate it! I thought I had lots of dictation to do, but I guess I did it before I left on Friday……"

email your mothers!
peace & evol
-C Money