Nothin' Sez Somethin'

How much ground can a groundhog hog if a groundhog can hog ground?

2012-02-02T09:45:00.000-08:00

Spirit - Groundhog Day from Clear, 1969.

Department of Injustice

2012-01-29T15:20:00.000-08:00

You are all probably aware of the Dept. of Injustice attack on MegaUpload. I had numerous files stored there, so if you're trying to access any of that musick, just let me know in comments here & I'll do my best to re-up anything I can.

Weird how this coincided with on-line protest against SOPA & PIPA.

Glad ANONYMOUS struck back against those opposed to FREEDOM!

Here's the story for anyone who is interested:

Department of Injustice, Office of Pubic Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Thursday, January 19, 2012

Justice Department Charges Leaders of Megaupload with Widespread Online Copyright Infringement

WASHINGTON – Seven individuals and two corporations have been charged in the United States with running an international organized criminal enterprise allegedly responsible for massive worldwide online piracy of numerous types of copyrighted works, through Megaupload.com and other related sites, generating more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and causing more than half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners, the U.S. Justice Department and FBI announced today.

This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime.

The individuals and two corporations – Megaupload Limited and Vestor Limited – were indicted by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia on Jan. 5, 2012, and charged with engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement. The individuals each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit racketeering, five years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, 20 years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering and five years in prison on each of the substantive charges of criminal copyright infringement.

The indictment alleges that the criminal enterprise is led by Kim Dotcom, aka Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, 37, a resident of both Hong Kong and New Zealand. Dotcom founded Megaupload Limited and is the director and sole shareholder of Vestor Limited, which has been used to hold his ownership interests in the Mega-affiliated sites.

In addition, the following alleged members of the Mega conspiracy were charged in the indictment:

Finn Batato, 38, a citizen and resident of Germany, who is the chief marketing officer;

Julius Bencko, 35, a citizen and resident of Slovakia, who is the graphic designer;

Sven Echternach, 39, a citizen and resident of Germany, who is the head of business development;

Mathias Ortmann, 40, a citizen of Germany and resident of both Germany and Hong Kong, who is the chief technical officer, co-founder and director;

Andrus Nomm, 32, a citizen of Estonia and resident of both Turkey and Estonia, who is a software programmer and head of the development software division;

Bram van der Kolk, aka Bramos, 29, a Dutch citizen and resident of both the Netherlands and New Zealand, who oversees programming and the underlying network structure for the Mega conspiracy websites.

Dotcom, Batato, Ortmann and van der Kolk were arrested today in Auckland, New Zealand, by New Zealand authorities, who executed provisional arrest warrants requested by the United States. Bencko, Echternach and Nomm remain at large. Today, law enforcement also executed more than 20 search warrants in the United States and eight countries, seized approximately $50 million in assets and targeted sites where Megaupload has servers in Ashburn, Va., Washington, D.C., the Netherlands and Canada. In addition, the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., ordered the seizure of 18 domain names associated with the alleged Mega conspiracy.

According to the indictment, for more than five years the conspiracy has operated websites that unlawfully reproduce and distribute infringing copies of copyrighted works, including movies – often before their theatrical release – music, television programs, electronic books, and business and entertainment software on a massive scale. The conspirators' content hosting site, Megaupload.com, is advertised as having more than one billion visits to the site, more than 150 million registered users, 50 million daily visitors and accounting for four percent of the total traffic on the Internet. The estimated harm caused by the conspiracy's criminal conduct to copyright holders is well in excess of $500 million. The conspirators allegedly earned more than $175 million in illegal profits through advertising revenue and selling premium memberships.

The indictment states that the conspirators conducted their illegal operation using a business model expressly designed to promote uploading of the most popular copyrighted works for many millions of users to download. The indictment alleges that the site was structured to discourage the vast majority of its users from using Megaupload for long-term or personal storage by automatically deleting content that was not regularly downloaded. The conspirators further allegedly offered a rewards program that would provide users with financial incentives to upload popular content and drive web traffic to the site, often through user-generated websites known as linking sites. The conspirators allegedly paid users whom they specifically knew uploaded infringing content and publicized their links to users throughout the world.

In addition, by actively supporting the use of third-party linking sites to publicize infringing content, the conspirators did not need to publicize such content on the Megaupload site. Instead, the indictment alleges that the conspirators manipulated the perception of content available on their servers by not providing a public search function on the Megaupload site and by not including popular infringing content on the publicly available lists of top content downloaded by its users.

As alleged in the indictment, the conspirators failed to terminate accounts of users with known copyright infringement, selectively complied with their obligations to remove copyrighted materials from their servers and deliberately misrepresented to copyright holders that they had removed infringing content. For example, when notified by a rights holder that a file contained infringing content, the indictment alleges that the conspirators would disable only a single link to the file, deliberately and deceptively leaving the infringing content in place to make it seamlessly available to millions of users to access through any one of the many duplicate links available for that file.

The indictment charges the defendants with conspiring to launder money by paying users through the sites' uploader reward program and paying companies to host the infringing content.

More Freaks

2012-01-29T14:28:00.001-08:00

Freaks
Kooks
Psychos
Ding-a-lings
Fruitcakes
Whack jobs
Loopers
Spazs
Funky monkies
Weirdos
Nut jobs or nutters
Yahoos
Quacks
Goobers
Old Man Jenkinses
Freaks

“I love to go shopping. I love to freak out salespeople. They ask me if they can help me, and I say, "Have you got anything I'd like?" Then they ask me what size I need, and I say, "Extra medium." Stephen Wright

“I put instant coffee in a microwave oven and almost went back in time.” also S. Wright

This vinyl version varies a great deal from the more usually available CD release. There are always wonderful treasures in vinyl.

Freaks - The Man who Lived Underground,
Music for Freaks MFFLP005, 2003.

Side A -
The Man who Lived Underground
Telefunken (not your average cd version [plenty more funken])
Hang up Your Hang-ups (our extended hang-up)
Fix It

Side B -
The Creeps (You;re Giving me)[extended almost 12“ version]
Psycho-delia
80s Throwback (extended DJ version)

Side C -
Nyce & Slo
He’s Angry

Side D -
What’s the Point (you get the point instrumental)
Switchin’ Channels
Blam

Enjoy,
NØ

Crystal Blues blowin' across the Sahara

2012-01-22T20:28:00.000-08:00

Tinariwen formed in 1982 but remained underground (Mali & Algeria both banned their political lyrics) until the group moved to the Malian capitol of Bamako in 1999. There the ten members drew on a rebel rock sensibility, openly playing their passionate, trance-like Desert Blues.

Born in a region plagued by exile, war, & drought, Tinariwen (originally Taghreft Tinariwen, or ‘edification of the lands’) became known for vocalizing the political plight of endangered nomads.

They were no strangers to armed conflict: Kheddou is said to have received 17 bullet wounds after leading several raids, armed only with a guitar on his back & a Kalashnikov in his hands... once he was doused in gasoline, owing his life only to his good karma & a faulty lighter; Ibrahim joined a training camp in southern Lybia after witnessing his father’s murder at the hands of Malian soldiers. At the camp, Ghadaffi made false promises of helping the Tamashek cause. In between classes about revolution, Islamism, & guerrilla warfare, Ibrahim honed his chops on guitar.

Tinariwen’s music speaks of & to the Tuareg or Kel Tamashek people, appealing for a political awakening of consciousness. For many years the nomadic tribes of the southern Sahara had tried to maintain hope in the midst of ethnic cleansing & public executions. These mighty musicians are the modern warriors of their people, with guitars replacing AK-47s. The songs of Tinariwen are petitions for political & cultural self-determination. They have become a point of identity for Tuareg youth. In a land void of laptops & TVs, cheap cassette recordings spread the music of bands like Tinariwen: the new Tamashek weapon of choice.

Tinariwen – The Radio Tisdas Sessions, World Village-468010, 2002.

Le Chant Des Fauves
Nar Djenetbouba
Imidiwaren
Zin Es Gourmeden
Afours Afours
Tessalit
Khedou Khedou
Mataraden Anexan
Bismillah
Tin-Essako (live)

Recorded at Radio Tisdas, Kidal, Mali in January 2000 ( because of rationed electricity, they could only record between 7 p.m. & midnight each evening) except Track 10 recorded live at The Festival in the Desert, Tin-Essako, Mali.

Tinariwen are: Abdallah (vocals, guitar, bass); Ibrahim, Kheddou, Mohammed "Japonais", Foy Foy (vocals, guitar); Hassan (vocals, guitar, percussion); Seyid (percussion); & Nina, Anini, Bogness (background vocals).

Enjoy,
NØ

Indiana Casino

2012-01-02T21:24:00.000-08:00

I’ve always been a closet trip-hopper. Beth Gibbon’s voice with Portishead never fails to touch that special spot, but all these years & only 3!

I’ve always appreciated the similarity Siobhan de Maré & Gibbon’s voices share...enjoying Siobhan's short stint with Mono.

Shortly after her time with Mono, she was contacted by Robin Guthrie, former guitarist for the Cocteau Twins. After the Cocteau Twins were laid to rest, Elizabeth Fraser joined up with Massive Attack on Mezzanine, & Robin, along with fellow Cocteau band mate Simon Raymonde were busy running their Bella Union musick label. With a respectable roster under his belt, Guthrie continued adding his trademark touch to numerous collaborations such as Bunnyman's Ian McCullogh & longtime NSS fave Wolfgang Press. Despite all of this, Robin still wanted to perform, so when he learned that de Maré was available, he contacted her .

Violet Indiana is the musical union of the two. Together they create a sound not far removed from Portishead, but capitalizing on de Maré's despondency & replacing much of Portishead's synthesizer with Guthrie's fluid guitar.

Casino is Violet Indiana’s second release. The first being 2001s Roulette. Casino is more a collection of the bands singles than an actual follow-up to Roulette. It is a great place to begin one’s vacation in Indiana.

Violet Indiana - Casino, Instinct Records INS593-2, 2002.

Tracklist -

Jailbird
Bang Bang
Purr La Perla
Silent
Storm
Sky
Safe Word
Ne Me Quitte Pas (written by Jacques Brel)
Poppy
Torn Up
Heaven
Chapter Three

Enjoy,
NØ

It's Yule, ya Yob

2011-12-24T13:46:00.000-08:00

The Yobs were the alter-egos of The Boys.

Following the release of Alternative Chartbusters, The Boys had a falling out with NEMS, their record company. So they bootlegged themselves as The Yobs for their Christmas 1978 offering of "Silent Night" b/w "Stille Nacht".

After signing with Safari in 1979 "Little Drummer Boy" was given The Yobs treatment & appeared as "Rub A Dum Dum" in time for Christmas.

After Baron von Bratboy left the band, the Yobs released "The Yobs Christmas Album" in 1980, adopting the names of H. J. Bedwetter, Noddy Oldfield, Ebenezer Polak & Kid Vicious. In true Yobs style the album was written, recorded & mixed in two days at Pete Townsend’s Eel Pie Studios.

The Yobs - The Yobs Cristmas Album, Safari Records Rude 1, 1980.

Side A:
Rub-a-Dum-Dum
The Ballad of the Warrington
Another Christmas
Doggy
Jingle Bells
Auld Lang Syne

Side B:
Silent Night
Silver Bells
C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S
Gloria
12 Days of Christmas
White Christmas
Wish You a Merry Christmas
May the Good Lord Bless & Keep You

Enjoy,
NØ

Invisible Invisible Chains

2011-10-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

Anonymous was kind enough to let me know that my Invisible Chains post was uploaded to drop.io & no longer available. I have re-uploaded it to mediafire, freshly ripped.

Sorry if I have been less than attentive to this here blog, but it's harvest time in NoCal. My free time right now is non-existent but shortly I will return. I have been listening to King Tubby, The Scientist, & Thievery Corporation 24-7.

Enjoy the Carla Noelle (Bozulich),
NØ

The Noble Theft of Sound

2011-09-05T21:36:00.000-07:00

Agent Nova

I’ve posted musick by the great bizarro noise-rockers SteelPole BathTub here before, used to see them all the time in the late 80s/early 90s around San Francisco.

Experimental electronica outfit Novex was actually a spinoff group from SteelPole BathTub.

When the band moved over to Slash after being with Boner/Tupelo for several years, they met resistance with their idea of releasing a cover of The Cars debut album (finally released in 2002 as the SPBT album Unlistenable after a comment made by one of the Slash team). Their label-related hiatus in 1996 turned into a breakup of the band. Bassist Dale Flattum (as Agent Nova) had cut his teeth on electronic music through SPBT's interest in sampling & tape manipulation. He then formed Milk Cult with SPBT guitarist Mike Morasky (Bumblebee). Following the release of their album Project M-13 in 2000, Milk Cult also went on hiatus. At that time Flattum reunited with SPBT drummer Darren Mor-X (Morey) to form Novex. Their first album together, 2001s Kleptophonica, continued the surreal found-sound experiments of Milk Cult, but placed them in a more accessible, song-oriented context.

Novex - Kleptophonica, 0 To 1 Recordings – 002, 2001.

Tracks -
Requiem
Mary Gravy
Interlude
Paris Is Burning
Tea Pocket
Joan & Jack & Nina & Steve
The Pharmacist Will Help You Now
Paris Is Still Burning
The Happiest Song In The World
Flavoriffic
Bullit

Enjoy,
NØ

An Unidentified Man

2011-08-28T23:40:00.000-07:00

Something to listen to (& ponder) as you read:

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Harry Irene,
The Brown Star Sessions, bootleg 1972.

I wrote this when I learned my old friend Mother Jim, an alcoholic for many years, had committed suicide by hanging himself from a rail-yard trestle. An article in the local paper began,
"An unidentified man was found Thursday night hanging from the Fourth Street Railroad bridge. Cause of death was apparently suicide."

An Unidentified Man

A philosophical dialectic featuring three players:
The Narrator (played here by Aleister Crowley)
Mother Jim
Nathan

Narrator (seated on his resplendent throne) :
Thirst!
Not the thirst of the throat
Tho' that be the wildest & the worst
Of physical pangs---that smote
Alone to the heart of Christ,
Wringing the one wild cry,
"I thirst!" from His agony,
While the soldiers drank & diced.
Not the thirst benign
That calls the worker to wine.
Not the bodily thirst
(Tho’ that be a frenzy accursed)
When the mouth is full of sand,
& the eyes are gummed up, the ears
Trick the soul 'til it hears
Water...water at hand,
When a man will dig his nails
Into his breast & drink the blood
Already that clots & stales
E're his tongue can tip its flood,
When the sun is a living devil
Vomiting vats of evil,
& the moon & the night but mock
The wretch on his barren rock.
The dome of heaven high-arched
Like his mouth is arid & parched.
The caves of his heart high-spanned
Are choked with alkali sand.

Now this! but a thirst uncharted;
Body & soul alike
Traitors turned black-hearted,
Seeking a space to strike
In a victim already attuned
To one vast chord of wound.
Every separate bone cold,
An incarnate groan
Distilled from the icy sperm
Of Hell’s implacable worm.
Every drop of the river
Of blood aflame & aquiver
With poison secret & sour---
With a sudden twitch at the last
Like certain jagged daggers...

Mother Jim (rambling) :
With bloodshot eyes dull-glassed
The screaming Viet staggers
Through his village aghast.

Narrator (perturbed at being interrupted) :
So blood wrenches its pain
Sardonic through heart & brain.
Every separate nerve
Awake & alert, on a curve
Whose zenith’s name is "Never"
In a hyperbolic "Forever!"
A bitter & burning snake
Striking its venom within it,
As if it might serve to slake
The pain for the tithe of a minute.

Nathan (full of sound & fury, signifying nothing) :
Awake, forever awake!
Awake as one never is
While sleep is a possible end.
Awake in the void, the abyss
Whose thirst is but an echo of this.
That martyrs, worlds without end.
(World without end, Amen!)
The man that falters & yields
For the proverbs "giveth & taketh away"
To the lure of the grain-ripe fields
Where the alcohol sees its first day.

Only a sip from a glass
Charged from a Wizard’s well!
Is this sufficient to pass
A soul from Heaven to Hell?
Was human’s spirit weaned
To fawn at the feet of a fiend?
Is it so terribly odd---
The heir of ages of wonder,
The crown of earth for an hour,
The master of tide & thunder
Against alcohol’s power?
Aye, in the roar & the rattle
Of all the armies of sin,
This is the only battle
He never was known to win.

Slave to the thirst---not thirst
As here is so weakly written,
Not thirst in the brain black-bitten
In the soul more sorely smitten!
One dare not think of the worst!
Beyond the raging & the raving
Hell of a physical craving
Lies, in the brain benumbed,
At the end of time & space,
An abyss, immeasured, unplumbed---
The haunt of a face!

Mother Jim (in reverie of his true love, Alcohol) :
She it is, she, that found me
In the throes of my virginal honeymoon,
With silk & steel she bound me,
In her poisonous milk she drowned me,
Even now her arms surround me,
Stifling me into the swoon
That still---but oh, how rarely!---
Comes from that sip from that glass.
Steadily she stares & squarely,
Never needing to receive my pass.

(here he slips fluidly into the ease of non-corporeal 3rd person)
Her slave agasp for a kiss.
Her whose horror is his
That knows that viper womb,
Speckled & barred with black
On its rusty amber scales
His tomb---
The straining, groaning rack
On which he wails---he wails!
Her cranial dome is vaulted;
Her mad Mongolian eyes
Aslant with all the ecstacies
Of things immune, exalted
Far beyond stars & skies.
Slits of amber & jet---
Her snout for the quarry set.

(it seems as though he percieves clearly at last)
Her snout for the quarry set,
Fleshy & heavy & dross,
Bestial, broken across
& below it her mouth, it drips
Blood from her lips
That hide the fangs of a snake.
Drips down upon venomous udders
Mountainous flanks that fume & sweat.
The spirit sickens & shudders
At the hint of worse things yet.

Alky! the golden bait
Barbed with infinite pain.
Fatal, fanatical mate
Of a poisoned body & brain!
Alky! the name that leers
Its lecherous longing & knavery,
Whispers in crazing ears
The secret spell of her slavery.

(as if the memory of his slavery plunges him painfully back into his body in a maddening rush, he finds himself once more)

Horror indeed intense,
Seduction ever intenser,
Swinging the smoke of sense
From the bowl of a smouldering censer!
Behind me, behind & above
She stands, that mirror of love.
Her fingers are supple-jointed;
Her nails are polished & pointed,
Tipped with spurs of gold.
With them she plows my brain.
Her lust is critical, cold;
Her Chinese cheeks are pale
As she daintily picks, profane,
With her octopus lips & teeth,
Jagged & black beneath,
A morsel of pulp & blood she’s impailed.

One soothing drink was enough
In days gone by to invoke her.
She was incarnate love
In the hours when I first awoke her.
Little by little I found
The truth of her---stripped of her clothing,
Bitter beyond all bound,
Leprous beyond all loathing.
Black---the plague of the pit,
Her pustules visibly fester,
Cancerous kisses that bit
As the asp caressed her.

Nathan (final nothing) :
Dragon of lure & dread;
Tiger of fury & lust;
The quick in chains to the dead;
The slime alive in the dust.
Brazen shame like a flame,
An orgy of pregnant pollution
With hate beyond aim or name---
Orgasm, death, dissolution!
Know you now, dear brother, why her eyes
So fearfully glaze, beholding
Terrors & infamies
Like filthy flowers unfolding?
Laughter widowed of ease;
Agony barred from sadness;
Allison, sweet innocent child, robbed of peace---
Is not your she-devil madness?

Mother Jim (teen again, in the school yard, bristling at Nathan’s insult) :
She waits for me, lazily leering,
As moon goes murdering moon.
The moon of her triumph is nearing.
She will have me wholly soon.
& you, you Puritan other
Who missed the alcohol’s craving
Cry scorn if I call you brother---
Curl your lip at my maniac raving.
Fool, seven times beguiled.
You have not known her? Well!
That was never a need she smiled
To harry you into Hell!

Narrator (getting his sweater out of the closet & putting on his slippers, looking now like Mr. Rogers) :
Alcohol is but one spark of its secular fire.
She is the single sum-type of all desire!
All that you would, you are & that’s the crown
Of the craving,
You are slaves of the wormwood star.
Analysed, reason was raving---feeling, examined, was pain.
What Heaven were to hope for a doubt of it!
Life is anguish, insane; death is---not the way out of it.

I won't say Enjoy,
NØ

Ride On

2011-08-18T13:42:00.000-07:00

One thing I’ve learned doing this blog is that out here amongst the byways of the Interweb there are a ~~bunch of wisenheimers~~, wait, strike that, fonts of wisdom. I’m calling out to all you Brainiacs around the globe. Riddle me this: What ever became of Bronagh Slevin (musickally mostly...I don’t mean I want to invade her privacy or anything...I not a stalker)???

Crustation was a trip-hop band, formed by Ian Dark, Stig Manley & Mark Tayler, three producers from Bristol. In the 80s they had played in bands with Adrian Utley of Portishead. In a later incarnation of Crustation they collaborated with vocalist Bronagh Slevin. In 1997 they released their only full length album Bloom, under the moniker Crustation with Bronagh Slevin.

After that, the trail of Bronagh becomes sketchy at best.
Below is a picture of her at a Gala student reading Saturday 26 May, 2007.

Carrie Etter presents
a Gala Student Reading
at The George
in Bradford on Avon
with creative writing students
from Bath Spa University
& The Poetry School.

There is a track on Up, Bustle, & Out’s 2010 Soliloquy album, "Luminous Fragments" featuring Ms. Slevin. That’s about all I can discover. Can someone please fill in some more information? Any Irish readers that have the skinny? Musick insiders in the know?

Crustation w/ Bronagh Slevin - Bloom, Jive Records HIP 184, 1997.

Side A -
Hey
Purple
Close My Eyes
Face The Waves
Reverie
Side B -
Down Down
Falling
Flame
Life As One
Ride On

Enjoy,
NØ

Aztec Ascent

2011-08-14T21:18:00.000-07:00

Something to listen to while reading, if you so desire.

White Car - No Better ep, Hippos in Tanks 4-song 12" HIT002, 2010.

Side A -
No Better
Feel Hunt
Side B -
Spread Split Slap
Reality Beat
plus extra non-ep bonus track
No Better (Gatekeeper Freundshaft remix)

& now on with Story Time

Saying things didn’t start too well on this mini-tour, this southwestern soiree, would almost be a joke if any of us were inclined to laugh about it now, but we’re not, so... We just threw this tour together on our own, calling friends & bars, using phones & maps, counting our shekels & busting our piggy banks. I’ll admit, on paper it looked good...really good...BOOK OUR OWN FUCKIN’ LIFE good...this is IT...what a life.

L.A. went smooth as Ex-lax. We played Hell’s Gate. We’ve played there before & they seem to like us all right...at least they don’t throw shit. Hell’s Gate...what a hole. But just the hole we needed to feel our creepiest & play our freshest. Damn, we even got paid $86 so we all fooled
ourselves into believing it was the (false) portent of good future.

Outside of Mesa, AZ...the first problem with our van. The true Mother of all our van problems to follow. Just something simple, right, no problem. The fan belt breaks...& wraps around the fan...& bends the fan...which gouges the radiator. I cut free the fan belt, straighten the fan blades, crimp closed the leaks in the radiator coils with some needle-nosed pliers we just happened to have... BE PREPARED (yeah). Dirt & I hitch to the nearest town/gas station for a new fan belt & more beer, leaving Slag & Pete to keep watch over our gear in the 100^o + van. Soon belt, beer, & on our way. Get to the Mesa show late & have to play last. Maybe three people stay for our set after The HeadLiners finish. We’re hot, greasy, & tired. We couldn’t really give a flying fuck about this late night ‘practice’ session, but we give it all we’ve got & then some. The three who stayed liked us. Also, Sean, the punk who hooked us up for the gig, really appreciated the effort & could relate to our road woes. He let us park the van in his driveway. Next day when we finally joined the living, we all got showers & breakfast courtesy of A Righteous ‘Zonian. He even gave us $20 for gas. Thanks, Sean!

50 miles from Durango, CO. More van trouble. Seems the fan shaft had become bent when the fan belt broke. The bent shaft ruined the water pump. Then the water pump froze-up, the fan sheared off & this time devoured the radiator to such a degree that first aid was not going to help. Pete shagged a ride to the nearest phone. Called a tow-truck in Durango to come & get us. Put it on some bad plastic he was burning up. We rode in the van on the back of the tow-truck into Durango (highly illegal but way cool, just sailing alone with no one driving, no one even looking outside. We cranked up the tunes & smoked out. Left the van at a garage in Durango & went to check out the club where we were playing. Turns out the owner is some cowboy redneck shit-kicker. He informs us, thumbs in suspenders & pistol on desktop, that the show has been changed to tomorrow. By the time we get back to the garage after hassling with Cowboy Roy, the place is closed & locked up. The van & all our gear out of reach, locked in tight, well-fenced & guard-dogged. We go back to the club & using our nicest manners, threaten Cowgurl Pearl into putting us up for the night. He finally agrees to let us stay in the club. After it closes at 2:00am, the cleaning crew (bartender [redneck], waitress [redneck’s sister/wife] & bar-back [Hispanic]) take another hour of extreme noise terror & merciless CW mu-sick-sick-sick bombardment. We feign sleep until the dogie-punchers vamoose. Then we help ourselves to an enormous amount of the club’s beer & liquor supply. We drink ourselves to oblivion. We crack our eyelids about 2:00pm & head back to the garage. They’ve already replaced the water pump, the fan, & the belt. They’re just getting ready to put in the used radiator they found at a Pick’n’Pull. Before long, we rolling again...now totally broke. Back to the club. Cow-owner, none too thrilled with our bar tab...informs us that The College Radio Stars who were headlining tonight have canceled so now it’s a free show. No pay. Gas money. $15. We were burning but we were broke. We couldn’t refuse. We couldn’t revenge. All we could do was play our best & pass the hat. We collected $21, sold two T-shirts for $10, & three cassettes for $9 for the huge total of $55. Luckily our next gig was in Aztec, NM, only 120 miles away.

Aztec is where our fortune changed for the as they say better. I don’t want to sound totally bonkers. I don’t want anyone to think my time on the road finally drove me completely insane, but I have to believe it was a direct result of the sacrifice. Normally, I’m the last person to fall for that supernatural mumbo-jumbo. I live in the Here/Now & revel in my own reality. But I saw what happened that night & have experienced all that has transpired since. It is of that sacrifice which I now speak.

Aztec, New Mexico (the Land of Enchantment). Nestled serenely in the arms of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Yes, the Blood of Christ mountains. Aztec. Population 6384. Never played a town this small & not at all certain as to the outcome of this venture. We call Zarak, our contact in Aztec. He sounds genuinely enthusiastic if a bit ‘spacey’, but gives us precise directions to his place. He lives on the outskirts of town in a place that used to be a chicken ranch. It’s called The Chicken Ranch. No, really. We find our way to The Chicken Ranch with no problems & are warmly greeted by our host, Zarak. He led us to the bunk-house, which though Spartan, was clean. It afforded us the luxury of spreading out more than van floor or bar booths had thus far. He told us to come up to the main house after we got settled in & washed up. We could discuss plans for tomorrow night’s full moon extravaganza. We unpacked our sleeping bags & back-packs, washed up, smoked a few dubes, then headed up to the house.

Right away Zarak starts smoking us out. Huge hookah bowls of his personal-grown Indo mixed with native Peyote. He had home-made cactus liquor to drink. Before long, the long road was falling away behind us. He started telling us about his plans for this show that he was putting together up on this ridge above the town. Under the full moon. The ridge was a holy Anasazi place. Supposed aliens landed there in 1948. Zarak’s got his own generator. He’s invited thousands of acquaintances. He wants us to really get into it, be the soundtrack to this dream of his. He’ll pay us $1000. He’s going to sacrifice a virgin & eat her heart. We’re all righteously fucked-up. Bound into the web he has woven with smoke & drink & magick. It sounded huge & radical. It sounded fierce. Dangerous. We unanimously agree. We wake up the next evening from our drugged debauch to the sounds of progress. 15 or 20 people are loading equipment & supplies into an old ex-military half-track with the generator loaded on a trailer behind. The show is on. We follow the growing convoy of vehicles to the ridge above Aztec & near the stage find parking in the dust-swept lot. The next hour is a buzz & blur of activity. Zarak comes by, thanks us & pays us in advance for playing. He gives us a generous supply of weed & peyote & cactus liquor. Tells us he wants us to start the show just as we see the moon coming over the horizon.

At first I’m not positive it is the moon coming up. I’m so high. But Dirt, Slag, Pete, & I all vote. We decide it’s time to get the show started. We stumble onto the pale moon-washed dimness of the stage. With a sudden gigantic surge of feed-back we go live, we rip into the start of “Howling at the Moon”. There are several thousand people staggered around the ridge & ancient ruins. The only lights are from our equipment, the moon, & eyes glowing in the night. The moon & the power of the place, the sum of this one moment in time carry us to greater heights. We play as we know we can.

Some time unmeasured later, out of our drug/musick rush of joy I notice torches approaching the stage from the distant darkness. The torch-bearing procession parts the crowd of revelers much as Moses must have parted the Red Sea of lore. A masked High Priest leads a smiling maiden in virginal white to the front of the stage. The musick swells to touch the moon. The moon shines in the midnight sky. The virgin laughs a laugh caught by the microphone & amplified above the cacophony. The knife blade flashes in the wavering torch light. A dripping hand raises high, holding a still beating heart. Zarak throws back the High Priest’s mask. He sinks his teeth into the throbbing organ. I see his scarlet liquid grin in the spotlight moon. I see our musick caress the moon. I smell incense & jism. I smell brimstone & funk. I hear the multitude baying on the night breeze. My fingers are bleeding on my bass strings, but still there’ll be more.

We awaken in our van, alone. We drive around Aztec but can’t seem to find The Chicken Ranch. No one we ask in Aztec has ever heard of it. They all look at us extremely weird. We try Zarak’s phone but the number is no good.

But the $1000 is good. & our next show in Taos, NM is sold out. Word about the Full Moon Show is on every lip. Everyone seems to be expecting a sacrifice. A riot ensues. We’re asked back the following night for double the cash. Another sold-out performance. Plus all our T-shirts & cassettes are sold. It’s just grown from there. Great gigs. A recording offer. $$$. We’ll be back in Sacramento in about two weeks. We’ll see how it goes at home. Slag, Pete, & Dirt all say they vaguely remember eating some raw heart. I tell them it was just the drugs, but... Who knows. Just glad I’m a vegetarian. I’ll never sign on that dotted line. Oh, no.

Enjoy,
NØ

The Demise of Drop.io...much belated

2011-06-12T20:17:00.000-07:00

Anyone that knows me, knows I’m always late to the party. I don’t really socially network. I have my own small circle of friends & it’s enough for me. I don’t have cable TV, I don’t read the newspaper, I don’t listen to FM radio. I’m not totally oblivious, mind you. If events are really important to the planet or humanity, I somehow am aware of them by some weird quantum osmosis that I am unable to explain, either to you or myself. I believe it is imagicknation.

I am really bad at checking comments on my old posts. Somehow through the process of avoiding wage slavery I have entered a state where I have absolutely no unused time, so scheduling time to go back through hundreds of year(s)-old posts checking for new comments is low on priority. I’m sure there’s some more computer-savvy method than physically searching each post in the edit mode, but I’m a Luddite at heart. Beside that, it takes time to learn how, time, as I mentioned above, I don’t seem to have.

Well, when I was checking for new comments late last Sat. nite/Sun. morn, I found numerous searchers letting me know that links I had uploaded to the elegant file sharing service Drop.io were no longer working. Being Nothin’ if not diligent, I googled 'the demise of Drop.io'. About 3,960,000 results in 0.17 second. Late again to the party indeed.

It turns out that Drop.io was purchased by ever-loving Bookface, that on December 15 last they ceased to exist, & bye-bye files. Yes,
"Facebook bought Drop.io & its creator Sam Lessin (who helped Mark Zuckerberg out in early days). So this simple purpose-driven space for our stuff (what else do we need?) that seemed so secure (even the phrase 'Drop.io Drop' contains its own redundancy) had to go away, along with all of the files we put there."

I am now in the process of of re-uploading said files. I am starting with the files actually requested by searchers. I will try to get to everything eventually, but if no one wants it, or at least can’t communicate that they do, well...

Thanks to whSonic & some anonymous other(s). Some of this is on Mediafire & some is on Megaupload. They both have various good & bad points, but are both free. I didn’t want to put all my eggs in one basket, as they say.

I’ve got a Audio-Technica AT-LP2D USB turntable, a better cd player, & better ripping software & devices since I posted this stuff, so I re-ripped everything, all 320Kbps. All in all these files should be better than the originals.

Here’s what’s done so far:
Dyan Diamond - In the Dark
Knuckleheads - Ain’t that America
The Mops - Psychedelic Sounds in Japan
P - P
The Beacon Street Union - The Eyes of...
The Twits - The Twits
Venus & the Razorblades - Songs from the Sunshine Jungle
Steel Pole Bath Tub - European Son/Venus in Furs 7"

plus there was a request for :
Some Cocktail Suggestions..from Steel Pole Bath Tub

Steel Pole Bath Tub - Some Cocktail Suggestions,

Boner Records BR42-1, 1994.

Side A -
Ray
The Living End
Slip
Side B -
Hit It
Speakerphone
The Wasp Jar

& since posting the SPBT I had acquired their
Tragedy Exstacy Doom & So On 2X7"

Steel Pole Bath Tub - Tragedy Ecstacy Doom & So On,
Genius Records geni R017, 1995.

Side A -
Home is a Rope
Side B -
I Want it Now
4 Barrels
Side C -
Alice, pt. 1
Side D -
Alice, pt 2

that I thought I’d include as a bonus.

Enjoy,
NØ

Was he a man or was he a Maus?

2011-05-15T18:17:00.000-07:00

Carl Gustav Jung put forth the theory of "temporally coincident occurrences of acausal events."

In my years on this planet, I have observed that the more deeply in-tuned one is with this so-called life, the more often these "occurrences"...well...occur.

Recent case in point that spawned this rant.

I was watching 30th Century Man the other night (the 2006 film about singer & musickian Scott Walker né Noel Scott Engel, once a part of the Walker Brothers...the fact that they were not brothers & were not Walkers was very kool).

The movie made me think of the Walker Brothers third & final album, Nite Flights, & that I had not heard it for a long while, which I soon remedied. As I was listening to it, I was thinking...what a perfect piece of musick. I know that the Brothers, especially Scott, had become increasingly less enthralled by the bands TeenScene image & that rather than being a unified effort, Nite Flights was in fact separate showcases for where each Brother was at at that juncture in time. However, I am greatly at odds with most reviews of this work.

(example - "Actually the first four tracks are the only ones worth mentioning - the 6 after were composed by the other two members, the whole a very disjointed reunion album. Considering, the last tracks might have made for a decent album on its own, but Mr. Scott's compositions cast a very large shadow on everything around him..." )

Most heap on the praise, justifiably, for the first four tracks by Scott, & more often than not relegate the remainder of the songs to the cut-out bin. I personally believe that all the songs are best when viewed as whole cloth. While no cuts here come close to the power of Scott's "The Electrician",

(another critic - "But the real darkness descends with The Electrician. A nightmare evocation of US-backed torture squads in South America, this dialogue between torturer and tortured is part intense humming of evil, part south American getaway holiday theme - and if you want to gauge how far the group had come from the clean-cut romance of their '60s glory years, this is the song to go to [in the face of this uniqueness, it's probably unfair to compare the six songs included here by other two Brothers John and Gary]")

I have always appreciated every song. I am particularly partial to the last four songs, penned by John (Joseph Maus) Walker. The darkness of the titles juxtaposed with the emotion of the contents always worked for me.

This ruminating reminded me of Phallus Dei’s last release, A Day in the Life of Brian Wilson, which featured the vocals of John Walker on two of the best tracks. I had been wanting to post it up since it came out last year (in fact I had a copy of the cd in 2009)(I had done a post about it & put up one song)(it is in such limited release that I hardly see it available to purchase or otherwise).

I decided that I would post both titles using the Walker connection as my jumping off point. I went on the Phallus Dei site to check on the availability of ADITLOBW (I know the South Park punks say “Phallus Dei Sucks!”). On the site was an announcement, as follows:

"John Walker, one of the founders of the famous The Walker Brothers, lost his fight with liver cancer and passed away on Saturday, May 7th in his house in San Franciso. The music world has lost a great talent, a fantastic musician and a good friend. It was such a great honour to have worked with this great musician. We will sadly miss him. Rest in Peace, John. "

So here to change your lives, kiddies, are two aural orgasms. Don’t tell your parents I give you this stuff.

The Walker Brothers - Nite Flights, GTO (UK) GTLP 033, 1978.

Side One -
Shutout
Fat Mama Kick
Nite Flights
The Electrician
[tracks A1 - A4 by Scott (Engel) Walker]
Death of Romance

Side Two -
Den Haague
[tracks A5 + B1 by Gary (Leeds) Walker]
Rythyms of Vision
Disciples of Death
Fury & the Fire
Child of Flames
[tracks B2 - B5 by John (Maus) Walker]

Phallus Dei - A Day in the Life of Brian Wilson,
Big Blue Records 8483476, 2010.

Dawn (prologue)
Awakening (vocals by Clara Engel)
Will You Come Now (vocals by John Walker)
Afternoon Music
The Same (vocals by Clara Engel)
Boiler Room Party
Journey to the Heart of the Moon
Dusk (epilogue - vocals by John Walker)

All tracks written, arranged, & performed by: Mk. E. - keyboards; Oliver St. Lingam - keyboards; & Richard Van Kruysdijk - guitar, drums, & keyboards; with Alex Goebbels on didgeridoo on track 7.

Enjoy & never forget,
NØ

Love them Freaks

2011-05-08T21:41:00.000-07:00

I think I first heard about/heard this over at Mutant Sounds. I downloaded it & listened to it on a regular basis, then finally the other day I got my hands on a copy. You can try it out & if you like it, you can go over to the Freaks Amour website & get all their stuff. I was having trouble with one track & I contacted Stuart Werner from Freaks A. He e-mailed me back the very next day saying the link was fixed & telling me about another track that was corrupted that I might want to re-dl. Beyond the call of duty & very kool indeed.

Freaks Amour released this in 1989 privately on their own Nart label. Residing somewhere in the Connecticut netherworld between Pere Ubu & the Velvet Underground. Regressive...a stone-age approach to musick...grungy, simplistic noise, best when improvised. NART...that which is not art.This is an amazing amalgam of improvised psych music of guitar, found objects & some simple electronics.

Freaks Amour here: Rich Vaughan - cello, toy piano, & voice; Grant Miller - guitar; & Stuart Werner - Casio SK1 keyboards. Recorded at a live performance:April/May 1988 at WWUH. West Hartford, Connecticut.

Freaks Amour - Regressive Music for the Mind & Body,
NART RECORDS NART #9001, 1989.

Side A -
Sleep
MotherF", Incidentally
Sneaky Weasel
Where is it at, You Say?
Lavalamp

Side B -
Live Radio Feedback
Disposable Car
The Square
Noisy Mersey

Enjoy,
NØ

Funk You

2011-05-06T14:48:00.000-07:00

Here’s a masterpiece of magick musick FUNK!!! At times I think the perfection of the first cd is unsurpassable. I stop & listen to it over & over again. The Godzillatron funk metal of "Orbitron Attack"; the unfathomable beauty that is the cover of Hendrix‘s "If 6 was 9" & the best version ever of "Cosmic Slop"; then the disc ends with Eddie Hazel blistering the cosmos on "Pray My Soul" (listen to this with headphones, it's almost as great as "Maggot Brain"). So if you’re not sure or not familiar with this sucka, then definitely get the first disc & give it an ear.

But let me tell ya, the second disc is full of surprises. First response is often that it’s too 'thought out', with a taste of all your main funk flavors; "Sax Machine" is a Maceo Parker saxophone rave-up; "Animal Behavior" is the Mothership speaking; then the heavy "Trumpets & Violins, Violins"(another Hendrix number); the Brian Auger Oblivionesque "Telling Time"; the turntablism of "Jungle Free-bass"; & the fantastic space-funk of Blackbyrd McKnight’s "Blackout", but let me tell ya...

They start this motha up with "the freaky-deaky not the kinda freek ya wanna be freakin’ out with" "Hideous Mutant Freekz" (that I’ve featured here before) & end the side once more with the Haze blowin’ it out on the guitar on "Sacred to the Pain" with spoken word by Umar Bin Hassan of the legendary The Last Poet. If you don’t grab this cd as well, well...youse a foo!

Artwork By [Cover Art & Comix] – Pedro Bell & Seitu Hayden/Splankwerks East
"...And may we be forgiven for we know not what we've done!"
Producer – Bill Laswell

partial list of players:
Funkateers - Bernie Worrell, Bootsy Collins, Gary Shider, George Clinton, Gary ‘Mudbone’ Cooper, Maceo Parker, Eddie Hazel...

Everybodys frienz - Bill Laswell, Anton Fier, Buckethead...

fabulously famous - Herbie Hancock, DeWayne ‘Blackbird’ McKnight, Sly Stone, Bobby Byrd, Umar Bin Hassan...

Reggae dubsters - Robbie Shakespeare Sly Dunbar...

plus many, many more.

Axiom Funk – Funkcronomicon double cd, Axiom 524 077-2, 1995.

CD1 -
1-1 Order Within the Universe
1-2 Under the Influence (Jes Grew)
1-3 If 6 was 9
1-4 Orbitron Attack
1-5 Cosmic Slop
1-6 Free-bass (Godzillatron Cush)
1-7 Tell the World
1-8 Pray my Soul

CD2 -
2-1 Hideous Mutant Freekz
2-2 Sax Machine
2-3 Animal Behavior
2-4 Trumpets & Violins, Violins
2-5 Telling Time
2-6 Jungle Free-bass
2-7 Blackout
2-8 Sacred to the Pain

Enjoy,
NØ

R.I.P. Miss Poly Styrene

2011-04-29T17:52:00.000-07:00

I posted some live X-Ray Spex from CBGBs over at Digital Meltd0wn.
If you need some Marianne Elliot-Said that'll have to do.
What can I say?
What a firecracker!
All us punx, x-punx, & x-ray spex are gonna miss ya.
NØ

E-mail for Everyone

2011-04-28T11:17:00.000-07:00

Dragged this out of the dusty vault after a friend told me about a fantastic show SL&G played March 12 at The Slaughterhouse in Berlin, Germany. Sad Lovers & Giant always had their strongest fan base in Europe, but this was their first ever show in Berlin. I think they are currently working on a new release & are also scheduled to play London later this summer (September 4th at the Purple Turtle).

The set list from their recent show:
Close To The Sea
Alaska
One Man's Hell
Echoplay
Vendetta
Man Of Straw
3 Lines
Happiness Is Fragile
Jungle Of Lies
Your Skin and Mine
Silent Decay
Seven Kinds Of Sin
Things We Never Did
Encore 1 -
In Flux
Imagination
Cowboys
Clint
Encore 2 -
Alice (Isn't Playing)
Sleep (Is For Everyone);

had much material in common with this release. The band had broken up for the second time after their label, Midnight Music, went bust. Then Cherry Red purchased MMs back catalogue & released E-mail from Eternity, a ‘best of’ compilation (on their Anagram label). It’s a great place to start if you don;t know or just want to familiarize yourself with SL&G.

Although the band formed in 1980 & their original sound was new wavish, they developed a more indie folk post-punk sound with new wavish overtones as they progressed. This release is a great place to start if you don’t know or just want to familiarize yourself with SL&G.

S4d L0v3rs & G14n7s - E-m41l fr0m 373rn17y: The Best of...,

Anagram Records CDM GRAM 104, 1996.

Tracks -
Things We Never Did
Clint
Alice (Isn't Playing)
Art (by Me)
Imagination
Cowboys
On Another Day
Sleep (is for Everyone)
In Flux
The Best Film He Ever Made
White Russians
Take Seven
Seven Kinds of Sin
Return to Clocktower Lodge
One Man's Hell
Alaska
The Sky is a Glove
Things We Never Did (De Puta Madre live version)

Enjoy,
NØ

I've been Invaded

2011-04-16T12:06:00.000-07:00

This is what I'm watchin' these days when I get a few moments to plop down my ass.

"The Invaders, alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination: the Earth. Their purpose: to make it their world. David Vincent has seen them. For him, it began one lost night on a lonely country road, looking for a shortcut that he never found. It began with a closed deserted diner, and a man too long without sleep to continue his journey. It began with the landing of a craft from another galaxy. Now David Vincent knows that the Invaders are here, that they have taken human form. Somehow he must convince a disbelieving world that the nightmare has already begun."

Dominic Frontiere - The Invaders Main Title Theme, 1967.

If you want all the musick from this classic fantastic TeeVee, get the unofficial soundtrack here.

Enjoy,
NØ

Been tripping out to Rob D.

2011-04-14T18:06:00.000-07:00

This one is for Ib Sibling

Something newer than Furious Angels

Enjoy,
NØ

American Cheese

2011-04-10T15:14:00.000-07:00

from Zodiac (2010) by Electric Six - It Ain't Punk Rock

Enjoy,
NØ

Call in the CDC - I need a Docktor

2011-04-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

Dub is the rub, but I been ill.
My ‘air. Dyeing. I needs Roots Control.
CDC Certified Dope.

If this Dub don’t do you, then

your not smokin’ the rite rope.
Crooklyn Dub Consortium
the Dubbiest Illest
CDC in da Hizzouse Bowie.

Crooklyn Dub Consortium - Certified Dope Vol. 1,
WordSound WSCD003, 1995.

Enjoy,
NØ

Singers & Players - War of Words

2011-03-24T15:28:00.000-07:00

Lotta people seemed to have enjoyed the last Singers & Players that I posted up, so here’s another one. From 1981 on 99 Records in the U.S., released the following year in the U.K. on On-U Sound. Although Bim Sherman does the vocal duties on five of the seven tunes (& never sounded finer), this is the first album by Singers & Players with Prince Far-I & Jah Woosh.

War of Words has that heavy slow dub with early dancehall influences. Bim Sherman handles the vocals on "Devious Woman," "Fit to Survive," & "World of Dispensation", great funky rootsy skankers while "91 Vibration" has echoed dub with vocals he must have phoned in from another area code. However, when Prince Far-I steps up to the mike on "Quante Jubila" a re-working of Creation Rebels 's "Know Yourself" it is a thing of beauty, the juxtaposition of the Prince’s gruff vocals with the songs emotional lyrics. If you liked Leaps & Bounds, you’re gonna really groove to this one.

Singers & Players here are: Bim Sherman, Prince Far-I, & Jah Woosh - vocals; “Crucial” Tony - guitar, bass, keyboards, & vocals; Keith Levene - guitar; Geotge Oban - bass; Lizard - bass & vocals; Ari “Stepper”, “Bigga” Morrison, Doctor Pablo, & Nick Plytas - keyboards; Eskimo Fox & “Style” Scott - drums; & Mr. Ranking Magoo - percussion. Produced, of course, by Adrian Sherwood.

Singers & Players - War of Words, 99 Records 99-02LP, 1981.

This Side -
Devious Woman
Quanté Jubila
Sit & Wonder
Fit to Survive
Other Side -
Reaching the Bad Man
World of Dispensation
91 Vibration

Enjoy,
NØ

Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson

2011-03-03T13:42:00.000-08:00

Anders from Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson became a friend after I posted their freshman release Unnoticed in a Tiny Town over at Digital Meltd0wn (where I also do time) & he wrote to me.

If you don't know, YPOFH is a post-rock band from Bodø, Norway. As I said over at DM, their songs are haunting & skygazing epics combining electronic elements with soothing layers of dreamy guitars & pounding yet jazzy intricate beats. It is post-rock with a pop feel laced with spoken, sung & screamed vocals. One can dance to their tunes or be lulled to sleep, they are at the same time beat-driven & dream-inducing.

Anders recently let me know that they are now on tour in the USA, heading for SXSW. They are traveling from NY to TX in March, playing concerts along the way (unfortunately they are not voyaging west to Cali). Below are their tour dates. If you live in any of these areas, go check'em out & tell'em Nathan sent ya. You won't regret it. This is their first time in the US.

MARCH 2011 Limited US Tour
07: Manhattan, NY @ Pianos
08: Brooklyn, NY @ Legion Bar (w/ Cattle Drums and Golden City)
09: Philadelphia, PA @ Millcreek Tavern
10: Ridgewood, NJ @ Tony's house (w/ A Garden Overgrown and Prawn)
11: Annapolis, MD @ Savvas' house (w/ AGO, Prawn and Sleep Bellum Sonno)
12: Harrisonburg, VA @ Crayola House (w/ SBS and many more!)
13: Wilmington, NC @ Soapbox (w/ Fractal Farm and SBS)
14: Clarksville, TN @ The Coup (w/ Deadhorse and The Ascent of Everest)
15: Shreveport, LA @ Bear's Oyster Bar (w/ Gifts From Enola)
16: SXSW (day off)
17: SXSW (day off)
18: notSXSW @ Plush (4pm) (w/ Sleep Bellum Sonno and many more)
19: SXSW @ Swan Dive (8pm)
20: Oklahoma City, OK @ Hi-Lo Club (w/ The Arts & Crafts Movement)

I've taken the liberty to post up their latest, self-titled release. Hope I don't wind up in trouble. Recorded during some hot & not so hot months late 2009 in the southern parts of Norway. 2 x CDs with a hardbound 32 page book with full color & b/w illustrations. Available in four different background color covers: Red, Grey, White (this cover) & Green.

Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson - self-titled,
How is Annie Records HIA031, 2010.

Puzzle cd -
Let's Rent Bikes from 1942
I'd Rather Listen to Weston
He Can't be Dead, I got his Autograph Last Week
To Sit Down or to Follow, So I Follow
The Detective cd -
Our Door Handles Stopped Moving Years Ago
The League Will Never let the Albino Kid Win
I Think E.T. is Involved in my Family
Scientists now Think this City is Overdue

Enjoy,
NØ

R.I.P. Phil Vane

2011-02-24T17:25:00.000-08:00

Everyone else seems to be posting up Extreme Noise Terror or Napalm Death as a tribute to the dearly departed M. Vane. Thought I'd give a bit of OWP. Rest in pieces. Vain to the end. Take the bribe or take the bullet.

Optimum Wound Profile - Silver Or Lead,
Roadrunner Records RR 9040 2, 1993.

Tracklist:
One Head Two Eyes
Nazilover
Twisted
Crotch Metal Orgasm
Plata O Plomo
Slavetrade
Verfall
Sidewinder
Doghead
Exorcise
Lubricator
Modus Operandi
(hidden tracks)

Enjoy,
NØ

Mouthpiece Mega-post

2011-01-15T23:16:00.000-08:00

Guess today I’ll be the mouthpiece for Suavity’s Mouthpiece. Don’t know if it’ll make me suave or not.

I first came across Suavity’s Mouthpiece over at thee Brad Miller’s place with the release The Audial Equivalent of John Wilkes Booth.

Brad said:
“This one was sent by a friend of the blog.... I told him people would either say it's the best thing ever or a joke. Either way, you will end up scratching your head with a WTF expression on your face.”

Well, I mighta had a WTF expression on my face but I definitely liked it & have played it many times since then. So here is some of what is known about SM...& most everything musickally from them (really mainly ‘him’ & frenz).

Suavity's Mouthpiece is the current vehicle of Pittsburgh,PA-born singer-songwriter Justin Trafford. Born Justin Antoszewski. His earliest musick was influenced by The Smiths & Magazine/Howard DeVoto. Trafford’s first release, 2002s single, "Empty Dreamer" was on his own Widowed Majesty label. Using the name Sinclair McRickson, Trafford blended styles reminiscent of 1920s/30s crooning with post-punk music. The single drew attention to Trafford (McRickson) in the outsider art community.

McRickson - The Very Last of My Promenade Days (revisited),
End of Music EOM94, 2009.

Trafford began working on his first commercial full-length album, which was to contain his specialized brand of crooning baroque pop he had presented in the first single. The album, The Very Last of My Promenade Days was released in 2002. The song "Interlude" from this album would re-appear on the Because We Must: The Smiths & Morrissey release in 2009, but unfortunately, TVLOMPD languished without much notice.

Justin was determined to make his next album a masterpiece. It seems as though he would be successful, as the first single, "Undesirable" from his sophomore album, The Winedark Serenatas (released in 2005) garnered several prizes around the Internet. He was awarded "Most Original" & "Best Mood" in the indie rock genre from prestigious artist review site GarageBand.com. "The Rapture Incarnate", also from Winedark was a huge hit & remains a staple in Suavity’s live shows.

Trafford's next full-length album, Embrace the Nocturne(2006) would continue the pattern of his baroque pop sound, but in a much less confrontational, more robust mood. He strove to recreate the atmosphere of his post-punk fave Magazine's sophomore album, Secondhand Daylight.

In early 2008, Trafford announced plans for his fourth studio endeavor, which was to be entitled These Thoughts Dost Seasons Manifest, but before even half of the album was recorded, Trafford had a falling out with the web-based distributors at his very own Widowed Majesty label, & vowed to dispose of the label after his new project was released. Under the new title Citta Creatura Viva (a deluxe version including tracks recorded after the trouble at Widowed Majesty)...taken from a book by obscure Italian poet Biagia Marniti...the album was finally released on Trafford's 18th birthday, 13 November 2008. The album yielded four successful singles: "Rush Toward the Hilltop"; "Killjoy"; "I Ebb to the Wayside"; & "Fast Car, Sharp Bend, I Will Love You Always". While the essence of baroque pop remained, Citta Creatura Viva was the first of Trafford's albums to rely heavily on distortion guitar & synthesizer.

Battery - The Beatles Would've Hung Themselves single,
Love Torture Records LTR171, 2009.

By January 2009, Trafford had signed to two separate labels, Love Torture Records in Canoga Park, California & End of Music in Pavia, Italy to better facilitate the release of his works worldwide. By early February, Trafford had released a new single entitled "The Beatles Would've Hung Themselves" under the new moniker Battery. The release stood apart from anything previously written by Trafford up until that time, building on a melodic punk vibe reminiscent of the late 70s singles of The Buzzcocks.

Suavity's Mouthpiece - Know Your Place single,
Love Torture Records LTR199, 2009.

With the release of a second new single, "Know Your Place", Trafford announced that Battery would record one more single leading up to a full-length album entitled The Audial Equivalent of John Wilkes Booth. Before the album was ready, Trafford announced that his new band would be called Suavity's Mouthpiece as he had run into publishing problems with another band from the southern California area already called Battery. "Know Your Place" garnered more acclaim than any previously released McRickson single, being dubbed by LOSINGTODAY UK magazine as ''a twinkling bed of celestial halos...strangely amorphous...operatic.''

At the time of the release of the third single leading up to The Audial Equivalent of John Wilkes Booth, entitled "The P.E. Survivors", Trafford's close friend Meredith Bigatel began accompanying him on the bass guitar & rhythm guitar in live performances. Bigatel's brother Nick was an active voice in Pittsburgh's Iron City punk scene with his band Bad Influence. The Audial Equivalent of John Wilkes Booth was released in April of 2009 to critical acclaim. The 9-track pseudo-electronic opus announced the arrival of Suavity's Mouthpiece on the popular music scene.

Suavity's Mouthpiece - Luck Be a Lady, Love Torture Records LTR220, 2009.

A departure from the old McRickson style, most tracks on the album have their basis in progressive keyboards & synthesized sounds with the propulsion provided by the guitar & vocals fashioned after the stylings of 1920s crooners, in particular 20s crooning sensation Russ Columbo, whose life was cut tragically short in the apex of his career in a freak antique dueling pistol accident.

Suavity's Mouthpiece - I Call it Madness, but You Call it Love single,
Love Torture Records LTR232, 2009.

In mid-June 2009, Justin announced plans for a new extended-play record by Suavity's Mouthpiece, to be heralded by a single dedicated to & bearing a unique twist on Columbo's signature tune, "I Call it Madness, but You Call it Love". Released in August 2009, the single continued Trafford's streak of topping his own material in popularity with each succeeding release.

Suavity's Mouthpiece - The EP, Love Torture Records LTR237, 2009.

The six-song EP Suavity's Mouthpiece was released a few weeks later, followed by a second single entitled "Au Revoir, Mssr. Meursault" released only on End of Music. It was at this time that Trafford began once again looking for new labels. He felt that the notable difference between his work & most of the more industrial or experimental acts on Love Torture Records worked against his band, despite the fact that Suavity's Mouthpiece had been garnering a substantial amount of business for the label.

Suavity's Mouthpiece - Au Revoir, Mssr. Meursault, End of Music EOM109, 2009.

Trafford opted to re-release "Au Revoir, Mssr. Meursault" on the new avant-garde Filipino label Kamias Road Records, headed by Lionel Valdellon, curator of electronic label QED Records. It was the first time since the beginning of Trafford's professional career that he was without backing from a US label.

McRickson, Battery, & Suavity's Mouthpiece - Singles to Which Lovers Roll Their Eyes,
Kamias Road Records KRD-007, 2009.

In October 2009, Kamias Road Records released a compilation of twenty original singles spanning Trafford's seven year recording career (as McRickson, Battery, & Suavity's Mouthpiece), entitled Singles to Which Lovers Roll Their Eyes. The idea was to familiarize fans of Suavity’s Mouthpiece with the hard-to-find older musick, especially the McRickson catalogue which was basically out-of-print since the demise of his Widowed Majesty label.

Suavity's Mouthpiece - The Passion of Suavity's Mouthpiece,
Subspine Records SR-020, 2010.

It was at this time that the band began including more material from Justin’s back catalog in their live sets, specifically from the album Embrace the Nocturne. Trafford's next intended move was to follow-up The Audial Equivalent of John Wilkes Booth with a second full-length Suavity's Mouthpiece disc. Once again at odds with his label, he dropped Kamias Road Records. Suavity's Mouthpiece was soon signed by progressive Dallas,TX label Subspine Records. Now confident with the availability of his back catalog & finally with a US label again, Trafford looked forward to his next full length release, to be entitled The Passion of Suavity's Mouthpiece. The first new single from that project was the trumpet-blazing show tune called "The Brains of Flies" that was released in early December 2009. It immediately became a live favorite.

Suavity's Mouthpiece - I'm Sick of Your Tedious Girlfriend single,
Subspine Records SR-018, 2010.

The follow-up single "I'm Sick of Your Tedious Girlfriend" again caught the attention of Garageband.com, which awarded the new Suavity's Mouthpiece single five different awards for "Best Male Vocals in Alternative Pop", "Best Overall Programming", "Best Production in Alternative Pop", "Best Mood in Alternative Pop", & "Most Original Overall" along with making it the site's 'Track of the Day' on January 23rd. The new single featured a jazz-flamenco fusion rhythm with blaring trumpets & an exotic eastern breakdown, The sleeve for the single is the first to feature Meredith Bigatel alone, which Trafford jokingly has credited for the success of the single.

Suavity's Mouthpiece - Casual Friday, Subspine Records SR-024, 2010.

Suavity’s Mouthpiece are basically Justin Trafford & Meredith Bigatel with Ian Hatfield.

Suavity's Mouthpiece - The Rape of Laura Ingalls, Subspine Records SR-034, 2010.

Those who have participated in the sound of Suavity's Mouthpiece: Corey Florindi (the Gentlemen); Cody Kraski & Claire Secen (the Feel-Good Revolution); John Matta (Awaiting Daylight); Dr. Wes Miller (the Pocket Mystics); Megha Priya Pai; Zachary Santoro (the Spiffies); & Leland Shaw (Polar Opps Inc.)

Suavity's Mouthpiece - Apoplexy Index, Subspine Records SR-037, 2010.

Suavity's Mouthpiece - Suavity's Swansongs, bonus ep with Apoplexy Index.

Suavity's Mouthpiece - I've Been Expecting You, Subspine Records SR-039, 2010.
recorded for the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Luxuria album Beast Box

Enjoy,
NØ