Missed it Dept.: Bryan Young at Huffington Post has an exclusive eight-page preview of Mat Johnson and Simon Gane’s Dark Rain graphic novel about New Orleans during Katrina published by Vertigo. Dark Rain was released on August 24, 2010 (the preview is from the 22nd) Here is a choice paragraph from his review:

The book doesn’t just tackle the heist story, though, it captures a taste of the horror and confusion of the days after the hurricane and the immense sense of depression and loss that must have been present in the Superdome while residents waited far too long for aid. In fact, there were more than a couple of moments in the book set in the Superdome that almost brought tears to my eyes.

Jimmy Page has a website… well, he has a hint that a website is coming. You can sign up for updates. We expect great things.

The latest installment of Kate Beaton’s “Hark, A Vagrant”, which has a Nancy Drew theme, is a corker!

NSFW Department. This cover of an Asian RCA Victor LP that prominently displays a woman’s right nipple is one of the best record covers ever. On LP Cover Lover.

Music and art powerhouse Brian Chippendale (Lightning Bolt, Ninja) has started a web comic on PictureBox’s site called Puke Force.

I’m looking forward to seeing Stanley Donwood’s exhibit of new paintings – over normal – at Fifty24SF Gallery when I get back to the Bay Area next week. They are very much in the style of the art he created for Radiohead’s Hail To The Thief and its singles.

The much loved Betty Davis talks about her life with Miles and inspiring Bitches Brew’s creation in today’s Guardian on the event of a deluxe re-issue of that classic record, that, for better and worse, gave us fusion.

And, last, we have this interview with Upstate’s Favorite James Howard Kunstler about his new novel The Witch of Hebron, which is to be released on Tuesday, September 7th.

We interrupt our regular scheduled programming to share with you this awesome new video from Underworld for the track ‘Always Loved A Film’ from their upcoming Barking release. Barking will arrive in the US on Vinyl and CD on September 14, 2010. Seriously, this is the best video ever.

While checking in at Wow Cool East in Brooklyn this week I’ve managed to catch a taste of Blonde Redhead’s upcoming 4AD Session. It was recorded and is being mixed by our resident multi-track wrangler Mr. Andrew Gerhan. Andy has done some nice work on upcoming releases from nickname: Rebel and Brown Cuts Neighbors that you will be hearing more about soon. Enjoy the video preview of the session above of the track ‘Here Sometimes‘ (iTunes link).

Blonde Redhead’s new LP Penny Sparkle is out from 4AD in the US September 14, and is available for pre-order on Vinyl and CD.

Their hour in the spotlight was more cerebral, an evocative canvas of sounds at once abstract in origin and tinged by hints of field recordings from the “real world” (the “evidential” aspect?). Melodic motifs and fuzzy groove elements emerged and receded in the mesmeric sonic fog, and the set conjured up the sense of a journey to whereabouts unknown, but not at all unpleasant. Ambient mission accomplished.

He is playing in San Francisco tonight, Thursday August 26th, as part of Evidence, and you should fully check that.

Wow Cool » NEW » Stephan Moore - To Build a Field

Stephan Moore - To Build a Field

Stephan Moore has spent the last five years touring with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as a core member of their live band, alongside such notables as Christian Wolff, Takehisa Kosugi, David Behrman, John King, and William Winant. At the same time, he has been collaborating with a number of younger choreographers to create sound scores for their performance works. To Build A Field collects the best of these pieces, drawn from six of his commissions by four very different choreographers. The CD’s title refers to Moore’s view of his role in these collaborations: designing and executing sonic structures that define the emotional and rhythmic topography of time.

Each track negotiates a balance between acoustic sound sources and electronics, live performance and studio composition, and human vs. algorithmic control of sound materials. Time is continually bent into new shapes, challenging the listener, and his collaborators, to think beyond the easy comforts of a regular tempo, and confront rhythm as texture instead of a reliable grid. Brooklyn-based sound artist Stephan Moore's recent musical work centers around the collection and use of real-world sound, the creation and perception of sonic environments, and technological manifestations of improvisation and interactivity. He develops his own performance software and builds point-source loudspeakers for use in his performances and sound installation work. His current ongoing collaborations include the Xenolinguistics performance project with visionary video artist Diana Reed Slattery, projects with choreographers Yanira Castro and Kimberly Young and performance artist Kyle DeCamp, sound design for the Nerve Tank theater collective, and the performing/recording duo Evidence with sound artist Scott Smallwood. He curates a concert series at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio called Experiments in the Studio, and co-curates an annual month-long Floating Points festival of performances and sound installations at the ISSUE Project Room in Brooklyn, pairing the permanent sixteen-channel installation of his Hemisphere speakers there with diverse artists."

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Scott Smallwood and Stephan Moore’s electronic duo EVIDENCE will be celebrating the release of their new 12″ vinyl release from Wow Cool with a series of west coast shows this month. They will be performing with Vibration Institute Orchestra at the Royal/T in Culver City on Wednesday, August 25th. Next they move on up to San Francisco for a night at the Jellyfish Gallery with GoyoPOD opening on Thursday August 26th. Marc Arsenault from Wow Cool will be at that show hawking our various wares. After that, Evidence will be setting up camp at Burning Man.

If you’re going to be in Los Angeles during the next few days, you should be sure to check out the exhibit of Eric Joyner’s latest paintings at Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City. The show runs through September first. You will have the perfect chance to see the show this Wednesday, because you will want to see Evidence performing at Royal/T, which is right down the street from the gallery.

I am very pleased to announce that three of Eric’s paintings will be included in a super top secret project that has been brewing here at Wow Cool. Stay tuned for the official announcement of just what that is in a few short days.

Eric’s Robots and Donuts book from Dark Horse is available from Amazon.

On Friday August 20, 2010, Charles Haddon, singer for British electro-pop band Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, leapt to his death from a telecommunications tower behind the main stage at the Pukkelpop festival in Belgium [full story in the Guardian]

On Thursday August 19, 2010, in Saratoga, California, just a few miles from my home in Cupertino, Michael Edward Pickels plunged to the stage of the Mountain Winery during a set by the folk rock duo The Swell Season. Pickels, 32, was out on $150,000 bail at the time of his death, and scheduled to be in court on Oct. 5 on charges of assault with a firearm, domestic violence and false imprisonment. [full story in the San Jose Mercury News]

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

The appropriate soundtrack to all this is David Bowie’s “Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide” (Live) from Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (The Motion Picture Soundtrack). Rock out with your..

From sometime in the very early eighties until the late-early 90s I watched almost no TV. The only shows I would watch were the late-night fare on Sunday evenings while doing homework… typically MTV’s 120-Minutes and Doctor Who reruns on local PBS station WMHT 17 in Schenectady, New York. This later show was followed by Jack’s show, The Star Hustler (later the Star Gazer). His overly enthusiastic delivery and tacky ‘Members Only’ leather jacket coupled with actually interesting info about what the stars, moon, meteorites and other space stuff were up to was a compelling combo, and the perfect close to a night’s viewing before the final station sign off. Best of all was the special effect that closed his show for a time… after walking off into the distance his body exploded into bits of star stuff. Sadly, I could not find a clip of this online. The example above, complete with the close of a BBC Programme and the station sign off, is a good substitute. Good night this one last time Jack.

Visit the Star Gazer homepage.

The Stanley Kubrick Archive, comprising over 1000 boxes, including scripts, props, costumes, photography, correspondence, equipment and research is housed at the University of the Arts London.

Jason Martin, who gave his interview dressed as a wolf, presented “Power Animal Wrestling.” Martin’s work is based on drawings he made throughout his early lifetime. It wasn’t until recently that he revealed these “secret drawings, deciding to “out” his characters. Martin considers the piece to be a work in progress, and each performance is an “improvement upon the last.” According to Martin, “It’s very vulnerable, and it still freaks me out.” And Martin is quick to clarify that, while the drawings and creatures were his idea, he does not consider them to be technically his creation. “I felt like the drawings were coming from outside of me. And I was freaked out by all of the sexual, gender, and mythological ramifications that they had, which I wasn’t able to clarify when I was a young child.” At the fair on Saturday, Martin and a group of fellow animals – cats and dogs – wrestled on the ground in the shade.

Eight years… Jame Kopta was a dear friend and brilliant artist and musician who I was very lucky to work with on numerous projects over the course of nearly 13 years. He is still very much missed. Eight years ago today he died in a drowning accident. This morning I received the (hopefully) final mix of a track from an unreleased Brown Cuts Neighbors session that is finally being prepared for release on vinyl and digitally. Wow Cool is just getting properly rolling on digitizing and making available the vast archive of work created by Brown Cuts Neighbors. There are many riches to be found there, and it will be a great day when official release dates can finally be announced. Stay tuned. It is really happening now.

In the meanwhile, the original tribute section of this site can still be viewed here. It contains photos, a message board and sound clips. Jim’s new artist page on the redesigned WowCool.com is still a work in progress.

Live! July 24, 2010 at 51 3rd Street. Troy, New York. Many more clips available from Conglomco. We still have a couple copies of the D&D CD from Bloodlink Records available. Go get yours.

I could have picked worse clips, I probably could have picked better clips. Lady Starlight may be best remembered for spreading the Schenectady accent around the globe. For those that missed it, Brown Cuts Neighbors co-founder Lady Starlight is opening for Lady Gaga on this leg of the Monster Ball Tour, spinning a devastating array of classic rock hits.

Listen to Lady Starlight’s Metal For Muthas! radio show on Viva Radio.

The long awaited new Vertigo graphic novel Dark Rain by Mat Johnson (Incognegro) illustrated by Simon Gane has been announced for an August 24 release in bookstores and from Amazon and August 18th in Comic Book stores. Cover by Nessim Higson

Dark Rain is a graphic novel thriller set in the days after Hurricane Katrina. Two small-time ex-cons with big dreams get the idea that this would be the perfect time to rob a bank. Catch is, the bank is in New Orleans, and they’re on parole in Houston. Now, as every sane person tries to get out of The Big Easy, Emmit and Dabny will do whatever it takes to get in.

As they journey through a tide of human suffering, Dabny wants to help, and Emmit sees only the money. But a rogue commander of the ruthless security force “Dark Rain” has his sights set on taking down the same bank. If Emmit and Dabny don’t outrace him, their last hope for a second chance could be washed away in the floodwaters – along with their lives.

“Mat Johnson’s unflinching, macabre sense of humor is perfectly in tune with New Orleans, and Simon Gane’s eye for character and detail brings the region — in all its glory and degradation — to vivid life. Together, Johnson and Gane dredge up nightmarish memories of the dark days following Hurricane Katrina.”

— Josh Neufeld, writer/artist of the New York Times Bestseller A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge

See a preview of some finished pages at Spinetingler Magazine.

There is a must-read new interview with Simon up now on Reglar Wiglar, which contains this classic quote: “Guernica almost looks pro-war on an iPhone.” Make of that what you will.

There is an excerpt from the book included in many Vertigo comics currently on the stands.

Our contribution…

July 24, 2010. Prospect Park. Brooklyn, New York.

JasonMartinWebsite.com

Posted in 3 parts to the YouTube by a fan, is this holiday classic. A shorter edit of it was created for, and I believe can still be viewed, in the collection of Buffalo, New York’s Squeaky Wheel. This episode is a bit of a slow starter, but, like an old movie, you need to stick with it while the suspense builds up to the big payoff.

The published obituary from today’s Albany Times Union is reproduced below.

David M. Zagorski

Zagorski, David M. ALBANY David Michael Zagorski, 37, died peaceful at home on July 25, 2010. He is survived by wife, Amelia; mother, Beverly; father, Rich; stepmother, Layne; brother, Rick; and sisters, Lexi Mae and Skye. David attended Shenendehowa High School and Niagara University. He enjoyed a lifetime of travel and adventure, had extraordinary talent and skill, and was a determined entrepreneur. He established Earth Traders import company, Saratoga Candle Co., Parc Candle Co., and Analog Underground Recording Studios. David was an adept carpenter. He was an artist and musician whose energy and imagination spilled into everything he did. He was a founding member of two brilliant indie rock bands: Giant Ray Soda and Tom Fiction. A ceremony celebrating David’s life will be held at Albany Rural Cemetery Chapel, Cemetery Avenue, Menands, NY 12204 at 10:00 on Saturday, July 31. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Community Hospice of Albany Co., 445 New Karner Rd., Albany, NY 12205.

Out today in the US is the debut slab from Riotgod, and it is awesome! They are fronted by our old pal Mark Sunshine and feature the rhythm section from Monster Magnet. So, yeah… Heavy and Rocking.

The release is available in physical form at your local record store or from Amazon. You can also get it on the iTunes.

In 2007 Monster Magnet’s Bob Pantella and Jim Baglino created their own alternate universe under the Riotgod banner, inviting guitarist Garrett Sweeny and the estranged vocalist known only as Sunshine to travel the cosmos with them. Their achieved collective goal is “Riotgod”, their debut album containing some of the most energetic, recognizable and high quality Hard Rock this side of Mars. Dare to meet your Riotgod! The initial 1000 copies will be in digipak format with bonus tracks.

Music video for Autoautomatic from “The Target Museum.” Directed/produced/edited by Olivia Robinson & Jesse Stiles. Music by Jesse Stiles, lyrics by Jesse Ball & Jesse Stiles. Filmed in New Delhi, India.

NEW! From Jesse Stiles on Wow Cool’s sister label Specific Recordings is the sizzling, much anticipated release the Target Museum as a limited-edition vinyl Picture Disk. There is also a related videogame by Moleindustria called Inside a Dead Skyscraper.

Jesse Stiles’ long awaited debut is here on approximately 250 slabs of crazy looking vinyl. Many of the songs on this record were written while Jesse worked wearing a hazmat suit inside one of the partially destroyed buildings surrounding the ground zero site. They capture that hallucination of contradictory images and turn them into catchy and unique electronic pop masterpieces. The Target Museum was recorded on a former military base in Wendover, Utah and various parts of India.

The release party was Saturday night at 51 3rd Street in Troy, New York with Jesse, Denim & Diamonds, Stephan Moore of Evidence and Crossbow. Wish I could have attended. The last time I played at 51 3rd, Jesse was booked at the other side of town with both our shows that much the poorer for it. (Thanks for the shout-out on the Evidence LP in the show announcement, Jesse! Do you still have that old rotary metal stool of mine? It was quite musical, I hope it was of use.)

Also released earlier this year is Watson Songs by The Jesse Stiles 3000

Please go check out my article and series of videos on the Kung Fu Magazine site. I followed around Wushu competitor Kyle Loehr at the 2010 Tiger Claw’s KungFuMagazine.com Championships and WildAid Champion competitions at last month’s Shark City Nationals in San Jose. My photos from the event are online at Wow Cool’s new photo site.

From The Guidepost English Reader 2A. ET, The Extraterrestrial Meets the Inspector and asks to use his phone; and is given the tourist treatment. Garfield looks on approvingly. The book also features Popeye, Minnie and Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Little Duck, The Pink Panther, Little Bee and a girl named Angel. The Penguin baby promised on the back cover never appears. Printed in Taiwan?

Hosted by the great James Burke of Connections fame.

And I couldn’t come up with much. I never knew or worked with the man. We had never met. But I know his art, and have saved a great deal of his comics. I still have a great admiration for his refined, yet fluid craft. One of the best lines ever put to paper. Superhuman mark making ability. I wanted to dig up some of the more obscure items from his publishing history that I have stored away here… but they are stored away pretty deeply and I have much work to do right now. And, frankly, scanning other people’s old comic work is an act that just depresses me.

Al Williamson was one of the great comics artists of the 20th century. The youngest of the EC Comics stable of greats, the definitive modern artist on Star Wars and Alex Raymond’s creations Flash Gordon and Secret Agent Corrigan (X-9). All my attempts to find something to say usually ended in memories of my mentor at the School of Visual Arts, fellow EC great, and editor of Al on several classic short stories for DC Comics, Joe Orlando, who has also long-since left us.

Rick Veitch, however, had the direct experience with the man and has had much to share about it over the last couple of weeks. Rick has always been one of my favorite people in comics, and I am very grateful that he has published a strip of mine in the past and put up with my young foolish noodling on some of his books co-published with Tundra during my time with them. Thank you for these memories Mr. Veitch.

My Friend Al Williamson

Meeting Al Williamson

Meeting Al in the Flesh

Working With Al Williamson On Star Wars

More Al Williamson Memories

NEW July 8, 2010: More Thoughts On Al Williamson including a lovely piece of art from Blade Runner.

If you got through all that, you will also want to read this post from my amigo Steve Bissette.

Side A

Side B

A couple weeks ago I was given the assignment by Kung Fu Tai Chi Magazine to follow one martial artist – Kyle Loehr (pictured above) – around the WildAID Tiger Champion and Tiger Claw’s Kung Fu Magazine Champions competitions at the 2010 Shark City Nationals in San Jose, California. Video and a full article are forthcoming on Kung Fu Mag’s site. In the meanwhile I’ve posted 60-odd of my best photos from the event here on Wow Cool’s new Photography section. More on that soon!

Radio Free Blissville Plays at Anthology Film Archives’ NewFilmmakers Program. Depicts Life After the Information Apocalypse via Pirate Radio

The 19-minute fiction piece, set in the near future, delves into the use of underground pirate radio in urban areas after the cascading destruction of major satellite networks and the Internet. Andrew Hampsas plays Lenox, who drives through ravaged neighborhoods while broadcasting via pirate radio transmissions. He offers public announcements, dedications, and on-the-spot interviews. Director J.F. Culhane says: “If you look at it, covert and independent radio has been a consistent voice in communities where a way of life has been wrecked via a natural disaster as in Haiti’s earthquake, political oppression as in Zimbabwe, or even cultural censorship as England’s ban of Rock ‘n Roll in the 1960s.”

The film, which is now being developed as a feature, also stars Baqi Abdush-Shaheed, Marina Julia Neary, and Joe Lihach, and features music by A.B. Do Well, Heavycreme Musics, The Center for Audio Visual Research, nickname: Rebel, and Patrick Heilman. Photography by Peter Nappi.

Anthology Film Archives is located at 32 Second Ave @ 2nd Street, New York. The screening, which is $6, is June 30, 2010 at 6 pm.

See the online schedule for more details. For more information about Radio Free Blissville, go to http://rfblissville.com

Rammelzee performing live at the kitchen, NYC circa 1987. photo by Marc Arsenault.

Word comes to us this evening via Davey D on his Twitter feed that Hip-Hop pioneer Rammellzee has died at age 49. As originally reported on Consequence of Sound. UPDATE Rammellzee’s death was confirmed by his wife, as reported in today’s New York Times.

I was very lucky to see him perform at the Kitchen in New York City in the mid-1980s (picture above). Rammellzee surprised everyone when he suddenly came out with the album The Bi-Conicals of the Rammellzee in 2004. It was a record that seemed perfectly in place with the times. It fit in well with the works of Dälek and UK Grime like Dizzee Rascal’s “Boy In da Corner“.

A bit closer to home, the album featured Paul Geluso on bass and mixing. Paul had previously been a member of 5 Chin 400 with long-time Brown Cuts Neighbors drummer Michael Lopez. (5 Chin 400’s debut single is still available here at Wow Cool).

Another photo from the Kitchen show | Get the Biconicals CD from Amazon | Rammellzee’s Gothic Futurism site

The Kickstarter project is fully funded as of today, with about 2 days to go until it officially closes!!! I’ll send more updates and images once the camera and field recorder arrive. In the meantime, continuing to tighten up the script… tentatively scheduled to begin recording the narration in August.

Thanks for the support!!!!

More help would be wonderful. Where else can you executive produce such a great project for only $200? Get on over there and pitch in!

No clue what is going on here. “The new version of the KTM – solid state, run off 12-v battery” Yeah. OK. Right. Scott is, of course, half of Evidence.

I need as many people as I can get in their best zombified state – skin rotting off, shambling, lusting for brains – to show up in front of Psycho Donuts in Campbell, California at 7pm tonight (Tuesday, June 22, 2010) for a big Christmas in June setting up event/photoshoot for a special Psycho Donuts publication.

Psycho Donuts (Map)
2006 Winchester Boulevard
Campbell, CA 95008-3400
(408) 378-4540

When I first saw a tweet of the news that Frank Sidebottom had left us today, I was pretty sure it could not mean that Chris Sievey, the man behind the enormous head, was actually dead. Maybe just taking a break or retiring the character he’d played for over a quarter century. But, no, very sadly, Chris Sievey, who had been fighting a cancer that he seemed very likely to win, died suddenly on the morning of June 21, 2010.

I was friends with Frank on MySpace, followed his tweets, and had even sent him music for his long running Radio Timeperley show. It always made me happy to know that he was still out there doing this extraordinarily silly work.

One of my favorite clips. David Soul! The Fall’s Hit the North! Classic!

Check out Frank’s music on Amazon and iTunes.