Fred Frith - Guitar Solos (Caroline, 1974)

In a house exploding with evil spirits

He used it like a wand to tell me his hypothesis about why we were afraid and BAM "horsey" was dead. We could have laughed forever if we weren't so needlessly scared. It was the aftershock that initially scared us, then the sounds from inside the house, then we were scared of the darkness. The shattering of glass was the one thing that broke the funk of the darkened house that seemed to be preparing for an explosion of evil spirits. We decided that Fred Frith, a collaborator and possible member of the Residents, was more than just an avant-garde guitarist but a composer on par with the likes of Sun Ra and John Cage. We studied his technique all throughout the summer of Rainbow Bridges and gibberish. We got good, but the emotional fallout of guitar experimentation was more than we were prepared for. It effected our minds and our bodies. Perhaps we were the evil spirits in the house after all.

Download

Buy It!

Jonathan Halper - Leaving My Old Life Behind / I am a Hermit (1966)

Puce Moment's post-modern soundtrack

Probably my all-time favorite song(s), Jonathan Halper's soundtrack for Kenneth Anger's 1949 masterpiece has been bouncing around my head for god-knows-how-long. Added to the film in 1966, the songs "Leaving My Old Life Behind" and "I am a Hermit" are astonishingly post-modern and way ahead of their time. Halper seems to predate entire movements in music, as did Anger in film. Halper's soundtrack contains very spacial tape effects and a cosmic folk-pop sensibility that could only be matched by the late-great Syd Barrett, who in 1966 was just getting started with Pink Floyd. Sadly, these songs also appear to be Halper's (if that's his real name) sole contribution to music. Ah, but what a contribution it is.
Here is the film:

Download!

Scott Walker - Scott 4 (Philips, 1969)

who wants to be lonely?

I really couldn't not post this after this weekend. I was house-sitting for a friend in Santa Barbara with a woman I am deeply in love with. We never really see each other any more, seeing as how she lives in Santa Barbara but it makes our meetings all the more special. She didn't know I was going up, so I surprised her by showing up at her door and bringing her Valentine's Day "gift". She wasn't thrilled. It was 3:00am, but she agreed to accompany me to the house I was staying in. We talked for hours and drank the sweet berry wine that I brought for her (half as a joke) and we smoked my grandfather's tobacco pipe from WWII. Feeling sorry for ourselves while we listened to Scott Walker's first 4 albums, we laid on the floor in the darkness as the strings and baritone voices of Scott 1-4 washed over us and painted pictures on the backs of our eyes during what seemed like an eternity. "I must stop chasing fleeting fancies".

Download

Buy It!

Batalj - Demo 09 ([Self-released], 2009)

Not a ton to say about this one since it's only three tracks, but this band has potential spewing from it's ears. Experimental hardcore punk from Sweden, highly recommended if you like noisy punk like Big Black. This is their debut, self-titled demo EP that is freely available around the net, but the particular version I've linked to is the 320 kbps version that you can only get off What.cd, so you're welcome. It's super-duper short, so you've got no excuse not to pick this one up. They're coming out with a new, four-song 7" sometime next month.

Download it!

Myspace!

Ponytail - Ice Cream Spiritual (We Are Free, 2008)

"The Breakfast Club on PCP"When I saw Ponytail in mid-2009 in a bungalo at UCI, I really didn't know what to expect. Apart from hearing their first album, Kamehameha [Creative Capitalism, 2007] when it came out, I didn't know much about the band at all. An hour and 30 mosh pits later, I was completely hooked. We bought the record and spent the next few weeks listening to it non-stop. It's characteristic chants and rave ups completely filled my brain and geared me up for that summer. Everything seemed better than it was; friends were more than friends, records more than pieces of plastic, Molly Siegel was more than human.

The singing on this record is probably the most insane you'll hear this side of Nick Blinko. Molly Siegel really just lets it all go when she sings. Really, this is the purest noise pop you can really get. Completely void of pretense, full of naivete and completely bizarre. Their B-more brethren, Animal Collective, really are to thank for this and they can't really even hold a candle to this sound. While everything is completely and wonderfully insane, there isn't anything that will confuse you on this record. Everything makes sense, everything is in it's right place and above all, everything on this record oozes with love.

Download

Daytrotter

Buy It!!!!!!

Andrew Jackson Jihad - People Who Can Eat People are the Luckiest People in the World (Asian Man Records, 2007)

"God I love some people sometimes, because people are the greatest thing to happen"



The Phoenix/Tuscon music scenes have harbored the likes of Andrew Jackson Jihad, French Quarter, Foot Ox, and many more. These bands occupy a musical space somewhere between the folk/punk of Against Me!, the dark and abstract melodies of Neutral Milk Hotel, and all the while keeping it all grounded at a very light-hearted, tangible, DIY aesthetic. Andrew Jackson Jihad (Sean Bonnette & Ben Gallaty), among other bands such as Defiance Ohio, This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb, Mischief Brew, are seen as quintessential folk/punk bands. But don't let that delude you, Andrew Jackson Jihad is that and far beyond.

This duo, known for their energetic live shows, do more with an acoustic guitar and standup bass than most could imagine. "People Who Can Eat People..." is a collection of beautifully crafted songs rooted in their guitar/bass combo, and driven by Sean Bonnette's powerful, whimsical, clever/sarcastic/political/demented/awesome vocals. His singing style echoes John Darnielle (of Mountain Goats fame), Jeff Mangum, and seems as though could have been a huge influence on Teague Cullen (of Foot Ox). It's that sort of vocal style where melody is more powerful than tone, don't give up on a note no matter how far out of reach it is... and hit it or not, the listener feels the valiant effort. On top of this, the songs are beautifully colored in with instruments like the banjo, accordion, horns, and even drums! A perfect production for any fan of a stripped down studio sound.

The album opens up with "Rejoice", and drives you through the first five tracks without any time to breath. These cluster of tracks make for one of the best openers to an album I've heard. Unforgettable lyrics regarding the valiant human spirit are heard all throughout, one song driving into the next with absolute perfection. "Rejoice despite the fact this world will hurt you//Rejoice despite the fact this world will kill you//Rejoice despite the fact this world will tear you to shreds//Rejoice because you're trying your best". "Brave as a Noun" has a viciously catchy melody and gaplessly takes you into "Survival Song", another gem of equal magnitude. "Bad Bad Things" attempts to expose the inner demon inside all of us, that creature we all have to curb everyone once in a while in order to stay within our own moral compass. "So I looked in your eyes/And saw the reflection/of the coward you and I both hate very much". In "No More Tears" Bonnette describes his vision of the perfect world, a world without HIV, tweak, but most of all, he wants "no more tears".

The following songs "Bells & Whistles" and "Randy's House" find AJJ letting more of the punk within shoot out. More aggressive than the previous songs, yet still clinging to the same family of melodies and themes. "A Song Dedicated to Stormy The Rabbit" (possibly the little guy on the album cover?) is a powerful introspective piece. Driven by a xylophone, violin, accordian, and spastic chaotic horns; the mood of the lyrics are perfectly set. "And I'd like to be a big ball of meat/that bees can buzz around and eat when i die/so that I may be granted/one sense of purpose". The following track "People II: The Reckoning" follows the themes from the previous tracks, but takes things to a more societal level. The closer "People" ties the album back full circle with "Rejoice", triumph of the human spirit.

This album is NOT for any niche of people, it is simply for PEOPLE. Grab a friend, give it a listen, and cherish this life we've been blessed with.

Download Here

Buy It Here

Here are some lyrics I find stand out:
"People are my religion/because I believe in them/and people are my enemies/and people are my friends/I have faith in my fellow man/and I only hope that he has faith in me"

"welcome to this world/have as much fun as you would like/while helping others have as much fun as you're having//and be kind to those you love/and be kind to those you don't/but for god's sakes you gotta be kind"

"There's a bad man in everyone/no matter who we are/there's a rapist and a nazi living in our tiny hearts/child pornographers and cannibals, politicians too/there's someone in your head waiting to fucking strangle you"

"We're all one big band across this land and we should sing in tune/let's grow the balls, to break the walls/ we've got to do it soon"

"If this is how you folks make art, it's fucking depressing"

"I'm afraid to leave the house/I'm as timid as a mouse/I'm afraid if I go out I'll outwear my welcome/I'm not a courageous man/I don't have any big lusty plans/I'm too cowardly to take a lead, I want to keep my nose clean"

"I give a thank you to my father for not raising me/and I give a finger to my stepfather for beating me/And I give myself props for achieving/Godamn I'm glad that i survived"

"If I don't go to hell when I die then I might go to Heaven/But probably not"

Let's Wrestle - In the Court of the Wrestling Let's (Stolen, 2009)

continuing the lo-fi legacy in the modern era

Who doesn't love a good lo-fi pop band? We all have our favorite Guided By Voices albums and our favorite Pavement releases. There are few things in life more gratifying to the soul than a perfectly constructed pop song buried in tape hiss. However, with all of the technological advancements in recent times that have completely revolutionized the way we look at recordings, lo-fi pop has somewhat been shelved in the annals of music history as something of a fleeting fancy. While bands like Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti and Best Coast are bringing the lo-fi heat in the new era, the "British Goofball" angle is grossly underplayed. That is where Let's Wrestle comes in with all their charm and sad bastard appeal. But not all is lost in their world and while lines like "they said if you want to help / just kill yourself" may seem incredibly bleak, they immediately reassure us that they "won't do that".

Let's Wrestle seem like the kind of band that have definitely done their homework. Their impressively eclectic style is sure to turn more heads than an Exorcist-marathon. The name of the album alone is a not so oblique reference to the maddeningly genius 1969 prog-rock odessy, In the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson. Their sound is a delightful mix of their lo-fi forebears and many other bands. They have the controlled intensity of Dinosaur Jr, the pop sensibilities of Robert Pollard and the all of the endearing qualities that have kept people coming back to Pavement for years. Let's Wrestle, who have recently signed to Merge (WOO HOO!), are definitely a band you will be hearing a lot about in the near future.

Download

Buy It!