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[Recordings] Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell – 1.29.10 and 1.31.10

tunnelbig [Recordings] Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell - 1.29.10 and 1.31.10

Art Bell appeared on Coast to Coast twice last weekend, and I recorded as much as I could to continue with my unofficial project archiving Art’s scant appearances. Most of Friday’s program (with the total badass theoretical physicist Michio Kaku), save for the first hour because I was out, bro, is below in two parts, as well as most of Sunday’s in one part.

As a quick caveat, the audio quality on Friday’s show is total garbage, and I have no idea why this time. No storms interfering with reception, radio was in working order, etc. Louisville’s Coast affiliate, WHAS, is a 50,000 watt flamethrower that, as a clear channel (small c) station, can be heard in most of the continental U.S., Canada, and, like, Cuba at night. My apartment is not more than 30 minutes from the transmitter, and yet, the clarity is fucking embarrassing. I apologize in advance. If any engineer out there has an explanation beyond solar interference and a shitty antenna, I’d love to hear your thoughts. With all that said, it’s still perfectly listenable. Also, Sunday’s is totally fine.

Dr. Kaku touched on a myriad of issues – the Large Hadron Collider, quantum theory, teleportation, The Carrington Event… generally awesome shit. Another physicist, Dr. David Anderson, spent his Sunday program discussing time technology, particularly his accelerated time fields. I missed the last hour because I had to work in the morning, but you get the gist below.

MP3 :::
Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell – 1.29.10 – Part 1 (show recap)
Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell – 1.29.10 – Part 2
Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell – 1.31.10 (show recap)

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Invasion is Fucking Awesome

Invasion is a band from London. If you were wondering when the genres of soul and psych metal shall meet, the time is nigh. These are the most awesome videos you will see ever. Each is packed with dense and constant awesomeness. Skulls, pentagrams, wizards, Hubble Telescope images, robes, and so much more. Total damage. They are on the MySpaces.

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The Seven Fields of Aphelion – Periphery

periphery The Seven Fields of Aphelion - Periphery

There’s a couple things you’d expect from a solo album of a member of the Black Moth Super Rainbow: vocoder, funky drum beats , and woozy analog synths. On BMSR’s The Seven Fields of Aphelion’s new album Periphery, you only get the last one. Closer in sound to Emeralds or Stellar OM Source, Periphery is full of gorgeous ambient synth music that would probably have sounded as natural in 1985 as it does in 2010. On tracks like “Sunburst Chemicals,” “Lake Feet,” and “Mountain Mary,” The Seven Fields of Aphelion plays real live piano, giving an added poignancy and emotional tug to the music.

There has always been a warped new-age bent to BMSR (they did live in a commune together) and The Seven Fields of Aphelion brings that to the forefront, creating music that’s serene and reflective, but with totally new signifiers for what’s “peaceful” and “calming.” While listening to Periphery, you could just as easily contemplate the beauty of a dead shopping mall or an 80s cop show as you could a river stream or sunny meadow.

You can buy Periphery from Graveface Records starting Feb. 16th.

MP3 :::
The Seven Fields of Aphelion – Sunburst Chemicals

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Tonight in Louisville – Tape, Mountains, Shedding, and R Keenan Lawler

l_2c7a648249421d7bc2d3c9f7a1a3cb3c Tonight in Louisville - Tape, Mountains, Shedding, and R Keenan Lawler

Almost forgot that this show was around the corner. As in, tonight around the corner. Joel’s got another good one tonight. Here’s the scoop:

Shedding has been a solo project for Connor Bell since 2001, though in 2009 Tim Furnish (Parlour, Crain, Papa M, The For Carnation) and Joey Yates (The Loved, Parlour, Sapat) joined as the rhythm section in Shedding’s new lineup. Solo, SHEDDING has already released a few albums, and the new band lineup plans to release a 7″ or 2 over the winter and spring of 2009-2010. (MySpazz)

Mountains is Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp, friends since their middle school days. The duo were brought together by mutual artistic and musical interests, and both ended up at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. It was during this time that they began exchanging musical ideas and compositions which led to them founding the Apestaartje label in 1999. As their collaborations and individual projects blossomed, they decided to create Mountains as a vehicle for live performance. The group has 4 albums: their first self-titled release and second album Sewn were both on Apestaartje; the third and fourth, Choral and Etching, on Thrill Jockey. Mountains is often compared to artists such as Brian Eno and Fennesz, citing their extended melodies and their unique broad guitar work. Mountains seamlessly blend pastoral electronic sounds with field recordings and a plethora of acoustic instruments. (MySpazz)

Swedish trio Tape was set up in 2000 by brothers Andreas and Johan Berthling with Tomas Hallonsten. Taking cues both from pop, experimentalism and minimalism, their sound has become recognized internationally and is clearly something of its own. Their first album Opera was released on the Häpna imprint (which Johan is a co-owner of) in 2002. With an array of electronic and acoustic instruments at hand they recorded at a small stone barn on the island of Öland, east of Sweden. 2003 saw the release of Milieu, recorded at the very same barn. In 2005 they went to Cologne to have Marcus Schmickler produce and record their third album Rideau. Over the past few years, their touring has taken them to places like Japan, Taiwan, USA and most parts of Europe. (MySpazz)

R. Keenan Lawler is a musician and sound artist based in Louisville Kentucky. For over 25 years his musical journey has taken him from early experiments with reverb tanks, noise and tape decks to all manner of avant-garde, “new” music, psychedelia, electro-acoustic, drone, ethnic and sampler-based work. LAWLER is best known for developing a highly personal and exploratory language for the metal bodied resonator guitar which Baltimore’s John Berdnt called “Cosmic, monolithic and deeply American.” Indeed his work is informed by carnatic classical, Charles Ives, Albert Ayler, blues, minimalism and non-western trance musics. Primarily a solo performer, he is also known for collaborative work. The “Keyhole II” album he recorded with Pelt and metal worker Eric Clark is one of Pelt’s most beautiful and memorable recordings, and his guitar playing is also heard on releases by Paul K., Jack Wright, My Morning Jacket and most visibily on Matmos’ “The Civil War.” He has collaborated or performed with a wide range of forward-thinking musicians and mavericks including Rhys Chatham, John Butcher, Eliott Sharp, Charalambides, Ignaz Schick/Perlonex, Kaffe Matthews, Burning Star Core, Jason Kahn, Ut Gret, Thaniel Ion Lee, Ed Wilcox, Ramesh Srinivasan, Kevin Drumm, Arco Flute Foundation, Helena Espvall, Ian Nagoski, Connor Bell, Andy Willis, Alan Licht, Taksuya Nakatani, Tom Carter, Bhob Rainey, Aaron Rosenblum, Joe Dutkiewicz, Evergreen, Eric Carbonara and Joseph Suchy. (MySpazz)

Tape, Mountains, Shedding, and R Keenan Lawler
Wednesday, February 3rd
Skull Alley
1017 E. Broadway (map that shizz)
7 p.m. / All Ages/ FaCeBoO!K invite

MP3 :::
Shedding – Disconnect
Tape – Sand Dunes

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LOST is Tonight! Namaste, Motherfuckers!

dharma LOST is Tonight! Namaste, Motherfuckers!

As followers of our Twitter are more than aware, Kenny Bloggins has been straight fiendin’ the past few weeks. It’s probably been annoying as all hell, and I suppose I’m somewhat sorry. But not really – the final season of LOST begins tonight, and we are throwin’ down. In the traditional way this blog celebrates all the stupid shit going on in my life, it seemed necessary to throw a Super Swingin’ Mix in your vicinity to lift John Locke’s name on high. And hey, it also can serve as sort of a peace offering to you all for the general numberskullery that will occur on the Twitter account over the next few months. So… all the songs below relate to themes, storylines, etc. from LOST. Can you find all the connections at home, kids? Oh, and of course 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 are well represented in this mix. What kind of a blogger do you think I am?

I’m not entirely sure many or any of you care about some of the theories that myself, L-Train, and our friends have hypothesized. I’ll just leave it at this – John Locke will resurrect and Jacob’s ass is evil. Believe.

Much love to the Vintage DHARMA Flickr pool for providing the image above.

MP3 :::
Nethers – It’s an Island
Brian Eno – Burning Airlines Give You So Much More
Trap Door – International Psychedelic Mystery Mix Untitled 15
The Advisory Circle – Farmland Freeland
Broadcast – Never Trust a Rusty Bolt
Fairport Convention – Eastern Rain
Silver Apples – Program
Blonde Redhead – 23
Battles – Bad Trails [Live]
The Wilderness – Your Hands
The United States of America – Stranded in Time
Flying Saucer Attack – To the Shore
The Conet Project – Counting Control
Can – Mushroom
Brian Wilson – Cabin Essence
The Great Northwest – Chief John
No Age – Things I Did When I Was Dead
13th Floor Elevators – May the Circle Remain Unbroken
The Zombies – Imagine the Swan
Leadbelly – Don’t You Love Your Daddy No More?
The Incredible String Band – Nightfall
Animal Collective – Don’t Believe the Pilot
Bachelorette – The End of Things

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Mako Sica and the Bustle in Purgatory

mako

Chicago’s spectral psych trio Mako Sica are the newest wandering souls in camp La Societe Expeditionnaire, who secured a spot on our Best of 2009 list with Dragon Turtle’s Almanac. Their name is Sioux Lakota Native American for “land bad,” which they caught on a sign post during a trip through the Painted Desert. Containing two member’s of the late Rope, the group took to the basement last May with James Zespy and US Maple’s Todd Rittman behind the boards to jam out their debut full-length Dual Horizons.

Somehow, this sprawling three-song epic was recorded completely live with no overdubs, just a couple of wild, presumably bearded dudes turning post-rock conventions into cathartic explosions, unsettling lulls, and everything in between. Take the fluid movements of early Tortoise, add some of the occult fetishes from New Weird America bands, and you’re on the right track. Alternately primitive and cinematic, Mako Sica wrestle a hoard of influences to the floor for one 40-minute, soul-purging performance.

Dual Horizons is available in limited vinyl (only 250 pressed) on February 16th. You can pre-order here.

MP3:::
Mako Sica – I’Itoi

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New Collateral Jammage from A Sunny Day in Glasgow

ASDIG_NR_300 New Collateral Jammage from A Sunny Day in Glasgow

Ashes Grammar was absolutely fantastic, though a little fragmented with the myriad of ambient interludes. The newfound conciseness and cohesiveness explored on Nitetime Rainbows showcases a band with a vision. The melodies are more unique and focused this time around. A Sunny Day in Glasgow is not simply a revisiting of the glory days of dream pop – they have firmly established themselves as heavy fucking hitters in the theme of ethereal anthems, with the electronic scheme that throws their atmospherics solidly into the future (or retro future perhaps). I’m very much looking forward to the next full-length, but for the time being, Nitetime Rainbows is packed with awesome new music and three remixes of “Nitetime Rainbows” worth your time and headspace (including one from the mighty Benoit Pioulard).

Nitetime Rainbows is out March 2, and you can grip it physically or digitally at the band’s website along with live MP3s and other excellent goodies that cool and smart bands provide.

MP3 :::
File removed per request

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Duncan Cameron’s Excellent Adventure

philexperiment Duncan Camerons Excellent Adventure

Duncan Cameron is an alias of Lieven Martens, the Dutch dude behind Dolphins Into The Future. His A Horseback Ride to the Sanctum of Montu, a reissue of Martens’ out of print tape, Tansprocesz, has just been released and it’s supposedly an audio diary of Duncan Cameron’s trip to the Temple of Montu in Egypt. For those unfamiliar with the name Duncan Cameron, he’s a man who claims he and his half brother jumped off the USS Eldridge, the ship supposedly involved in the notorious “Philadelphia Experiment,” in 1943, and time traveled twenty years into the future to Montauk, Long Island, where the government was doing top secret work on psychic warfare.

duncancameron Duncan Camerons Excellent Adventure

Basically, A Horseback Ride… is supposed to be the sound of a government trained time traveler/psychic warrior journeying on horseback to an ancient Egyptian temple to read hieroglyphics (!). If you keep this in mind when you listen to the tape, its seemingly strange mixture of bird noises, bubbling brook samples, gamelans, howling dogs, and old school Radiophonic Workshop synths actually makes sense. Compared to Dolphins Into The Future’s masterpiece ….On Seafaring Isolation, A Horseback Ride… is a difficult listen, but the concept behind it is such a perfect storm of underground culture obsessions (time travel, psychics, government conspiracies, Egyptology) that it’s hard not to be won over, not to mention the fact that Martens drops perfect little synth mini-suites at the end of each side of the tape.

A Horseback Ride to the Sanctum of Montu can be purchased here.

MP3 :::
Duncan Cameron – Glyphs [edit]

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Slumberland to Release Black Tambourine Anthology

bt

For a band that only put out a modest handful of singles twenty years ago, Black Tambourine’s unadulterated noise pop jams turned out to be one hell of a crystal ball. Circa 1989, I was in utero and members of twee gaze start ups Whorl and Velocity Girl had just recruited singer Pam Berry (whom I for some reason remember being much more attractive than in the above picture) to form a new project. It was an outlet to fuse together their obsessions with The Jesus & Mary Chain, the Ronettes, and efficient garage rock. Previously available as 1999’s Complete Recordings, this new anthology on their original label Slumberland contains six previously unreleased jams, including four new ones that the reunited band recorded for this specific occasion. There’s even a cover of my favorite Suicide song “Dream Baby Dream” and Buddy Holly’s “Heart Beat”. This is no carrot in the face of recession-weary completionists, it’s the perfect introduction for newcomers, and some long needed closure for fans. Also, Black Tambourine will now be available for the first time on vinyl.

bt

Black Tambourine will be available in all it’s overdue glory March 30th on Slumberland Records.

MP3 :::
Black Tambourine – Black Car
Black Tambourine – Throw Aggi Off the Bridge

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Dead Leaf Echo’s Ominous Dreamscape

l_5e76951a935647d6b2b6f77009741ba8 Dead Leaf Echos Ominous Dreamscape

Really like what I’m hearing from New York City’s Dead Leaf Echo. While you could toss them in the newgaze camp, I would argue that Dead Leaf Echo is only tangentially reminiscent of the scene that celebrates itself (which is what was immediately appealing to me in the first place). The vocals (coming from a gentleman simply known as LG, like my phone) have an odd, clear croon, brought up high in the mix rather than washed out (as is apropos to most shoegaze), bolstered more by moody and light synth flourishes and melted, chorus-heavy guitar rather than pure “wall of sound” or fuzz distortion. Lush as fuck, easy on the ears, yet keeps a visceral ominous tone throughout that reminds me of the finer portion of Medicine’s repertoire and, actually, older Blonde Redhead. Creation addicts should also take notice of these dream pop mensch, in the event you’ve not already. Hear more at Dead Leaf Echo’s website.

For fans of:  Soundpool, Medicine, Blonde Redhead

MP3 :::
Dead Leaf Echo – Half Truth

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