With copious apologies, I regret not updating much the past couple of weeks.  I’m a dickfor.  I’ve had a lot going on with the holiday safari, relocation, yadda yadda.  But I will make it up to you with the promise of a new day, more updates, and a nice rare treat.

Illuminati was a compilation released in 1998, featuring various artists of varying caliber covering their favorite jam styles by Creation/C86 group The Pastels.  Actually, covering is not the right term, these are remixes. The majority of the compilation is quite glitch-centric, well informed by groups like To Rococo Rot and Mouse on Mars, and interestingly enough, retaining the original vocals of Stephen McRobbie.  However, there are some serious curveball artists on Illuminati as well, including My Bloody Valentine and Third Eye Foundation. (more…)

Undoubtedly, the conventional lore, exponentially propelled by the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston, builds a towering mystique around Daniel Johnston - a troubled genius, a volatile and mysterious persona, a songwriter informed by mental illness, a musician catapulted to international success thanks to smart product placement by way of Kurt Cobain.  But seeing him live is something else entirely.  Seeing Daniel perform in an intimate setting like the Good Folk Festival on Saturday stripped away that mystique entirely. (more…)

I’m ridiculously broke.  Many of us in this tough economy can’t find a job, and I blame the baby boomers.  I blame them for their economic policies, I blame them for forcing all their children to go to college so they can have a “real job,” I blame them for us not being able to get a “real job” after college because they oversaturated the market with their stupid post-collegiate kids while all of them still hold all their jobs since their aforementioned policies staved away all hopes of retirement - essentially, I blame them for me not having a job.  They fucked my generation.  Dammit, Mom and Dad!

See, Kenny Bloggins never blames himself for not having a job.  He never thinks rational thoughts such as “hey, maybe I should’ve majored in engineering or computer science instead of fancy-pansy-writin’.”  No, fuck that shit.  Cognitive dissonance is the new black.

In the face of such bummer circumstances, however, Louisville has you covered, at least this weekend, for the third annual Good Folk Festival at the Mellwood Arts Center.  It’s a serious lineup, headlined by Daniel Johnston.  You get it all for $5.  And since it’s an art festival as well, Daniel Johnston will be showcasing some new original art for the event.  I don’t have any tattos, but if I were to get over my aversion to needles, I’ve always said that I would definitely go with the friendly little monster on Hi, How Are You.

The event kicks off TONIGHT and goes all weekend.  Daniel performs tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m.  I also must recommend local garage kitsch thrashers The Smacks as well.  You can grab the MAC’s location on this blog’s new and nifty Venue Guide. Use it to also find Bloggins and friends at his Highlands Tap Room unofficial afterparty, broseph!

Oh, and dude, czech out this amazing photo I found on Last.fm.  It’s good to be king. (more…)

I just found out that nordic beasts The Legendary Pink Dots quietly released a new full-length very recently called Plutonium Blonde.  And as you can expect, like contemporaries Lilys and Psychic TV, they’re still all over the place.  Plutonium Blonde features it all: psychedelia, noise, and hell, even a few dance ditties. (more…)

Tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown massacre at the Peoples Temple community in Guyana, the second largest death en masse of American civilians from non-natural disaster origins (the first being niner eleven), claiming 909 very loyal lives. Jonestown wasn’t just a bizarre and significant historical event, but also was a direct influence or tangential muse to lots of delightfully psychotic music.  As with anything that could be filed under the hard-to-explain, I, too, am extremely fascinated by cults. (more…)

I’m probably really late on this, but I’m not really a bandwagon person anyway.

Blues Control, Russ Waterhouse and Lea Cho of Watersports, has always been rather hit or miss for me from what I had heard from them.  It seemed time to really give them a go last week when I saw Puff at Ear X-tacy for the try-me price of $5.  I love zone out times, but moments on Puff are almost too zone out for me.  However, there are some real flashes of brilliance, as well. (more…)

I was really stoked on czechin’ the new Lindsey Buckingham joint the other night, as L-Train and I are both huge Fleetwood Mac fans.  And after listening, we were very sad about it.  Now that Lindsey isn’t scoring blow and beating up his girlfriends, his tunes are slowly waning in smooth rock quality.  I don’t even remember what it sounds like now, my mind has repressed that shit really fast.  My brain’s fast like fast actin’ Tenactin.

So I was in a very bad way before pumping proper on the new Magik Markers jam hive.  It’s a recently dropped, limited release, comically titled EP called Gucci Rapidshare Download, part of Three Lobed Recordings’ Oscillations III series (with artwork by my friend Robert Beatty). Within two minutes, I had endorphins kickin’ in, the spunk came back, and I was in such a good mood, I was ready to rake some of my neighbors’ leaves as a random act of kindness.  (more…)

Awesome! Irdial and the Internet Archive now have this convenient embedded widget (provided below) that allows you to play just about the entire set of The Conet Project. If you’re not hip to the Conet Project, it is an expansive collection of mysterious number stations broadcasts.  Click the “next” button to browse through the various recordings.  Way creepy, decidedly fascinating.

I try to avoid the Decibel Tolls becoming too much of a personal blog. But I need some help, dear readers. If you’re in the Louisville metro area, and know of people who are hiring, shoot me an email: kb [at] thedecibeltolls.com. Craiglist and other job boards are nothing but scams and pyramid schemes, and blind resume distribution has been less than fruitful.  But I’m hirable as a motherfucker - like crazy skillz.

Those who are helpful in operation job get will be handsomely rewarded, like cookies, or more awesome photos (see above).

Moody, blacker than black slowcore folk superstar Boduf Songs, fresh from dropping How Shadows Chase the Balance on the flawless Kranky label, will bring joy to all the girls and boys this fall in his first national tour.  Since it’s his first one, be nice ya’ll!  The tour includes two New York shows and a shit-ton of art galleries. The jaunt across the upper midwest and northeast also includes some on-air playin’ and spitballin’ on Pittsburgh’s low power but pretty darn good WPTS before his performance later that night on Nov. 19th.  If his live show bears any of the intensity of this recent work, do not drink before these shows, lest you want to leap off a bridge later that night. (more…)