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

It’s a tradition in the Bloggins home to celebrate DMXmas (wherein we enjoy our favorite introspective canticles from DMX over some hard cider or nog) in tandem with the more traditional interpretation of this most magical holiday. I’ve curated two fine mixers to mark both distinct occasions. From our family to yours, we wish you nothing but the best yuletime tidings. Merry fucking Christmas, dorks. Hope none of you all find the xx album in your stocking. That would be barftastic.

DMXmas Mixer
MP3 :::
DMX – One More Road to Cross
DMX – Love That Bitch
DMX – Bring Your Whole Crew
DMX – Lord Give Me a Sign

Xmas Mixer
MP3 :::
Cocteau Twins – Winter Wonderland
The Flaming Lips – Christmas at the Zoo
The Sonics – Santa Claus
Banjo or Freakout – White Christmas
Wooden Shjips – O Tannenbaum
Mogwai – Christmas Song
Low – Little Drummer Boy
Can – Silent Night
Esquivel – White Christmas
Lee Scratch Perry – Santa Claus
Sonic Youth – Santa Doesn’t Cop Out on Dope

I’ve spent some of my downtime over this holiday weekend to start recording some of my vinyl onto Buhbee (the pet name for my Macbook), including this amazing, hard-to-find record (pressed on 180 gram!) Lana scooped up from ear X-tacy for my birthday a few months ago.

The freeform collective The Inner Space consisted of, but wasn’t limited to, West Germans Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt, Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit, and American Malcolm Mooney. These gentlemen would, only a few months after recording the score to underground German film Agilok & Blubbo, form “The Can,” later to be known simply as Can. And everyone except for Mooney remained in the group until their split in 1979.

The Inner Space, as described in the soundtrack’s original liner notes (which were translated quite hastily):

“The Inner Space group is made up of specialised instrumentalists and excellent sound-engineers, led by the composer. Irmin Schmidt feels at home in all kinds of musical generes, electronics, aleatronics [sic?], classical, jazz and beat are all of equal interest to him. His point of view is that ‘music has to be good, everything else is the people’s choice.’ For the first time in German film history, there is a complete soundtrack of underground music. For the first time, there are electronics with a beat, or the other way around.”

Both Schmidt, the de facto conductor, and Czukay were music academics, so it’s understandable why soundtrack work would be appealing (notwithstanding the fact that Can would release albums with titles like Soundtracks and Monster Movie). And yet, it’s interesting to think that what they actually brewed with this prototype Can was decidedly punk – mostly sloppy, organic, splattered, vaguely psychedelic rock. At times, what The Inner Space did paralleled the sound of what The Velvet Underground was doing at that time in 1968 – a juxtaposition of delicate melody and abrasive noise, from half a world away and without any awareness of each other (as the krautrockers were an insular bunch). Both approaches come out to play on “Kamerasong.”

The Inner Space’s Agilok & Blubbo is certainly a creature of its own – an odd mix of rough and tumble fuzz guitar, embryonic garage space rock, dissonance, and a shit-ton of flute and didgeridoo. However, you can hear where the sonic palette of Can begins to take root in “Flop Pop” – precise rhythm, fluid bass, fluttering freak-outs, and that paradoxical, seamless mash-up of the extremely calculated with the loosey goosey. This is a fascinating listen.

I can’t speak for the movie Agilok & Blubbo itself, as I’ve not seen it and little is written about the film. But I understand it’s a sort of abstract political narrative, and the excellent boobage on the cover suggests there’s probably lots of free love to be had as well. The soundtrack evokes the idea that it’s probably an engrossing headfuck. Take a read of Julian Cope’s review at Head Heritage for more thoughts and some additional frames of reference.

This is absolutely necessary for any serious Can fan’s collection (known as Der Kanfan in German). If you like what you hear below, go visit Wah Wah. As an aside, folklore tells of Can’s ability to focus their energy so acutely during live shows that some audience members would vomit. Anybody have more info on this? Thought I’d ask while I have you around.

MP3 :::
The Inner Space – Flop Pop
The Inner Space – Kamerasong

Goddamn, this shit is ballin’!  Pretty decent quality Can videos that don’t solely feature Damo Sazuki spazzing epileptic is hard to find.  I finally found one.

In other news, I’ve started a fake Billy Corgan Twitter. Join the fun. Some people think it’s real, despite the fact that it says “not official” in the bio (though I do pull some choice quotes from various interviews he’s done lately).

An intense ice storm swept over Louisville this week.  Something like a quarter million people around Louisville are still without power.  Things are apocalyptic.  And my car has a branch on it.

It makes you think.  I can remember, lucidly, what he was like before he had a huge fucking branch on him.  He’s a 1996 Toyota Camry.  He’s got four doors that open, as well as close.  The “y” is missing on the rear end, so when you ghost ride up from behind, my automobile reads more like “Camr.”  That’s where he got his name – Camr’on – named after one of my favorite songwriters (though the apostrophe is in a different place than the actual Cam’ron for logistical purposes).  Camr’on and I shared good times and bad.  He trudged on like a fucking champ all throughout the holiday pilgrimage quest.  He takes me to and from work.  He was excited to take us to camping trips in the spring, as well.

Camr’on was efficient – usually scoring 28 to 30 MPG highway.  He’s top of his class.  Camr’on has a V6 and does not fuck around.  It’s not easy being green, but Camr’on pulls it off well.  Under some light, he looks blue.  And under other light, he looks happy.

Though I will also cherish the memories that I had of Camr’on before he had a branch on him, I will love and accept this new Cam’ron.  It’s just like when my grandfather got Alzheimer’s.  You learn to love the new person just the same.  I’ll miss you Camr’on Sans Branch, but I’m ready to help you (and I as well) learn to accept your new branchful life, Camr’on.

MP3 :::
Incredible String Band – Swift As the Wind
High Places – The Storm
Grouper – Wind and Snow
Swirlies – Park the Car By the Side of the Road
Mayo Thompson – Around the Home
Can – Swan Song
United States of America – Coming Down