I am completely in love, perhaps an agape love, with the new song Broadcast has been ending all their shows with on the current tour. You know the one I’m talking about… the one with Trish Keenan shredding on a customized electric dulcimer. Like, total “My Dear Companion” meets “Astronomy Domine” meets “Autobahn” meets “Fight For Your Right (To Party)” action. Ya know, the krautrock hoedown. With the help of Pretty Creatures‘ warm analog tape bootleg of the show (you can download it here), I grabbed the finale, cleaned it up a bit (with just a couple of compressors, filters, and a peak limiter – no manipulation of the actual sound), and am providing it below for maximum damage (you can grab the cleaned-up-a-bit version here). No one knows the actual name of this song yet, so I’mma call it “Dulcimer Jam.” Because it features an amplified dulcimer. And it’s a jam.

MP3 :::
Broadcast – Dulcimer Jam [Wexner Center, Columbus, 10.25.09]

Shiver me timbers. Reader Benjamin in Atlanta shot me a message letting me know that Broadcast has a tour EP available called Mothers of the Milky Way (as you might’ve inferred from, ya know, the title of this entry). Anyway, I did not see this EP at the Columbus show, as the band had no merch presence, so I’m a little bummed I wasn’t able to grip a physical copy there. It totally rules, as is expected. Mother is the Milky Way is, in some ways, a continuation of Witch Cults, though I’m not sure if The Focus Group was involved in its recording.

Turns out the second song they played in the show’s second half Sunday night was “In Here the World Begins” from this EP.

MP3 :::
Broadcast – In Here the World Begins

I believe that, technically, Atlas Sound is the headliner, but I’m treating this show as if Broadcast was. I love both artists, obviously. However, Bradford Cox, to quote The Spirit of Truth, makes his “ass very available,” whereas Broadcast hasn’t been around in a minute. So for me finally seeing Broadcast, after being a huge fan for six or seven years, is quite huge. They were also the primary motivation for making the three hour trek up I-71. I’m pleased to report that the goods were thoroughly delivered.

Opening was The Selmanaires from Atlanta. They were rad. Think of Gang Gang Dance. Now imagine a non-shitty version of Gang Gang Dance. That’s The Selmanaires. The majority of the set consisted of ambient layers by way of their Mini Korg, which eventually ascended into Mercury Rev-style ornate pop with pervasive, intricate rhythms and nasty low end. Oh, and djembes everywhere. While The Selmanaires were fairly cosmic, they do indeed like the nightlife and/or like to boogie.

One thing I really dug about the Wexner, besides being a nice college facility, was the total absence of fucking around. There was virtually no changeover time. After The Selmanaires finished up their 40-or-so minute set, the crew wheeled out the screen and flipped on the projector. The title card illuminated the screen – Winter Sun Wavelengths. And in the upper left hand corner was the Ghost Box logo, which pretty much guarantees that you’re about to see some shit. Some shit is also known as brain burning hauntological visuals from Julian House’s celestial brain.

So the Broadcast show takes a big fat page from the Wizard of Oz. Actually, spooky technicolor performance piece is a more accurate description, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll keep referring to it as “show.” Anyway, the “show” was divided, as suggested, into two segments. The first was a 20-minute, highly structured dissonant noise jam set to high contrast black-and-white visuals of opitcal illusions, eye exam cards, sine waves, and barren trees. During the epic psych slam, Broadcast was surprisingly loud. I’d put them on my top ten loudest bands I’ve seen list. Of course, their loudness is different than, say, Dinosaur Jr. Their loudness was dependent on frequencies and wavelengths that hit your ear in a very intense fashion rather than Mogwai-style pure horsepower. The permeating zone-out transmissions pulsated hard. My dome turned in to a cottonball and my balls retracted, not unlike my reaction toward My Bloody Valentine’s Holocaust Section (though Broadcast’s was less demonic).

Then, very suddenly, the barren trees faded – replaced with swirling pastels and a lead in to “Corporeal.” This was the latter half of the show. Broadcast treats their set as one long piece, so most of the songs faded into each other. After some atomic deep sea diving, we were treated to more Tender Buttons action a la “Black Cat,” as well as “Lunch Hour Pops” from Haha Sound, and… gobs of new material. It seems that Broadcast is now distinctly within motorik dream pop realms laced with the type of ambiance found on Witch Cults, meaning that the forthcoming effort(s) will be decidedly different than their pre-HaHa Sound retro-futuristic lounge as well as the glitchy IDM of Tender Buttons.

The highlight of the evening, however, was the finale. Trish Keenan strapped on a dulcimer, which is one of my favorite simple acoustic instruments. For the non-musician types, a dulcimer is a popular tool in traditional Appalachian music. It’s a rather quiet instrument, and one that you can often find with build-it-yourself kits for $30 or so. Hence, I figured we were going to get a break in the stratospheric jams and take a load off with a quiet ballad. No fucking dice. That dulcimer was amplified. Wut chu kno bout an electric dulcimer?!

This, folks, is a krautrock hoedown:

Lana put it best I think. She said something to the effect of “Band did not dick around. Girl sets up, throws up hands and cusses at the sound guy, walks on, says hello, rocks out, bumps into the mic a couple of times, gives a grateful thanks plus buh-bye, and they were out.” She also mentioned she felt “haunted,” and I’ll agree with that. This is art. Broadcast slayed it.

Atlas Sound closed out the evening. B Cox, of course, came out with some his world-famous banter while setting up. The Selmanaires returned to the stage to act as Bradford’s full backing band. I was impressed at how Cox reinterpreted his catalog for the live show. The best way to describe it would be “shoegaze Americana” or “truly cosmic American music” (a play on the Gram Parsons quotation) or “kinda like The Byrds but with more effects pedals.” Harmonica and twangy, tinty guitars were given the same amount of exposure as Deerhunter’s ad infinitum stage drones and effects pedal tweaking. It was a good time, but we had to dart shortly after “Walkabout” so we could get home before 4 a.m. and I could be at work Monday morning without being a total zombie. Besides, I love ya B Cox… but it’s fucking hard to follow up Broadcast. I mean, their live set was Old Testament. I still had crazy tinnitus ringing in my ears during Atlas Sound, ya know. Gonna miss those frequencies.

Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with my usual bellyachin’ about how my camera leaves much to be desired. However, I think the camera’s fuzziness in low light, combined with the high contrast visual element of the show, actually worked to our benefit this time. These photos, perhaps ironically, truly capture the telescopic mood of the show better than, say, a big boy camera like the Canon Rebel. I’m extremely pleased with how these turned out, considering troubles I’ve had with concert photos recently. Lana took ‘em all, so please send her some love on her Flickr page.

::: BROADCAST (a.k.a. <3 U TRISH KEENAN!!!1)

::: ATLAS SOUND

Broadcast, in some ways, seem to have followed rather stridently along a solid trajectory. The group started as a quartet firmly planted in haunting ’60s vocal pop and garage ballads, augmented by lightly arranged vintage atomic age samples and Trish Keenan’s silky and distant vocals. The latter was, of course, the only thing that ever remained consistent, as Broadcast became more divergent through the years, ending with 2005’s glitchy, noisy, electronics-heavy and cosmically surreal Tender Buttons.

Perhaps it as simply a new direction or the influence of Julian House from The Focus Group on this latest effort, but Witch Cults of the Radio Age acts as the bridge between the organic retro-futuristic pop of Work and Non-Work and the more chaotic latter repertoire, with extra ornate instrumentation courtesy of House. This is a spooky, gorgeous record, and probably the most accessible effort from the “library music” camp (i.e. the Ghost Box/Mute/Warp family that both samples and draws inspiration from the classic BBC Radiophonic Workshop – see Barry 7’s Connectors and the Ghost Box site for additional reference).

With the exception of Keenan’s contributions that channel Margo Guryan and The United States of America, it’s hard to distinguish where Broadcast ends and The Focus Group begins, other than the weirdo samples that House is wont to incorporate into his instrumentals (including a slew of Conet Project snippets, which is major thumbs up). The collaboration is seamless and refreshing, and has added to an extremely strong addition to the nearly flawless curriculum vitae for both Broadcast and The Focus Group. I’m not sure if I feel this way because I’ve been listening to the same Broadcast catalog for four years and this disc is new, but Witch Cults of the Radio Age might just be my favorite Broadcast release thus far. Hence, I’m getting very excited for the full length due out on Warp some time next year.

No need to give Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age our normal rating or any of that jive. This is absolutely essential listening that earns its one billion smiling Donald Fagens. It’s total insanity.

You can purchase the digital release right now at Bleep, and/or grip the physical release on October 26. Get on it!

POSSIBLY RELATED :::
Praise Ye Jehova… Broadcast is Back in Action

MP3 :::
Files removed per request

Without any fanfare, Broadcast just released their first new material since 2005’s Tender Buttons, um, today. I was correct about the title, it’s called Witch Cults of the Radio Age. That’s the cover up there. And… it’s a collaboration with Julian House! House is, as you may know, not only the graphic designer for all of Broadcast’s album and poster imagery, but is also a member of Ghost Box “library music” powerhouse The Focus Group.

Though it’s a “mini album,” or EP, or “primer for proper forthcoming full length,” or whatever they’re categorizing it as, Witch Cults spans 23 tracks (though I’m sure some of them are segues and analog tomfoolery). Here’s a preview. Shit is space age!

This is going to be so good. I haven’t heard it in full, but I’m currently downloading it RIGHT NOW from Bleep. You should do the same.

Majorly stoked on the Columbus gig October 25. Perhaps the press pass fairy will pay ol’ Bloggins a visit for that one. Pretty please?

Broadcast & The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age:
1. Intro/Magnetic Tales
2. The Be Colony
3. How Do You Get Along Sir?
4. Will You Read Me.
5. Reception/Group Therapy
6. A Quiet Moment
7. I See, So I See So
8. You Must Wake
9. One Million Years Ago
10. A Seancing Song
11. Mr Beard, You Chatterbox
12. Drug Party
13. Libra, The Mirror’s Minor Self
14. Love’s Long Listen-In
15. We Are After All Here
16. A Medium’s High
17. Ritual / Looking In
18. Make My Sleep His Song
19. Royal Chant
20. What I Saw
21. Let It Begin/Oh Joy
22. Round and Round and Round
23. The Be Colony/Dashing Home/What on Earth Took You?

Hey Trish and James,

It’s Bloggins. Many moons since we’ve heard from you all. I mean, it’s been a minute. I wondered what happened to you dudes. I mean, Broadcast drops this brilliant album, Tender Buttons, back in the fall of 2005. It made my solar plexus tingle. You all toured a bit on that jam hive. Good times. But then you guys, like, bounced. Just straight up peaced out. I feared you might’ve broken up. I went through five stages of acceptance.

But now you’re touring again – first time in ages. That’s great news. I guess I would’ve known about this sooner if I followed the Fun Fun Fest lineup, but unfortunately I didn’t/don’t give a shit about it. Perhaps I should be better about shit-giving. But anyway, you’ve roped in Deerhunter bro Bradford Cox’s Atlas Sound. Excellent choice. Does this mean that a new album is to follow? I hope so. You guys need to show the indie rock retards how it’s done. I know that a new EP is getting ready to drop on Warp. And that Focus Group had something to do with it? Sweet cinnamon and biscuits! It’s like Christmas up in this bitch.

Anyway, enough gabbin’. I do see you’re playing a club called The Black Cat, too. That’s funny. A hardy lol was muttered from this side of the table, no doubt. Hope the tour goes well, and I’ll be seeing you guys in Columbus or Chicago. Haven’t decided which yet. Wish you had, like, just one open date on the east coast so I could help bring you all to Louisville, but somebody’s got some type-A-personality booking goin’ on. I ain’t mad at ya, though.

TTYL,
Kenny Bloggins

All dates below are with Atlas Sound and The Selmanaires. No word on the official release date or title of the new EP, but I think it might be called Witch Cults of the Radio Age. If you poke around their MySpaceTime, you’ll probably ascertain why I think that. Anyway… dates…

10/15 Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
10/16 Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
10/17 Washington, DC @ Black Cat
10/18 Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church Sanctuary
10/20 New York, NY @ (Le) Poisson Rouge
10/21 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg (CMJ)
10/22 Boston, MA @ The Paradise
10/23 Montreal, QC @ Le National
10/24 Toronto, ON @ Lees Palace
10/25 Columbus, OH @ Wexner Center
10/26 Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
10/27 Northfield, MN @ The Cave
10/30 Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret
10/31 Seattle, WA @ Neumos
11/01 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
11/03 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
11/04 Los Angeles, CA @ The Troubadour
11/05 Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room
11/07 Denton, TX @ Hailey’s
11/08 Austin, TX @ Fun Fun Fun Fest

MP3 :::
Broadcast – Black Cat
Broadcast – The World Backwards

Our favorite round, beachball-sized, constantly beeping friend turns 51 today. Or would’ve turned 51 today had he not burned up a bit in the Earth’s atmosphere. I like to spend my Tuesday evenings with PBS’ science program Nova, and this week’s installment covered all that you probably didn’t know about the Sputnik program and the advent of the Space Race…

“Listen now,” said the NBC radio network announcer on the night of October 4, 1957, “for the sound that forevermore separates the old from the new.” Next came the chirping in the key of A-flat from outer space that the Associated Press called the “deep beep-beep.” Emanating from a simple transmitter aboard the Soviet Sputnik satellite, the chirp lasted three-tenths of a second, followed by a three-tenths-of-a-second pause. This was repeated over and over again until it passed out of hearing range of the United States.

The satellite was silver in color, about the size of a beach ball, and weighed a mere 184 pounds. Yet for all its simplicity, small size, and inability to do more than orbit the Earth and transmit meaningless radio blips, the impact of Sputnik on the United States and the world was enormous and unprecedented. The vast majority of people living today, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, were born after Sputnik was launched and may be unaware of the degree to which it helped shape life as we know it. Now is an especially good time to take a fresh and focused look at the event whose impact looms even larger with the passing of time. In the last decade an incredible amount of once-secret material has been declassified and made public. Scholars and writers both inside and outside government have coaxed key Cold War documents out of hiding. Collectively, this material has given new dimensions and twists to almost every aspect of the events leading up to and following the launch of Sputnik.

For example, one recently released document reveals evidence of a long-forgotten pre-Sputnik “olive branch” extended by Russian scientists, who asked their American counterparts to supply a piece of scientific equipment for a planned launch. By most indications, this piece of equipment was meant for the third Sputnik.

It is not widely known even now that one of the reasons President Dwight D. Eisenhower and those around him did not react with alarm over Sputnik going into space ahead of an American satellite was that Eisenhower welcomed the launch to help establish the principle of “freedom of space” [the idea that outer space belonged to everyone, thereby allowing satellite flights over foreign countries]. At the time of the Sputnik “crisis,” the White House, Central Intelligence Agency, Air Force, and a few highly select and trustworthy defense contractors were creating a spy satellite that was so secret that only a few dozen people knew of it. Even its name, CORONA, was deemed secret for many years. Instead of being concerned with winning the first round of the space race, Eisenhower and his National Security Council were much more interested in launching surveillance satellites that could tell American intelligence where every Soviet missile was located.”
- Continue reading at Sputnik Declassified

To celebrate the beep that bummed the Western World out, here’s a space related Super Swingin’ Mix. Can YOU guess how each song relates to Sputnik? I’ll get you started – Laika was the name of the dog who accompanied Sputnik II a month after the first launch and the name of the British space pop group whose song “Almost Sleeping,” off their album Sounds of the Satellites, is found below.

MP3 :::
Laika – Almost Sleeping
Spacemen 3 – Hypnotized
Boards of Canada – Over the Horizon Radar
Raymond Scott – Twilight in Turkey
Raymond Scott – Ripples (Excerpt)
Belbury Poly – The Moonlawn
Stereolab – Golden Ball
Astral – Blinder
Space Needle – Scientific Mapp

Ghost Box brings it heavy on the zone out times. If you love Silver Apples, Raymond Scott, or Broadcast, you need at least one Ghost Box release in your collection.

The Focus Group’s new release “We are Coming Back to Dance with You” is dense while creating a huge sonic headspace to take in each sound with profound consideration. As with most of The Focus Group’s catalogue, “We are Coming Back…” treads this weird, thin line between being tranquil and being spooky, sorta in the same vein as Music Has the Right to Children. And as prevalent on that aforementioned album, The Focus Group lays it thick on the bucolic imagery. This is pretty much the same with The Advisory Circle. “Energy in the Home” builds itself around analoge synths and what is, presumably, some public television program. Once again, futuristic in the most nostalgic sense. Some of my favorite songs feature random field recordings over vocals. It’s a good way to go, and you get plenty of that with both The Focus Group and The Advisory Circle.

MP3 :::
The Focus Group – We are Coming Back to Dance with You
The Advisory Circle – Energy in the Home