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[Photos + Video] The For Carnation – Art After Dark @ The Speed Museum, Louisville – 10.23.09

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on October 24, 2009

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[Photos + Video] The For Carnation - Art After Dark @ The Speed Museum, Louisville - 10.23.09

Though it should’ve been obvious, it didn’t dawn on me that a live performance by Slint/Tortoise/Crain/Shipping News rowdy crowd The For Carnation at a forward-thinking art celebration (The Speed Museum’s Art After Dark) wouldn’t exactly be a traditional band-plays-in-front-of-you type of gig. No dice on that. While it was odd at first, you realized shortly into the set how original and exciting such an unusual show is to experience. It’s what Pink Floyd tried to do with their theatrical five city tour for The Wall, except it wasn’t stupid. Regardless of how you felt about its execution, you’ll definitely remember it. After I reflected a bit on what they were doing, I really got into it.

So yes, The For Carnation performed live. But they did so remotely. The group members were stationed in different locales about the museum. The show that you saw happened in the Antiquity Gallery, and it was a video project of the band performing filtered through a pixelated mosaic.

forcarnation3 [Photos + Video] The For Carnation - Art After Dark @ The Speed Museum, Louisville - 10.23.09

You can’t tell from the photographic evidence, but if you looked closely within the pixels, each was some sort of image, though it was hard to make out what exactly they were. It was quite incredible, actually.

So here we find vocalist Brian McMahan next to the European art collections. Hey. I didn’t find the rest of the band, but I didn’t feel the need to go on an easter egg hunt either.

forcarnation [Photos + Video] The For Carnation - Art After Dark @ The Speed Museum, Louisville - 10.23.09

This show, as well as the entire event, was triumphant and groovy. I noticed other people were videotaping the performance. If anyone has access to other videos (and permission to share), please give me a shout. Have a taste with some video we shot:

The For Carnation plays at the sold-out Ten Years of ATP festival this December in Minehead with Tortoise, Shellac, Fuck Buttons, Deerhoof, The Melvins, Explosions in the Sky, Battles, Lightning Bolt, Sunn 0))), and a slew of other decidedly awesome acts. Get yr. passport notarized, yanks.

MP3 :::
The For Carnation – Emp. Man’s Blues

Nothing Says Halloween Like Horrible Noise at Zanzabar this Saturday!

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Kenny Bloggins

on October 19, 2009

in Rockshows

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3wolfmoon Nothing Says Halloween Like Horrible Noise at Zanzabar this Saturday!
Man, I had to. I couldn’t find a hi-res photo relevant for this event, so I threw in the three wolves + moon meme. Shit’s still funny to me. I mean, c’mon… Wolf Eyes, Halloween, New Moon soundtrack. This was necessary and proper, ya’ll.

Anyway, back to the point… the most wonderful time of the year, the Reason for the Season – Halloween – is just around the bend. How do you plan to celebrate? Yeah, you could see Monsters of Folk at the Louisville Palace on this most ghoulish of holidays (whom are icidentally neither monsters nor fuckin’ folk). But it might be more festive and less sissy to bask in the horrifying power electronics and booty bass of new projects from 2/3 of Wolf Eyes and some excellent Derby City dirty noise thrashers foreboding enough to make Michael Gira change his cowboy hat. Think I prefer the latter for sure.

Headlining is Regression. From Boomkat: “Nate Young has taken the noise levels down several notches for his new solo outing as Regression, although the air of implicit, floating darkness cast over the whole affair is very much within his established oeuvre. You could neither classify Regression’s self-titled LP as a noise record or a death ambient record, instead the analog synth dissections and tape treatments more closely reference library music, horror soundtracks, or in its more austere moments, early electronic music. Regression is an outstanding album, proving to be more delicate than a Wolf Eyes full-length has ever been, yet it’s able to match the group’s sonic gravitas – and their uncanny ability to make the extremes of music sound so incredibly seductive.”

Library music? Oh shit yes. And his oft partner in crime John Olson is coming in as Spykes. He will probably still drink all the damn beer. The DIY-centric Nzambi is Louisville’s Christopher Cprek, who you may have seen tweaking knobs during the second (or maybe third) incarnation of Warmer Milks, as well as his other project Pax Titania. Cprek builds all his own shit, so no one could imitate his integallactic sounds even if they tried. Michigan’s Dog Lady opens up with some amplified violin, modified electronics, and various forest nymph summoning. In short, these guys put the “monsters of” in Mosters of Folk. Believe that.

Ya know what’s the weirdest thing though? This is all happening Saturday night at the Zanzabar! An insane noise show at the Zbar on a Saturday night! I guess somebody at the club owed Joel Hunt a serious favor.

Regression, Spykes, Nzambi, and Dog Lady
Saturday, October 24
Zanzabar
2100 S. Preston St., Louisville (map that shizz)
9 p.m. / $5
21+

“Black Vomit” is one of my favorite Wolf Eyes jams. It’s about having fun and making friends.

MP3 :::
Wolf Eyes – Black Vomit

Blues Control and Sapat Play Lisa’s Oak Street Lounge in Louisville – 10/23

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Kenny Bloggins

on October 12, 2009

in News and Rockshows

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bluescontrol Blues Control and Sapat Play Lisas Oak Street Lounge in Louisville - 10/23

Fuck! I just reported today how The For Carnation is playing their first show in, what, seven years or so at the Speed Museum’s Art After Dark event, then I realized that’s also the same night that Siltbreeze patriots Blues Control and locals Sapat bust brains across town. OMG MULTITASKING LOL.

Ya know, it is possible that The For Carnation will play a lot earlier than the general 10 p.m. start times at Lisa’s, so you may be able to do both. But then again, perhaps you might want to show up to the Blues Control/Sapat gig early, considering that Lisa’s is small, Sapat draws a fairly large crowd locally, and Blues Control spent a chunk of this year supporting Animal Collective on tour and probably picked up lots of fresh fans along the way. Good gravy, ya’ll, don’t know what to tell you. I’mma try to do both.

I submit for your consideration some previous write-ups I’ve done on both bands:

Blues Control (from the Puff EP write-up) – “Always on Time” is straight from space. It’s the sound emitting from the SETI experiments. Large, cavernous waves of radiation and solar wind flush around a simple, rarely changing Neu-esque piano melody with the reverb turned up all the way and dripping in condensation for 12 big minutes. The harmonica on “Behind the Skies” is the only indication that Blues Control is going to attempt to live up to its name, a mid-tempo, fuzzed-out burner reminiscent of Lightning Bolt on purple drank (perhaps there’s a connection between Ride the Skies and Behind the Skies?). R-O-C-K in the U-S-A.

Sapat (from the Jana Hunter/Crazy Dreams Band preview) – Sapat is a local collective that features between eight and one million people (depending on the type of show), all of whom have a like-minded approach to fringe music. Sapat is a pulsating orb of eclecticism and mysticism – never cateogorizable, but always freaky, funky, and brain splattering. Sapat’s expansive beauty and unwavering experimentation is what makes Louisville amazing. They are truly a breath of fresh air. Remember that part in Amistad when they’re in the court room and the bro is all ike “give us… free!”? Sapat gives you free with every show.

Blues Control and Sapat
Friday, October 23
Lisa’ Oak Street Lounge
1004 E. Oak St., Louisville (map that shizz)
9 p.m.-ish
21+

Blues Control Unleash the Dragon World Tour 2K9*
*= not actually the name of the tour, though that might’ve been the name of an Aerosmith tour

10.12.09 – Princeton, NJ – WPRB – in-studio 3pm EST
10.16.09 – Philadelphia, PA – Pilam
10.18.09 – New Haven, CT – Bar
10.19.09 – Ithaca, NY – The Shop
10.20.09 – Scranton, PA – The Bog
10.21.09 – Pittsburgh, PA – Garfield Artworks $
10.22.09 – Cincinnati, OH – Art Damage Lodge $
10.23.09 – Louisville, KY – Lisa’s Oak Street Lounge %
10.24.09 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle – early show @
10.25.09 – Madison, WI – Good Style Shop
10.26.09 – St Paul, MN – Turf Club
10.27.09 – Kansas, City MO – Record Bar
10.29.09 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court – early show
10.29.09 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge – late show
10.30.09 – Boise, ID – Neurolux
10.31.09 – Olympia, WA – The Northern – Halloween &!
11.01.09 – Seattle, WA – Funhouse &
11.02.09 – Vancouver, BC – Little Mountain Studios
11.03.09 – Portland, OR – Someday Lounge
11.05.09 – San Francisco, CA – Hemlock Tavern =
11.06.09 – Oakland, CA – Continental Club +
11.07.09 – Sacramento, CA – Luigi’s Slice <
11.08.09 – Santa Cruz, CA – CREPE PLACE >
11.09.09 – San Luis Obispo, CA – Crossroads
11.10.09 – Irvine, CA – UC Irvine ^
11.11.09 – Los Angeles, CA – Synchrocity ^
11.12.09 – San Diego, CA – Soda Bar
11.13.09 – Phoenix, AZ – Trunk Space
11.16.09 – Denton, TX – J&J’s Pizza
11.17.09 – Austin, TX – The Mohawk
11.18.09 – Houston, TX – Mango’s
11.19.09 – New Orleans, LA – Allways Lounge
11.21.09 – Nashville, TN – Dino’s
11.22.09 – Asheville, NC – Harvest Records
11.23.09 – Chapel Hill, NC – Nightlight

$ Puffy Areolas
# Kurt Vile
! Tyvek
% Sapat
@ Ga’an
Chinese Stars
& Little Claw
+ Sic Alps
= Hank IV
^ Pocahaunted
< The Duchess and the Duke
> Lucky Dragons

MP3 :::
Blues Control – Behind the Skies
Sapat – Dark Silver

The For Carnation Quietly Returns… in Two Weeks!

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Kenny Bloggins

on October 12, 2009

in News

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77-1 The For Carnation Quietly Returns... in Two Weeks!

I’m not sure if the Slint/Tortoise/Shipping News supergroup The For Carnation ever officially broke up. Hence, we can’t call their return a “reunion” necessarily. So we’ll referred to this event as their triumphant return. While we haven’t heard new material since 2000’s eponymous record (not counting the 2007 Touch and Go reissue of Promised Works) and there are no rumors that they may be recording again soon, it does seem The For Carnation has been officially reignited when they agreed to make their first public appearance in years at All Tomorrows Parties’ Ten Years of ATP festival this December in the UK. That is, until last week… when it was quietly, almost nonchalantly announced that The For Carnation will be playing Art After Dark at the University of Louisville’s Speed Art Museum on October 23. Like out of nowhere. I just silently mouthed “holy shit” reading that.

The skinny:

Art After Dark: Remix (the first of three museum-wide events held throughout the year, each with a different theme) will tie together a lineup of music, visual spectacle, creating art, and fun. Remix will feature the premiere of a multimedia art collaboration between classically trained American cellist Ben Sollee (an NPR Top 10 Unknown Artist of the Year) and multimedia Louisville artist, Valerie Sullivan Fuchs. Also featured will be the uniquely dynamic, minimalist-informed, yet R&B inspired music of “The For Carnation,” a post rock band from Louisville formed by Brian McMahan (formerly of the legendary band “Slint”), as well as theatrical interpretations of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies created by the wacky minds of LePetomane Theatre Ensemble, and fire dancing performances from The Phoenix Collective on the museum’s front lawn. Visitors will also want to keep an eye out for break dancers, a critic at large, “un-tours” of the collection and films from Louisville Film Society.

The For Carnation is R&B inspired? Eh, I buy that. They’re dynamic dudes. I’m totally there, brah.

The For Carnation @ Art After Dark
Friday, October 23 @ 7 p.m.
The Speed Art Museum
2035 S. 2nd St., Louisville (map that shizz)
All Ages

MP3 :::
The For Carnation – Tales

Phantom Family Halo – Monoliths and These Flowers Never Die

Published

Kenny Bloggins

on October 10, 2009

in Praise and Malaise

. 0 Comments

pfh-12jackgatefold-w-spine-web Phantom Family Halo - Monoliths and These Flowers Never Die

Louisville’s Phantom Family Halo adds another page to archtype-laden book of rock folklore. Right before their long-awaited grand statement to the world drops, the sprawling 2 LP Monoliths & These Flowers Never Die, and they begin their nationwide vision quest with Russian Circles, the band’s auxiliary drummer, Tony Bailey, suddenly passed away. As an esteemed and prolific member in the local music community, the news sent shock waves through the city. However, the band did not utter a word about it publicly. Phantfamlo never discusses peripheral information in any capacity, even when directly relating to the people in the band, and they’ve always kept things close to the chest. Undoubtedly this adds to their mystique. Monliths, despite its foreboding mood, is congruent to this attitude. The grainy, dry psychedelia found within evokes both an intimacy and mystery not often found in this genre. If you knew nothing else about them, you’d probaby be baffled as to who they are, where they came from, and what they want from you. They probably like it that way. Phantom Family Halo doesn’t float above the horizon line like the flower power groups do – they’re standing behind you.

Monoliths & These Flowers Never Die is a bold, majestic record that’s viscerally formidable and fresh – a crafty stew of swampy acid rock, haunting soundscapes, immense space, a slight gothic flavor, and eternal heaviness. Five songs in is a track called “Dec 2012,” and I’ll be damned if I can find a better brain-burning soundtrack for the apocalypse.

Opener “Blackouts and Runaways” truly makes use of playwright Bertolt Brecht’s assertion of “The past inside the present,” citing that “the rapidity of change and the increase of knowledge in the modern world have forced us to see history in a new light: not as a finalized past but as a process in which the new continuously transfigures the old.” Without sounding pretentious and wanker (I promise you I’m not going in this direction), Phantom Family Halo has synthesized this idea to great effect. “Blackouts and Runaways” meshes conventional garage rock/harsh vintage psych and hauntological retro-futuristic electronic flourishes to create art without a time stamp, a warped perception of what rock music used to be (as we understand it), and a proclamation that fears the future. In other words, it’s fucking heavy, and it sets the tone for the rest of the album – an body of work that’s chronologically ambiguous yet sonically pointed.

The motorik 10-minute opus “Monoliths” scares the shit out of me. It’s the sound of someone looking into your window after dark, donning a masquerade facepiece and wielding a nine inch blade, making your balls retract ten-fold. No one has written more paranoid krautrock saturated in impending doom. “Third World War” is nothing but pure mindfuck. A twinkling, bucolic melody carries you through over a minute of serenity before pure menacing proto-metal and a blanket of vehement, Link Wray-style reverberated vocals dicks you in the dick. And yet, songs like “Alive and Well” peak out from around the corner – a playful, aurally credulous three-minute ballad that mixes a bit of Boards of Canada atmospheric synths with orchestral samples that, aside from the melodic vocals, wouldn’t sound out of place on Aphex Twin’s Richard D James album.

There’s a surprise at every corner. And while the instrumentation can be somewhat sparse and rigid, each movement through the album’s massive 18 songs reveals strata of mysterious sounds, cavernous imagery, and lush evil. Monoliths & These Flowers Never Die an invigorating and exciting listening, while at the same time, provokes your eyes to constantly dark around for predators all the while. It’s weird and it’s awesome. It’s the heat-induced forest fire ruining the hippies’ fun during the summer of love. Most importantly, Monoliths & These Flowers Never Die does not easily fit in any genre or subgenre, acting more as an anthropomorphic, mercurial, growing beast that is certainly one of the most profound statements out of Louisville in years and, and in my opinion, one that holds up well against any given heavy hitter in the experimental rock field. Get lifted.

Phantom Family Halo’s Monoliths & These Flowers Never Die is available now on beautiful vinyl or in digital download format courtesy of Karate Body Records.

For fans of: Six Organs of Admittance, Fever Ray, Spiritualized, Boris

Fagen-Becker Quality Rating
steelydan1 Phantom Family Halo - Monoliths and These Flowers Never Die

As some footnotes to the review above, why don’t you go on and have a real taste yourself. Here is some video of “These Flowers Never Die” from their show at Lisa’s Oak Street Lounge last July that I went to and had a sweet time. Of course, sadly, this footage is some of Tony’s last. But, tour’s still on. I’ll post those dates closer to their leave after the holidays.

POSSIBLY RELATED :::
Phantom Family Halo is Awesome (7.16.09)

MP3 :::
Phantom Family Halo – Blackouts and Runaways
Phantom Family Halo – Alive and Well

[Reminder] Rachel Grimes Tomorrow Night @ 21C, Louisville

Published

Kenny Bloggins

on October 7, 2009

in News

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boltiles_01 [Reminder] Rachel Grimes Tomorrow Night @ 21C, Louisville

Rachel Grimes, formerly of folklore-evoking Louisville chamber post rock collective Rachel’s (whose founder Jason Noble is the reason for the Shellac-headlining benefit show announced this week), celebrates the release of her new album Book of Leaves tomorrow night (Thursday) at the 21C. The show will be the first in 21C’s Hear + Now multimedia A/V series. Seeing as it’s been a while since Rachel or Rachel’s have surfaced, and this new record is her first solo outing, you shouldn’t in good conscience miss this show.

Backseat Sandbar writes: “The show will also feature works by Daniel Gilliam, Lou Moseson and Sara Maclean. The Series will feature newly composed works by regional creators and performed by regional creators for all of us to experience. I’ve even heard that there will be a baby grand piano placed in the center of the room with seating in a theatre in the round style. 21c always pulls out all the stops and this series looks to be very exciting.”

Book of Leaves mixes modern composition with field recordings, and remains one of the more intriguing releases that has graced these ears. The album is available on vinyl and digital release via hometown heroes Karate Body. Grip it here.

Rachel Grimes Record Release
Thursday, October 8
21C Museum
700 W. Main St., Louisville (map that shizz)
7 p.m doors
All ages

MP3 :::
Rachel Grimes – Every Morning

Shellac to Play Rare, Intimate Show at Louisville’s 930 Listening Room

Published

Kenny Bloggins

on October 6, 2009

in News

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shellac500 Shellac to Play Rare, Intimate Show at Louisvilles 930 Listening Room

Jason Noble of Shipping News, Rodan, Rachel’s, and other Louisville royalty was recently diagnosed with cancer. Word is that he’s doing okay, but the medical bills are piling up. When Steve Albini got word of this, he put down the cards, left the poker table, and got Shellac together to do a one-off at Louisville’s very intimate 930 Listening Room. Proceeds will benefit Jason and his family during this difficult time, and all the good vibes will probably benefit them as well. This show will be insane! Steve Albini’s flat top in real life will also be insane!

Thanks to Buzzgrinder and Backseat Sandbar for the heads-up!

Shellac w/ Support TBA
Saturday, November 21, 2009
The 930 Listening Room (map that shizz)
7:30 p.m. doors
8 p.m. show
$17 advance
$20 at the door
Tickets on sale Friday, October 9 at 10 a.m. at ear X-tacy and the930.org

MP3 :::
Shellac – The Admiral