In what seems to be a suite of albums that namedrop the jams that Anton Newcombe loves (with the first being 2007’s My Bloody Underground), the Brian Jonestown Massacre is set to drop Who Killed Sgt. Pepper on New Year’s Day. And since Newcome is. always. on. fucking. MySpace. showing. us. the. dinner. he’s. cooking. and. other. random. and. often. stupid. shit., the tracklisting was made available for a brief time before it was retracted. Probably after a phone call from the manager. Be it as it may.

1. Tempo 116.7 (Reaching For Dangerous Levels Of Sobriety)
2. The Heavy Knife
3. Lets Go Fucking Mental (Melodica Mix)
4. White Music
5. This Is The First Of Your Last Warnings (Icelandic Version)
6. This Is The One Thing We Did Not Want To Have Happen
7. The One
8. Someplace Else Unknown
9. Detka! Detka! Detka!
10. Super Fucked
11. Our Time
12. Feel It (Of Course We Fucking Do)
13. Felt Tipped-Pen Pictures Of UFOs

Before the full length drops though, the BJM will release a new teaser EP that comes out next week called One EP. You can czech it courtesy of Cargo Records. Looking forward to hearing that, for sure. However, I currently have no predictions on whether Who Killed Sgt. Pepper will rule or not. This is the best of the streaming tracks I’ve listened to thus far, and I like it quite a bit. But some of the other tracks I’ve heard sound abysmal, and some were pretty decent. I dunno, what do you think? I’m certainly hoping for the best myself. I’m on your team, Anton.

POSSIBLY RELEVANT :::
The Brian Jonestown Massacre vs. The Decibel Tolls

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.

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.

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

Effects pedals tweaker Adam Forkner, a.k.a. White Rainbow, has a lot going on for a relatively new artist. Besides touring Europe and supporting Deerhunter, dude also fist bumps Pauly Shore (see the Possibly Relevant links below). But what’s probably most relevant is that his new body of work for Kranky, New Clouds, is a funky, technicolor, rainbows-and-gumdrops psychedelic score for modern dance. Four songs, 60ish minutes long, and genre ambiguous, New Clouds is a beautiful and driving aural jaunt that, at the sake of sounding like a cheesedick, you just sorta get lost in. This is good vibes head music for folks who’s got, what Bad Brains called, that P.M.A. This album got my day started this morning.

I’ve tossed around the label “ambient music for people who don’t like ambient music” more than once, but it’s undeniably a good label for White Rainbow. There are no lyrics or verse/chorus actions (as you would expect from music often reviewed on this blog), but there’s lots of melody, lots of lush instrumentation, lots of texture, intricate rhythm, vague vocal chants, and a tension-and-release dynamic that makes New Clouds almost pop-oriented at times. If you haven’t peeped ol’ Rainbow yet, think of him as a shoegazey version of Growing that spent more time in the woods meditating, collecting cool threads, and partaking in the good peyote. And like Growing, who spent time frightening the Hot Chip fans on a supporting string of dates, White Rainbow also opens for a group infinitely inferior to him (Yacht… bleh) on a southeastern Asia vision quest. But hey, I can jive with whatever spreads his krautrock forest gospel.

New Clouds is a beautiful record, and surprisingly upbeat. Use it to get your day started. Or use it as the centerpiece in bong-rippin’ activities. New Clouds goes both ways. And it just dropped this week on Kranky. Go see about it.

For fans of: Belong, Growing, Cloudland Canyon

POSSIBLY RELEVANT :::
Most Psychedelic Times with White Rainbow, Pauly Shore, and the Hurdy Gurdy Bro
[Photos + Video] Deerhunter, Dan Deacon, and No Age with White Rainbow and More – 8.4.09 – Southgate House, Newport

MP3 :::
White Rainbow – All the Boogies in the World (excerpt)

…Cynicism can’t escape the chillness of Washed Out’s hazy electro rip-tide. His new EP High Times is sort of like an 80’s movie soundtrack á la M83 but instead of the bubblegum and popcorn of John Hughes we slide through nine tracks of Risky Business style seduction.

Producer Ernest Greene mashes the kind of retro-future synth touches common on Warp with sunny arpeggios and deep hip-hop bass. Only working on this project for two months, he’s already dropped the infectious, blog-approved Life of Leisure on Mexican Summer, a synth-pop EP drenched in beach coma ecstasy. On this follow-up, Greene rotates the vocals out more to make room for vaporous interludes that play like blissful alter-egos of those found on BoC’s Geodaggi. This cassette-only release is currently sold out (cue bummer), but allow these MP3’s to motivate you to stick around until we can get a restock.

The High Times cassette is currently being released in small runs by Mirror Tapes.

MP3 :::
Washed Out – Phone Call
Washed Out – Luck

There are certain sounds synonymous with the Summer of Love, but what about the winter that followed? Bronx trio Pigeons have a decent guess in mind. Their account of classic psychedelia is a much colder affair than most’. Stringing together a bizarrely addictive mix of paranoia, mystery, and seduction, their new 7″ Lunettes is something I could only describe as psych-noir.

Warm tape-splintered reverb follows defeated guitar lines on “Lowest”. Singer Wednesday Knudsen positions herself amongst the debris as a writhing chanteuse, evoking Trish Keenan from Broadcast if she had been coached by David Lynch. The sedate hymn, “Tendress”, with drums set to the rowing beat of a ghost ship, furthers the groups fascinating tension between neurosis and delicacy. This little taste is a pre-curser to upcoming LP Si Faustine dropping on Olde English Spelling Bee in the near future, hopefully in time for Halloween. Highly Recommended.

Lunettes is available now on Soft Abuse.

For fans of:  Broadcast, Pocahaunted, Religious Knives

MP3 :::
Pigeons – Tendress
Pigeons – Lowest

Erika Thrasher’s got a lot to smile about, since Houston-based shamanistic noise psych troubadours Indian Jewelry start a healthy string of tour dates tonight in the most beautiful city’s that’s a bitch to bike, San Francisco. Not sure if this new tour means that a new album is in a the works, but this rather comprehensive jaunt is more than satisfactory in itself. I tried to bring Indian Jewelry to Louisville during this leg, but unfortunately they had to agree to the Cincy date (which is okay since the Art Damage Lodge is awesome). You’ve gotta see these dudes live. I’ll probably make the trip myself. They wear tunics, adorn the stage with animal skulls, tin foil, and a Texas state flag, blast flood-level strobe lights everywhere, and keep things evil at all times. The live show is epileptic madness. Plus, the group has solidified an impressive and eclectic collection of support dates, playing with everyone from Kurt Vile and Faust, to !!! and Celebration, to Sword Haven and Psychic Ills. Insane.

9/26 – San Francisco, CA – Independent
9/27 – Los Angeles, CA – The Troubadour
9/28 – Costa Mesa, CA – The Detroit Bar
9/29 – Phoenix, AZ – The Rhythm Room
9/30 – Tucson, AZ – Hotel Congress
10/02 – Lawrence, KS – The Replay Lounge
10/03 – Grinnell, IA – Grinnell College
10/04 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
10/05 – Bloomington, IN – The Bishop
10/06 – Detroit, MI – Museum of Contemporary Art
10/07 – Cleveland, OH – Now That’s Class
10/08 – Poughkeepsie, NY – Vassar College
10/09 – New York, NY – Cake Shop
10/11 – New Haven, CT – Sundazed at Bar New Haven
10/13 – Brooklyn, NY – Glasslands
10/15 – Baltimore, MD – Load of Fun
10/16 – Gambier, OH – Horn Gallery at Kenyan College
10/17 – Cincinnati, OH – Art Damage Lodge
10/18 – Atlanta, GA – Eyedrum
10/19 – Mobile, AL – Alabama Music Box
10/22 – Austin, TX – Club DeVille
10/23 – Houston, TX – TBA

The boys and girls made a commercial advertising their “Live Music” tour. I think it captures their music well. Especially the clip of the Oregon Trail-style caravan fording the river.

MP3 :::
Indian Jewelry – Nonetheless

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

So many new artists have embraced the antiquated garage shtick that it’s hard to even call it a revival anymore. Sic Alps, on the other hand, have always seemed more like they were possessed by the era’s zeitgeist than simply paraphrasing it. Throw in some properly blended noise-pop and you’ve got us champing at the bit.

Now joined by Ty Segall, the band has released their first cut as a trio on Slumberland, one of our very favorite furniture stores record labels. The new 7″ is called L. Mansion, and it rules. Bombastic, snarling, and catchy as they’ve ever been, with nothing sacrificed in the process. The flip side features a gritty, all-business cover of Donovan’s stoner classic “Superlungs.” Awesome.

Congrats to these guys on landing an opening spot for Sonic Youth on their upcoming tour, as well a west coast romp with Magjik Markers. Expecting much more noise from their camp in the coming months.

L. Mansion is available now on Slumberland Records.

For fans of: Brian Jonestown Massacre, Times New Viking, Velvet Underground

MP3 :::
Sic Alps – L Mansion

Can Lightning Bolt even make a bad album? Well, I suppose if they, I dunno, started sporting J Crew, ripped off Paul Simon’s whiteboy Afrobeat, and wrote a concept album about how rad their dad’s Cape Cod estate is, sure, that would be relatively gnarly. But worry not, this is Providence-reared, Load-loyal Lightning Bolt – ADHD rhythmic, skull-crushing low-end fuzz purveying, ski mask doning, intestinal fortitude testing, Frances Bacon meets fridge art shit on their album covers makin’, inclined toward all that is guerrilla style, quite possibly spawned from the primordial ooze Lightning Bolt. A veritable Rush for the noise kids; everything the two Brians touch is aces. And with their forthcoming Earthly Delights, Lightning Bolt comes correct… uh-gain… with an effort every bit as strong as Hypermagic Mountain and with an even more adventurous spirit to boot.

Though I wanted to hold off a bit after first hearing the jam hive before publishing my thoughts in narrative form, I did post some quips on the blog’s Twitter a couple of weeks ago. I think I said something to the effect of “Earthly Delights is Lightning Bolt’s Meet the Beatles’ and ‘I could get my folks into this record.’ Well, none of that is exactly true, but there’s a very odd, visceral melodicism running underneath the album. I noticed this on the first track I listened to, “Nation of Boar.” I chose to listen to this particular canticle first since it’s called “Nation of Boar.” The song exits with a rather gorgeous, mystic progression that makes me feel like returning to nature. Weird, right? Well, while LB hasn’t exactly gone verse-chorus-verse on us just yet, the more concise songs (half the album features songs under five minutes) yield less dissonance and fuckin’ around, replacing the new space with extremely structured, simple, almost hummable compositions. That is not to say that LB has lost any edge, but simply that Earthly Delights throws a little Occam’s Razor into the mix. The group’s opting to keep their disposition a bit simpler and less freeform. Hence the hyperbolic comparison to Meet the Beatles. I have to say that I like the results.

“Colossus” bring a slow-burning, nasty stoner metal groove to the forefront, and acts as one of LB’s most driving songs since Wonderful Rainbow’s “Assassins.” But don’t think the Brians are ever looking behind, because “Funny Farm” comes at you out of no-fucking-where. It’s a country song. That’s right, B Gibs does Buck Owens-style western licks through his grody bass distortion. Shit you not. “Funny Farm” is outta control ridiculous. “S.O.S.” then takes you through East London for a little oi punk call-response at machine gun speed. Again, awesome. After four years, you’d have to expect something insane to end up on the new record, especially with these bros.

As with all Lightning Bolt releases, there is one real ultimate epic trek through Middle Earth jam. Hypermagic Mountain’s was “Dead Cowboy,” Wonderful Rainbow’s was “The Two Towers” (interestingly enough, huh?), and with Earthly Delights, they save the big guns for last with closing track “Transmissionary.” The 12-and-a-half minute flight is definitely the closest that Lightning Bolt has brushed against psychedelia-leaning prog, and I mean that with all due respect and good vibes. If The Moody Blues cut the foreplay after Seventh Sojourn and just fuckin’ rawked, they may have gotten close to “Transmissionary.” The cut showcases an almost orchestral approach – organic, resplendent, and soaring to climax. It’s a sumptuous journey that leaves you refreshed, enlightened, but upset that Earthly Delights just ended real cold-like. Oh well… just gotta hit repeat on that sucka and get lifted again.

Earthly Delights solidifies once again that Lightning Bolt unequivocally remains one of the most relevant bands today. I hope they tour crazy on this record, and as soon I get some some dates sent to me, I’ll definitely let you all in the loop. In the interim, go buy Earthly Delights at your favorite record dealer when it drops October 13. Or preoder it soon from Load. Do it, poopypants!

Fagen-Becker Quality Rating

MP3 :::
Lightning Bolt – Nation of Boar
Lightning Bolt – S.O.S.

There’s something about the former Axis powers post-WWII that developed some of the strangest, most visionary, and most divergent music some three decades afterward. Both Germany and Japan were largely responsible for the music of the 70s and 80s that came out of nowhere and sounded like absolutely nothing else – everything from Kraftwerk to Merzbow. All of it is still as important and relevant today (perhaps even more so).

De Stijl Records dusts off and uncovers one such group out of late 70s/early 80s Hanover — 39 Clocks. While their timeline coincides with New York’s no wave movement, their Deutsche no wave is something else entirely. Amalgamating the dadaist cool and nervous energy of Suicide, their homeland’s motorik rhythm, the loud and detuned psychedelics of Spacemen 3 (whom 39 Clocks actually predate), the organ-as-diving-rod experimental pop ethos of Silver Apples, and a Nuggets-ready proto-punk punch, the mensch of 39 Clocks chew up kraut and psychedelic subsets and spit them out into a ball of drug-riddled prophecy and rock and roll shenanigans.

And like Suicide, who may still remain most infamous for the riot they provoked during 43 Minutes Over Brussels, 39 Clocks also enjoyed stirring trouble and inconvenience. De Stijl writes: “The first public appearance pairing Christian Henjes and Juergen Gleue was in 1976, at the Dada Nova (a space occupied by Otto Mühl’s AAO commune) in midtown Hannover, Germany. Dada Nova would be a space of enduring clash. From the subtlety of a shat upon organ to the ejection from communal meetings by bodily force, the AAO would display that the presence of the 39 Clocks was one of their constant grief. Known for pranksterism and the destruction of the clubs in which they would perform, friction in every form would continually follow the band. They created an outrage (they wrote a tune with the title “Art Minus Idiots”) at the Filmtage Hannover with their avant-garde Super 8 movies made under the disguise of director Zachius Lipschitz. Rumour claims that at a Hannover show at the Cafe Glocksee, they played the vacuum cleaner and a circular saw instead of guitars, and there was even a knife throwing incident in Bremen.” It’s hard to say whether 39 Clocks were going for legnedary status or if they just didn’t give a shit, but at least they wear their sense of humor on their sleeves. What, with song titles such as “Shake the Hippie” and “You Can’t Count the Bombs (It’s Zero),” you’d kinda have to be funny.

Antics aside, the 18 tracks on Zoned, an anthology of various releases between 1981 and 1987, are solid and, in my eyes, a total achievement. 39 Clocks perfected a no wave style sound they were far removed from while developing an original reiterpretation of ’60s garage rock and created a facet of neo psych rock that was about a decade ahead of its English counterpart in the shoegaze and Jason Pierce circles. But their cheif export is pure aural insanity. This is too fresh to be 23-30 years old. De Stijl really found a gem with 39 Clocks, and the remastered Zoned is a must have for any fan of mind expanding music.

Zoned is available now from De Stijl.

For fans of:  Spacemen 3, Can, Suicide, Silver Apples

MP3 :::
39 Clocks – Psycho Beat
39 Clocks – Dom (Electricity Elects the Rain)