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Strangers Family Band Frees Your Dome With Free Music

l_7985d69738e64141975b59e6f5f0822c Strangers Family Band Frees Your Dome With Free Music

Strangers Family Band offers a fine pastiche of the various splinter genres of flower power much like The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s finer catalog (czech “Wooden Hands” and hear how the vocal interplay is almost dead-on Anton Newcombe and Mara Kegal via Their Satanic Majesties’ Second Request). However, also like the BJM, Strangers Family Band do not amalgamate old sounds with new. They are unquestionably channeling the various strata of late ’60s mindbending west coast pop art experimental jangle – light garage rock timbre, pinch of British blues a la John Mayall, and homage to Ravi Shankar that became nothing but en vogue in the post-druggy Beatles summer of love. With that said, they take full advantage of recording technology today to really sharpen the feel and sound of classic true-blue psychedelia to cultivate a truly polyphonic headtrip. Nowhere is that more apparent than the seven minute “Transmission,” bolstered by crisp Twin Reverb distortion, lots of sitar (real sitar, not effect-created), and dark, thick Rhodes organ, punchy tablas – all of which almost play second fiddle to the distant, dark, saturated vocals.

I understand that, as either Kickergaard or Dick Van Patten said, to label me is to negate me. So I’ll stop the labeling and comparisons and let you all just peep the group. However, and this is the last thing I’ll say about Strangers vs. Jonestown – they also adopted the excellent “give your shit away from free and worry about sustainability later” model that Anton discovered when he started digging on the Interwebs. And it’s a great idea. Get your stuff out there, and if it’s good (which it is), people will come to the show and buy your merch. So to that end, czech the MySpazz, have a look at their dates, and see them live. Admire their sitar. Get lifted.

For fans of:  The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Outrageous Cherry, The Yardbirds, 13th Floor Elevators, The Black Angels

MP3 :::
Strangers Family Band – Strange Transmission

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

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

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Phantom Family Halo – Monoliths and These Flowers Never Die

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

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Tickley Feather – Hors D’oeuvres

tickleyfeather Tickley Feather - Hors Doeuvres

I enjoyed the new Tickley Feather record the first time I sat down to listen to it on Wednesday. Then yesterday I had a nasty 24-hour flu bug (or a 24-hour H1N1 – I’m uninsured, so I didn’t have it professionally diagnosed) and got rowdy on the Nyquil and Dayquil at the same time. I was thoroughly fucked. It was at that point that the new Tickley Feather jam hive sounded real good. I tried to type out my review for the album in this state, but all that came out was thoughts like “fickley teather’s bringing the happy face grind out ya doppler radar outta control” and “annie sachs lol, reminds me of, like, ’sacks’ as in ‘i want to carry around sacks so if someone ask for a hand i can be like – no dice, got these sacks’ jack handey to the max”(true story). Better wait until I’m 100% to write this, which I’m doing right now.

So… the fuck was I talking about? Oh yes, we were discussing adorable lil’ Annie Sachs, a.k.a. Tickley Feather a.k.a. Animal Collective’s BFF 4 Life. The Feather recently described her forthcoming Hors D’oeuvres as an attempt to embrace her “Southern Gothic meets Existential Hillbilly vibe,” promising a more bucolic, joyful, accessible effort. Bucolic? Yes, and you can hear the optimism embedded within from her recent move back to her homestead of rural Virginia. But accessible? Fear not, Tickley Feather is still weird as all hell and delightfully psychotic and looking glass-esque. Different this time around, as previously alluded, is the very concise, focused songwriting. The album’s production still sounds like it was recorded underwater (as it should), but the melodies and compositions are so good. Perhaps Hors D’oeuvres will go quadruple platinum. I fucking hope so.

Tickley’s signature drum machine, melted keys, and allegiance to four-track recording still remain in the forefront as she experiments with many genres, intrepreted slight askew of course. “Sure Relaxing” combines aquatic vocals and wah-pedal to evoke a sexy, LSD-lens Cocteau Twins. “Club Rhythm 96 and Cell Phone” brings you nasty dance funk electroclash as recorded by and for the Morlocks. “Buzzy” takes a page out of Ariel Pink’s instrumental jam book, using minimal loops and altering their fidelity to change the mood and timbre of the song throughout a la William Basinki (and a gorgeous one it is). “Don’t Call, Marilyn” amalgamates a ’60s doo wop sensibility with a sort of paranoia-inducing carnival beat and remains a big highlight.

However, where Tickley really hits her stride is on “Trashy Boys” and “Roses of Romance.” Tickley has a serious sense of soaring melody that was only hinted at on earlier work like “Natural.” Despite the wash of hazy effects and otherwordly disposition, there’s a quiet intimacy a la Movietone through the songs’ resplendent warmth that’s quite refreshing in the freak folk realm (though called Tickley “freak folk” is a bit of a disservice to her rather ingenious music). Truly gorgeous stuff.

Hors D’oeuveres holds up as I listen to it now with a sober mind, and was totally fuckin’ awesome on cough meds. Without sounding cliched, it is truly a syrupy trip into strange candy-coated lands, like entering the “Dark World” in Zelda Link to the Past. Highly recommended for all ocassions, and I reckon that it will end up on the best-of list for the year.

Hors D’oeuvres will burrow a hole in your dome when it drops October 20 coutesy of Paw Tracks. The image at the top is not the cover of the new album, by the way. High-res artwork has yet to be released for it.

Fagen-Becker Quality Rating
steelydan2 Tickley Feather - Hors Doeuvres

For fans of:  Ariel Pink, Bachelorette, Broadcast, Movietone

MP3 :::
Tickley Feather – Roses of Romance
Tickley Feather – Trashy Boys

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Disappears – Another Great Verb-As-Noun Band

disappears Disappears - Another Great Verb-As-Noun Band

Disappears have the Anton Newcombe approach to the music business – give all your shit away on the Intarwebz for free, and worry about sustainability later. I dig that. Since I’ve been meaning to czech out these dudes for a while, it was rather easy. Thanks, guys.

Of course, it would be silly to say that their albums are worth every penny, unless they were majorly a bummer. But I’m happy to report the Disappears clearance special is a helluva deal – I just downloaded all three releases, and they’re really great. I would’ve certainly bought these records – I love this group. I prefer their latest release Live Over the Rainbo, and perhaps that’s a rather telling aspect of Disappears. If you sound best live, you’ve probably got a good group of bros to rock with. The group, out of Chicago, actually reminds me a lot of Louisville’s Invaders (who have a similar name as well – so double association there). Reverb-heavy fuzzy guitars, punchy rhythm, a shoegaze aesthetic, and a touch of retro chic on acid – Disappears are everything that’s great about rock and roll.

Disappears are touring with the Black Angels this fall, and as such, are playing a couple of festivals in the area, including Nashville’s Next Big Nashville (duh) and Lexington’s Boomslang. I reckon I’ll catch them at one of the two, and I reckon you should do the same. Their MySpace has all the dates.

And sweet sassy molassey, you can, as mentioned, grip all their recorded work on the band’s caps lock-heavy blog here! That rules. Disappears rule. I rule. You rule. Everything rules. Except this – that does not rule.

MP3 :::
Disappears – Hearing Things

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Phantom Family Halo is Awesome

phantom Phantom Family Halo is Awesome

I halfway feel like no further elaboration outside the title of this entry is needed. But whatever, this is a music blog, so let me sHaRe mY feeLinGs.

I’ve heard for a couple of years that I need to see Phantom Family Halo. Like, everyone I know has told me I need to see them. So, instead of doing either Forecastle or Lebowski Fest last weekend, I opted to spend my money at Lisa’s Oak Street Lounge with the yokel locals to catch Phantom Family Halo’s opening set Saturday night for new Temporary Residence signing and stalwart Louisville boys Young Widows.

Is it cool to describe a show as trenchant? Phantom Family Halo were trenchant. For the uninitiated, Phantom Family Halo formed from the mighty and mysterious local freak folk collective Sapat and The For Carnation. Obviously, these guys are heavy hitters.

A large projection of, for the most part, some visual pastiche of anthropology films illuminated the stage and the band, which included two drummers and a guy whose sole function was to create insane noise from his keyboard and Boss SP-303. PFH were extremely loud, and while listening to their recorded stuff right now, are still extremely uncategorizable. Loosely speaking, Phantom Family Halo function as a psychedelic band. However, their live show is anything but navel gazing. The group becomes a breathing, menacing behemoth purveying nasty, swampy, ultra-distorted acid rock with a rhythm and vocal section closer to the urgency of a punk tent revival, like 154-era Wire informed by Six Organs of Admittance (or perhaps its the other way around).

Phantom Family Halo is awesome. I mean, if Julian Cope is stoked on the record, you know it’s good:

I’m also right blown away by the catchy and compelling all-purpose psychedelia of THE LEGEND OF BLACK SIX by power trio The Phantom Family Halo. I say ‘all purpose’ because this stuff is useful and should be available by the vat on prescription, because it’s good for the mental health. I say power trio, but this lot are greedy motherfuckers with a hefty set of auxiliary members. The sound is totally reminiscent of that 1970 period when no fucker could control the number of overdubs, and these guys pass through every stage from The Youngbloods and Kalackakra to a kind of Amon Duul PARADIESWARTS DUUL-informed take on David Voorhaus’ White Noise project via early (very early) Chrome on their way to the proto metal of ‘Electric God In Your Galaxy’.

If they come to your neck of the woods, make haste to see them. Their web presence is at good ol’ MySpazz.

MP3 :::
Phantom Family Halo – Child of Love
Phantom Family Halo – Black River

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A Summerish Mix

ssm4 A Summerish Mix

When I think of summer and the hot weather that we’ve been sometimes enjoying, I often conjure this majestic image in my head:

SF074 A Summerish Mix

Treated. It’s the Tornado at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. You can probably see this thing from space. It’s huge. I’ve made one pilgrimage across town this summer to do bidding with the mighty Tornado, and plan to go five more times (as per the season pass). Not that any of this matters to you, of course. You probably just want the jams. Fair enough. Here is a summerish mix that, despite my admiration for Brian Wilson, does not feature any Beach Boys songs. That’s just too obvious, ya know:

beachboys A Summerish Mix

As a buddy of mine once said “keep it crunk, but keep it positive.”

MP3 :::
Darker My Love – Summer is Here
Shop Assistants – Almost Made It
Sun City Girls – Radar 1941
The Jesus and Mary Chain – On the Wall (the better Barbed Wire Kisses version)
Atlas Sound – On Guard
City Center – Gladest
Amen Dunes – In Caroline
Friends – Summer Sunday Blues
Seals & Crofts – Summer Breeze
The Clean – Beatnik

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