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Tag Archive for 'psychedelic'Page 3 of 6

A Meeting of the Vibes

Published
by
Michael Hansen
on February 23, 2009
in MP3
. Comments

Vibes-You God It

Not Not Fun may have to consider a name change, because on Vibes’ debut release, You God It, Pocahaunted chanteuse Amanda leads the label’s first super-group into psychedelic garage-funk territory.

We could tell the girls of Pocahaunted were getting antsy when they started injecting dub and dance hall elements into their trademark campfire drone sessions on last year’s Island Diamonds. To remedy this, they’ve teamed up with members of Sun Araw, Robedoor, Magic Lantern, and Fantastic Ego to ditch the delay pedals in favor of some wah-wah.

“Honeycomb,” and, “Understand This,” are two head-bobbin’ choice cuts from the tape’s A-side, confidently beaming with a little warped swagger to boot. No moccasins required this time. I’ve been told this is the perfect addition to anyone’s makin’ breakfast mix, so try starting your day with You God It when you’re throwin’ on some pancakes (hold the Nanerpuss) and see if you don’t come back to thank me.

Unfortunately, this release was limited to 100 initial copies, so you’ll have to wait until they re-stock to get one of your own. But in the mean time, your best shot at hearing these jams live is to check out the Not Not Fun Records Showcase, March 20th at the Hideout in Austin, TX. Confirmed guests include: Pocahaunted, Magic Lantern, Ducktails, Barn Owl, Sun Araw, and Mythical Beast.

MP3 :::
Vibes – Honeycomb
Vibes – Understand This

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A Bounty on Psychic Ills, BJM Take the Freak Wagon on Tour, plus Roger Ebert is a Stoner

Published
by
Kenny Bloggins
on February 19, 2009
in News
. Comments

newsonthemarch A Bounty on Psychic Ills, BJM Take the Freak Wagon on Tour, plus Roger Ebert is a Stoner

Haven’t had a news roundup in a while, so let’s do this like Buddhists…

I’ve been grooving on Psychic Ills’ Mirror Eye since it dropped last month. It’s not groundbreaking material, but it’s good enough, and it’s the sound I enjoy in modern music (which is, let’s be honest, anything droney with lots of reverb and the tweaking of various knobs). I’d give Mirror Eye a solid B. Pitchfork disagreed (a 1.4 no less), and the Ills decided to post a response… for a bit.

Swan Fungus broke this story last week, but since then, the blog entry has disappeared!  Does Pitchfork have wiseguys that pay you a visit for your skulduggery?  Shit is nefarious, dudes.  Gee whiz… so anyway, the Ills wrote a review of P4Ker Joe Colley’s review and it cultivated a respectable amount of lolz.

From all we gather Colly’s transparent interest in and knowledge of music seems limited to recent trend fucking, and while that doesn’t shock, the fact that he gets so bent out of shape about music that he’s not into is interesting at the very least. Definitely not a fan of “abstract tendencies” or “eschewing traditional means of songcraft” Colly seems content in not having a mind of his own.

psychic%20ills3333 A Bounty on Psychic Ills, BJM Take the Freak Wagon on Tour, plus Roger Ebert is a Stoner

The response written was not a sour grapes type of retort – it was witty, intelligent, and honestly, they had a bad break with this review and were fairly justified in firing up the keyboard.  Colley admits, indirectly, to liking feel good crap your hands say yeah pop, so it’s no wonder that Mirror Eye harshed his mellow. But now… now the blog entry is gone!  Has a bounty been placed?  Sinister.

Well… thinking logically here, though I would love to uncover some sort of conspiracy with hipster shadow people and deep throats, the Ills were probably advised by management to not get into a pissing contest with the mighty ‘Fork.  Regardless, I’m still shooting Bob Woodward an email.

Perhaps all this will help generate more (and I think deserved) buzz about Mirror Eye, as this writer points out, since a dreadful review gets more exposure than a lukewarm one.  And that makes sense – wouldn’t you, as an artist, rather illicit any response, good or bad, than instill complacency?

::: ::: :::

40150_lg A Bounty on Psychic Ills, BJM Take the Freak Wagon on Tour, plus Roger Ebert is a StonerA calmer and more genial Brian Jonestown Massacre is ready to hit the road next month. Though, I should mention that I’m not going to make any cracks at Anton Newcombe in this article. Sure, there’s little doubt as to Newcombe’s status as being absolutely batshit crazy, but this makes him too easy a target. So, despite TMT’s penchant for poking fun at some artists who we do genuinely like, ragging on Anton is akin to igniting a bag of dog poop on your curmudgeonly neighbor’s porch. You know what you’re getting into and, hence, it’s not really worth it. So to that end, I just wanna chime in here to establish the following premises:

puce A Bounty on Psychic Ills, BJM Take the Freak Wagon on Tour, plus Roger Ebert is a Stoner Anton and the latest (seventh perhaps?) incarnation of the Brian Jonestown Massacre are touring.
puce A Bounty on Psychic Ills, BJM Take the Freak Wagon on Tour, plus Roger Ebert is a Stoner The BJM are amazing live, under the conditions when everything goes to plan.
puce A Bounty on Psychic Ills, BJM Take the Freak Wagon on Tour, plus Roger Ebert is a Stoner Things have been on plan in the last couple of years.

Therefore, you should go see them (make haste!). Expect a cross-catalog setlist, at least one face-kick, and music that’s better than the majority of what’s coming out these days. Oh, and you lucky bastards who live on the Left Coast will get to witness our leather jacket-clad boys open for Primal “fuckin’” Scream! And I hate each and every one of you for this.

03.16.09 – Los Angeles, CA – Club Nokia #
03.17.09 – San Francisco, CA – The Filmore #
03.20.09 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
03.21.09 – Seattle, WA – Neumos
03.24.09 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theater
03.26.09 – Minneapolis, MN – Turner Hall
03.28.09 – Chicago, IL – The Metro
03.29.09 – Cleveland, OH – The Grog Shop
03.30.09 – Pittsburgh, PA – Rex Theater
04.02.09 – Boston, MA – Paradise Theater
04.03.09 – Northampton, MA – Pearl Street
04.04.09 – Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero
04.06.09 – Washington, DC – 930 Club
04.07.09 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
04.08.09 – Asheville, NC – Orange Peel
04.09.09 – Nashville, TN – Exit/In
04.10.09 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
04.11.09 – Memphis, TN – Hi Tones
04.13.09 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
04.14.09 – Austin, TX – Emo’s
04.16.09 – Tempe, AZ – Club House

# Primal Scream

::: ::: :::

marijuana-cancer-study A Bounty on Psychic Ills, BJM Take the Freak Wagon on Tour, plus Roger Ebert is a StonerFinally, it looks like the Chicago Sun Times’ Roger Ebert has, indeed, acquired a prescription for medical marijuana.  His Feb. 8 entry Ending up in a kind of soundlessly spinning ethereal void as we all must drops some next level science on yr. dome.

As you probably know, Ebert has had serious health problems recently, so it’s fair to postulate that he took some max strength pain killers and wrote a totally insane journal post adorned with fractal art.  It’s one of the more obtuse career moves I’ve seen a writer do – and also one of the more entertaining.

I certainly wish him the best, as I think Ebert is one of the most intelligent and, most importantly, fair critics in the game right now.  But godddammmm. That was the most 420 shit I’ve ever read that didn’t feature the frequent utilization of the pronoun “man.”

MP3 :::
Psychic Ills – Eyes Closed
The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Here It Comes
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Getting High in the Morning
Frank Zappa – Flower Punk

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A Quick, Odd, Fun Email Exchange with Oneida

Published
by
Kenny Bloggins
on February 16, 2009
in Interviews
. Comments

oneida-email A Quick, Odd, Fun Email Exchange with Oneida

I shot a message over to Fat Bobby shortly before Preteen Weaponry, part one of the Thank Your Parents long player series, dropped in August with a couple of fun questions.  He got back to me to January.  What he loses in punctuality, he makes up for in dedication.  My questions were goofy, and the responses were equally so.

Bobby felt bad about the delay, writing “no worries if it’s way too late to post, and I agree about me being a fucking unreliable bastard…but in my defense, I haven’t answered anyone else’s questions, at least not meaningfully, so I hope you can take my delay as just the odd gearings of a fucked up clock.”  Part two in the series, Rated O, has been pushed back to a summer release date, but in the meantime, enjoy picking the brain of 1/3 of Oneida…  Continue reading ‘A Quick, Odd, Fun Email Exchange with Oneida’

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Bibio Goes Fishin’ with the Ghost of Fahey

Published
by
Michael Hansen
on February 13, 2009
in Noise Consultations
. Comments

Bibio03_F Bibio Goes Fishin with the Ghost of Fahey

Last Tuesday, Stephen Wilkinson, better known as Bibio, finally released his 3rd full-length Vignetting the Compost on Mush Records. I’ve been feverishly awaiting this album since rumors of it first began circulating last fall, making due with the tease of his absurdly intricate Clark remix from 2007’s Ted EP. If you’ve never checked out Bibio before (I forgive you in advance) this is a great opportunity to get acquainted, because here he makes good on all the potential his past recordings hinted at.

Bibio took his moniker from the fly lure his Father would use during their outdoor excursions together, and the rest is history. Having studied “sonic arts” in college, and being an avid electronica fan, it’s obvious that his unexpected output is equally influenced by the native geography of those fishing trips. Wilkinson grew up in Black Country, England, and pays homage to this lore-soaked land with his idyllic sound-scapes (and dope Flickr account). In fact, this album is so made for outdoor listening that it pains me to hear this knowing fully well that it’s 23 below outside so I can’t go scrape Pippi Bongstockings and frolic to the nearest woods.

Upon the release of his first album Fi in 2004, Bibio was famously championed by his long-time heroes the Boards of Canada as being “the antidote to the modern laptopia of pristine electronic music,” (no pressure, dude). A hefty claim, but Fi certainly did carve out a unique spot in Mush’s roster. Less akin to the modern process meditations of Fennesz and Tim Hecker, Wilkinson reached further back to channel the likes of John Fahey and his protégé Leo Kottke in achieving his signature wall of sound. The opener in particular, “Bewley in White,” plays like a smudged out-take from the more tender moments of Kottke’s 6 and 12-String Guitar.

Emerging from the haze with 2006’s Hand Cranked, the wagon-drawn pace picks up speed. The ambient interludes that comprised half his debut are omitted in favor of a bustling mix of phased acoustic picking and parlor-style piano. On “Above the Rooftop,” Wilkinson drops the guitar and tickles the cracked ivory keys exclusively, narrating some turn-of-the-century river town’s morning commute.

Vignetting the Compost successfully negotiates the territories of his two previous efforts with dense polyphonic riffs that both compliment and antagonize each other, quavering like an over-cranked machine. It is on this album that we learn of Wilkinson’s vocal abilities, which fit snugly between 60’s folk-rock and contemporary warblers like Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. The album’s single, “Mr. & Mrs. Compost,” even hints at singer-songwriting prowess, with his voice confidently navigating the horizontal growth of his stark finger picking.

Wilkinson’s love-affair with electronic music does bleed in as the album progresses, but never takes the foreground. His electronica influence rests like a thin layer of emulsion atop the sepia-toned guitar waltzes.  The album’s charm is in it’s humble ambition, and while it hints at the transcendental, Bibio is much more concerned with earthly comforts. On “Amongst the Bark and Fungus,” the contrast between the sharp twang of the guitar and the muffled synths create a deeply Proustian, womb-like sensation enhanced by a strong emphasis on location recording, and application of background atmospherics, that create a delicate room noise to frame the compositions, or as the album suggests, vignettes.

Vignetting the Compost is available now on Mush’s web-store. Also, be on the lookout for the follow-up EP, Ovals & Emeralds, to drop sometime in the near-ish future.

MP3 :::
Bibio – Mr. & Mrs. Compost
Bibio – Thatched

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Stuff White People Play and the Legacy of Dr. Hoffmann and Bo Diddley

Published
by
Xavier Van Zandt
on February 10, 2009
in Super Swingin' Mix
. Comments

ssm4 Stuff White People Play and the Legacy of Dr. Hoffmann and Bo Diddley

Any discussion of white boys playing the blues generally has to involve a purist going on about how “derivative” or “inauthentic” it is with frequent references to long-dead always obscure bluesmen with claims that they were the originals.

But, once you face the reality that everything and everyone is somehow a product of influences and predecessors, the argument fizzles. Just bring up the fact that Wallace Willis, a Native American, wrote Swing Low, Sweet Chariot back in the mid 19th century and then walk away from the blank stares.  In reality it was the adaptation of that tune by the Jubilee Singers that made it a timeless classic. I’ve made my point so let me put the lid back on this can of worms before it turns into a Ken Burns project.

The lesson my friends is to appreciate the music for what it is rather than trying to DNA test it for lineage. It’s the serendipitous melding of experiences and influences that keeps music fresh. While I like Mozart and all, I’d be pretty disappointed if we hadn’t moved on to other things in the last 300 or so years.

By this time you’re all thinking, ok I’m with you but… who is Dr. Hoffmann and where does Bo fit into this? Continue reading ‘Stuff White People Play and the Legacy of Dr. Hoffmann and Bo Diddley’

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Psychic Ills – Mirror Eye

Published
by
Kenny Bloggins
on January 25, 2009
in MP3
. Comments

psychic%20ills3333 Psychic Ills - Mirror Eye

I failed to mention last week that Psychic Ills also dropped a heavy one on Obama day last week.  Mirror Eye is out now and sounds mighty nice. Replete with skulduggery and a radiating sense of paranoia (not to mention better production this time around), Psychic Ills do well to keep Social Registry evil.

“Mantis” comes correct with tribal bangin’ and a fluid bass line riding the song through ten big minutes of finding yourself lost in a cave.  “Eyes Closed” offers a slight kraut feel, or if you will, modulating jungle bogged down on purple drank, with the sinister aura that Indian Jewelry perfected. Both dirges make supreme use of space – sounding bigger and expansive by what’s not there.

Recommended.  Grip it here and save a couple of bucks.

MP3 :::
Psychic Ills – Mantis
Psychic Ills – Eyes Closed

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Six Organs of Admittance’s Old Jams are Evil

Published
by
Kenny Bloggins
on January 14, 2009
in MP3
. Comments

6oa Six Organs of Admittances Old Jams are Evil

Six Organs of Admittance has dusted off the old tapes and collected some of his earlier and rarest material for the forthcoming RTZ, a fan-aimed compilation hitting shelves next Tuesday.  And zounds!  That shit is evil.  Of course, I mean this is the most loving sense.  Those of us familiar with School of Flower, The Sun Awakens, and the like know Ben Chasny and friends for engaging modalities, Fahey-esque and internationally-informed guitar noodling, and drone examinations, all with a slight bucolic, freewheeling, and sometimes whimsical aura. Not so much on RTZ.  Well, the noodling and drones are here, but the earlier material reflects a lot less of the good-times-pass-the-bong vibe that has oft defined many folks’ association with 6OA.

“Warm Earth, Which I’ve Been Told” is a tribal distress chant, or possibly a primitive summoning spell to seed clouds and deploy locust swarms.  Ben sings smoke signals and convinces you that living in the forest and off the land would be a pretty simple transition.  Interestingly enough, and without the hyperbole, this particular chanty, notwithstanding the collapsing midsection, resembles Chasney’s Comets on Fire acoustic, despite having been recorded a number of years before Blue Cathedral reared its head.  With styles and a replete repetoire like Chasny’s, it’s fun to try to trace where ideas may have come from.

“Creation Aspect Earth” sounds like a tune you’d hear at Aleister Crowley’s last dinner party, or what the four horsemen would bump on their over-the-shoulder ghetto blasters whilst igniting thatched-roof cottages.  Though “Creation Aspect Earth”sounds like a Jan Hammer album, this, I assure you, sounds nothing like Jan (though both Ben and Jan rule, but for different reasons).  If the song scares you at first, everything clams down after the 6-minute mark, and you are duly treated to an intimate glimpse of just Ben and his guitar hangin’ out and spitballin’.  Both movements are beautiful, however.

So to answer your question, fuck yeah it’s good – grip it here on dos discs or a 3-LP set. And for more background info and fUn FaCtS on RTZ, head over here.

MP3 :::
Six Organs of Admittance – Warm Earth, Which I’ve Been Told
Six Organs of Admittance – Creation Aspect Earth

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The Decibel Tolls Best Albums of 2008

Published
by
Kenny Bloggins
on December 10, 2008
in Praise and Malaise and Year-End Action
. Comments

playin The Decibel Tolls Best Albums of 2008

Oh good, glad to see you like my illustration.  Yeah, I had some downtime and wasn’t feelin’ too creative or too much in my graphic design game as far as doing something special for The Decibel Tolls year-end list.  So Lana and I started talking, and it came to us that it would be hysterical to do a collage with people like Bradford Cox eating that Ezra Comma dude from Frankenstein Weekday or whoever, and Franz Ferdinand… stuff like that.  I didn’t have time to add Lil’ Wayne.  And then I had to make, like, the fuckin’ universe as the backdrop.  That’s how we roll here at the Decibel Tolls – no fun, tasteful graphic to designate this article as the accumulative best-of list.  Nope, just crude images of artists I like with their heads detached eating shitty bands.  I’m additionally thrilled that I was able to describe the image even further despite the fact that it’s already annotated.  I rule.

I put some serious thought into this list, and did a bunch of narrowin’ down.  There were other jam hives I was rather infatuated with this year, such as releases from Magik Markers, Burning Star Core, and Vivian Girls.  But I wanted to do just the standard top ten this time around.  No reason to not do things standard every now and again… Continue reading ‘The Decibel Tolls Best Albums of 2008′

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The Brian Jonestown Massacre vs. The Decibel Tolls

Published
by
Kenny Bloggins
on December 8, 2008
in Publicity Stunts
. Comments

The Brian Jonestown Massacre vs. The Decibel Tolls

It really was accident, or at least it wasn’t my intent to provoke a fight, but I guess that’s what happens when you poke a sleeping dragon in the eye.  I did not mean to get in an online nerd fight with Anton Newcombe.  I love the Brian Jonestown Massacre.  I can prove it, just look at my Last.fm, they get mad play… just like me, HEY-OH!

Anyway, here’s the story of the infamous pissing contest between myself and Anton Newcombe by way of the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s MySpazzz that I’ve been promising for quite some time.  It’s a good one.

I realize that I have just forfeit my ability to ever interview Anton by publishing this, but this story is just too good to keep in limbo.  A caveat: I do feel kinda bad that I claimed he wasn’t doing anything before I was aware that My Bloody Underground was already in the works.  However, it was never my intent to be mean, I just felt that there was a correlation between the advent of MySpace/YouTube/et al. and the sudden dropoff of BJM’s output.  I still think that’s fair. Here’s the original write-up I did describing the conversation which happened almost one year ago today… Continue reading ‘The Brian Jonestown Massacre vs. The Decibel Tolls’

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Feelin’ Groovy with Magik Markers

Published
by
Kenny Bloggins
on November 12, 2008
in MP3
. Comments

Feelin Groovy with Magik Markers

I was really stoked on czechin’ the new Lindsey Buckingham joint the other night, as L-Train and I are both huge Fleetwood Mac fans.  And after listening, we were very sad about it.  Now that Lindsey isn’t scoring blow and beating up his girlfriends, his tunes are slowly waning in smooth rock quality.  I don’t even remember what it sounds like now, my mind has repressed that shit really fast.  My brain’s fast like fast actin’ Tenactin.

So I was in a very bad way before pumping proper on the new Magik Markers jam hive.  It’s a recently dropped, limited release, comically titled EP called Gucci Rapidshare Download, part of Three Lobed Recordings’ Oscillations III series (with artwork by my friend Robert Beatty). Within two minutes, I had endorphins kickin’ in, the spunk came back, and I was in such a good mood, I was ready to rake some of my neighbors’ leaves as a random act of kindness.  Continue reading ‘Feelin’ Groovy with Magik Markers’

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