Delays: Beware, When Sweet Sleep Returned

Normally, I’d have plenty I’d want to say about two of my favorite records this year, but time constraints make that task an impossibility.

Nevertheless, here are both the shows from the last two weeks archived for your listening enjoyment. Two weeks back we featured Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s Beware as album of the week, this week we featured Assemble Head in the Sunburst Sound and their album, When Sweet Sleep Returned. The show from two weeks ago features a ton of new music, including four cuts from Beware. The most recent show features mostly older stuff, with Assemble Head representing the only music from 2009.

Next week’s show is going to be run almost entirely by my interns, but that doesn’t mean we won’t have an album of the week for you. Any extra time I might gain from fewer responsibilities will go into making a proper post here on the website.

Thanks for stopping by – hope you enjoy the music.

DOWNLOAD : 11/16 : HOUR 1

DOWNLOAD : 11/16 : HOUR 2

01. Assemble Head in the Sunburst Sound “Two Birds” from When Sweet Sleep Returned (2009) on Tee Pee

02. Assemble Head in the Sunburst Sound “Drunken Leaves” from When Sweet Sleep Returned (2009) on Tee Pee

03. Yeasayer “2080” from All Hour Cymbals (2007) on We Are Free

04. Yo La Tengo “Cherry Chapstick” from And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out (2000) on Matador

05. Silver Jews “Buckingham Rabbit” from American Water (1998) on Drag City

06. The Cramps “Sheena’s in a Goth Gang” from Big Beat from Badsville (1997) on Epitaph

07. Sonic Youth “Paper Cup Exit” from Sonic Nurse (2004) on Geffen

08. New Order “Ceremony” from Substance (1987) on Qwest

09. Cop Shoot Cop “We Shall Be Changed” from Suck City (1992) on Atlantic

10. Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band “The Clouds are Full of Wine (not Whiskey or Rye)” from Lick My Decals Off Baby (1970) on Straight Records

11. Aphex Twin “Windowlicker” from Windowlicker (1999) on Warp

12. Daniel Johnston “Story of an Artist” from Welcome To My World (2006) on Eternal Yip-Eye Music

13. Foetus “Cirrhosis of the Heart” from Flow (2001) on Thirsty Ear

14. Belbury Poly “Owls and Flowers” from The Owl’s Map (2006) on Ghost Box

15. LCD Soundsystem “Disco Infiltrator” from S/T (2004) on DFA

16. Chicks on Speed “Yes I Do!” from Will Save Us All (2000) on Chicks on Speed

17. Man Or Astro Man? “Joker’s Wild” from Destroy All Astro-Men! (1994) on Estrus

18. Assemble Head in the Sunburst Sound “By the Rippling Green” from When Sweet Sleep Returned (2009) on Tee Pee

19. Cranes “Jewel” from Forever (1993) on Dedicated

20. Belle & Sebastian “Sleep the Clock Around” from The Boy With The Arab Strap (1998) on Matador

21. Broadcast “Lunch Hour Pops” from Haha Sound (2003) on Warp

22. The Fall “Touch Sensitive” from The Marshall Suite (1999) on Artful Records

23. Assemble Head in the Sunburst Sound “End Under Down” from When Sweet Sleep Returned (2009) on Tee Pee

—————–

DOWNLOAD : 11/9 : HOUR 1

DOWNLOAD : 11/9 : HOUR 2

01. Four Tet “Love Cry” from Love Cry (2009) on Domino

02. Brian Harnetty “And Under the Winesap Tree” from Silent City (2009) on Atavistic

03. Broadcast And The Focus Group “Let It Begin/Oh Joy” from Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age (2009) on Warp

04. Seven Stapleton and Tony Wakeford “Flower Dream Song” from Revenge of the Selfish Shellfish (2009) on Robot Records — originally released in 1992 on Tursa

05. Jason Molina and Will Johnson “34 Blues” from Molina and Johnson (2009) on Secretly Canadian

06. Bonnie “Prince” Billy “You Don’t Love Me” from Beware (2009) on Drag City

07. Bear in Heaven “Deafening Love” from Beast rest Forth Mouth (2009) on Hometapes

08. The Black Heart Procession “Wasteland” from six (2009) on Temporary Residence

09. Karl Blau “All Over the Town” from Zebra (2009) on K

10. Ryoji Ikeda “Data.Reflex” from Dataplex (2005) on Raster-noton

11. Venetian Snares “Crashing the Yogurt Truck” from Filth (2009) on Planet Mu

12. The Dutchess & the Duke “Hands” from Sunset/Sunrise (2009) on Hardly Art

13. Magnolia Electric Co “O! Grace” from Josephine (2009) on Secretly Canadian

14. Bonnie “Prince” Billy “I Don’t Belong to Anyone” from Beware (2009) on Drag City

15. Wild Beasts “Two Dancers” from Two Dancers (2009) on Domino

16. Built to Spill “Nowhere Lullaby” from There Is No Enemy (2009) on Warner Brothers

17. Kurt Vile “Monkey” from Childish Prodigy (2009) on Matador

18. Six Organs of Admittance “Actaeon’s Fall (Against the Hounds)” from Luminous Night (2009) on Holy Mountain

19. Pink Mountaintops “Execution” from Outside Love (2009) on Jagjaguwar

20. Bonnie “Prince” Billy “There is Something I Have to Say” from Beware (2009) on Drag City

21. World Domination Enterprises “Asbestos Lead Asbestos” from Let’s Play Domination (1988) on Caroline

22. Brian Eno “The Big Ship” from Another Green World (2004) on Virgin

23. Richard Youngs “Broke Up By Night” from Under Stellar Stream (2009) on Jagjaguwar

24. Bonnie “Prince” Billy “Afraid Ain’t Me” from Beware (2009) on Drag City

11/2: At the Cut

For the next several weeks Laughter will be featuring some of its favorite records from 2009, leading up to a year-end finale where we’ll play all the stuff we’ve liked most this year. Selections could possibly include reissues, but for the most part we’ll be considering only new recordings.

Our first album of the week is Vic Chesnutt’s At the Cut, just released at the end of September on Constellation. I had decided that Nudge’s As Good As Gone was going to be the first selection, but because both intern Jackie and I had been listening to At the Cut a lot, we went ahead with Vic’s record instead.

And it’s a hard record not to like. Chesnutt’s vocals on the opening “Coward” at first sound like a whispered confessional or an embarrassing admission, but when his backing band strikes up their violins, his confession transforms into a cathartic roar. In just seconds Vic Chesnutt and his band convert the quietude typical of many singer-songwriters into an epic sprawl of shrieking, heavily distorted guitar, hammered drums, and shouted vocals. It’s a shocking and unexpected move that is not again repeated anywhere on the album. The influence of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and A Silver Mt. Zion can be felt, but their dramatic frills and exaggerated qualities are held in check by the shape and precision of Vic’s writing.

Which isn’t to say that the album doesn’t ever rock again. It does, but in sweet and succinct moments. Both “Chinaberry Tree” and “Philip Guston” put the electric guitar at center stage. The former finds its voice in an extended solo that beams across Chesnutt’s vocals like a lightning strike, and the latter chugs and screams like an Einstürzende Neubauten song, except the band never quite pitches itself into the absolute chaos of noise or the flamboyance of theater. Ornate orchestrations and tight arrangements populate nearly every song, both pulling against each other and generating waves of tension. But, Chesnutt cuts loose sometimes, too, and manages to pull a couple of straight rock tunes out of his hat. “Concord Country Jubilee” sounds like it might’ve fit in on a Bob Dylan record and “Flirted With You All My Life” finds its strength in its lyrics and simple melody.

And the lyrics are probably what most people will think of when talking about this record. After all, Chesnutt opens himself up a lot on this record, referencing personal tragedies and simple moments with his family in the process. Elsewhere he references an American painter and apparently fits Victor Hugo, William Shakespeare, Franz Kafka, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Henry Darger, and W.H. Auden all into one song (“It Is What It Is”). I’m neither well-read enough nor interested in pursuing all those lyrical avenues, but without them At the Cut is impressive. In fact, the closing song, “Granny,” features one of the album’s most stunning lyrical moments and there’s not a bit of Kafka or Shakespeare to it: “She said, ‘You are the light of my life / and the beat of my heart.’” Half of that song’s appeal is its directness and the warmth of the scene it describes, the other half is the fact that Vic can deliver that line honestly and without a hint of banality. But, lyrics are only half the story, and that Vic and his band blend so many styles so well is an accomplishment worth noting, too. The result is one of my favorite records so far this year.

—

There’s plenty of great music featured this week, including more than a few cuts selected by interns Jackie and Anthony. Jackie ran the boards for the first hour of the show and did an incredible job. The second hour of the show features some abstract drone things, samples pulled from shows about aliens and UFOs, and the phenomenal talents of ‘O’ Rang and Cex. The former features Lee Harris and Paul Webb, both formerly of Talk Talk. Fans of Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock will definitely want to check them out.

If any of you have an album from 2009 that you think is particularly good and worth featuring, leave a comment or send an email our way. We’d definitely love to know what you’ve been listening to.

We’ll have more great music for you next week. Thanks for stopping by!

DOWNLOAD: 11/2 HOUR ONE

DOWNLOAD: 11/2 HOUR TWO

01. Vic Chesnutt “Coward” from At the Cut (2009) on Constellation

02. Caspian “Of Foam and Wave” from Tertia (2009) on The Myclene Sheath

03. Califone “1928” from all my friends are funeral singers (2009) on Dead Oceans

04. Vic Chesnutt “Chinaberry Tree” from At the Cut (2009) on Constellation

05. Hallelujah the Hills “The Might Come Back Club” from Colonial Drones (2009) on Misra

06. Wooden Birds “Bad” from Magnolia (2009) on Barsuk

07. A Place to Bury Strangers “In Your Heart” from Exploding Head (2009) on Mute

08. Beat Circus “Coney Island Creepshow” from Dreamland (2008) on Cuneiform

09. Karl Blau “Nothing New” from Zebra (2009) on K

10. Glenn Jones “Dead Reckoning” from Barbecue Bob in Fishtown (2009) on Strange Attractors Audio House

11. Nudge “Two Hands” from As Good As Gone (2009) on Kranky

12. Vic Chesnutt “Flirted With You All My Life” from At the Cut (2009) on Constellation

13. Haptic “Two” from The Medium (2009) on Flingco Sound

14. Nmperign “Fault” from Ommatidia (2009) on Intransitive

15. Jonathan Coleclough and Andrew Liles “Torch Song 1” from Torch Songs (2007) on Die Stadt

16. Human Bell “A Change in Fortunes” from Human Bell (2008) on Thrill Jockey

17. Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Matt Sweeney “Blood Embrace” from Superwolf (2005) on Drag City

18. ‘O’ Rang “Loaded Values” from Herd of Instinct (1994) on Echo

19. Cex “Roland Park Acid” from Bataille Royale (2009) on Must Finish

10/19 and 10/26: Et in Arcadia Ego

Take the time to read Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy if you haven’t already done so. The Road was a quick and fun read (as much as the apocalypse can be fun) and it received a ton of attention thanks to Oprah, but Blood Meridian shows off why McCarthy is held in such high esteem. The myth of the wild west fascinates me, and this book does everything it can to reveal it in all its gritty (un)glory.

Anyways, to the music. The time of year has arrived at WZBC where interns begin populating the station, insuring that another generation of student DJs will realize they know so very little about music. As a result, you’ll be hearing from my interns over the next few shows. They’ll also be selecting music for the show each week and, in general, contributing their knowledge and love of music to Laughter for at least the next month, if not longer.

The last two shows, posted below, contain mostly new music from records I’ve either enjoyed a ton over the last 10 months or that I’ve ignored for no good reason. I’m starting to think about the records I’ve liked the most this year, but each time I do so something amazing comes out and reminds me that I need to be patient. The new Fuck Buttons, for instance. It completely caught me off guard considering I wasn’t much of a fan of their last album. New releases from Kurt Vile, The Dutchess and the Duke, Pink Mountaintops, No Age, and The Twilight Sad have me equally excited. Throughout November I’m going to be thinking more about all the great music 2009 has given us. This seems like a year with an unusually high number of quality releases…

I think over the next couple of weeks I’m going to devote some of the show to one record or another. I’ll play multiple songs from that record and try to give each of my favorites a little more air time. First up will likely be Nudge, but perhaps I’ll have come up with a more coherent plan by the time Monday rolls around and thus have chosen a different band.

In any case, you’ll find a ton of new music below. Write me or leave a comment if you think there’s a record I absolutely need to hear or give my attention t0, especially if you notice it missing from either of the below broadcasts.

Until next time:

DOWNLOAD 10/26 SHOW, HOUR 1

DOWNLOAD 10/26 SHOW, HOUR 2

01. The Dutchess and The Duke “Hands” from Sunset/ Sunrise (2009) on Hardly Art

02. Magnolia Electric Co “Hope Dies Last” from Josephine (2009) on Secretly Canadian

03. Pink Mountaintops “Vampire” from Outside Love (2009) on Jagjaguwar

04. Kurt Vile “Hunchback” from Childish Prodigy (2009) on Matador

05. No Age “You’re A Target” from Losing Feeling EP (2009) on Sub Pop

06. Bear in Heaven “Fake Out” from Beast Rest Forth Mouth (2009) on hometapes

07. Digital Dance “Cleaned Mind/I’m So Shy” from Treatment (2009) on LTM

08. Mohamed Abdel Wahab “Sahara City” from Eastern Standard Time (2009) on Weltraum Disk

09. Ad Frank “Last Night Mark Eitzel Saved My Life” from Mr. Fancypants (2001) on Stop, Pop, and Roll

END OF HOUR 1

10. The Octopus Project “Crying at the Aquarium” from Identification Parade (2002) on Peek-a-boo

11. Caspian “Ghosts of the Garden City” from Tertia (2009) on The Myclene Sheath

12. Six Organs of Admittance “Jade Like Wine” from Shelter from the Ash (2007) on Drag City

13. Fuck Buttons “Surf Solar” from Tarot Sport (2009) on Atp

14. Animal Hospital “Paralarva” from S/T (2005) on Mr. Records

15. Language of Light “Double Helixes Up To Heaven” from Cortez / Language of Light (2009) on Anti-Clock

16. Zomby “Expert Tuition” from One Foot Ahead Of The Other (2009) on Ramp

17. Telefon Tel Aviv “Stay Away from Being Maybe” from Immolate Yourself (2009) on BPitch Control

18. Songs : Ohia “How To Be Perfect Men” from Axxess & Ace (1999) on Secretly Canadian

19. Calexico “Letter To Bowie Knife” from Garden Ruin (2006) on Quarterstick

20. Alec K. Redfearn and the Seizures “Isle of Swine” from Exterminating Angel (2009) on Corleone

21. The Twilight Sad “I Became a Prostitute” from Forget the Night Ahead (2009) on Fat Cat

———

DOWNLOAD 10/19 SHOW, HOUR 1

DOWNLOAD 10/19 SHOW, HOUR 2

01. Michael Hurley & Pals “The Werewolf” from Armchair Boogie (1971) on Warner Brothers

02. Six Organs of Admittance “Strangled Road” from Shelter from the Ash (2007) on Drag City

03. Michael Flower “Lake of Fire” from Open Strings (2009) on Honest Jons Records

04. Oneida “10:30 at the Oasis” from Rated O (2009) on Jagjaguwar / Brah

05. Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe “Tercirkauitaamaso” from Fazo IV: La Kvalito de Speguloj (2009) on Rainbow Body Records

06. Castanets “Dance, Dance” from Texas Rose, the Thaw & the Beasts (2009) on Asthamatic Kitty Records

07. Califone “Salt” from All My Friends are Funeral Singers (2009) on Dead Oceans

08. Foetus “Sjogren’s Syndrome” from Limb (2009) on Ectopic Ents

09. Tim Friese-Greene “Untitled 3” from 10 Sketches for Piano Trio (2009) on LTM Recordings

10. Nightmares “We Were Melded Together” from Floating Above the Tracks / We Were Melded Together (2009) on Bloodlust! / Fatal Beliefs / Malsonus

END OF HOUR 1

11. Dinosaur Jr. “I Don’t Wanna Go There” from Farm (2009) on Jagjaguwar

12. Sunn O))) “Alice” from Monoliths & Dimensions (2009) on Southern Lord

13. The Black Angels “Science Killer” from Directions to See a Ghost (2008) on Light in the Attic

14. Health “Eat Flesh” from Get Color (2009) on Lovepump United

15. Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words “This Room Seems Empty Without You” from Lost in Reflection (2009) on Killer Pimp

16. Six Organs of Admittance “Saint Cloud” from School of the Flower (2005) on Drag City

17. Lichens “Tempered Restorations (Re-edit Of HOSS007)” from Tanith (2009) on Self Released CDr

Those Om/Six Organs/Lichens Photos I Promised…

I get way too lazy sometimes. Here’s a link to Onafriday and the fantastic pictures they posted from the Om show at the ICA. Lichens was the highlight of the show for me, but I’m biased.

A Bizarre Bit of Bonnie…

Everything’s just fine until that digital Oldham hits the screen. Maybe there’s a reason the video is down everywhere except on Youtube?

Sagan/Science Music: If You Wish to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch…

… you must first invent the universe.

A few weeks back I came across a video created by John Boswell that blended clips from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos with music. He had used auto-tuner to shape Sagan’s words into lyrics, and he’d even included a guest appearance from Stephen Hawking. The idea sounds simple, but the result is beautiful. If that assessment sounds a little strong, it’s only because of my admiration for Sagan and for anyone who devotes their life to education. Nevertheless, the music and video are both clever and incredibly well produced.

Just today I found out Boswell has released another similar video, this time through a website called The Symphony of Science. They’re both so good (and I’ve been listening to them so much) that I thought I’d share them with you. Make sure to visit his site if you like what you see and hear:

8/5 and 8/12: Relax, or Practice Meditation unto Death

Making a mix tape of good music from the 1980s is not particularly difficult. The real challenge is creating a mix that will fit on one CD and catching a significant chunk of the diversity to which those 10 years were witness. I’ve yet to put together any kind of comprehensive mix, but what you’ll find below is a sample of what I enjoy.

Someone from WZBC was caught re-handed claiming that the years 1980 to 1989 contained virtually zero good music, popular or otherwise. She admitted it was an exaggeration: there were at least a couple of good bands around back then. But I took it as a challenge. It was a good chance to see what records I had laying around from that time and what was missing from my collection that obviously needed to be in it. I was born in the 1980s. Many of my strongest memories begin right around 1986, but I wasn’t even a teenager when many of the records featured last week were first released. Still, many of my favorite records came out sometime in those ten years. Coil, Joy Division, New Order, Husker Du, Talking Heads, Tom Waits, and Talk Talk were all waiting for me, there to prove that the 1980s were so much better than the crappy new wave imitators and MTV cock rockers would have you believe. As I went through my list of essential 80s recordings, I came across a lot of music to which I’d never given much time, including records by Dinosaur Jr. and The Gun Club. I knew their names and maybe a song or two, but I had never heard Fire of Love or You’re Living All Over Me, nor had I gone back to The Perfect Prescription and heard the likes of “Come Down Easy” or “Things’ll Never Be the Same.” And while Loveless remains their undisputed masterpiece, going back to My Bloody Valentine’s Isn’t Anything reminded me that they rocked just as much as the droned, hypnotized, and gazed. I learned just as much as I thought I knew and realized that there’s still so much more about which I know exactly nothing.

So you get the idea; last week’s show was all about exploring the 80s, but from my perspective. I didn’t intend this to be a complete survey or anything ridiculous like that. It’d take more than just a few shows to cover everything worth covering. I won’t editorialize much longer, but I do want to point out all the stuff I missed or couldn’t include. It should be obvious, but maybe you were born in the 90s like my defeated challenger and really don’t know that much about the 80s. Heavy metal, punk, and especially rap are completely absent from the 5th’s show, mostly because I am unfamiliar with the music or because I wanted to avoid playing music that’d violate FCC regulations. Had I taken more time to organize it, you most certainly would’ve heard some N.W.A., Public Enemy, early Metallica, Sepultura, Life Sentence, Mekons, 45 Grave, and many others. Maybe some more mixes will show up, maybe I’ll just try and filter what went missing through various shows until the end of the year… maybe I’ll drop it in a few weeks. Who knows, but it was fun. I hope you enjoy listening to the show, posted below. It contains one new song from Dinosaur Jr. – I had intended on playing a song from You’re Living All Over Me, but forgot to bring it with me to the station. Thus the modern substitute.

I was also going to post some links to music videos this week, too, but my schedule has become busier than anticipated. Writing about Kant’s theories of space and time are currently more important. You know where to look to find them. I’ll only suggest one for you, both because it’s a great song and because the photography is beautiful. Check it out here… I’d post it right in the body of this article, but embedding has been DENIED.

In addition to the 80s extravaganza I’m posting the second hour of this week’s show. WZBC’s streams had some technical hiccups again and the first hour went missing once more. I may resort to recording my shows again for awhile until I know this issue has been resolved.

However that may resolve, this week’s show featured a lot of new music, including songs from Six Organs of Admittance, Om, Califone, Arbouretum, Micah Blue Smaldone, and Steven R. Smith, as well as more (new) music from Causa Sui and lengthy cut from Lichens, which appeared in various places throughout 2008. You can read a review of Smith’s new record below and you can count on hearing new music from Lichens next week.

I had the good fortune of seeing Om, Six Organs, and Lichens play at the ICA in Boston last night, too. I’ll post a little summary of that show in the near future, hopefully with some photographs.

Cheers!

DOWNLOAD 80s BLOW OUT HOUR 1

DOWNLOAD 80s BLOW OUT HOUR 2

01. The Stone Roses “I Wanna Be Adored” from The Stone Roses (1989) on Silvertone

02. Dinosaur Jr. “Friends” from Farm (2009) on Jagjaguwar

03. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds “The Mercy Seat” from Tender Prey (1988) on Mute

04. 23 Skidoo “Coup” from Coup (1983) on Illuminated

05. A Certain Ratio “Do the Du (Casse)” from Do the Du (1981) on Factory

06. Joy Division “Isolation” from Closer (1980) on Factory

07. Kraftwerk “Computer Love” from Computer World (1981) on Elektra

08. Orchestral Manoeuvres in The Dark “Radio Waves” from Dazzle Ships (1983) on Virgin

09. New Order “Love Vigilantes” from Lowlife (1984) on Qwest

10. The Cramps “Garbageman” from Songs the Lord Taught Us (1980) on IRS

11. Bruce Springsteen “Johnny 99” from Nebraska (1982) on Columbia

12. Pixies “River Euphrates” from Surfer Rosa (1988) on 4AD

END OF HOUR 1 / START OF HOUR 2

13. Big Black “Jordan, Minnesota” from A Rich Man’s Eight Track Tape (1987) on Touch and Go

14. The Gun Club “Ghost on the Highway” from Fire Of Love (1980) on Ruby

15. Husker Du “Books About UFOs” from New Day Rising (1984) on SST

16. Talking Heads “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)” from Remain in Light (1980) on Sire

17. The Fall “L.A.” from This Nation’s Saving Grace (1985) on Beggars Banquet

18. Scraping Foetus off The Wheel “The Throne of Agony” from Nail (1985) on Self Immolation/Some Bizzare

19. Coil “Penetrailia” from Horse Rotorvator (1986) on Thershold House

20. This Heat “Cenotaph” from Deceit (1981) on Rough Trade

21. Mission of Burma “Trem Two” from Vs. (1982) on Ace Of Hearts

22. My Bloody Valentine “Feed Me With Your Kiss” from Isn’t Anything (1988) on Sire

23. Sonic Youth “Silver Rocket” from Daydream Nation (1988) on Blast First

24. Talk Talk “Desire” from Spirit of Eden (1988) on EMI

8/12 SHOW

DOWNLOAD HOUR 2 (THE ONLY HOUR…. again)

01. Lichens “Time and Light (Version)” from Brainwaves 2008 (2008) on Brainwashed Recordings

02. Om “Meditation is the Practice of Death” from God is Good (2009) on Drag City

03. Six Organs of Admittance “The Ballad of Charley Harper” from Luminous Night (2009) on Drag City

04. Dinosaur Jr. “Pieces” from Farm (2009) on Jagjaguwar

05. Califone “1928” from all my friends are funeral singers (2009) on Dead Oceans

06. Amadou & Mariam “Je Te Kiffe” from Welcome to Mali (2008) on Nonesuch

07. The Church “Cortez the Killer” from A Box of Birds (1999) on Thirsty Ear

END OF HOUR 1 / START OF HOUR 2

08. Causa Sui “The Open Road” from Summer Sessions Vol. 2 (2009) on Elektrohasch Schallplatten

09. The Durutti Column “Messidor” from LC (1981) on Factory

10. Steven R. Smith “The Road” from Cities (2009) on Immune Recordings

11. Palace Music “The Brute Choir” from Viva Last Blues (1995) on Palace/Drag City

12. Micah Blue Smaldone “Mortissa” from Open Strings (2009) on Honest Jons Records

13. Spacemen 3 “Come Down Easy” from The Perfect Perscription (1987) on Glass Records

14. Arbouretum “Tomorrow is a Long Time” from Song of the Pearl (2009) on Thrill Jockey — original by Bob Dylan, from Greatest Hits Volume II (1971)

15, Spiritualized “Take Your Time / Shine a Light” from Lazer Guided Melodies (1991) on Dedicated

Review: Steven R. Smith, “Cities”

Steven R. Smith is one of the most fascinating guitarists and writers this country has. Along with talents like Glenn Jones, Jack Rose, and Ben Chasny, he has composed a remarkable and singular body of work grounded in the history and spirit of America (guts and all). After nearly 15 years and well over 30 albums Smith has composed one of his best records yet, one that approaches the greatness of Tableland. Economical and sharply focused, Cities plays out like the soundtrack to humanity’s slow and sad funeral.

I don’t mean to suggest that Smith and Jones or Smith and Chasny have all that much in common musically, but they all produce distinctly American sounding music. What they write is married variously to folk and country traditions, the myth of the wild west, or American nature and mysticism. On Cities Smith focuses squarely on nature and myth, with an eye towards the reclamation of land and beauty lost. Beginning with “Cities in Decline,” Steven paints a portrait of man as criminal and of nature as judge, jury, and executioner. A shifting drone made from a frayed violin sets the tone for the entire album and for the appearance of a descending guitar melody that imitates the opening song’s title. With Smith we descend into a world set ablaze: skyline’s burn in the distance, cities become unsafe, and the unsympathetic stillness of the wild offers itself as the only shelter from mankind’s dread fate. Of course, it turns out to be a graveyard itself. Smith’s style is so sharp and perfectly honed that vivid images jump out of the music and offer themselves instead of laying in wait for an adventurous listener. On Cities the power of impressionism is utilized to its fullest. Bright and clear melodies populate the record, but they are used to contrast the vast swathes of tonal color and smears of texture that make up most of the record. Where singable melodies and familiar song structures emerge, they do so quite strongly and with a great deal of emotional power. “Line to Line, Pole to Pole” is one such instance. The song lasts but a minute, but in that time Smith splits open his record and reveals a fragile beauty full of wonder, remorse, and fractured memory.

As it turns out, much of the album sounds like an imperfectly recalled memory. There are spots on the record where Smith’s playing reaches for some unseen apex, but falls short and breaks down. It’s as if his fingers can’t quite remember what to do or as though they’ve become weak. On “The City Gate” a violin leads the action, but its typically brilliant tenor is rendered rough and feeble, like it would sound if a child were playing the melody but still learning how to draw the bow across the strings. Misremembered or misplayed phrases appear all over the record, but in a deliberate fashion. In other places, instruments sound distant and uncertain, as though the narrative being told is full of “maybes” and “I believes.” And this is what I mean by Smith’s playing being especially impressionistic: he’s not worried about songs so much as he is about painting a picture or describing a scene. “The Road” is an example of him combining both approaches in the same song. A guitar with nylon strings walks over a simple organ melody and the crackling glimmer of Smith’s electric accompaniments. The arrangement imitates the cadence of someone walking or stumbling down a path with a scorched and blistered plain providing the sad setting for this almost pathetic scene. The title and tone recall Cormac McCarthy’s novel of the same name and I have to assume Smith is referencing it, even if unconsciously. It would make the perfect soundtrack to that destitute story.

Cities is both painful and pleasant, much in the same way as McCarthy’s book. Small victories are won throughout the album, especially where simple beauty and awe burst through all the destruction and distortion. “All is One, One is None, None” closes the album on this note, where a kind of bittersweet reverence is intimated. A half-yelled, half-sung chorus of wordless notes is set beneath a buzzing wave of guitar noise and glinting harmony. As the song fades to nothing, a resigned quietude takes over and the bleak landscapes of Smith’s mind appear to silence the possibility of saying anything more. There’s no struggle and no pain in the music, just a quiet breath and a small feeling, like standing in the shadow of the world.

—

Cities is available on Immune Recordings
Sound samples available at Brainwashed.com

Review: Nightmares 7″

The far off screaming of a tortured mass inaugurates Nightmares’ 7″ EP, sending a chilly wave of numbing synthesizer noise out into the world. Jonathan Canaday, David Reed, and Mark Solotroff’s work together is as severe and indomitable as the product of their solo productions might suggest. Though not as frightening as their namesake implies, Nightmares’ noise is oppressive and dense and more than a little uncomfortable.

Of the three releases from Nightmares this year, their 7″ EP is the shortest and, for that reason, most forgiving recording. Their brevity is about all that makes these two songs tolerable. Both are filled with scores of sickly synthesizer tones and hissing noise, which together induce a claustrophobic tension and a nauseating sense of vertigo. Enjoyable only to the extent that discomfort can be, “Floating Above the Tracks” and “We Were Melded Together” do not allow for silence nor relief. Though there are spaces between the sounds and the band avoids creating an onslaught of pure noise, not one second goes that isn’t tattooed by menace. Whether atonal pockets of sound are bubbling up in the background or long, obvious screeches of phased metallic noise are ripping through the foreground, I always feel pressed beneath the weight of Nightmares’ unremitting electronics. The density they achieve isn’t the result of stereo-filling distortion, but the accomplishment of psychological dread and volume. On the one hand, much of what is oppressing about each song can be found in how one reacts to the band’s abstractions.

Whether or not I was intended to hear people screaming or to imagine the extent of infinite space while listening, I do hear and imagine those things and both cause some exciting reactions. I’m never quite scared by what I hear, but what’s implied is enough to keep me on guard, always guessing what might be around the next corner. On the other hand, both songs exhibit the kind of spaciousness I’d typically associate with ambient music. The songs aren’t so congested that I can’t hear events when they happen. All the dissonant tones that pop up and wobble through the songs are thus able to flex their muscle to the fullest extent. Because of this sharp production and clarity I can make sense of what’s happening both in the noise and inbetween its various instantiations. But, every moment is perverse and unfamiliar and haunted by an eternal horizon. Canaday, Reed, and Solotroff convincingly portray a threat out there somewhere, just beyond where you and I can see, but they never reveal it. So when the needle reaches the end of the record and the music stops, I’m almost a little too happy to put the record back in its sleeve.

—

The 7″ is available from Bloodlust! / Fatal Beliefs / Malsonus
No sound samples available.

9/28: (Could’ve Been) Acoustic Heaven

This week there were no issues with the transmitter, but for some reason the ZBC Archives failed to record the first half of my show. Hopefully you had the chance to listen live, though. Naturally, the one show that wasn’t recorded in its entirety was one of my better shows this year. The second half has a ton of great stuff, however, so all is not lost. This week’s show features new music from Magnolia Electric Co. with Centro-Matic member Will Johnson as well as new stuff from Ganglians, Burial & Four Tet, Six Organs of Admittance, and Boston’s own Glenn Jones (pictured left, at Brainwaves 2008).

Glenn might be one of Boston’s best kept secrets. He is one of the founding members of Cul de Sac and a masterful guitarist with a talent rivaled only by greats like Robbie Basho or John Fahey. He plays in a style that will be familiar to fans of either of those greats, but Glenn doesn’t exactly follow either of them. His latest, Barbecue Bob in Fishtown, was released by Strange Attractors Audio House at the beginning of September and features nine new cuts, including his first piece for 5-string banjo and an almost hallucinatory piece that’s every bit as cosmic as anything Basho produced. Anyone in love with folk, country, or modern American music will be impressed by Glenn and happy to have his work in their collection. His compositions are varied and incredibly imaginative, the artwork on all of his albums are superb, and his liner notes are always entertaining and informative.

Thankfully, Glenn has been willing to talk about his work in the past. A couple years ago Jon Whitney from Brainwashed.com recorded Glenn performing in the studio and answering questions about his 2007 album Against Which the Sea Continually Beats. Huddled up in the small WZBC studio, Glenn talked about how he writes his music, working with guys like Jack Rose, and the art of the guitar in general. It’s a great three part video interview and I highly recommend watching it. You can find that interview right here.

Also included the second hour was some stellar psych-rock from Danish band Causa Sui. Over the course of this year (and part of 2008) the band has released a series of LPs under the name Summer Sessions. Unfortunately, German label Elektrohasch sold through each of the three volumes very quickly and currently has nothing for sale. Hopefully a CD re-issue isn’t far off, but for now you can check out the rest of their catalog or try to find their music by other means. I’ll be playing more from them next week.

Sorry the second broken broadcast in a row. Hopefully this will be the last of them. Thanks for the emails you’ve been sending and for the requests.

Cheers!

DOWNLOAD HOUR 2 (the only hour….) HERE!

01. A Place to Bury Strangers “In Your Heart” from In Your Heart (2009) on Mute

02. Psychic TV “Roman P” from Hex Sex: The Singles, Pt. 1 (1994) on Cleopatra

03. Ulrich Schnauss “Clear Day” from a strangely isolated place (2003) on Domino

04. Magnolia Electric Co. “Rider. Shadow. Wolf.” from Rider. Shadow. Wolf / Josephine 7″ (2009) on Secretly Canadian

05. Man Or Astro-Man? “Principles Unknown” from Experiment Zero (1996) on Touch and Go

06. Centro-Matic “Fountains of Fire” from Distance and Clime (2001) on idol

07. Glenn Jones “Barbecue Bob in Fishtown” from Barbecue Bob in Fishtown (2009) on Strange Attractors Audio House

08. Jack Rose and The Black Twig Pickers “Soft Steel Piston” from Jack Rose and The Black Twig Pickers (2009) on VHF Records

09. Fred Gerlach “Devil’s Brew” from Imagitional Anthem Volume Two (2006) on Tompkins Square

10. Angels of Light “On the Mountain” from …Sing “Other People” (2005) on Young God

11. Susanna and Bonnie “Prince” Billy “(I’ll Love You) Forever and Ever” from For Ever and Ever / In Spite of Ourselves 7″ (2009) on Tour Only

12. Mark Lanegan “Waiting on a Train” from Scraps at Midnight (1998) on Subpop

END OF HOUR 1

13. Six Organs of Admittance “Ursa Minor” from Luminous Night (2009) on Drag City

14. Causa Sui “Red Sun in June” from Summer Sessions Vol. 1 (2008) on Elektrohasch Schallplatten

15. Richard Bishop “Canned Goods & Firearms” from Polytheistic Fragments (2007) on Drag City

16. Ganglians “Hair” from Ganglians (2009) on Woodsist

17. Miles Davis “One and One” from On the Corner (1972) on Columbia?Legacy

18. Burial & Four Tet “Moth” from Moth / Wolf Club (2009) on Text Records

19. Sam Prekop “Something” from Who’s Your New Professor (2005) on Thrill Jockey

20. Magnolia Electric Co. “Josephine (Demo Version w/ Will Johnson)” from Rider. Shadow. Wolf / Josephine 7″ (2009) on Secretly Canadian

21. Glenn Jones “Keep It A Hundred Years” from Barbecue Bob in Fishtown (2009) on Strange Attractors Audio House

22. Songs: Ohia “Darling…” from Hecla and Griper (1998) on Secretly Canadian