Author Archives: othersideoflife

R. Keenan Lawler, Nick Hennies at the SWAN DIVE Saturday, August 8

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R. Keenan Lawler at Terrastock, 2008

(Image of R. Keenan Lawler at Terrastock 2008 swiped with love from Chris Barrus’s Flickr photostream. Image of Nick Hennies and a dog swiped from whiskeyandapples.com.)

R. KEENAN LAWLER
NICK HENNIES (Austin, Texas)

Saturday, August 8
The Swan Dive
9 PM
$5, 21 and over

R. KEENAN LAWLER is a musician and sound artist based in Louisville Kentucky. For over 25 years his musical journey has taken him from early experiments with reverb tanks, noise and tape decks to all manner of avant-garde, “new” music, psychedelia, electro-acoustic, drone, ethnic and sampler-based work. LAWLER is best known for developing a highly personal and exploratory language for the metal bodied resonator guitar which Baltimore’s John Berdnt called “Cosmic, monolithic and deeply American.” Indeed his work is informed by carnatic classical, Charles Ives, Albert Ayler, blues, minimalism and non-western trance musics. Primarily a solo performer, he is also known for collaborative work. The “Keyhole II” album he recorded with Pelt and metal worker Eric Clark is one of Pelt’s most beautiful and memorable recordings, and his guitar playing is also heard on releases by Paul K., Jack Wright, My Morning Jacket and most visibily on Matmos’ “The Civil War.” He has collaborated or performed with a wide range of forward-thinking musicians and mavericks including Rhys Chatham, John Butcher, Eliott Sharp, Charalambides, Ignaz Schick/Perlonex, Kaffe Matthews, Burning Star Core, Jason Kahn, Ut Gret, Thaniel Ion Lee, Ed Wilcox, Ramesh Srinivasan, Kevin Drumm, Arco Flute Foundation, Helena Espvall, Ian Nagoski, Connor Bell, Andy Willis, Alan Licht, Taksuya Nakatani, Tom Carter, Bhob Rainey, Aaron Rosenblum, Joe Dutkiewicz, Evergreen,Eric Carbonara and Joseph Suchy.

NICK HENNIES is a percussionist and composer from Louisville, KY. He received his M.A. from UC-San Diego where he studied with world-renowned percussionist Steven Schick and performed with ‘red fish blue fish’, the SONOR Ensemble, Castanets, and in a duo with trombonist Tucker Dulin. Since relocating to Austin, TX in 2003 HENNIES has performed regularly with The Weird Weeds, the Austin New Music Co-op, Peter & the Wolf, and numerous collaborations with local and visiting musicians. He has worked with a wide array of musicians including Arnold Dreyblatt, Radu Malfatti, Eugene Chadbourne, Stuart Saunders Smith, and Jandek in his first ever U.S. performance. HENNIES’ solo work involves minimalist experiments in timbre with percussion instruments, as well as working with found sounds and electronic sources. His first official solo CD “Paths” was released on Thor’s Rubber Hammer in 2008 and also has released or forthcoming work on B-Boim, Sentient Recognition Archive, and Spectral House.

Listen to a clip from NICK HENNIES’ solo CD “Paths” here: http://nhennies.com/audio/paths-sample.mp3.

For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com/upcomingevents for updates and/or email hstencil@gmail.com.

Hugh Hopper, R.I.P.

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(Image of Hugh Hopper taken from Wikipedia.)

I’m seeing news on the internet — though not confirmed by any news organizations yet — that former Soft Machine bassist Hugh Hopper has died. His Wikipedia entry, which mentions his year-long struggle with leukemia, gives the date as “June 2009.” No additional information is available on his official website.

Hopper’s 1973 album 1984 has long been a favorite of mine. His first solo album after leaving the Soft Machine, 1984 combines Hopper’s excellent jazz playing with some experimental processes, especially tape loops, to great effect. It’s fitting that this album, based on the futuristic novel by George Orwell, still sounds ahead of its time.

(1984 cover image from http://www.progarchives.com.)

Download 1984 here.

Tie Me to the Listenin’ Post: 5/31 – 6/5

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(photo swiped from http://hadleighhighlibrary.wordpress.com/about/.)

John Fahey, The Yellow Princess CD
Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest CD (Warp)
Extra Golden, Thank You Very Quickly CD (Thrill Jockey, available here)
Bill Callahan, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle CD (Drag City)
Big Business, Mind the Drift CD (Hydra Head)
Spacemen 3, The Perfect Prescription CD
Iggy Pop, Preliminaries CD
Savath & Savalas, La Llama CD (Stones Throw)
Etran Finatawa, Desert Crossroads CD (available here)
The Damned, Machine Gun Etiquette CD
Freddie Hubbard, Without a Song: Live in Europe 1969 CD
Sir Richard Bishop, The Freak of Araby CD (Drag City)
Swans, The Great Annhilator CD
V/A, The Roots of Nick Cave CD
Sperm, Shh! LP (Destijl)
V/A, Mexique: Fetes de San Miguel Tzinacapan mp3s
Oneohtrix Point Never — Ruined Lives, Betrayal in the Octagon, and Young Beidnahga mp3s
Gas, Konigsforst 2LP

Last updated Tuesday June 2, 2009.

Tie Me to the Listenin’ Post: 5/24 – 5/30

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(image swiped from http://www.telegraph-office.com/pages/wireless_gallery.html.)

Group Doueh, Guitar Music from the Western Sahara and Treeg Salaam LPs (Sublime Frequencies, available here and here)
Omar Souleyman, Highway to Hassake: Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria 2LP (Sublime Frequencies)
V/A, Ethiopian Modern Instrumentals Hits LP (L’Arome)
Noah Howard, At Judson Hall LP (ESP-Disk, available here)
V/A, “Musiques de l’Asie Traditionnelle vol. 4: Tibet LP (Playa Sound)
Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Soul Finger CD
The Field, Yesterday and Today CD (Kompakt)
Vieux Farka Toure, Fondo CD
V/A, Phantom Guitars CD
Jimmy Cliff, The Harder They Come CD
Elvis Presley, Roustabout LP
Boards of Canada, Music Has the Right to Children CD
Kardinal Offishal, Not 4 Sale CD
Ennio Morricone, Film Music Vol. 1 CD
Big Business, Mind the Drift CD (Hydra Head)
Patto, s/t CD
Iggy Pop, Preliminaries CD
Fire on Fire, The Orchard CD (Young God)
The Inner Space, Agilok & Blubbo CD (Wah-Wah)
DJ Shadow, Endtroducing CD
V/A, Ghana Soundz Vol. 2 CD
Hawkwind, In Search of Space CD
The Damned, Machine Gun Etiquette CD
Saccharine Trust, Past Lives CD
Richard Hell & the Voidoids, Blank Generation CD
Extra Golden, Thank You Very Quickly CD (Thrill Jockey)
James Blackshaw, The Glass Bead Game CD (Young God)
J.G. Thirlwell, The Venture Bros.: The Music of J.G. Thirlwell CD
The Stooges, S/T CD
Iron & Wine, Around the Well CD (Sub Pop)
V/A, 1970’s Algerian Proto-Rai Underground CD (Sublime Frequencies)

Last updated on Tuesday, June 2, 2009.

Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Primary Colours (Goner)

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Last but not least, from Swingset:

Despite a small population consisting mainly of descendents of England’s cast-offs, Australia has graced the rest of the English-speaking world with many excellent rock bands. AC/DC, the Saints, Coloured Balls, Radio Birdman, and the Birthday Party are just a few of the many Australian bands worthy of any rock fanatic’s collection. And now, with their second full-length album, Eddy Current Suppression Ring makes a play for inclusion in the annals of antipodean rock accomplishment. While the production value of Primary Colours is slightly more polished than their debut, the album kicks out the jams quite thoroughly, with a taut minimalist kick reminiscent of Wire or the Buzzcocks, albeit with an even goofier accent.

Buy it from Goner.

Harry Pussy, You’ll Never Play This Town Again (Load)

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Review number two at Swingset (and boy does it stink!) — Harry Pussy’s You’ll Never Play This Town Again retrospective on Load:

It’s difficult to describe just how great a band Harry Pussy was, or how thoroughly the Miami-based trio demolished the line between provocation and confrontation, without noting that their least offensive aspect was their name. During their brief mid-1990s “career” they managed to utterly obliterate audience expectations, even when those expectations were at best marginal. The one time I was lucky enough to see ‘em, at a show I booked during their farewell tour, they even managed to bum out a small crowd of otherwise open-minded, drugged-out hippie college students in ways I didn’t dream possible. For posterity’s sake, a number of their long out-of-print recordings are now available on You’ll Never Play This Town Again. For those of us lucky to have been there, and for those few willing to check out a crazed piece of noise past, this release is everything you’d need to know.

Buy it here from Load.

The Shadow Ring, Life Review (1993 – 2003) (Kye)

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Some new reviews of mine (of older releases) appeared today at Swingset. The first one is of the recent 2CD retrospective of the Shadow Ring, one of my favorite bands of all time:

There’s no getting around the inherent difficulty posed by the music of the Shadow Ring, one of the UK’s most obscure, yet most rewarding bands of the past decade. Ironically, what makes their music difficult is its complete simplicity. Home Counties chums Graham Lambkin and Darren Harris (with later member, Tim Goss) outlined their early musical approach most succinctly in their 1994 album Put the Music In Its Coffin, whose title spells out the distinctly amateur (yet not “amateurish”) nature of their scrapes, wheezes, and plain-spoken lyrics regarding mundane topics concerning “Wash What You Eat,” “Rats & Mice,” and “Prawnography.” Later, after Lambkin moved to the United States and the group’s activities became even more difficult to sustain, the Shadow Ring embarked on an exploration of long drones and slowed-down vocals, on such releases such as 2001’s Lindus and their final album, I’m Some Songs. Despite the change in direction, the simplicity of The Shadow Ring’s music retained its power.

Life Review (1993-2003) is a 2-cd set that documents all phases of the band, and is an excellent starting point for those unfamiliar, but willing to brave their deeply strange waters. As most of their initial releases are out-of-print (and will likely remain that way), it’s fantastic that such an unlikely collection exists, including not only classic Shadow Ring “numbers” such as “Tiny Creatures,” “Horse Meat Cakes” but also unheard charms such as “Stella Drive,” their shambolic live reinterpretation of Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive.”

Buy it at Fusetron.

Tie Me to the Listenin’ Post: 5/17 – 5/23

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(image swiped from http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/09/08/worlds-greatest-radio-listening-post/.)

Jim O’Rourke, I’m Happy, and I’m singing and a 1, 2, 3, 4 2CD (Editions Mego)
Small Faces, First Step CD
John Lee Hooker, Hooker n’ Heat 2CD
Kurt Vile and the Violators, Hunchback CD (Richie Records)
Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation CD
Cold Sun, Dark Shadows CD
John Fahey and his Orchestra, Of Rivers and Religion LP
The Inner Space, Agilok & Blubbo mp3s
39 Clocks, Zoned mp3s (Destijl)
Nomo, Invisible Cities CD
Queens of the Stone Age, Era Vulgaris CD
Obits, I Blame You CD (Sub Pop)
Can, Ege Bamyasi CD
Savath & Savalas, La Llama CD (Stones Throw)
Naked Lunch, s/t CD
Roky Erikson, I Have Always Been Here Before 2CD
Pink Floyd, Meddle LP
The Bengal Minstrel, The Music of Bauls LP
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, The Voudon Effect: Funk & Sato from Benin’s Obscure Labels 1972 – 1975 2LP (Analog Africa)
Spirit, The Family That Plays Together LP
Mahmoud Ahmed and the Ibex Band, Ere Mela Mela LP
Tyvek, s/t CD
V/A, Bird Up: The Charlie Parker Remix Project CD
Fred Fisher Atalobhor & His Ogiza Dance Band, African Carnival 2CD
Passion Pit, Manners CD
Grizzly Bear, Vekatimest CD
Group Doueh, Treeg Salaam LP
Christopher Tignor, Core Memory Unwound CD
Traffic, Mr. Fantasy LP
Spirit, Clear LP

Last posted on Sunday, May 24, 2009.

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba, Segu Blue (Analog Africa/Open House)

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Yet another review appeared in LEO Weekly today, this time of Bassekou Kouyate & Ngobi Ba’s Segu Blue. Unfortunately, due to space constraints there isn’t much mention of the actual music, but whatever:

Given the recent collaboration between Bela Fleck and Malian kora player Toumani Diabate, it’s possible that there’s been no greater spotlight on the West African nation at any other time than right now. Fortunately, all the attention on Mali is casting some light on other worthwhile players as well. Countryman Bassekou Kouyate plays the ngoni, a six-stringed instrument, which is arguably less complex than Tiabate’s 21-stringed kora, but still retains a beautiful melodicism. Kouyate’s 2007 album Segu Blue, issued in the United States this year, contains all the beauty one has come to expect from acoustic music from Mali. And on the blue “Lament for Ali Farka,” a requiem for the departed guitarist Ali Farka Toure, Kouyate and his group Ngoni Ba emerge from the shadows cast by their better-known comrades.

Commenter Dan Hirsch on a Facebook link I posted with the review says they’ll be touring the US next spring, so that’s pretty cool. In the meantime, you can download Segu Blue here.

Tie Me to the Listenin’ Post: 5/10 – 5/16

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(image swiped from bridell.com; read about Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen’s Listening Post installation here: http://bridell.com/tag/listening-post/)

Music listened to during the week from Sunday, May 10 to Saturday, May 16:

Pere Ubu, Dub Housing (Chrysalis) LP (available here)
Harappian Night Recordings, The Glorious Gongs of Hainuwele mp3s
Philip Glass, Music In Similar Motion and Music in Fifths (Chatham Square) LP
The George-Edwards Group, 38:38 (Drag City/Galactic Zoo Disks) LP (available here)
Vinko Globokar/Luciano Berio/Karlheinz Stockhausen/Carlos Roque Alsina, Discours II pour cinq trombones/Sequenza V for trombone solo/Solo fur Melodie-Instrument mit Ruckkopplung/Consecuenza op. 17 fur Soloposaune (Deutsche Grammophon) LP
John Wiese & C. Spencer Yeh, Cincinnati mp3s
Hecker, Acid in the Style of David Tudor mp3s
Morton Feldman, Triadic Memories mp3s
T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, Kings of Benin Urban Groove 1972-1980 CD
Dead Child, Attack CD
Double Dagger, More CD
V/A, Welcome to the Party CD
The Original Modern Lovers, s/t CD
Dungen, 4 CD
Iggy and the Stooges, Raw Power CD
Doug Paisley, s/t CD
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba, Segu Blue 2LP
Omar Souleyman, Highway to Hassake: Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria CD
J.D. Emmanuel, Solid Dawn: Electronic Works 1979 – 1982 mp3s
Scott Walker, Scott 3 and Tilt CDs
Alice Coltrane, Eternity CD
Bill Callahan, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle CD
Pearls Before Swine, The Use of Ashes CD
Astor Piazzolla, Essential Tango CD
Roy Ayers Ubiquity, He’s Coming CD
Bob Dylan, Together Through Life CD
V/A, Ghana Soundz Vol. 2: Afro-Beat, Funk and Fusion in 1970’s Ghana CD
Wooden Shjips, Dos CD
39 Clocks, Zoned CD
Shedding, the Poison Arrows, Spritely — live at Skull Alley

Last updated on Sunday, May 17, 2009.