New Reviews at Still Single, December 9th

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I’ve been asked, nay commanded, to contribute to Doug Mosurock’s infamous Still Singles column, both at the tumblr site, and on Dusted. It’s an absolute pleasure to once again be part of the reviewing team (my last review for Still Single was written over two years ago), and I thought I’d share with you the fruits of my labors (in reverse order than on the site):

1069, s/t 3×7″ EP (self released)

This box mysteriously showed up at the record store I used to work at, a nice purple thing with a sticker reading “Limited Edition of 100” over the opening. Upon further review after purchase, it turns out to be a new project by Louisville punk rock pioneers Steve “Chili” Rigot (of the legendary Endtables) and Michael O’Bannon (of Blinders and Antman, among many other projects), aided and abetted by young whippersnappers Sandy and Van Campbell (the latter the drummer of the Black Diamond Heavies). However, if you’re expecting some fast, futuristic tunes, 1069 (named after the address of Louisville’s first “punk house” – whose lot is now occupied by a Taco Bell) will bound to disappoint: laconic, slow-chooglin’ yet tender country rock (with more emphasis on country than rock) is the order of the day here, which immediately brings to mind the first couple of Palace Brothers recordings – back when nobody outside of Louisville knew who Will Oldham was. Unfortunately, though the tunes are fine, it seems like every single old dude from the punk scene in Louisville has already “gone country.” While Rigot and O’Bannon’s take is more tolerable than some of their peers, at this point I’m a little over it. Still, if you like finding out where-they-are-now (as I certainly do), you’ll enjoy 1069. Just not sure where the hell you’ll be able to find this, since it’s self-released. Maybe try calling Ear X-tacy in Louisville to see if they have any copies left? Limited to 100.

Stillbirth/Prurient — The Mirror of Purification split 7″ (Semata Productions)


It’s been quite some time since I’ve checked out what Prurient’s Dominick Fernow’s been up to, whether that’s a function as now living in a flyover red state whose major city eschews noise (but they love it in Lexington, apparently), or being fully domesticated, I’m not sure. However, I’m glad I did, if only to hear something completely different from what I’m used to. The Stillbirth track, “The View Untangled,” has some nice mysterious computer sounds, almost akin to a chance meeting between Pita (the laptopper), the Caretaker (the V/VM-related weirdo), and pita (the bread) on a delicatessen tray. Fernow’s side isn’t much different, aesthetically, from Stillbirth, as processed synth and percussion sounds meld with some surprisingly suppressed spoken phrases I can’t quite make out, with a moan here and there. If anything, both tracks are too short, because by the time they’ve finished I’m still stuck wondering what’s going on. That’s not a bad thing. Grey marble vinyl, limited to 500. (http://semataproductions.com)

Smokers Please — “Flensing” b/w “Grey Christmas” 7″ (Yoko Ono Tribute Weekend)

Noisy one-man-band squall over viola drone and guitar fuckery on the A-side, which may or may not excite you. Having heard plenty of records by A Handful of Dust, I wasn’t particularly excited, frankly. The label says to play at 33, but 45 sorta sounded better. B-side goes into “quiet, please” territory, and I’m not sure that’s much more of a thrill, either. This single left not much of an impression at all, and if the label didn’t have such a goofy name, I’d probably forget it in the middle of writing this review. Further research reveals that it’s a product of a New Zealander (Ben Spiers, of Glory Fckn Sun – Ed.) 250 copies. (http://www.yokoonotributeweekend.com)

Pigeons — Lunette 7″ EP (Soft Abuse)

More post-Vivian Girls jingle-jangle and cooey female vocals smothered in layers of fuzz and reverb. Somehow, it’s surprising to me that this style is so in vogue these days. If you had a time machine, you could go back twenty-five years, play someone this record, throw a paisley shirt on, suddenly you’d be transformed into a 50 year-old dude from Los Angeles that nobody cares about. But I suppose if I could predict when musical trends would crop up decades later, I’d be running a record label. Not sure why this sort of skilled-yet-not ineptitude is so prevalent, or why this band with NNCK connections (as I discovered from Google just now) exists, but there you have it. (http://www.softabuse.com)

Dean McPhee — Brown Bear 12″ EP (Hood Faire)

Despite my initial skepticism towards Young Britons doing their take on Americana (though truth be told, some UK residents such as Ben Reynolds do it quite well), Dean McPhee’s solo 12” is a fairly decent take on late, reverb-soaked Fahey, or perhaps Loren Mazzacane Connors. That is, it’s certainly pleasant, though not particularly aggressive; perhaps polite in that oh-so-peculiar manner we Colonials expect. No rough guitar instrumentals akin to Neil Young’s Dead Man soundtrack, instead we get two short pieces on the first side, and a side-long piece on the second. And it’s over there where the politeness melds into a bit of sobering boredom, wherein McPhee smothers his once-again decent ability in typical guy-with-a-Line6 territory. However, if you like post-Fahey instrumental guitar, there’s enough here to at least point to some promising future releases. (http://www.hoodfaire.co.uk)

Dark Lingo — Little Black Glasses 7″ EP (Dear Skull)

Dark Lingo is a duo of Sandy Patton, of Memphis, Tennessee’s Wet Labia (who I’m not familiar with) and Nick Patton of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Centipede Eest (who I am), and what we have here is the rare single which actually sounds kinda fun. An art product germinated in the much-ballyhooed creative class crater that is Braddock, PA, they market themselves as some manner of “ESG meets Hawkwind” blather, but what I hear is more early-1990s quirkiness (Thinking Fellers, Trumans Water, etc.) stripped down to bass, drums, and vocal basics. Lo-fi, no frills, no frivolous attempts to mask the fact that it’s a duo playing, and hardly much treble or midrange at all, which is fine with me. Lyrics on the A-side, “Little Black Glasses,” even made me chuckle once or twice. (http://www.myspace.com/dearskullrecords)

More reviews are on the way!

ZAK RILES (of Grails), JOZEF VAN WISSEM, R. KEENAN LAWLER CANCELLED!

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Unfortunately, due to events beyond our control, the Zak Riles, Jozef van Wissem, and R. Keenan Lawler show at the Swan Dive on Friday, December 18th has been cancelled! We apologize, and hopefully we will be announcing a make-up date for sometime in the spring of 2010 shortly.

Jack Rose, R.I.P.

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I’m almost at a lost for words, this time, to write an obituary, once again, for a fantastic musician who I was lucky to consider a friend. I’m in my office, aka our spare room, lying on the air mattress that we use when out-of-towners come to visit, with my beagles, listening to the new Bill Orcutt record, and thinking about Jack Rose, and how Jack Rose passed away today.

Jack was just here, in late September, as he played a show I booked on my birthday, and he stayed the night. I had the next day off so we drove around town in search of records, soul food, and rare bourbons. He was stoked because he found a Verlaines record at Underground Sounds for $7. We also had a great lunch at this soul food joint way out where Broadway ends at Shawnee Park with Kris Abplanalp and Neil. We went to Old Town Liquors, and Jack bought a bunch of good and obscure bourbons, then he left. Needless to say, it was a really good hang.

Aside from the many other times I saw him play, another fond memory was when Jack played a show I booked in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, with Major Stars and Miminokoto at the Palace Tavern. The place was way too crowded, and Major Stars nearly brought the house down with their blistering, super-loud and awesome opening set (Wayne Rogers, you are the man, and I’m glad New York’s Finest didn’t haul you away that night). Jack played second, just him and his guitar, and delivered the same sort of intensity at 1/4 the volume. Even though I’d seen him many times, that was the night his playing really clicked for me. And despite all the chaos of probably 200 people in a space made for 50, noise complaints from the neighbors, and the two bartender/owners who seemed like they were ready to kill me and Todd P., it was totally worth it.

Anyway, Jack Rose is gone, and the world has lost a singular talent. And people who knew him lost a fun, fun-loving, laid-back-yet-intense guy, who was no bullshit artist, but the real deal. Rest in peace, Jack.

The Phantom Family Halo, Monoliths and These Flowers Never Die (Karate Body)

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The second of two reviews of mine that LEO Weekly published last week is of the new double album by the Phantom Family Halo, Monoliths and These Flowers Never Die:

Louisville’s The Phantom Family Halo return with Monoliths and These Flowers Never Die, a sophomore double-album that is surprisingly both sprawling and focused, an exemplary effort of what is possible when retro-rock sensibilities are distilled through modern musical techniques. Unlike their debut, The Legend of Black Six, the new double album sports a cohesive, unified sound, thanks mostly to the myriad of excellent vocal styles displayed by lead singer Dominic Cipolla (also a member of Sapat and Dead Child). Whether on guitar-heavy rock anthems, more experimental Krautrock-esque numbers, or the occasional twisted pop tune, Cipolla’s voice always more-than-fits; it could be said that his vocals are the quintessential ingredient in what makes The Phantom Family Halo perhaps the most unique band not only in Louisville at present, but in the larger world of music as well.

Buy it directly from Karate Body here: http://www.karatebodyrecords.com.

SHEDDING, TALK NORMAL, TINY FIGHTS at SKULL ALLEY, Wednesday December 2nd

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SHEDDING (from Louisville)
TALK NORMAL (from Brooklyn, New York)
TINY FIGHTS (from Lexington/Louisville)

Wednesday, December 2nd
at SKULL ALLEY
1017 E. Broadway
$5, 7 PM, ALL AGES

SHEDDING has been a solo project for Connor Bell since 2001, though in 2009 Tim Furnish (Parlour, Crain, Papa M, The For Carnation) and Joey Yates (The Loved, Parlour, Sapat) joined as the rhythm section in SHEDDING’s new lineup. Solo, SHEDDING has already released a few albums, and the new band lineup plans to release a 7″ or 2 over the winter and spring of 2009-2010.

Sarah Register and Andrya Ambro allied as TALK NORMAL in 2007, after years of friendship, and haven’t stopped moving. Since their lightning-strike first appearance, TALK NORMAL’s sound has stormed upward and outward, referencing few and relating to many, a jarringly songful gale of rhythm and noise supporting pleas and plaints, signal-calls and marching orders. Each show builds on past ones: up-to-the-moment updates of ideas previously stated, new phrasings of old upheavals delivered with increasing focus and joy. Darkness and light; fury, silence, space and sound. “Brooklyn-based duo TALK NORMAL create a nice racket that does a deft job of splitting the difference between harsh sonics and the essential song-oriented structures required of noise rock. Neither a band in which noise is merely a bi-product of a savage attack nor an overtly experimental outfit steeped in this or that high concept, TALK NORMAL come off as an organic self-contained unit that extracts as much as they can from their explicitly minimal approach. Sure, there are some obvious touchstones here – Sonic Youth, Magik Markers, Ut, Teenage Jesus – but the songs never feel derivative. Though various sorts of processed sounds work their way in and out of the picture, the bands aesthetic is built on a basic foundation of guitars, drums and vocals. They can sound both hyper and dirgey, calling to mind heat-soaked basement shows and cold moldy practice spaces alike… TALK NORMAL are making their music amidst an increasingly cluttered underground landscape, and the duo’s seeming intrepidness in the face of that fact shines through. They’ve cultivated their own voice that, when combined with that strange festering energy, should make for solid stuff with each successive release.” – Nate Knaebel/Dusted

TINY FIGHTS is an up-and-coming band with members from both Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky. Their recent performance at the Boomslang Festival in Lexington was astounding, and it’s quite possible that this show may be their Louisville debut. Not really sure about that, but either way, they’re definitely not to be missed!

Check out the Facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=332581415433.

For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com/upcoming-events. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.

Group Doueh, Treeg Salaam (Sublime Frequencies)

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LEO Weekly ran my review of Group Doueh’s Treeg Salaam today:

Released in conjunction with their first-ever European tour this past June (the first time that audiences outside of Western Sahara saw them perform), Group Doueh’s second album, Treeg Salaam, on the always-intriguing Sublime Frequencies label, is an achievement. Discovered by label founders Alan Bishop and Hisham Mayet in 2005, the group is built around the relentless, driving electric guitar of main man Doueh, joined by his relatives on various other instruments (some of which are homemade). Fans familiar with the Mali “dry guitar” style propagated by Ali Farka Toure will hear some similarities in Doueh’s technique, but will be blown away by his amazingly fast fretwork and the distorted nature of the group’s DIY recordings. Yet on Treeg Salaam Doueh occasionally showcases a mellower form of his guitar heroics, and the album’s side-long ender “Tazit Kalifa” displays an almost-tender lyricism otherwise rare in Doueh’s desert music.

Buy the CD here from Sublime Frequencies (the LP sold out ages ago).

Jerry Fuchs, R.I.P.

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(Image of Jerry Fuchs from the New York Times.)

By now, the unfortunate and tragic death of Jerry Fuchs on Saturday night is common knowledge. However, I felt I had to write some sort of obituary, though late, if only to acknowledge how great a friend Jerry was to me.

Maserati, one of Jerry’s main music concerns, played here in Louisville at the Zanzabar back in September, and I was lucky enough to be able to DJ the gig. Doing so meant a lot to me, as Jerry and I had been friends since I lived in Brooklyn in the middle part of this decade. Unfortunately, I hadn’t talked with Jerry since I left Brooklyn to come home to Louisville in October, 2007, but the minute Maserati’s van pulled up to the Zanzabar, it was like only a few days had gone by since we’d last seen each other. We partied on into the night, then lunched at Zanzabar the next day, then Jerry and his compatriots were nice enough to drive me back to work for my double shift.

Strangely enough, we didn’t meet originally through music, but through football: we both used to watch Steelers games over at Doug Mosurock‘s apartment. It only dawned on me later that Jerry missed a week or two of games here and there because he was on tour. But, again, when we’d run into each other on the street, at a party, at Daddy’s or Sal’s Pizza or wherever, it always seemed that time hadn’t passed at all, due to Jerry’s generosity of spirit.

A number of Jerry’s friends have written some fantastic remembrances of him, and for a wonderfully detailed portait of an excellent person, please read Henry Owings’ entry over at Chunklet. I don’t have much more to add, other than I miss my friend very much.

UPDATE: If you’re in New York City, there will be a memorial service for Jerry at Enid’s in Greenpoint, Brooklyn this Thursday, November 12th, between 7 and 11 PM. Enid’s is located, of course, at 560 Manhattan Avenue, at the corner of Driggs, right by the park. Wish I could be there.

ZAK RILES, R. KEENAN LAWLER, NATHAN SALSBURG, MIKE TAMBURO, and BEN REYNOLDS at the SWAN DIVE, Tuesday, November 24

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ZAK RILES (of GRAILS, from Louisville)
R. KEENAN LAWLER (from Louisville)
NATHAN SALSBURG (from Louisville)
MIKE TAMBURO (from Pittsburgh, PA; on the New American Folk Hero label)
BEN REYNOLDS (from Glasgow, Scotland; on the Tompkins Square and Strange Attractors Audio House labels)

at the SWAN DIVE
921 Swan Street
8 PM, $5, 21 and over

ZAK RILES is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist in the Important/Temporary Residence band Grails. His creative contributions to the group are immeasurable and can be heard clearly on this self-titled debut solo outing. In fact some of the pieces on this solo record have been reinterpreted into Grails favorites. Like his band Grails, ZAK RILES’ solo work is an elaborate mansion built of inspiration but with so much strength and originality that it stands firmly on its own. On these rocky shores come crashing waves of Sandy Bull, Mogolar, Deuter, Popol Vuh and the Ventures while Persian breeze drifts by wafting the melodies of Hossein Alizadeh. Essential listening for followers of Important Records who favor the likes of Grails & James Blackshaw.

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.

NATHAN SALSBURG is an archivist, producer, guitarist and writer based in Louisville, Kentucky. He has worked for the Alan Lomax Archive since 2000, for which he currently serves in the capacities of production manager, photo and video archivist, and general digital catalog editor. Since 2006 he has produced and hosted “Root Hog Or Die,” a vernacular/traditional music program on East Village Radio, and is curator of the Twos & Fews recording imprint, also a vernacular music entity, and a collaboration with Chicago’s Drag City label. Its first album, I Want to Go Where Things Are Beautiful, drew on Mike Seeger’s 1982 recordings of the late miner, union activist, and singer Nimrod Workman; its second, Ouled Bambara: Portraits of Gnawa, features 2005 recordings of several master musicians of the Gnawa, a Sufi order of trance healers, living in Marrakech, Morocco. He has recently finished the production of a tribute album to the singer/guitarist E.C. Ball, late of Rugby, Virginia, entiled Face A Frowning World, due out in December 2009 on New York’s Tompkins Square label. It features contributions from Michael Hurley, Jon Langford, Catherine Irwin, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Jolie Holland, and the Handsome Family, among others. Salsburg maintains an index of on-line vernacular music resources at his blog, roothogordie.wordpress.com, and contributes occasional music writing to the Louisville Eccentric Observer and the Other Music weekly update. His most recent musical contribution was to the third volume of Tompkins Square’s Imaginational Anthem guitar compilations. He is currently working on an album of his own acoustic guitar compositions and arrangements.

MIKE TAMBURO is a 21st century Renaissance man who has forged his way into the consciousness of the American underground music community. For the past 13 years, Tamburo has been relentlessly releasing records (31 releases and counting) under different monikers and projects including Meisha, Arco Flute Foundation & various imprints under his own name. He has performed over 500 shows all over the United States, traveling to every nook and cranny, searching for some kind of an understanding of what America truly is. Though always considering himself a multi-instrumentalist, he gained fame and notoriety with his fingerstyle guitar playing and his idiosyncratic use of effects; only to swear himself off of the acoustic guitar, eventually setting it on fire and hurling it off of Pittsburgh’s 40th Street Bridge. His effects soon followed. Tamburo is a man who continues to reinvent himself, recently finding his new musical passion in the hammered dulcimer; building upon his own unique compositional stylings, he has developed a voice for the instrument that is very much his own. He is greatly inspired by American folk and minimalist music traditions as well as Indian classical music, but often expands outward to include influences from avant-garde to noise to modern compositional music. A Tamburo performance is always a very transportive experience. Tamburo is also an artist, film maker, writer, instrument builder, curator of the Fantastic Voyagers Festivals, Kundalini Yoga and Pranayama devotee, and inner state researcher; exploring alpha and theta states, floatation tanks, ethnobotany, orgone energy, and ecstatic states of being. He also runs the New American Folk Hero label, which continues to release an eclectic roster of creative and experimental musics.

BEN REYNOLDS is a songwriter, solo steel string guitarist and improviser. He has released two proper solo albums, How Day Earnt Its Night (on the Tompkins Square label) and Two Wings (on the Strange Attractors Audio House label). Outside of solo concerns he has been a collaborator/contributor to various musical projects including Motor Ghost (a duo with Alex Neilson), Baby Dee, Ashtray Navigations, Nalle, and Directing Hand amongst others. Ben is also a member of Trembling Bells, a band featuring Alex Neilson, Lavinia Blackwall, Simon Shaw and sometimes George Murray and Aby Vulliamy. Their debut album Carbeth was released in April, 2009 by Honest Jon’s to glowing reports from the likes of Will Oldham and Joe Boyd.

Check out the Facebook invitation here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=178814326944.

For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com/upcoming-events. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.

EGRET, CURSILLISTAS, LITTLE GOLD at the SWAN DIVE, Friday November 13

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EGRET (from Louisville)
CURSILLISTAS (from Portland, Maine; on Time-Lag and Digitalis)
LITTLE GOLD (from NYC)

at the SWAN DIVE
Friday, November 13th
921 Swan Street
9 PM, $5, 21-and-over

EGRET is a newer Louisville band composed of Greta Smith on vocals, autoharp, and guitar; Paul Rushford on lap steel and guitar; Chet Gray on cello, guitar, kazoo; and Chris Martin on drums, and percussion. They recently played the Swan Dive with eremy Jirvin & the Free=Ends, and are currently recording their first album.

CURSILLISTAS are a fantastic collective of mysterious origins, having released one excellent record on their own L’Animaux Tryst imprint, Les Biches (which was recently re-issued by Time-Lag). Norman Records had this to say about it: “[it’s] meandering space drone & cracked acid-fried freestyle folk. …The fourth track and is totally amazing, like one of those blinding Animal Collective harmony drenched space pop experiments. Then there’s some fun to be had with xylophones and bent shards of heavily manipulated guitar whilst vocals drift drowsily all over the shop like drunken clouds.” Their new 12″, entitled Joint Chiefs, will soon be released by Digitalis. This show will be their Louisville debut.

New York’s LITTLE GOLD presents mellow country rock born from years of playing basement punk shows. Christian DeRoeck spent a good chunk of the past decade leaning on the whammy bar in Meneguar, and was one of the two founding songwriters in Woods. Following the trio’s ecstatic appearance at the Swan Dive back in September (with DR Country and WAND), LITTLE GOLD mainman Christian will be performing solo on Friday the 13th.

Check out the Facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161889294473.

For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com/upcoming-events. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.

Maryanne Amacher, R.I.P.

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Unfortunately, I’m seeing unconfirmed reports that Maryanne Amacher, one of America’s most important sound artists, has died today. Though we never met (she taught at Bard, though well after I graduated), one of my favorite concert experiences of all time has to be seeing Amacher “live” in Chicago (she generally declined to “perform,” preferring sound installation work, but did actually perform in Chicago at 6ODUM when it was a functioning venue, as part of the LAMPO series). Her few releases, for John Zorn’s Tzadik label, are absolute masterpieces of pure sound and volume.