Tag Archives: Bobby Beausoleil

Better Late Than Never: Another Year-End Best-Of List

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If I think that compiling year-end best-of lists are tedious to write, just what exactly does it mean that I want you to read mine? Not much, really – it’s just another exercise one goes through. This kinda thing doesn’t really mean all that much to me, and my answers can change on a whim. And it’s not that I came close to listening to even all the releases with intriguing press releases, or what looked cool in a shop that I put back due to being broke, or whatever. That said, these are all very much worth your while, even without any sort of silly “best-of-2005″ endorsement. So without further ado (in no particular order):

The Weird Weeds, Hold Me (Edition Manifold) CD

I wrote about the Weird Weeds briefly here.

Earth, Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method (Southern Lord) CD

Broadcast, Tender Buttons (Warp) CD

Coptic Light, s/t (No Quarter) CD

Silver Jews, Tanglewood Numbers (Drag City) CD

I promised a longer, “director’s cut” version of this review, but for now that version remains unfinished.

The Howling Hex, All Night Fox (Drag City) CD

Endless Boogie, 1 and 2 (Mound Duel) LPs

Review from the Baltimore City Paper here.

Excepter, Throne and Self Destruction (Load, Fusetron) CDs

Review here, also appeared in Swingset no. 7.

Ones/Hands, 1997-2005 (White Tapes) CD

Review here.

Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom, Days of Mars (DFA) CD

favorite reissues/compilations:

Gary Higgins, Red Hash (Drag City) CD
Crime, San Francisco’s Still Doomed (Swami) CD (review here)
Crain, Speed (Temporary Residence) CD (review here)
Roky Erickson, I Have Always Been Here Before (Shout Factory) 2CD (review here)
Bobby Beausoleil, Lucifer Rising Original Soundtrack (Arcanum) 2CD (review here)

Honorable Mentions:

The Double, Loose in the Air (Matador) CD; Thuja, Pine Cone Temples (Strange Attractors Audio House) CD; Big Whiskey, “Hats Off To Ryan Taylor” (White Tapes) cass; Andrew Paine and Richard Youngs, Mauve Dawn (Fusetron) LP; The SB, s/t (White Tapes) LP; prolly some more I’ve forgotten.

Bobby Beausoleil, Lucifer Rising Original Soundtrack (Arcanum) 2CD

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It’s incredibly difficult, nay perhaps impossible, to discuss Lucifer Rising without mentioning its “controversial” (to put it mildly) creator and his story. Bobby Beausoleil is currently incarcerated in California, serving time for his part in the murders committed by the infamous Manson Family. But his bizarre and horrific criminal record is not what’s interesting about Beausoleil, or Lucifer Rising. Before his involvement with Manson, Beausoleil was active on the San Francisco hippy music scene, and was engaged to score Lucifer Rising, an intense occult meditation on film by Kenneth Anger (also known as the genius behind the films Scorpio Rising, Fireworks and the book Hollywood Babylon). Beausoleil and Anger had a falling out at Lucifer Rising‘s first screening, and did not speak to each other for many years. After Beausoleil’s incarceration, Anger engaged him again to complete the score, after Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page failed to finish. Finally released in 2004, Beausoleil’s score recorded entirely in prison is a classic of instrumental psychedelia, akin to some of the better early Pink Floyd tracks. Imagine the sun rising over the pyramids, because that’s what you’re gonna see in your mind when you play this. Heavy.