Another wonderful album from these veteran Bay Area craftsmen and women of old time, rootsy Americana finery! Tireless band leader Jeff Kazor once again heads the ever-changing cast of Crooked Jades, and he does so with remarkable consistency in sound and feel from one album to the next. Not only that, on the generous 15-song long World's On Fire, the band glides seamlessly between The Jades' originals and their cover versions of vintage country, Appalachian folk and bluegrass tunes, and effortlessly between rowdy bootstompers and aching heartbreakers. Recommended.
In lieu of a new full length (this Fall perhaps?), the Crooked Jades have tossed us a very nice bone of an EP. Five tracks, recorded live to multitrack at SF's own Tiny Telephone in August of 2004. Of the five tracks, three are traditional arrangements and two are originals: one by Jades frontman Jeff Kazor and the other by newly added mandolin player extraordinaire Jennie Benford. For this outing the group have reigned in their broad influences and focused their labors to produce an EP that's almost strictly bluegrass, and very traditional at that. The exception is the final track "Gabriel (World's On Fire)" which is a traditional gospel tune sung by the group a cappella, but for some frantic blues acoustic guitar accompaniment. So nice.
Sometimes a picture is in fact worth 1000 words, just check out the cover photo on this most recent Omni Recording Corporation reissue, featuring a tall lanky man, brown pants and a black long sleeved turtleneck, sitting on a guitar case on the side of the highway, his hair slicked back, a cowboy hat clutched in his hands, one eye covered by a black eye patch. The title? The Long And Lonesome Road. Of course it is. And a quick scan of the back cover finds the words "drug and alcohol addictions" pop out, as do many of the song titles: "Bury The Bottle With Me", "A Tombstone Every Mile", "Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out", "Loser's Cocktail", "Goin' Down That Road Feeling Bad", well, by now, like us, you're pretty taken with this, the latest in a long line of unearthed country gems, and we've yet to even hear a note.
We weren't all that familiar with Dick Curless, although according to the liner notes, he had a whole mess of top 40 hits over the years, the note also inform us that the eyepatch is no affectation, and while it was gouged out in a bar fight or shot out by a jealous lover, it was the result of actual health problems. Anyway, the opening track is classic country, Curless's deep voice pretty stunning, the lyrics very very strange, barrelhouse piano, groovy background vocals, it's pretty good stuff, but the next track, "Wrinkled, Crinkled, Wadded Dollar Bill" is where we first get an earful of Curless' impossible and super dramatic low low baritone, sounding, at first blush at least, like Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice of Tony The Tiger and the singer of the Haunted Mansion song from Disneyland. And while he's a capable singer in multiple registers, it's that deeeeeeeep voice that makes this especially great. There are some track we knew, some classic trucker jams (the aforementioned "A Tombstone Every Mile" being an old fave), some honky tonk hits, a very Johnny Cash vibe a lot of the time, but beyond those few tracks, most of this was new to us, and like all Omni reissues, there's lots of amazing stuff to discover, and fans of any of the other Omni collections (Henson Cargill, Tommy Cash, Grandpa Jones, Stonewall Jackson, Dee Mullins, Hank Snow, Billy Edd Wheeler, Larry Jon Wilson), will probably dig this one too!
And like all Omni releases, there's a massive booklet with killer liner note and lots of photos.
Back in 2004 D.W. Holiday released their third album Technical Difficulties, Under The Influence. At that time the core members Craig Clarke and Daniel Crowell made it known that they were going to become a two city musical entity with full bands performing under the same name in SF and Minneapolis. Now two years later they're ambitions carry on into the recorded realm with the gorgeous, shimmering, magical Fish And Flying Creatures. D.W. Holiday blossoms luminous like a deep sea jellyfish, bringing together sumptuous orchestral pop with slightly twee male vocals (a la Flaming Lips or Sparklehorse) and atmospheric shoegazerly guitar washes (like Spiritualized or Jesus And Mary Chain). So haunting and lovely! One thing though, while we're all for the insertion of incongruous elements, the odd IDM track that pops up halfway through the album seemed like a rather jarring interruption. Ah, but it is a minor bump in what is for the most part a languidly swirling shadowy affair.
No laments here about diminishing returns on archival releases, this new KD collection is a keeper! Delmore digs up another round of wonderful home recordings from one of our favorite folk singers and interpreters. Like a companion piece to their last great Karen Dalton collection, Green Rocky Road, 1966 feels more warm and intimate, focusing more on present day songs mostly from friends and then-contemporaries, Tim Hardin and Fred Neil with some jazz and traditional standards thrown in there too. While Green Rocky Road felt intimate in a sort of ghostly way, as the songs were largely British folk standards and sung with a haunting air that was beautiful yet slightly chilling in an out-of-time way. The recordings on 1966 feel more at ease, the kind that are easy to sing along with, especially Tim Hardin's songs, "Don't Make Promises" and "Reason To Believe". Not that those songs aren't without their melancholy, but perhaps it's the accompanying vocal and instrumental presence of Dalton's then partner, Richard Tucker on some of the tracks that give this set recorded by Carl Baron on his reel to reel recorder, such a naturally relaxed quality. There are also early versions of "Katie Cruel" and Neil's "Little Bit of Rain" plus a version of "God Bless The Child", that is sung like a true lullaby. Quite lovely indeed and highly recommended!
The cd comes with a booklet containing rare photos and an essay written by Ben Edmonds of Mojo. The lp comes with a 4 page heavy insert, an exclusive color portrait and a download card.
We have been waiting with baited breath for this since we first heard rumor of its impending release. 2 cds of newly discovered and previously unreleased live recordings by enigmatic folk legend Karen Dalton! Recorded in 1962 by Joe Loop, a musician who owned and managed an influential night spot in Boulder, Colorado called "The Attic", these intimate recordings capture the raw talent of Dalton's smoky delivery and sparse 12-string guitar and banjo arrangements. While not as solid a set as her debut recording released 7 years later, these sessions offer us a feel of what it was like for traveling folk musicians during the heyday of the folk revival, who literally had to sing for their supper. Working out unique arrangements of tunes by Fred Neil ("Blues On The Ceiling" and "Red Are The Flowers"), Ray Charles ("It's Alright", "Blackjack") and traditional folk blues such as "In The Evening" and "Pallet On Your Floor", this is a shining example of an artist in her element, lost in the delicate emotive possibilities of performing songs so close to her heart. Includes a DVD of early film footage of Dalton performing, some of which was on the last import reissue of It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best, but in a friendlier format than before. It also includes home movie footage from when she lived in Summerville Colorado most likely around the same time these sessions were recorded. So Beautiful!
This is the one!! The beautiful, raw, and majestic lost Karen Dalton recordings we've all been waiting for. While we loved the recent release Cotton-Eyed Joe, it was mostly because we thought we'd never get to hear any other recordings, so we were happy with the below lo-fidelity and wavering performances (Dalton never liked performing live, so we don't think those recordings showcased her best side). Then these recordings showed up and have blown the others away. Recorded in 1962 at home on two track tape, played mostly on solo banjo, Green Rocky Road captures Dalton at her most intimate and unearthly. Like some old dusty recordings of lost Appalachian folk, Dalton's circular fingerpicking and warm wooly voice invokes a magical quality as she works through several interpretations of traditional folk songs including versions of "Katie Cruel", "If I Had A Ribbon Bow", and "In The Evening", which were featured on her studio albums.
Other songs not previously featured are the British Folk classic "Nottamun Town", the ghostly "Little Margaret" and the famous cowboy song "Whoopee Ti Yi Yo". There's even a nice moment where you hear Dalton talking to her mother about going to dances. The quality of the recordings while still raw is so much greater in fidelity than Cotton Eyed-Joe, you'd think she was singing to herself in your home not realizing you were secretly standing behind her hanging on to every breath, praying that nothing breaks her transcendent spell. We can't recommend this enough!!!
Wow!! It wasn't just but three lists ago when we were lamenting that Karen Dalton's second album (and only other recording), In My Own Time had yet to be reissued, and now here we are reviewing it (thanks Light In the Attic!). And we have to say, it has never sounded better! Recorded in 1971 with a full band at Bearsville studio in Woodstock, In My Own Time has a much different feel then Dalton's spare and smoky first recording, It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You the Best. Since Dalton had so little recorded output, the differences between the two records has given In My Own Time, an unfairly maligned reputation over the years by folk purists and others due to its more contemporized feel and bluesy folk-rock arrangements. True, In My own Time, doesn't quite meet the folk majesty of It's So Hard To Tell, and there are a couple of song choices, such as the all too familiar "When A Man Loves A Woman", and the saccharine Motown stalwart, "How Sweet It Is", that we could probably do without (however, in Dalton's defense, if we had to hear either of those songs again, we would prefer her versions to anyone else's! Such is the strength of her musical interpretations.). But every other song is purest gold, from the heartbreaking opener by Dino Valenti, "Something's On Your Mind", to the traditional tunes "Katie Cruel" (covered recently both by Bert Jansch and White Magic) and "Same Old Man", where we get to hear her play her mighty 27 fret banjo. Produced by Harvey Brooks, who played bass on her first album, In My Own Time is right up there with the best folk and roots rock albums of the time put out by Dylan, The Band, The Byrds, and Crosby, Stills and Nash. Featuring a 30-page booklet with lots of pictures and extensive liner notes by Lenny Kaye, Nick Cave and Devendra Banhart. Reissue of the year and of course absolutely essential!!!!
Wow, what a gem of an album that I (Windy) can't believe I never heard before. Doubtless some of you are already aware of Karen Dalton, but for those of you who, like me, are new to her, here's the story:
The half-Irish, half-Cherokee Oklahoman moved to New York around 1960, where she immediately fell in with the Greenwich Village folk scene (there's an awesome photo here of her, Bob Dylan, and Fred Neil). Though Dalton didn't write her own songs, her interpretations of pieces by Fred Neil, Jelly Roll Morton, Tim Hardin, etc. are just lovely...
And HER VOICE! It's this glowing, honeydripping voice -- a country-blues Billie Holiday kind of voice. It is *stunning*. The instrumentation includes Karen on 12-string guitar and banjo, and she's got a talented band backing her up, but her gorgeous voice is foregrounded clearly throughout.
Includes lots of liner notes (written by Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders, Fugs, etc.) that appear to only scratch the surface of this amazing woman: she was a lifelong dumpster diver, for one thing, and also a single mom. She was reportedly so shy that only by sort of tricking her into a recording session were these songs ever laid down on tape! Most of them are first and only takes, recorded in one day: so fresh, so alive, so sweet. Enjoy.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Deluxe import reissue from French Label Megaphone of Karen Dalton's legendary first album and one of our favorite records ever. Considered the "Queen" of the Greenwich village folk scene of the sixties, Dalton was no protest singer but a highly nuanced interpreter of traditional folk songs as well songs by her contemporaries such as Dino Valenti and Fred Neil. Slow and sedate, her vocal delivery recalls Billie Holiday's, thick as smoke and tinged with hurt, while her sophisticated guitar and banjo playing hangs on every turn of phrase. Such deliberately paced performances however made playing with bands difficult. Often racked with stage fright, she performed rarely for audiences instead opting just to play at social gatherings with friends. It was at one of these gatherings that Nicholas Venet, who produced many of the best sixties folk records, recorded her with the promise that it was just for his personal collection. How lucky we are, he did not stay true to his word. It's amazing this magical recording was done in a single take. A devastatingly beautiful performance!! What's even better is that this reissue comes with a DVD of rare live footage including a performance of her singing "God Bless The Child".
Our only complaint is that her underrated second album (and only other recording), In My Own Time was not included, which would make the expense of this release even more worthy. Hopefully with the recent White Magic single which covers her version of "Katie Cruel" from In My Own Time, and the popularity of Devendra Banhart (whose signature warble was cribbed almost entirely from Dalton), we'll be seeing that reissue soon enough. Of course this is absolutely recommended!!!
Released in conjunction with Karen Dalton's freshly reissued second album, In My Own Time, this 7" single of "Something's On Your Mind" and a previously unreleased alternate take of "Katie Cruel" features two of the best cuts from the album. Her rich sweet voice was made for vinyl, and if you have never heard it before, than this is just the place to start.
Sometimes one person's tragedy is another's good fortune. Don't know if any of you scored any good deals from Tower Records sad going out of business sale, but we were surprised at some of the finds still available on the second to last day. Of course the Rock and the Hip Hop sections were long plundered, but if you ventured into the Folk, World, and 20th century composer section, you could still find a $35 import for just 4 bucks of some obscure koto avant-jazz or take a chance on an old folkie that we had never heard of which is the case with this gem. Who is Barbara Dane? Well we thought she would be some songbird like Carolyn Hester or Texas Gladden, but Dane's voice is truly a force to be reckoned with, not a collegiate howler, like Judy Henske or Dorris Henderson but husky, low and tainted with regret. Here on her first recording on the Tradition label (home of John Jacob Niles) she delivers some of the loneliest sounding interpretations of songs from the folk cannon including the Carter Family's "Single Girl", "Girl of Constant Sorrow", and Woody Gutherie's "Ramblin'". Moonshinin', the painful bedevilment of men and standing tall on one's own are consistent themes in these songs, accompanied by guitar and banjo. Dane, who is still alive and still singing is now known for being more of a Blues singer, but she entered that particular world through these amazing folk interpretations. What a nice discovery! Fans of John Jacob Niles, Cat Power, and Karen Dalton will find lots to love here. Since not everybody was as lucky as one of us happened to be to find this at the Tower sale, we thought we'd order 'em in -- even at full price, it's well worth it!!
12" single by local chanteuse hand numbered to 100
Yet another fantastic reissue from local label Tompkins Square, this one of an ultra rare 1971 private press lp from fiddle player Smoke Dawson, who has a crazy interesting history, detailed in the extensive liner notes, the highlights being: played with Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders in his first band; lived for years at Cafe Lena, the hallowed folk music venue located in Saratoga Springs, NY; spent years as an itinerant bagpipe and fiddle player; played with Golden Toad, a group that often opened for the Grateful Dead; survived cancer; and there's so much more, needless to say, a crazy confluence of coincidence led Tompkins Square head honcho Josh Rosenthal to meet the still very much alive Dawson, and to make this fantastic record available again for the first time in four plus decades. And fantastic it is, all solo fiddle, super emotive and lyrical, his technique rooted in classical music, but his playing intuitive and utterly unique, with some of the tracks here sounding like classic bluegrass, others very much UNlike traditional folk and bluegrass. Dawson claims his technique involves a bit of sorcery (hence the wizened wizard on the cover) and we very much believe it!
Another dose of dreamy acoustic guitar haze from Matt De Gennaro. We loved his last record, Humbled Down, and here he continues in a similar vein through a 5-piece suite of gently finger picked and slide guitar compositions. Although comparisons to the recent primitive guitar school of Fahey, Jack Rose, and Sir Richard Bishop will abound, we feel De Gennaro's airy and spacious compositions are more closely related to William Eaton's pastoral paean's to nature's lonely loveliness. Beautiful.
Weird-folk musician Smolken is from Poland, lives in Texas (to be closer to Jandek?), and records prolifically under the name Dead Raven Choir. Following up January's "Armoured Wolves", this is his second release on San Francisco's Jewelled Antler cd-r label, who must really love DRC since they usually only draw from their own Collective ranks for releases. According to Jewelled Antler's Glenn Donaldson, this was originally supposed to have been a collaborative project between DRC and Furisubi's Kris Lapke. But before Smolken got his tracks to Kris (or while he was waiting for Kris to complete them, perhaps?) he happened to send 'em to Glenn, who immediately persuaded Smolken to release them on Jewelled Antler just as they were, without any additions. The resultant spaciousness of the songs (a direction DRC was heading in anyway) really works well, and in the liner notes these silences are dedicated to Kris Lapke, so Glenn's story holds up. Harsh acoustic guitar strum, tangled melodic picking, droning strings, tape hiss, sudden voids of sound, and Smolken's dark, dramatic, accented vocals (lyrics this time all taken from Rainer Maria Rilke) -- it all makes for a stark and beautiful listen, the sparseness making every sound all the more portentious. It's (old-)country avant garde poetic stuff with a spooky black metal spirit, perfect for the campfires of your imagination. Smoken's voice is sometimes multitracked, spoken, whispering, and not quite as "difficult" as on some past releases, but every bit as eerie. Very nice.
MPEG Download: "Comforting Of Elijah" [/audio/deadravencomforting.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Comforting Of Elijah" [/audio/deadravencomforting.m3u]
Dead Raven Choir centers on the person known as Smolken (a native of Poland, temporarily residing in Texas). Smolken contributed a track to the recent "Heat & Birds" compilation on San Francisco's Jewelled Antler cd-r label, and now this DRC cd-r becomes the first thing released by JA not to feature musicians from their Thuja/Blithe Sons/Child Readers/Franciscan Hobbies/Skygreen Leopards/etc. collective. So what got the Jewelled Antlers all so gosh-darn interested in DRC? This disc provides the reason: DRC specializes in a warped, weird old-timey folk music -- all sparsely strummed guitar, with dark cello drones, atonal piano, and spooky organ faintly heard in the background, over which Smolken sings, in a rather unique style. It's bizarre outsider folk made by a black metal fan. Imagine the dead bones of a rustic farmer, propped up on his back porch with a broken-down guitar, possessed by a spirit or vampire from the Old Country. This animated corpse is made to strum the guitar, and to sing and whisper in an oddly dramatic, Polish accented voice, in this case declaiming lyrics from the poems of Hilaire Belloc and Rainer Maria Rilke!! Eerily quiet (mostly, but for some violent outbursts), and very dark and disturbing, the strange Eastern European theatricality of Smolken's singing and his abstract, alienated string pluck creates a negative, but fascinating, psychological atmosphere. It reminds us a bit of Japanese avant-garde folk troubadour Kan Mikami, or the mysterious Jandek...but creepier.
Dead Raven Choir, a one man band, now living in Poland, formerly of Texas, purveyor of damaged free folk, abstract strum and of course utterly grim black metal. We tried desparately to keep up with his non stop cd-r release schedule and his constant flitting from folk to metal and back again, sometimes pausing beautifully right in between, a gnarled hybrid of campfire twang and lo-fi buzz, then there's Wolfmangler too, his country doom outfit! But, as is often the case, most of those cd-r's disappeared in no time flat. So it's Weird Forest to the rescue, compiling 4 LONG out of print cd-r's (Sheath & Knife, Grand Ravishing Extravaganza, Sevenfold Songs Of Death, and Sturmfuckingleider) onto three lps and packaging them in this "dark forest-clad" box. This one is definitely for the true, the grim, the cult, this is utterly dismal, freaked out and fuzzed out lo-fi black metal. But while sonically it may fit somewhere between the foresty buzz of early Ulver, the midtempo droning hypno plod of Burzum, and the thrashy blur of Darkthrone, this is Dead Raven Choir after all, so beneath and amidst all the buzzing and riffing, there are plenty of banjos, mandolins, and lots of percussion, a creepy clattery folk undercurrent, albeit all bathed in hiss and drone and distortion, black metal folk may be more accurate, closer in feel to Abruptum, a black pagan ritual, shrill and noisy and harsh and HEAVY, but in that home-recorded, perfectly underproduced way. Awesome!
This comes packaged in a printed black box, the three lps are housed in thick black sleeves, there are seven inserts, beautifully printed on thick vellum, with liner notes in perhaps the most illegible black metal font EVER!
LIMITED TO 999 COPIES WORLDWIDE!
Oooh. That cover photo of the fog, sheep and trees is nice. A misty meadow for your imagination to wander in as you listen to this, which happens to be the debut "real cd" release from the previously cd-r only label Jewelled Antler. For the occasion, they've chosen an artist from outside their SF-based "collective", their friend Smolken's Dead Raven Choir. (A bit like picking Merzbow, that, since he's so prolific, but still a good choice quality-wise.) Smolken is the guy who has discovered the secret commonality between anguished black metal and emotional folk-minimalism (such as that of Japanese troubadours like Kan Mikami). Some of his releases tend towards the noise and distortion of black metal, others towards the broken Jandekian folk of one man and a guitar. Death To Dead Wolves is yet another haunting/haunted DRC album on the sparser side of that spectrum. If you're already a fan, go ahead and get this one, it's good. If not, perhaps some explanation is in order. Smolken's modus operandi on this disc is to intone poetry (all lyrics here are from the works of 20th century American poet and sometime monk, William Everson) in a heavy Polish accent, sounding rather like a B-movie vampire. Smolken's sinister stage-whisper melds with piano and guitar, all notes struck stark and creepy, with drones and silence both adding to the eerie mix. Electric guitar is utilized, but the playing is in his usual damaged folk style. The final song, "A Canticle To The Waterbirds" is 23 minutes long, the music loosely based on a traditional folk melody. An epic ending to an evocative disc.
Yet another Dead Raven Choir cd-r! And again incredibly limited. We actually got the last 8 copies and after they're gone, they're gone for good. This time around, Smolken, who is Dead Raven Choir, tackles the writings of Rainer Maria Rilke, composing a suitably somber folkscape around his weighty words. Jandek-ian guitar clatter, Appalachian folk, tenuous piano, dramatic almost operatic vocals, and creepy dark ambience all coalesce into nightmarish outsider-folk grimness. Two guest vocalists, one male and one female, handle most of the singing, while Smolken takes care of the rest (the rest being string bass, tenor banjo, guitar, piano and some singing). Dark and pretty, sad and somber, and really nice. Each cover is unique, with the top layer carefully singed to reveal the layer beneath, and each cd comes with a different beer label under the tray, which the liner notes explain quite simply: All beer consumption by Smolken!
Polish Texan avant folk experimentalist Smolken has released three cd-rs so far of his Dead Raven Choir output on the Jewelled Antler label. Now DRC makes an appearance on Jewelled Antler side-imprint Pink Skulls, with a disc that is just too nasty and noisy to fit in with the JA aesthetic... With "Sevenfold Songs Of Death" he really indulges his black metal inspired side, resulting in 32 minutes of what might be called noise-folk. It's as if you took all the most raw, distorted, shrill, buzzy, chaotically noisy parts of your favorite black metal albums, cranked 'em up to 11, and tried to pass it off as folk music (supposedly, all words and music here, with the exception of one song, are "traditional"). Sure, Smolken and his friends are playing mandolin and banjo and percussion, but all that's buried beneath so much grinding hiss and drone that if you listen to this at more than the barest, most minute volume you'll endanger your ears/lease/stereo/sanity (not necessarily in that order). A low volume, you can make out the folky melodies and scary vocals. Turn it up at all, and it's like Merzbow meets Abigor meets Kemialliset Ystavat... More evil atmosphere than even Abruptum, seriously. Apparently, this was originally intended for an aborted split release with AQ black metal fave Leviathan, and we'd have to say that Leviathan's probably lucky that he didn't have to go up against this!
Another transmission from the Dead Raven Choir, the work of a Polish ex-patriate Texan who calls himself Smolken. Followers will understand when we say that this falls into the sparse, dramatic folk half of his ouvre, rather than on the black metal noise folk side of things. Whispered, accented vox deliver the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, Hilaire Beloc, Charles Baudelaire, A.A. Milne and others over doleful strings and abstractly strummed guitar. Smolken seems to be a creepy, well-read Eastern-European version of Jandek, and he's a master of atmosphere, going totally over the top with minimal means. Every note played, and every hiss between notes, turns the blood colder. If an album could sound cursed, this is it.
Fans will of course pick this up, but if you haven't yet delved into Smolken's haunted sound-world, perhaps this is the one to try. For one thing, it's the man's first 'proper' cd after many cd-rs and tapes. And one of his best album titles too! The clincher, perhaps, is that aside from Smolken himself, the only other musician to appear on this recording is our friend, Jewelled Antler stalwart Glenn Donaldson (Thuja, Blithe Sons, Birdtree, Skygreen Leopards, etc.). Ever since, he's had a hollow look in his eyes and his beard seems paler and wispier... Or so we imagine.
There's quite a bit of tortured artist in the career of Deadboy's Dax Riggs. Even back in the nineties, fronting grind-glam-sludge lords Acid Bath, Riggs singlehandedly supplied the glam, a crooning superstar trudging through swamps of Eyehategod sludge and NOLA stoner doom groove. The combination was electric, ask anyone here how much we absolutely loved Acid Bath and their dark psychedelic tales of butterflies and codeine, death and broken hearts, told in haunting vignettes equal parts druggy acoustic dirge and crushing downtuned groove. It was only a matter of timee though before Riggs outgrew the confines of a metal band and thus was born the Agents Of Oblivion, a slow burning smoldering hard rock band, delivering intensely emotional ballads wrapped in thick guitars, incredible hooks, a sweetly psychedelic haze and Riggs' even more prominent velveety croon. Totally channelling the spirt of Bowie and Bolan, Riggs was a serpentine superstar, howling and cooing, above a thick rich web of warm groovy sound. But still, Dax Riggs Superstar remained an acquired taste, a completely underground phenomenon. The Agents splintered and Deadboy and The Elephantmen were born, the sound was nearly the same, some of the members too, as they self released another amazing record that sort of just disappeared. But now it's 2006 and Deadboy is reborn, as a two piece, the Elephantmen replaced by Riggs's girlfriend Tessie Brunet, and on Fat Possum of all labels, which makes absolutely no sense until you hear We Are Night Sky. The record starts off with a wild rock stomp, equal parts the White Stripes and labelmates the Black Keys, with Riggs' voice swooping all over the place over an impossibly hooky riff, and lots of strange start stop dynamics. At first we were a little bit bummed, this was NOT at all what we wanted from Riggs at all, but the more we listened, the more we got sucked in and now that track is an everyday play. The record definitely veers back into classic Riggs / Agents territory after that with delicate acoustic guitars, hushed vocals, Brunet's sweet harmonies in the background, each track a psychedelic swirl, all drifty and druggy and folky and oh so lovely. But before you know if, a fuzzed out riff kicks in and we're back to serious blown out bloooz rock territory, huge swaths of swaggering Stripes / Keys / Crows rock and rhythm and bluees, always with that distinct NOLA stoner groove, no matter how subtle, we can tell it's there, muted murky riffs explode above Tessie Brunet's simple solid drumming as her sweet understated background vocals balance Riggs all out histrionics. The whole record continues to sway back and forth dizzily, between Riggs' two distinct musical personalities, his big, foot stomping guitar flailing rock Hyde, and his druggy gentle folky strum Jeckyl, both equally appealing. Still dark and druggy and warped for sure, but just accessible enough to give all those hippy rockers into the Black Crowes and the Black Keys and all day festivals something a little bit weirder and a little bit harder to stick in their ears!
Holy shit! Not for the faint of heart, the easily offended, the soft eared, or empty pocketed, this 20th anniversary reissue of Death In June's controversial 1987 release Brown Book, is a stunner. A legendary slab of politically charged post industrial neo-folk. Remastered, with a bonus disc featuring 14 tracks, alternate versions, outtakes and rarities from other long out of print reissues.
But it's the packaging too, that pushes this over the top. A circular marble container carved with the DiJ Totenkopf skull, weighing in at almost two pounds, slip the cover off and inside is a brown velvet pouch, housing the two cds, atop those are circular cards with photos and liner notes and other text, remove everything and there's a little recess in the bottom of the container which holds 4 fabric patches. Wow.
We only have two of these, as they are pretty pricey, but we figured there was bound to be a Death In June fan or two out there who would flip for one of these...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
About two hundred miles north east of Chicago lies the town of Livonia, Michigan - the home of Warn (Warren) Defever (who you may have heard in such bands as His Name Is Alive and Princess Dragon Mom). While members of the Chicago "avantgarde" have been mimicking John Fahey of late, this Livonian takes on the tradition represented by the Anthology of American Folk Music box set by writing antiquated folk songs complete with really shitty production (which is ALL treble) and an excessive amount of fake surface noise to add to the "authenticity" of the record. While DeFever's songwriting on this isn't quite at the level reached by the best of HNIA's 'pop' songs, this is still quite quite an amusingly divergent take on the alt.country phenomenon.
We love Nate Denver. And his Neck. How could we not? He's so cool and cute and funny and nice and he's one talented motherfucker. From wielding a string-ed stick in the free skronk noise merchants Total Shutdown, to his strummy folk warblings, to his fucked up metal obsessed weirdness, to his masterful vocalizing in the now defunct Dig That Body Up It's Alive, to his weird rambling white boy hip hop, to his amazing artwork and completely demented stories, hard to resist.
So here we have Nate's latest project, a book of short stories, 50x50 stories he calls 'em, which means 50 stories, each 50 words long, accompanied by 50 drawings. The stories are awesome. From wacked and surreal, to simple and poignant, from awww shucks to what the fuck. Sweet and sour, happy and sad, usually somehow both. Nate's gorgeous and mesmerizing mini elephant artwork is all over the place too, but let's give some props to Mr. Zak Sally, formerly of slowcore legends Low, now master of the La Mano publishing house, the man who helped layout, design and print this puppy, cuz it is one beautiful looking little tome. The pages are all rough edged, printed on gorgeous thick textured paper stock. The cover is a sort of irridescent grey, with a dizzying mini elephant design printed in metallic silver ink, with built in dust jacket, and more printed metallic elephants on the end papers. And all over the book there are really funny little testimonials from Mick Turner of The Dirty Three, Mark Whiteley, the editor of Slap Skateboarding magazine, MF Grimm and Tom Araya of Slayer ("I hate this book.") as well as an introduction by Adam Jones of Tool!
As if that weren't enough, also included is a brand new Nate Denver's Neck full length album, "Ghost Alarm", packed with Denver's sweet folky ramblings, seriously funky hip hop jams, his playful white boy flow in full effect (he teams up with MF Grimm on one track!!), lots of little random snippets, Nate as a child, a botched shout out from the GZA, a killer introduction with a bunch of super stars giving Nate a shout out (see if you can figure out who's who), and all sorts of other random sonic weirdness.
Absolutely fucking amazing, looking AND sounding. All Hail Nate Denver!! And his all powerful Neck!!
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
Otherwise known as The Cackle Sisters, this Depression-era barn-dance duo charmed the hearts of rural America with their sweet vintage country songs and incredible vocal acrobatics. Raised on a farm in Royalton, Minnesota, the sisters, Carolyn and Mary Jane DeZurik became excellent mimics of barnyard animals (as well as trains, harmonicas, slide guitar and other instruments and noises) and began incorporating these sound effects and yodeling into their performing repertoire. Starting off first at local talent contests and state fairs, the sisters gained wide enough attention to tour the country. They recorded many sides for the Vocalion label in the '30s and even made it to Hollywood to star in Barnyard Follies, eventually picking up sponsership from Purina Mills for a sponsered weekly radio show called Checkerboard Time, to advertise Purina chicken feed and other products, which they did off and on for nearly 30 years. There is an otherworldly almost Lynchian quality to the DeZurik Sisters sound, an effervescent wholesomeness and zany quirkiness that allowed them to elevate themselves from their poor rural roots and allowed others to forget the sadness and desperation of the era. Not your typical vintage country act, these sisters' incredible vocalizations need to be heard to be believed. So Sweet!
Comes with a detailed booklet about the DeZurik Sisters career and history which includes a recent interview with Carolyn DeZurik, who is still alive and well.
While Joana Newsom is the best known export from the Nevada City/Grass Valley, California music scene, it's looking like her good pal Alela Diane has been getting a nice share of attention lately with her Rough Trade debut, To Be Still. You'd be hard pressed to find an album recorded with more warmth or richness then this one, Diane's sophomore outing. Recalling the magic of early Emmylou Harris and for sure echoing the lush arrangements and immaculate delivery of her old neighbor Joanna Newsom. With a fine cast of players including Matt Bauer and Espers percussionist Otto Hauser, these songs come pouring out with such ease and such an assured and natural warmth.
Two country music grande dames, each absolutely wonderful on their own, join forces to make the kind of beautiful music that makes you ask yourself "am I worthy?"
A beautiful selection of solo folk blues instrumentals from longtime member of the North Mississippi All Stars and the latest lead guitarist for the Black Crowes. Luther Dickinson is also the son of legendary Memphis producer Jim Dickinson, and deep in the grit and twang of the Southern blues, we find a momentously stripped down affair that is both raw and transcendent. Hambone's Meditations is a conjuring of ghosts that preceded the Fahey school searching instead for the origins buried in the oral traditions of rural folk blues.
The Grammy-nominated recording is close and intimate, you can hear the squeaks of guitar and the rub of the slide as it trips and sways through exploratory and contemplative instrumental excursions. On the Sutro Park label, home of beautiful vinyl reissues by Jesse Mae Hemphill, Sandy Bull, Fred McDowell and Peter Walker, among others. A new classic!
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If there's any artists that really deserves some sort of epic retrospective that digs deeeeep into the archives, it's Bo Diddley. All too often he's celebrated for his unique charisma, but it's sometimes forgotten how many great records he actually made. Originally released in 1970, The Black Gladiator shows a much more psychedelic rock/blues side to Diddley's sound. The songs pack such a punch, and there's so much energy and conviction that you can almost feel Diddley's sweat oozing from every note. The lyrics cut to the core, perfect for the music, so raw, dirty, and full of attitude. Like a way more fucked up Booker T. & The MG's or Meters, or maybe Hendrix and Black Merda doing a tutorial for Lux from the Cramps. We're even reminded of that amazing weird blip in Chubby Checker's career that was documented on the mind blowing Chubby Checker Goes Psychedelic album.
There's no doubt that many future garage psych/blues masterminds were influenced by these sounds. You can pretty much hear the origins of folks like the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Make Up, Dub Narcotic Sound System, The Gories, White Stripes and we even clocked a moment that The Beastie Boys sampled. And we're pretty sure that our favorite current garage rock artists like Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees either already treasure this album or would freak out if they were finally hearing it for the first time.
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Dieselhed's 4th album is a sweet collection of all of the slow songs and ballads that have become their well loved standards in their live sets, yet have not made their way onto tape until now! Their 'real life' catalog of straightforward, quotidian lyrics about life in Eureka, drunken mishaps on Alaskan fishing boats, lap dancing, etc... are perfectly complemented by twangy, melodic hooks and stunningly sublime harmonies worthy of comparisons to Louvin Brothers and Lennon-McCartney. One of Windy's all-time favorite bands.
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One of San Francisco's best bands breaks out with their 3rd full length, a little more twang and slow and a little less rock than their previous work but JUST AS GREAT. We can't stress enough how rewarding a close reading of Virgil and Zack's lyrics can be ("Is that paint, I can't tell / A white square where a picture fell"). And don't forget to wait for the last hidden track, "Yoga Instructor").
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My favorite local band has come the closest to recreating the glory of their live shows! All the recent favorites are here: "Brown Dragon" (which everyone thinks is the "Station Wagon Song"), "Pizza Box," "Wedding Song," "John the Butcher Boy," "Snow Blind in the Liquor Store." Bonus: all the lyrics are printed on various casks and teapots. Guests include "Neckhead" (Bungle's Trey Spruance) and Ralph Carney. The lyrics to "Forklift Test," one of Dieselhed's more epic songs are so brilliantly mundane: > this guy at work he just bought > a revolutionary car part. > it's called the ionizer and it reverses the electrical charge > as the gas hits the carb. > well he tried to sell me one > even though i did not have a car.
The album cut "Swing" plus 4 otherwise unreleased songs, including a live Woody Guthrie cover with help from Gillian Welch and others. Also studio versions of songs by Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan, as America's #1 alt-folkie gives props to her heroes of the past.
Newest record from everyone's favorite folk rock heroine/ businesswoman/ entrepeneur. This time with special guests Maceo Parker and Prince (!).
Okay, it might seem weird us having this, the newest Dixie Chicks record. But don't be afraid, this is actually pretty dang good. Lush modern country, great instrumentation, gorgeous harmony vocals. Fans of the Be Good Tanyas, Jolie Holland, and other ladies of the country might really dig this. Plus by now, unless you're living under a rock you know their politics are right on! And it's produced by Rick Rubin!
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Gorgeous package, bound like a hardcover book, from John Fahey's Revenant label, who haven't put out a less-then-stellar reissue yet. Gorgeous stark banjo and voice that runs chills up yr spine. From the sleeve notes: "Dock Boggs was a singer and banjo player who sounded as if his bones were coming through his skin every time he opened his mouth. In the mountains of eastern Kentucky/western Virginia in the 1920s he forged a highly personal music of such intensity it retains the power to shock seventy years after it was recorded.
"'[Boggs] set down a handful of performances so strangely demanding as to lead a listener to measure what he or she know of the American voice --any emblematic American voice, Huckleberry Finn's, Robert Johnson's, Franklin Roosevelt's, Barbara Jordan's-- against Boggs, to see if what one knew could pass his test. [He] created a small body of work so dissonant that like black gravity it can seem to suck into itself whatever music might be brought to bear upon it.' -Greil Marcus
"Includes 64 pages of text and rare photos. Over 60 minutes of music, including Bogg's 12 original 1927 and 1929 recordings, 5 never-before heard 1929 outtakes, and 4 1920s cuts by Boggs compatriots Bill and Hayes Shepherd."
"Dock Boggs only recorded 12 songs in the 1920s, but his raw, powerful singing and distinctive banjo-playing caused Harry Smith to include him in his Anthology of American Folk Music and Mike Seeger to search for him in the hills of Kentucky in 1963. A new series of recording sessions captured the 50 blues, instrumentals, regional and religious songs included on this two-CD set." Includes extensive notes by Mike Seeger and Barry O'Connell.
