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These two San Francisco bands, take their indie rock streaks, and bury them under a layer of buzz and hiss and electronic skree. Iran sound a little like the Grifters if they were on Siltbreeze, and you were listening to them through a shortwave radio. The Church Steps take the lofi, and use the hifi to make it sound even more lo fi. Both sound beautifully damaged.
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Ara Anderson's sure stacked the decks in his favor for his debut release with a supporting cast that includes the beloved Jolie Holland on vocals, guitar and violin (perhaps repaying the kind favor of his stellar performance on her own Escondida album), and fine SF composer Erik Walker (psst, we also just got his wonderful album in stock on which you can also hear Mr. Anderson play). Much like that of Ms Holland, Mr. Anderson's music has an earthy, somber old tyme-y feel that's quite an anomaly these days. Much like the namesake of the seventh song ("Musee Mechanique" - the fabulous antique penny arcade here in SF) it's almost as though he's conjured his songbook pages from a very distant yesteryear. Richly expressive instrumentals are woven from player piano style ivory-tickling frolicks, wheezily congested horns, downtrodden strings and sullen woodwinds among other things -- occasionally off-kilter, whimsically carnivalesque, and often very melancholic. You might even wonder if Anderson was a silent movie score composer in a past life. The easiest (or, ahem, laziest) comparison that could be made is that many of these songs sound very much like the intimate rough-hewn music of Tom Waits minus the voice of Tom Waits (and actually Anderson has appeared on a couple of Waits' albums, Blood Money and Alice!), while others can be likened to the eccentric splendor of the Tin Hat Trio. Fans of both (as well as the abovementioned artists) should certainly take note of this talented gent. Simply wonderful!
A couple of years ago, Aquarius enjoyed a brief moonlight gig as an art space (which we hope to make happen again someday), proposing the same curious aesthetic on the visual front as we continue to do on the musical. One of the more intriguing exhibitions we hosted was from an ambitious, if under-recognized artist by the name of Matthew Waldron. His meticulously eccentric drawings, paintings, and assemblages depicted mutated beings conducting psychic surgery upon each other with all sorts of psychosexual overtones. These provocative and compelling images held their own with the classic Surrealist works of Hans Bellmer and early Salvador Dali. At the same time, Waldron introduced us to the equally ambitious catalogue of sound constructions that he had been quietly making in the Santa Cruz mountains under the moniker irr. app. (ext.). These albums followed in the deconstructed / abstracted sound collage traditions of Nurse With Wound, The Hafler Trio, and HNAS, often times surpassing the quality of those which came before. Sadly, very few people had heard of irr. app. (ext.) because of Waldron's unfortunate round of luck with record labels and general low profile.
Jump forward to the contemporary era, and things look entirely different. Today, you will find Waldron a mainstay in the Nurse With Wound performance entourage, being whisked away to play in all sorts of unlikely European festivals; and irr. app. (ext.) has consistently released albums that build upon the successes of those which we had heard before. So for us here at Aquarius, it's very satisfying to see an artist we once supported have their career take off...
And that leads us to Cosmic Superimposition, the second in a proposed trilogy from irr. app. (ext.) of releases based upon the writings of Wilhelm Reich. Cosmic Superimposition was a book that Reich had written in 1951; and in that book, he argued how the superimposition of multiple energies is the common functioning principle throughout the natural world. It was through these ideas that Reich arrived at the ideas of Orgone, cloudbursting, etc. On the single 45-minute track that comprises Cosmis Superimposition, irr. app. (ext.) presents a revolving set of organic fluctuations that wax and wane in accordance with a well-tuned internal logic. Glassine ambient passages of processed environmental noise slide into the sustained harmonics of bowed metals which in turn couples with the off-kilter phase pattern of an exhaust fan whose motor is not quite properly aligned. All the while gurgles from streams, clatter from subterranean actions, singing bowl reverberations, and dark elliptical cycles of blackened electronics pock the stately progressions of Cosmic Superimposition's dronemusik foundation. As is stated in the liner notes, Waldron repurposed the source material from the first stage of the trilogy Ozeanische Gefuhle; but Cosmis Superimposition is hardly a replicant remix of the first. Rather, the ghosts, shadows, and ripples of his earlier album emerge in the fluid ambience of the second as bridge that points to Waldron's ambitious and highly successful undertaking. One of the best records of 2007, for sure.
Kreiselwelle is the conclusion to a superb trilogy from irr. app. (ext.) who used the words, philosophies, and eccentricities of Wilhelm Reich as the springboard into a realm of post-Surrealist, post-industrialist, post-drone arena of sound design. While a prominent European psychoanalyst, whose ideas could be seen as an occasional counterpoint to those of Freud, Reich may be best known for his parascientific research into Orgone energy, which he claimed was central and unifying force of life throughout the universe. Much of this latter research has been discredited and unfortunately shed a cloud of incredulity upon his psychoanalytic work. While Reich's claims of cloud-busting and orgone therapy offer particularly strong metaphors, M.S. Waldron - the principle architect to irr. app. (ext.) - has looked more to the psychological aspects of Reich's work. Kreiselwelle translates from the German as spiral wave or gyroscopic wave, and points to the similarities which Reich had noted in the structures of microscopic organisms, turbulent wave patterns, and spiral-arm galaxies.
Through this trilogy (which also includes Ozeanische Gefuhle and Cosmic Superimposition), Waldron mirrors Reich's early cosmology through a compositional fluidity that alludes to contemporary drone fascination, constructed through overlapping collages, occluded field recordings, sustained tones from atypical instruments, and crosshatched synthetic noises. All three of these albums were sourced from the same set of field recordings, but each detours into its own particular wandering. Kreiselwelle begins with a very slow hypnotic strum across a detuned guitar with liquid tactility and a warped distance buzz filling in the gaps. Grand sweeps of slashing drones that could originate from an echoing chainsaw deep in the woods forms an unlikely crescendo with sympathetic tones, only to collapse into the softened white noise of cars passing by. Soon after, a rhythmic tapping of agitated electronics forms a motorik rhythm against the tapestry of audio fluidity, with all of the electro-shock bursts of a tesla coil. This in turn morphs into a cauldron of slow locomotive rumbling, which beget one of many glassine drones that float throughout Kreiselwelle. For fans of any of work of Nurse With Wound (after all Mr. Waldron is in the NWW touring ensemble!), H.N.A.S., and the more esoteric recordings of Organum; and certainly of note for those of you taken by Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, Xela, Svarte Greiner, Expo '70, Emeralds, or any of the darker, weirder, more fucked-up drone ensembles of recent days. Very highly recommended!
A new self-released solo album by this lovely SF singer/songwriter, Kate Isenberg! If you like your pop music dulcet. pretty and downright easy on the ears, Isenberg's spartan voice and guitar numbers are so for you! Charming!
Super limited new lp from the duo, Isidore Ducasse, which is Jefre Cantu-Ledesma (Root Strata, Tarentel, etc.) and his ex-Tarentel partner Trevor Montgomery. Named for the 19th century French poet better known by his pen name Comte de Lautreamont, this unit was originally formed to create the soundtrack for a Western, and while the film never materialized, the eventual soundtrack, this record right here, works just fine on its own, being darkly evocative and well able to conjure up visions of some lost West in the minds of the listeners.
Definitely mining territory similar to groups like Earth and Barn Owl, the vibe is dusty and windswept, desolate and dreamlike, opening with chiming melodies, delicate and hushed, over soft swells of tape hiss and amp buzz, the record slowly unfolding as a series of hazy, shimmery drones, all moonlit and washed out, peppered with languorous twang, streaks of warm fuzz and deep low end thrum. Stretched out atmospheres that drift from lush layered buzz, to soaring string like majesty, swoonsome melodies surfacing amidst slow swirling clouds of soft focus distortion. There are moments where the record veers into way more abstract territory, with the duo capable of conjuring up some sweet cosmic dronemusic or more minimal abstract drift, and those moments definitely have their place, and do evoke some fantastic and mysterious tableaus that no doubt play out in whatever imaginary western these sounds now accompany, and there is enough of those sounds that this will no doubt hit the spot for those into drone/drift minimalism, but the core of the record remains a dark twang flecked drift, a dreamy, otherworldly ambience, a slo-mo avant country drift, that will no doubt appeal to fans of Barn Owl, Earth, Scenic, Morricone and the like. So nice.
Pressed on 140 gram vinyl, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
The third of the first three entries in the series of 3"cd-r's from San Francisco's acclaimed Jewelled Antler collective of psychedelic/drone/avant/folks comes from The Ivytree, a solo project of one of the Jewelled Antler's chief protagonists, Glenn Donaldson (who can also be found in Thuja, The Blithe Sons, Knit Separates, The Birdtree, etc). Donaldson has publicly announced an affinity for creating different monikers to accompany the innumerable variations of his musical productions, so The Ivytree may be just one in a number of upcoming 'tree' projects from Donaldson. Certainly this little 18 minute cd-r has a lot in common with his previous 'tree disc, The Birdtree album, which has recently been reissued on the Last Visible Dog label and garnered high praise from us. Centered around a plaintive, elliptical finger-picking guitar technique which renders every note full of melancholia, "The Sun Is The Lamp" weaves in and out of harmonium drones, field recordings of birds, and Donaldson's evocative vocals. As strong as the best Richard Youngs projects that might be the closest comparison we can make, this is another fantastic recording from Jewelled Antler!
MPEG Download: "The Withering Year" [/audio/ivytreewitheringyear.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "The Withering Year" [/audio/ivytreewitheringyear.m3u]
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Welcome again to the idyllic, enigmatic folk realm of Jewelled Antler's Glenn Donaldson. The Ivytree is but one of his sonic guises (see also Blithe Sons, Skygreen Leopards, The Birdtree, Thuja). Often collaborating with his Jewelled Antler colleagues, this Ivytree release on Catsup Plate finds Glenn all by his lonesome, but of course there's no lack of all the (wonderful) ingredients you usually find on a Jewelled Antler / GD recording... field recordings, drones, lazy acoustic reveries, and his vocals, high and drifting, not to wake the sleepers but to find harmony in the clouds. Nature, as always, is a big element here, and it seems there's also a Biblical inspiration at the roots of the Ivytree (song titles include "Flood", "Book Of Job", "Churches" and "Clay Tablets"). Anyone already mood-pleased by Glenn's previous offerings, especially by the now-out-of-print Birdtree album or his duo with Donovan Quinn in Skygreen Leopards, will find the dozen songs and soundscapes here much to their liking. Lovely. And if you're new to JA/GD, as good a place to start as any!
Comes in a nice lil' brown cardboard digipack, with Glenn's magnificent, colorful, birdy collages on the cover, the disc itself, and also on a two-siced mini poster inside... I think he's making his music for these feathered, beaked, half-birds, half-men of his imagination and they're probably devoted fans likewise. Fortunately we get to hear it too.
Rarities, B-sides, and other anomalies from SF's punk ensemble whose lovable Lance Hahn is slightly upset with "the fuckers who released this domestically."
We've dearly missed our daily visits from J Church mainman Lance Hahn since he moved away from SF to Texas, but we're pleased as punch to see he's been keeping healthy and busy. Released on his label, Meaty, Beaty, Shitty is subtitled "Singles and shit from
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Well, it would be nice to see as well as hear what's documented here, but it's still pretty interesting... this Harry Partch-ish music was part of a audio-visual Planetarium show, and was originally released on LP by Folkways in 1959.
Jacopo Di Nicola is an Italian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose band is locally based here in San Francisco. Inspired by European cafe rock, Tropicalia and global rhythms, Jacopo manages on his debut cd to show a wide variety of styles and directions but keep it encapsulated as a satisfying whole. Treading a path between the baroque pop of Lucio Battisti and the frenetic rhythms of Manu Chao, Jacopo manages to charm with infectious songs sung in both Italian and English and unique instrumentation including mandolins, hand percussion, and some rather masterful kazoo playing! Nice!
Glass Canyons marks the first time, Bay area-based experimental musician Marielle V. Jakobsons (Date Palms, Myrmyr, darwinsbitch) has recorded under her own name, and it's a delicate balance between her more classical and experimental tendencies. Overriding melodies take a back seat to texture, rhythm and spatialization, the feeling of hiking through a varied terrain of wild topographies: glacial drift, windy deserts and oceanic turbulence. Bowed vibrational strings sometime sway in lyrical folk filigrees, but only make apparitional appearances throughout before disintegrating in a sea of modulating tones and an undercurrent of bell-tone piano figures. Darker uncertain moods sometimes cloud over before blissful lighter notes burst forth like dappled sunlight. It's an album that has the uncanny ability of feeling free-form and carefully constructed at the same time, and so in tune with a sensitive nature that makes it seem like we're roaming through a strange new world. Lovely!
Finally. MY favorite Jawbreaker record gets reissued. For years I've had a crappy cd-r copy because I was unwilling to spend $50 or $100 on Ebay for a copy. And I know, Unfun is the best Jawbreaker record. No need to email me and tell me how much Dear You sucks and that I'm a dumbshit. I'm well aware that Dear You, while being Jawbreaker's major label debut, also represented a stylistic shift that alienated most of their fans. Outside of Green Day, Jawbreaker were one of the most discussed punk rock sell outs. But hell, as far as 'sell out' records go, this is definitely one of the best. A lot of the raw energy of early Jawbreaker may have gotten a little lost in the shuffle. But not a bad sacrifice for the amazing songwriting and the killer production. Crunchy chugging riffs, Blake's throaty rasp, Adam and Chris's tight-as-fuck rhythm section, and just killer songs. Dear You owes way more to Nirvana and nineties indie/college rock than it does to crusty Gilman Street punk rock. By the time Dear You was recorded Jawbreaker were getting too old for that shit anyway. And you can definitely hear shades of Blake's future project Jets To Brazil in the poppy songsmithery and occasional indie jangle. Re-issued on Jawbreaker drummer Adam's Blackball label after years of legal wrangling with their former label Geffen. Includes bonus tracks and the video for their should-have-been-a-hit "Fireman".
There are those bands from your youth that you liked, some that you loved, and then those special few that managed strike a nerve, to get inside your psyche and speak right to you in a way that almost nothing else could. For many of us, Jawbreaker were that band! They were a group you would become obsessed with, get tattoos of their logo, memorize their lyrics, drive hundreds of miles just to see them if they didn't play in your hometown. Makes us feel old, but this is the 20th anniversary of their amazing debut, Unfun, which came out in 1990 and was the soundtrack to ours and so many others coming of age. Punchy, catchy, and fast yet filled with so much raw emotion and personal conviction. While they played a lot at places like Gilman Street and were associated with the now made-famous-by-Green-Day East Bay punk scene, there was something much more vital and real in Jawbreaker's music than in so many of their contemporaries. Their music was for people who loved the sweat, energy and passion of punk but also hated the rigid/forced and contrived politics and fashion that the music was so often aligned with. This was a new voice. While other bands were singing copycat tired played out songs about smashing the state, Jawbreaker were writing songs about real moments in life that we could all relate to. It was the soundtrack to the house party you felt awkward at, the first encounter with that person you had a crush on, the solitary moments when you found yourself walking aimlessly with a zine in your back pocket and duct tape holding your shoes together as you tried to figure out what was coming next in your life.
Unfun was smart pop-punk, not the Warped Tour/Epitaph brand that would soon sweep over the nation. It was born from the influences of '80s bands like Husker Du, The Replacements and Rites Of Spring. They truly were going against the punk rock grain at the time which was ruled by very narrow minded scene politics and silly posturing. With lyrics like 'Sorry we're not hard enough to piss your parents off', they were actively distancing themselves while critiquing the clique/silly nature of the scene they were thrown into, yet they embodied so many of the real reasons why people fall in love with punk rock in the first place. While the sound was definitely quite different, their music had the same kind of integrity and passion as Fugazi. They meant every single note, every single word. And for sure the words are such a big part of Jawbreaker's legacy. Front man Blake Schwarzenback was like the J.D. Salinger of the '90s punk/indie rock generation. He had an insight and ability to really nail so many truths about interpersonal relationships, daily life, and constant struggles with the mundane, as well as crises of spirit, of love and loss. Yet the music never let the lyrics overpower, as the band was such a triumphant and kick ass and tightly connected unit.
Putting this on all these years later, not only do a flood of emotions and memories hit us, but it still sounds so fucking good and relevant! Since Jawbreaker were so true to their own vision (even if it meant that the punk police of the time thought they were too soft or didn't have the right haircuts) they were able to create a music with so much true soul and such an undying spirit that it still holds up so strongly to this day. An absolute all time classic and favorite!
This remastered reissue also includes some bonus tracks from the Whack & Bite ep, which are great too, but it hardly matters, as the record is pretty much perfect as it is.
This stunning slab of outsider electro krautpsych coldwave gloom pop came out of nowhere (well, San Francisco actually!), but is quickly becoming a new obsession around here. Dark and mechanoid, dense and noisy, skeletal and mesmerizing, shoegazey and totally warped in equal measure. While there's been no shortage of weirdo/outsider pop in the last couple years, it's starting to become a way too crowded field for sure, and more and more it feels like lots of these weirdo pop groups aren't truly weird. That seems like a strange distinction, but think about the Shaggs, truly inspired, creating music within limited means, out of a pure desire to be creative, the results totally bafflingly brilliant. Now think about all the bands who cite the Shaggs as an influence, how many of those bands just simply suck, but for some reason consider sucking somehow analogous to the naivete and primitivism of the Shaggs. Such seems to be the case with 'weirdness' these days, it's not as if any pedestrian boring group can just slop on effects, or record their record poorly, or sing in a crazzzeee voice, and suddenly it's art. That stuff, the real thing at least, true outsider sonic art, is absolutely inspired, it comes from the heart, and the soul, you can fake weirdness, but you can't fake genius. Which brings us back to Jealousy, who are most definitely weird. In the most wonderfully and organic way, and who are totally brilliant, pushing all of our buttons, sounding alternatingly like an even more cracked lo-fi Suicide, or a more industrial cold wave Moon Duo, the vibe paranoid and druggy, the music warped and woozy, mesmerizing and motorik. After a wild squall of echo drenched reverbed garbled vox, the record kicks into gear, all low slung, frigid basslines, shimmery echoey guitars, creepy sung/spoken vocals, lots of space, very spare and skeletal, the krautrock vibe is huge, but only surfaces here and there, in between jealousy offer up bursts of chaotic softly noisy murk, heavy drifts of distorted shoegaze, abstract arrhythmic grooves, from weirdo coldwave pop, to clinical industrial creep, to tripped out krautpsych mesmer, our favorite jam might be the super spare spacekraut workout of "Night Stalking", which takes up most of the B side, sounding like a seriously stripped down Moon Duo, mixed with some This Heat, and a little Throbbing Gristle, spidery and psychedelic, one of those tracks you wish would go on forever, totally tranced out rhythmic bliss. The record closes with another favorite, the evocatively titled "Drug Sores", which wraps weirdly distorted speaking-in-tongues Buttholes-like vocals over Spacemen 3 style droney heavily effected space psych guitars, creating something both darkly mesmerizing, and ominously disturbing, which pretty much captures the vibe of the whole record. TOTALLY recommended.
One of the problems with bands, and labels, who put out record after record, and we're talking a new record every week or month, even if they're all great, is it's tough to keep caring. That sort of happened to us with Anticon. When we first heard that twisted Anticon indie hip hop, we were blown away, we're still blown away actually, the bizarre loops, the totally skewed approach to hip hop and sampling, it was new and fresh, weird and wonderful. But, we needed to take a break. We'd get done reviewing a new Anticon record and there would be two or three more out. So we're back on track, just in time to review the newest from Jel. And as always it's a good 'un! Loping loopy samples, all sorts of strange sounds, and unfunky funkiness, some of the vocals are a little stilted and sound straight out of the eighties (Fresh Prince anyone?) but some are right on and perfectly compliment Jel's fuzzy blissed out beatscapes. Definitely dark and laid back, some of the more ambitious tracks sound like they could be Endtroducing outtakes which is high praise for sure.
Guests include Stefanie Bohm of Ms. John Soda, Wise Intelligent of Poor Righteous Teachers, Why?, Fog, Dosh, Pedestrian. And it's produced by Anticon stablemate Odd Nosdam.
The first few customers who order the new Jel will get a free Jel turntable slipmat with the album art on one side and the cool giant ant Anticon logo on the other!
Warner Jepson was one of the pioneering electronic composers of the 1960s, working in the San Francisco Tape Music Center and later at the shortlived organization called National Center for Experiments in Television (seriously, there was such a place!). Through both of these small think-tanks, Jepson had the good fortune to work with an incredible amount of early electronics, most notably the Buchla synthesizer. Despite some choice commissions and some friends in high places, Jepson's explorations with electronics only amounted to one proper album - the avant-garde electronic Totentanz recorded as a score for the San Francisco Ballet in 1967. The album was originally pressed up in an edition of 300 copies and sold almost entirely at the stagings of that particular ballet. Nonetheless, Jepson purported to have hundreds of hours of material on cassette that he made during his heyday in the '60s and '70s.
The story behind this cassette's discovery and release is a pretty good one too, as Mr. Sanity Muffin himself was trawling through the cassette bins at Urban Ore - a storied recycling and junk shop located on the industrial outskirts of Berkeley, California, and spied the name Warner Jepson handscrawled on the spine of a tape next to the random home dubbed tapes of REO Speedwagon, Boston, and Carole King albums. The tape turned out to be one of those lost Jepson recordings, and Sanity Muffin has seen fit to release this cassette exactly as it was found. One of the many commissions on Jepson's resume was for the David William's installation Tullian. No idea really what that was, or if this is excerpted music for that piece, or if the Tullian Beach Bum was just a riff on that title. But the sounds within are a delirious polyphony of semi-rhythmic, semi-melodic squiggles across the Buchla with echoing patterns at various timbers, reverberations, and pitches swirling throughout the sound design. There are plenty of similarities in the painterly serialist and programmatic approaches that were commonplace in the high-minded works of academic composers from the mid-20th century, all mapped out on the Buchla and tape machine. But there's also plenty of wide-eyed sci-fi expansiveness through zoner-patterned synths that have all of the awe of a Jovian sunrise seen for the first time by human eyes. Fans of Daphne Oram and Tod Dockstader will have a field day with this stuff.
Where Jersey Turnpike are concerned, Permafrost is not so unyielding after all, melting gently in the glowing embers of their barely-there female vocals, guitars and double-strung harp. Yes, joining Ms Joanna Newsom in the current harp parade is this new SF duo, Dina Carpenito and Carlo Dean with guest Jessica Schaeffer. A glistening, ethereal delight that exudes much warmth... no chilly iciness in sight! Definitely for fans of Ida and Edison Woods. Lovely!
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Local electronicists Tommy Guerrero and DJ Gadget along with Monte Vallier of Swell. A subtle, simple downtempo record, with bass, slide bass, and more bass.
On their third cd release for Absolutely Kosher these five East Bay fellows take us in a new direction. On Picks Us Apart, they move further away from their earlier prominent Slint / Mogwai influences. They've replaced their past post-rock loud-quiet leanings with gentle pop song structures comprised of decidedly sweet sensitive boy vocals, strummy multi-layered guitars reminiscent of mid-to-late '80s The Cure. Although some might be a little disappointed that they've chosen a different path, others will surely find that the band are just as adept at crafting a solid pop tune as they are at weaving an atmospheric soundscape. In fact, it struck us that these days they've more aligned themselves with the charming indie pop likes of Pinback and Death Cab For Cutie.
Jimbo Trout is an active player in the Bay Area's healthy blue grass scene. Playing guitar, banjo, kazoo and singing tales with an old-time flare. Jimbo shows his fine taste by covering the likes of Leadbelly, The Carter Family, The Mississippi Sheiks, etc. His band adds fiddle, washboard, and mandolin and it's the record's instrumental tracks that we find ourselves most captivated by. Makes us wanna get out onto the docks, staring at the sea with a cold one in one hand, a reel and rod in the other...
Good ole' Jimbo Trout and his Fishpeople are doing a mighty fine job of keeping an old timey flame burning brightly here in the Bay Area, with their great mixture of bluegrass, bop, swing, backporch blues and more, all with a twang that's hard not to tap your toes and sway your hips to. This is the band you wish was playing at the farmers market or in your local town square, such good vibes and a wide array of instrumentation (guitar, banjo, fiddle, washboard, harmonica, clarinet, sax, piano, accordion, xylophone and pedal steel guitar.) While all of the players sound top notch, we have to say the fiddle playing on this record is pretty unbelievable! The album is packed with both traditional tunes nicely arranged by Jimbo as well as covers of folks like the Mississippi Mudsteppers, Jimmie Rogers, The Shelton Brothers, etc. Can't think of a better soundtrack to your next hoedown!
Do we forgive them for the band name? Supposedly, this is a riff on the beloved avant-folk songstress Joanna Newsom, to which we have to ask "What the fuck, Joanna Gruesome? Really? What did Ms. Newsom ever do to you?" Sure, we've lauded the benefit / curse of having a laughably, ridiculously bad name; and this one may be nearing the top of the list, just 'cuz we can't think of a single reason why this band name should exist. But here it is, and fuck if Joanna Gruesome's sound doesn't completely right shine through their questionable moniker. In the best possible light, the name is an awkward commentary on the awkwardness of being an awkward indie-dork who is enduring the awkward growth spurts of late-teendom and who somehow has figured out to play guitar, bash drums, and sing harmonies in spite of the gangly legs and stubborn baby fat. This five piece hails from Wales, and couldn't have found a better home than Slumberland Records, which they share not only with current indie pop darlings Veronica Falls but also stalwarts of the fuzz-pop jangle like The Aislers Set and Black Tambourine. The songs on Weird Sister have a brilliantly schizoid ability to shift in style without sounding out of place at all (belying that awkward teen gangliness, mentioned earlier), with a dreamy, bubblegum pop-punk vibe that crashes into a riotous, overblown riff, sounding like a Veronica Falls vocal harmony smashed into a sugarsmacked noise-pop tune from the Swirlies, one of America's finest forgotten answers to My Bloody Valentine from back in the '90s. Vocalist Alanna McArdle (formerly of Evans The Death, fyi), alternates between the coy harmonizing chanteuse and the charmingly beligerent riot-grrl brat. Come by on a Saturday afternoon here at aQuarius, and the chances are this will be on the stereo. Yeah, a noise-pop classic for fuck's sake!
We've long had a soft spot for the darkest of country folk twang -- Mark Kozelek, Tindersticks, Jesse Sykes, and Hotel Alexis to name just a handful. The last couple months have brought us a few more residing a little closer to home. Case in point, The John Francis' smoky blues filled On The Moment We Share. Deep deep male vocals and slow creeping tempo keep the mood bleak and somber. This album fits well right alongside the latest from fellow SF band The Black Swans. Music that never leaves the shadows? We're right there with 'em. Thanks for sharing!
American Primitive guitarist Chuck Johnson now calls Oakland, California his home, but he originally hails from North Carolina where we first heard him back in the nineties playing with bands Spatula and Idyll Swords. That North Carolina lineage rings through on Johnson's Three Lobed debut of modern Appalachia, Crows In The Basilica. Resurrecting the ghosts of Roscoe Holcomb, Mike Seeger, Elizabeth Cotten and Robbie Basho, Johnson brilliantly conjures a mystical resonance of haunting loveliness, both texturally rich and achingly majestic. Layers of past traditions weave throughout, British folk balladry, 19th century parlor music melodies, Eastern modalities and Delta blues, marked by a lonely cascading melancholia that transforms these pieces to moving modern day ruminations on the slow passage of time and the fluidity of memory. One of the best modern guitar soli records we've heard in awhile, one that sets the eyes gazing into the vast ether of the mind.
Download card included with the lp. Limited to 768 hand-numbered copies.
Also available as a tour-only cd-r with an extra track.
Ltd to 300 numbered copies. Includes dvd, poster.
Ready to go clubbing? In another galaxy? With his latest record under the not-a-person-but-a-band Jonas Reinhardt moniker, Jesse Reiner (and friends) have turbocharged the synth swells and flourishes of their previous kosmische krautrock-inspired releases with some powerful booty-shaking beats. As much as we loved their self-titled debut, and Powers Of Audition (both on Kranky), we're happy that Jonas Reinhardt are providing fuel for our dance-making body parts. Such an effort seems fitting with their new home on Not Not Fun Records, a serious concern in new electronic and dance music that has also released material by aQ faves Peaking Lights among others. The result is an entrancing visit to planet space disco that owes as much to Giorgio Moroder and other Italo devotees as it does to Neu!...
To kickstart the party, Reiner and co. rely less on the amazing motorik drumming of Damon Palermo and more on drum machines, which creates an equally ecstatic vibe, but for a more vertically positioned human. Frequent Jonas Reinhardt participants Phil Manley (Life Coach, Trans Am, The Fucking Champs), Diego Gonzalez (3 Leafs), Tim Soete (The Fucking Champs), Steve Moore (Zombi), and others are also on on board. Don't let all our talk of discoing make you think Mask Of The Maker is a soundtrack to the coke-fueled lives of mere beautiful people, because Jonas Reinhardt forms melodies with otherworldly synth sounds and stratospheric mantras from the ethereal mouth of Meryl Press (check out "Elimination Street") to guide you on your imaginary extraterrestrial journey. Thus Emeralds is still a definite comparison.
Perhaps the Philip K. Dick quote "It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity" on the inner-sleeve suggests the journey you are on is actually to a star called The Real You. Or maybe this turn towards real-deal dance music is the revelation that follows. That's just a guess, though. Jesse Reiner and his Jonas Reinhardt cohorts may have pulled back the veil a bit, but we still don't know what truths lurk under Reiner's red beard (which is on full display on the front cover), now do we?
Sometimes you have to go straight to the source to get it really right. And no doubt, for the sounds of Jonas Reinhardt, that motherland (er, fatherland?) is Germany, as their kosmische sound has no doubt been shaped heavily by so many of the groups that came out of the Krautrock scene of the seventies and eighties. Spending some time in Berlin and recording this new record there seems to have really helped take JR's sounds to the next level. Music For The Tactile Dome, their vinyl only debut for Not Not Fun, is the most successful outing yet by JR, demonstrating different facets of their sound while still keeping a focused eye on the unknown cosmic sky. It also has some of the darkest elements that we've heard from these guys so far and those sounds really suit them so well. Analog synth overdrive orbiting a pulsating planet with mysterious and surprising twists and turns along the way. Conrad Schnitzler and Klaus Schulze would be proud!
Album number two for San Francisco kraut groove channelers, Jonas Reinhardt, who continue to mine krautrock, prog and cosmic gold with their spaced out and now sometimes even rocking sound. Powers Of Audition finds JR mastermind Jesse Reiner opening up his project as a full fledged band with members of Mi Ami, Trans Am and 3 Leafs hopping on board. While the sound is still very much steeped in the same sort of kosmiche aura as their debut, there are new sides to Jonas Reinhardt that have emerged with this sophomore outing. A few tracks even get very uptempo and rocking, like "Atomic Bomb Living" which sounds like some awesome lost car chase theme from a John Carpenter movie or a Giorgio Moroder score from the late '70s, and we for sure hear the contribution of Trans Am's Phil Manley there, as its a track that would have been right at home on one of those great Trans Am records like Futureworld or the Red Line. Meanwhile, title track "Powers Of Audition" is full on new-Neu done so spot on, motorik and and so totally entrancing. We even hear a bit of the soaring sound of Citay which makes sense as Reiner was once a member of that band. There are also more prog undertones that bring to mind Jesse's other old band Crime In Choir. But it's still the more spaced out, kosmiche side of the group that hits the hardest. One of the few modern groops worthy of carrying on the tradition of Conrad Schnitzler, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Goblin, Manuel Gottsching, and Cluster. So damn good!
Two new killer tracks from one of our favorite modern day kosmiche music crews, Jonas Reinhardt. Before we get to the music we got to say the vinyl itself is pretty fucking cool, both sides have etchings on them and side A is pressed as a 7" to be played at 45rpm, and side B is cut as a 10" to be played at 33rpm, but ON A 12". Ok, now that we got that out of the way we can also geek out on how great the music is.
If it's possible this might be the most intergalactic and spaced out Jonas Reinhardt offering yet, as the synths pulsate and glide with other dimensions on their mind. Channeling Klaus Schulze and Manuel Gottsching, in a spirit similar to other kosmisce explorers we love like Expo 70, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Emeralds. We dig that for how cosmic and baked these tracks sound, there is also a sense of song writing and structure within the grooves that really makes it a record you just want to flip over and over, dazed and blissed out by the these sweet sounds...
Import, limited to 500 copies.
It's been a great year for krautrock inspired kosmiche pastiche. As records by Arp, Cloudland Canyon, Growing and White Rainbow have found a new generation using old analog synths to orbit the earth with lots of great results. It was so fitting and ideal that Jonas Reinhardt got to make their live debut playing the after party for the Cluster show in Big Sur at the beginning of summer which some of us were lucky to see, and we were immediately impressed with what is slowly becoming one of the most exciting outfits to emerge from San Francisco in a long while.
Reinhardt is the alter ego of Jesse Reiner who played in Crime In Choir and Ascended Master, as well as serving as one of the guitarists in Citay, whom he recently parted ways with so he could focus all his attention on this project. He's really managed to find his inner Klaus Schulze with this record creating an album that shimmers and pulsates with strength and grace. Like the best of '70s era Tangerine Dream with the ominous moments of Goblin and healthy nods to Cluster and Harmonia this is sure to please fans of spaced out propelling cosmic adventures in sound. It seems as this was recorded before the live version of the band was formed as recent live shows finds Jonas Reinhardt catching much more of a groove as they create 'kraut style' dance parties with totally thrilling results. We can't wait to hear them capture that side of their sound on tape, but until then this is a really great beginning of what we have a feeling will be a long running and rewarding project!
Local experimental guitarist Mason Jones -- you know him from his popular space rock band Subaranoid Space, and perhaps also from his isolationist guitar explorations under the name Trance (a moniker it seems he's dispensed with here), or his Japan-o-centric music 'zine Ongaku Otaku, or his former label Charnel Music, or his other dabblings in the world of Japanese noise, etc. -- presents this cd-r of guitar music. Really beautiful, spaced-out guitar music. These nine tracks incorporate both lovely, melodic note-picking and echo-effected ambience. We know Mason's got a ton of effects pedals and isn't afraid to use 'em, but the underwater drones and neighing-horse symphonies he creates don't stop him from actually utilizing his guitar in a more conventional sense here as well. Mason's pleasant, kinda sixties-sci-fi-sounding playing on this solo project (live to DAT, with subsequent edits) falls in zone somewhere betwixt the pretty post-rock dynamics of, say, Sonna, and the physicality and psychedelia of a Kawabata Makoto... good stuff Mason!
Guitar experimentalist Jones (of Trance and SubArachnoid Space) live in Japan, with some amazing guests--folks from Zeni Geva, Mainliner, Omoide Hatoba, Aube, Boredoms, and Hijokaidan!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
It's always exciting to get to experience an artist at the beginning of what you know will be a long and rewarding journey of musical and artistic exploration. We first encountered Julius Smack (aka Peter Hernandez) by chance. Some of us here love the avant-drag party High Fantasy thrown every Tuesday night at one of the last standing gay bars in the Tenderloin, Aunt Charlie's. One night we saw an artist whose performance consisted of cool projections, a super distinctive look and persona, meditative movements and even some full on voguing. But what struck us the most, was the alluring music playing during this performance, especially some beautiful entrancing vocals. Our first thought was "Oh my god, how cool, a drag/performance artist using unreleased Arthur Russell tracks as his music!" So we approached him after his stunning performance and asked what the music was and if it was Arthur Russell as we suspected? He humbly replied that the music and the vocals were his own, and that's when we know we had encountered something special.
This debut release features his take on left-field electronic pop, with warm melting synths, and that irresistible voice. It's impossible to not hear Arthur Russell in Julius Smack, but we also hear touches of Owen Pallett and maybe a more clubby version of David Sylvian. This ep features four original tracks, some tasteful interludes laced with field recordings, a few remixes of the title track, and two covers. His take on Al Green's "I'm Still In Love With You" is a stunner... and make sure to stick around for the 'secret' Arthur Russell cover (of course) which appears after the last track.
This is music that is both delicate and self assured, bold without being flashy, and sensual without relying on played out signifiers. Not sure how many of these were pressed, so best to grab one quick so you can say you knew him when...
Sirens is a new limited edition cd from this fine Bay Area foursome! Our first encounter with Junior Panthers was back in 2002... no, not really all that long ago! Their band name was fitting, collegiate and energetic. Their self-titled debut album was a bright sunbeam of buoyant pop. The next we heard from them was their Derelicts cdep in 2006, and it seemed they were still destined for jangly indie pop darling status. Now just two years later, they're a whole 'nother band... still very good, but very different. Think: a lot less bounce, and more beefed up rock. Ultra drenched in reverby guitar effects, Sirens is far more shoegazerly and spacily psychedelic than past recordings seemingly inspired by equal parts My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Jesus & Mary Chain, Swervedriver and Polvo. Cool.
Sweet, sunny pop has the power to brighten a day! Those jangle'n'crunch guitars. Those mellow, uplifting vocal harmonies. Listening to this album sure stirred flashes of familiarity. While the Junior Panthers certainly brings to mind the beloved power pop beauty of Big Star or their disciples Velvet Crush, Teenage Fanclub, Matthew Sweet, there was something else that rang even closer to home. It wasn't until the thirteenth song began that I knew for certain that I'd heard this band (or some other incarnation of them) before. The song in question is "Defy Your Radio" (there's two versions of it, the second radio edit version doesn't appear numerically on the cd player counter, but rest assured it's there) and you may recall our enthusiastic review of it when it appeared on SF band The Damsels' debut release a little over a year ago. Yes, that band has transformed into the Junior Panthers. That song was a stand-out on that cdep, and it's definitely a highlight here as well. As for the rest of the album, there's eleven more songs filled with energetic pop smarts. A solid 'debut'!
It's been a very very long time, but the Bay Area's Junior Panthers have resurfaced with a new ep! With a new lineup, they've picked right up where they left off, dishing out their delicious indie pop nuggets. They stick with the basics, crunchy guitars, dreamy boy vocals and infectious hooks galore. What more could you ask for? Well, except for it to have been released during the summer months because it's ideal driving to the beach music. Hmmm, I guess it can just as easily warm and brighten an autumn or winter day now, can't it? Yes, indeedie!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Ex-Bay-Areans and/or veterans of Zorn's West Coast Masada quartet -- Ben Goldberg, Kenny Wollesen and John Schott -- plus Mr. Bungle's Trevor Dunn on bass.
