01. curiosidade – tom zé
02. doctor – priests
03. chuncho – yma sumac
04. bird’s lament – moondog
05. working men are pissed – minutemen
06. pat pong (solid groove mix) – pest
07. lento – café tacuba
08. textures liminales – ana maria avram
09. drown with the monster – white lung
10. world’s apart – j-live
11. six pack – esg
curiosidade is off of my favorite tom zé record com defeito de de fabricação. it’s also the first one i ever heard. my amazing spanish professor in college loaned me a bunch of music for the one semester i was in spanish. he loaned me this one and eventually all of the stuff that was reissued by lauka bop. tom zé is so meta you really have to know what he’s talking about and referencing to get the full scope of what he’s dealing with. so i miss out on a lot of it cuz i can only relate to the music as music. so some of his albums are lost on me – including musically. musically and conceptually this one is my favorite.
note. i actually like doctors. in theory. from a labor standpoint i’m not a fan of the american medical association and i will side with the nurses, always. also – i’m not a fan of the macho culture of doctors. not cool. but hey – i like priests, the band. aces!
how does yma do that with her voice? what’s going on? amaze.
pat pong came on randomly one day. it’s off of a slightly newer ninja tune compilation that i hadn’t listened to a bunch yet, so it kind of caught me by surprise. this one is like perfect joy happiness. i love it. repetitive, but perfectly so.
some of my favorite music involves the sound of instruments that aren’t traditionally played. these sounds that exist in this sort of nowhere place somewhere between noise, music, full completed and incompleted action. half gestures and implied intention. a lot of that sort of music exists in the world of ava maria avrum and she is one of my favorite composers of all time. yes!
six pack is truly one of the great love songs in the history of the world. truth.
(above and below, the fierce fabulocity that is yma sumac.)
01. ursula k. le guin
02. octavia butler
03. anders nilsen
04. michael ondaatje
05. j.r.r. tolkien
06. jeanette winterson
07. allen ginsberg
08. john porcellino
09. michael chabon
10. umberto eco
11. gene wolfe
12. thich nhat hanh
13. jaime hernandez
14. gilbert hernandez
15. joan didion
16. william s. burroughs
17. frank herbert
18. barry gifford
19. megan kelso
20. gabriel garcia márquez
21. mike mignola
22. angélica gorodischer
01. editions of you – roxy music
02. tu turu turu tara tara – naheed akhtar
03. spear core – kaoru abe, motuharu yoshizawa, toshinori kondo, derek bailey
04. maus mobil – mouse on mars
05. no words / no thoughts – swans
06. el fandanguito – antonio garcía de león
07. fantastic freaks at the dixie – fantastic freaks
08. radiogig in torino/italy – the jist
09. clothed in the skin of the dead – colin stetson
10. the street and babe shadow – t. rex
i didn’t get into roxy music until after i saw velvet goldmine by todd haynes. i had heard of them, and knew of their relation to eno and bowie and glam, etc. but it wasn’t until after i saw that movie that i investigated. and when i did, i was hooked. the first five albums are all solid, but my favorites are their first three i think. this is off their second and final with eno. after their fifth album they went on hiatus for the second half of the seventies. when they reformed, for my money, they were worthless. for the ultimate expression of editions of you, look up roxy music’s appearance on musiklaaden. oh, my. the fabulocity cannot be contained.
mouse on mars blew my mind when i heard them sometime in 1995 or 1996, i can’t remember which. it was on a cheesy techno comp called trance europe express. but i was into cheesy acidy trance at the time. the sounds were new to me and i was intrigued and fascinated. this song was easily the standout. there was something about the soundworld that these guys created. that sort of liquidy, bubbly action that is present through out. the dubby bass and drum sections. the mellowness of it. it’s a beautiful song. also – andi and jan (mouse on mars) are one of the most adorable live acts i’ve ever seen. the way they kind of climb all over each other while they stand in front of their machines and computers, twisting knobs, sliding faders, etc. they seemed so genuinely into what they were making. heads bobbing in time, smiling and looking at each other like – yeah, yeah, that’s awesome!
swans. massive. i didn’t like them when i first heard their earlier stuff back when i was in college and living with room mates. it gave me the same feeling as when i listened to big black. i just didn’t feel it. and i felt a little frustrated that i didn’t like it considering how much i had read about them and other bands that i liked liking them. sonic youth especially praised swans, so i thought well of course i’ll like them. but i didn’t. but then in the past year or so i listened to their newish post angels of light, let’s get the band back together stuff and i love it! it’s so good. droning massiveness. it’s like i needed them to age and mature and figure out their current sound so that i could get into them and then work my way backwards to understand a bit more what they were doing in the past.
hi. did you know i went to mexico one time. for five months. i did. while i was there i got into a lot of rock ish music from monterrey. but my favorite two purchases were a compilation of sones veracruzanos and an album by a group called son de madera of other sones veracruzanos. guadalajara – where i was living – is the birth place of mariachi, which i’m not a huge fan of. although i’m more into it when it’s one person and a guitar. it was ubiquitous though. even on the bus – individual musicians would get on and perform a song or two, busking, before getting off. on the radio at home however, i heard this music that caught my attention. the chords and the singing, the guitars, the instrumentation. the sound was beautiful and sad and joyful. kind of all at the same time. it mesmerized me. i investigated and learned that the music was a folk music from veracruz. and sadly for me at the time, veracruz is a long way from guadalajara.
reading collected ghost stories – m.r. james fábulas de una abuela extraterrestre – daína chaviano inverting the pyramid – jonathan wilson don’t know mind: the spirit of korean zen – richard shrobe always in trouble: an oral history of esp-disk – jason weiss written on the body – jeanette winterson wool – hugh howey the winds twelve quarters – ursula k. le guin shift – hugh howey the mysteries of pittsburgh – michael chabon dust – hugh howey
watching
pumas unam!
a documentary about rush of all things
battlestar galactica – we are so close to finally finishing this thing. then there will be tears.
red stars!
fire!
swansea!
rupaul’s drag race season 6
listening eras – juana molina matangi – m.i.a. the chicago project – matana roberts compiled 1981-1984 – malaria! replicants – gary numan/tubeway army invisible life – helado negro
lots of albums by boris awe naturale – theesatisfaction complete discography – moss icon
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1. green onions – booker t and the mgs
2. candy’s room – perfect pussy (cover of bruce springsteen)
3. khlolapurase kudasathrivasi – ilaiyaraaja
4. usual dosage – unwound
5. black steel – tricky
6. throwdown (stupid – doc’ dub mix) – spark d
7. sisters – a tribe called red (featuring northern voice)
8. cry – mars
9. andiwillhe – laura cetilia
10. my sweet lord/today is a killer – nina simone
11. improvisation – marta sainz, alexander markvart, antonia funes, maryah marimotto
12. p.c.a. – action patrol
13. hall of the mountain king – the who
14. dodó e zezé – tom zé
15. invokation – horseback
i’ve always had a soft spot for green onions. i first heard it on the american graffiti soundtrack album that my parents had. for some reason when i was a kid i used to pull that record out and listen to it frequently. i think i liked the ambiance of it. old timey, a.m.-radio-ey, late night-y etc.
unwound can easily make the claim for being one of the all time greatest bands of all time for me. when i first heard them something just clicked and made perfect sense. at the time i felt like they were this missing link bridge between sonic youth and fugazi. i now feel like they occupy a totally different space that is completely their own. the only time that they came to town when i was aware of them and they were still active was one winter night when i was doing sound for a community theatre production of a christmas carol. i was so sad that one of the performances was the same night as unwound at the fireside bowl. in honor, i listened to them on headphones while i ran the soundboard that night. a friend of mine once said that unwound would eventually be like the velvet underground in that at the time no one really listened to them, but everyone who did would form bands.
i love public enemy. but as far as i’m concerned, tricky’s version of black steel is the definitive version. kind of like jimi hendrix’s version of all along the watchtower is the definitive version. an amazing song and amazing that it was a hit. cuz it’s kind of a weird record. i originally bought this album when it came out from one of those old timey mail order record clubs, columbia or bmg or something like that.
true story, there was a time when i wasn’t into nina simone! what was wrong with me? what a fucking fool i was. of course i was younger then and only into the noisier things in life. but when i finally got around to hearing mississippi goddam, i was blown away. such intensity, anger, feeling, truth, etc. after that i got more and more into her as i got older. i’m a believer.
action patrol was from richmond virginia if i’m not mistaken. the singer moved to chicago and formed a band called service anxiety. a band that was criminally overlooked and fell through the cracks. they. were. amazing. my first band played with them once or twice. they recorded one record that they never put out. why? why? both action patrol and service anxiety feature ridiculously long and political lyrics that are crammed into tiny short spazz songs. also, complete your thesis!
don’t you love the who when they were kids? i do! before all the rock opera nonsense of the seventies. yes, please!
1. a journey to reedham (7am) mix – squarepusher
2. ghosts – god destroyer
3. song of the one (i love) or love, my love – patty waters
4. secret agent man – devo
5. soy hija de puta – marrash
6. marbles – tindersticks
7. le crabe – françoise hardy
8. trocitos de madera – la yegros
9. hate, myth, muscle, etiquette – propagandhi
10. challenger – american music club
11. b-boys beware – two sisters
12. ketchak – john lurie
13. colores sin nombres – savath & savalas
14. i – perfect pussy
15. i can’t get no satisfaction trad gras och stenar
16. like water – pro era
17. many mansions – sonny sharrock
squarepusher is one of my all time favorites. he’s one of the parts that got me into jazz a long time ago. this song is just perfect. just perfect.
i don’t know when i got into drones. and certainly i’m not into any and all drones. not all drones are created equal. and when you are making music out of essentially one note or chord or sound for a long duration the little things matter. texture is always thrown around when people talk about drones. but it’s pretty legit. instead of melody you have to focus on other things. i’m a sucker for warm fuzzy bliss tones and this one by god destroyer definitely fits the bill. beauty.
patty waters is someone i hadn’t heard about until i read the oral history of esp-disk. and then i was intrigued. not all of her songs are like this. but when she goes there, she goes there. and it’s awesome.
i can’t even begin to say how profoundly i was into devo in high school. so, so, so, so very into devo. it can not be overstated. i will share – some friends and i were in something called the “naked devo fanclub.” which essentially meant that we were into devo, in gym class together and had to take showers in the locker room. hence, naked. i also made a home made devo shirt with a sharpie. i was introduced to them from a tape of hardcore devo volume one that a friend gave me. it blew my mind. completely. i then sought out everything through shout after that. their early stuff is amazingly good. this is even earlier than early cuz it was when they were doing art-school sludge-fi sci-fi weirdocity.
marrash
i love all of tindersticks. i love his croon. their sound. it’s so good. i found out about them from a review in an old magazine called hypno. and the first album i got was their soundtrack to nenette et boni. all is good. but there’s something about this track that is so perfect. that repetitive guitar. the lo-fi-ness of the recording. slightly dirty and tinny. it’s equally heartbreaking and happy in sound. kind of like a “carefree white girl” summer haze photo of bare feet in grass or an old country house with curtains blowing in the wind or something. but it feels like impossible happiness with tragic soul crush on the wind. beauty.
françoise hardy is awesome. that is all. dig that crunch chord. that spare descending organ.
la yegros is from argentina. she makes new kinda weird cumbia. i’m a sucker for cumbia. this video is cool. i’d say three quarters of this album is awesome. and one quarter of this album is too npr for my taste.
i liked new school punk for a few minutes. propagandhi still do it for me. especially this album. simpler times back then y’know? suburban mix tape drives. yup.
who got me into american music club? ed brubaker. i wrote him a letter way back in the day when he was writing and drawing lowlife for fantagraphics. i mentioned that i was listening to nine inch nails and he said not to fall for their phony despair. they were the cure of my generation. he also said for real despair check out american music club. i did. it didn’t seem too despairy then. at least not musically. but boy howdy, lyrically. they grew on me. another crooner. i’m such a sucker.
when i first heard savath & savalas it was this record, apropa’t. i bought it sound unheard at the record store. mostly cuz it was in spanish. and brought it home. put it on. and sat on the floor and listened to the whole thing through. for real floored. doesn’t happen to often. but when it does, it’s righteous. the sound was perfect. the instrumentation was perfect. the vocals were perfect. perfect pop music. another example of what should be on top-40 radio.
once upon a time there was a band called shoppers. they ruled so hard that they broke up. this is the new band featuring the singer from shoppers and some like minded musicians. similar vibe. all awesome. this song gets me. she buries her vocals intentionally. is that a guitar? or is it keyboards. what the fuck? overwhelming barrage fuzz smear. hooky. i said that once upon a time i liked new school punk. i think this is in the same vein evolutionarily speaking. like this is a natural progression or something. prolly just cuz of the hooks. it’s the jam.
just so you know. this. this one right here. this is the best version of satisfaction. for a while i thought it was devo’s. but then i heard this. different ball game. we’re going on a trip. also, for as much as i fucking hate hippies. i certainly love hippy commune jams. why is that?
do i love sonny sharrock? yes. yes i do. was space ghost coast to coast my first exposure to sonny sharrock? yes, yes it was. although i didn’t know it at the time. beauty.
over the past few days i’ve been thinking of which guitar players have influenced my own guitar playing and ear. either through a sound, or a style of playing, or a tone, or something. here they are presented roughly in order of when i first heard them. i’m putting this out there, just to purge it from my mind. look them up, listen to their music, read about them.
bo diddley (specifically the bo diddley rhythm)
andrew farriss / tim farriss
jerry harrison / david byrne
vernon reid
east bay ray
thurston moore
kim deal
pj harvey
d. boon
tim gane / sean o’hagan
bob mothersbaugh / bob casale
john maclean
carrie brownstein
sonny sharrock
derek bailey
christina billotte
terrie ex / andy moor
pat place
michael karoli
tutu shoronmu / segun edo / okalue ojeah / oghene kologbo
special shout out to prince for the chord he hits just before he yells …kiss!
1. hor gorme garibi – erkin koray
2. cambridge 1969 2007 – yoko ono (remixed by flaming lips)
3. deep calleth unto deep – caroline lucas
4. nh 11 – elisabeth harnik, isabelle duthoit, emmanuel cremer
5. swim swim – ben lamar
6. oh my goodness – gnucci
7. goodie goodies – cakes da killa
8. estrellas místicas – triangulo de amor bizarro
9. bad aptitude – six finger satellite
10. live at cafe oto (excerpt) – thurston moore, alex ward
11. the illusion of love – skip skip ben ben
12. broken piano ii – anais tuerlinckx
13. انا مش سيجارة – myam mahmoud
14. it’s all too much – the beatles
very unhelpful notes – cambridge 1969 by yoko ono is originally found on unifinshed music no. 2 with john lennon. at the end john tchicai and john stevens join. so that’s the percussion and sax that you hear. the flaming lips remix always sounds like they are also remixing v2 schneider by david bowie.
i’m always a sucker for organ drone pieces and the organ on this one kind of has a steve reich tone to it.
ben lamar is from chicago and is real good – his soundcloud.
not only is goodie goodies an awesome song, but dig that video! how good does that look?
six finger satellite is one of my all time favorite bands. and one of my all time favorite shows. at the fireside bowl in chicago back when i was in college. so. many. years. ago. now.
did you know that the vinyl that the thurston moore/alex ward track comes from retails for $100. it’s a fundraiser. for a venue. yikes! did you know thurston apparently lives in london now? true?
anais tuerlinckx is serving xenakis realness and it’s amazing!
myam mahmoud’s track انا مش سيجارة translates to i am not a cigarette.
hard to say, but it’s all too much might be the greatest beatles song of all time. truth.
the picture above is cakes da killa and if you click here you’ll go to his soundcloud where you can hear a bunch more music. aces!
1. wishing well – terence trent d’arby
2. gesang der junglinge – karlheinz stockhausen
3. jack the ripper – link wray and the raymen
4. ca. viewing – erase errata
5. long life love – stereolab
6. mr. incognito – a tribe called quest
7. manhattan melody – lemon d
8. same old madness – ministry
9. damage – pottymouth
10. 53100 – cafe tacuba
11. helter skelter ’97 – meat beat manifesto
12. virus – microwaves
13. heavy 33 – verlaines
14. security – vijay iyer and mike ladd
15. my vag – awkwafina
16. amerika – idoli
17. zhong nan hai – carsick cars
the only note this time around is that for the longest time i thought that mr. incognito only existed in my fuzzy memory of being 19 and working at a gas station. one of my co-workers was a hip-hop skater kid and he would bring in all these mixtapes of hip hop that blew my mind. blew it! and so i heard this song for the first time on one of those tapes in a shitty boom box that sat on the shelf above the desk in our little office/bunker. i then spent the next five or so years trying to remember what the song was, but i could never remember it properly. then finally they released an album of b-sides etc and i found it! hooray! if i remember correctly this was also my first exposure to a tribe called quest in general. huzzah. thanks to ryan for that.
i guess i’ll also say, wishing well will always, always be the jam. i’m not sure why. but i think this song is great. also, i can never get enough mid 90’s drum and bass. manhattan melody, i’m looking at you. it was like this pinnacle of amazingness that existed for just a brief time before it moved on and evolved into other stylees, but it will never get old. i think. maybe it will. but not for me. word.
reading birthday of the world and other stories – ursula k. leguin el prisionero del cielo – carlos ruiz zafon river of stars – yosano akiko no beginning no end – jakusho kwong the ball is round, a global history of football – david goldblatt a stranger in olondria – sofia samatar
watching
the mediocrity that was the chicago fire this year
the awfulness that is pumas this season
the beauty that is swansea city fc
listening enter the 37th chamber – el michels affair tomorrow – tomorrow electric lady – janelle monae 4 – dungen el objeto antes llamado disco – café tacuba hesitation marks – nine inch nails
