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Hipster Hannakuh diary is cookin'

2005 Regrets

Since it's all the rage to do in Seattle, here's my regrets for the year:

- I regret that I said I'm sorry to my family for bagging out of Thanksgiving super early to attend to a booty call
- I regret having to take a polygrath test - the worst fucking experience of the year
- I regret "missing" my flu appointment today
- I regret buying that Southern Bitch CD
- I regret taking off 20 pounds and then putting 30 back on
- I regret agreeing to do 16 shows at a venue 15 miles away (which is like 45 miles in DC traffic) every weekend night for five weeks
- I regret continuing to do this blog


Here's Sun City Girls Alan Bishop's "Uncle Jim"'s regrets:

The year 2005 was pretty much like any other year, wasn't it? Yeah, I'm asking YOU—you lazy-ass pig snout trough guzzlers who still think the Earth is round. I have NO regrets exposing all the lost transcripts from Galileo's mistrial that I've managed to procure over the years stating that the Earth is an odd-smelling anvil shoved up your ass backward. I have NO regrets clarifying how you cockatoo larvae-fried mimics display a propensity for the quicksand breaststroke, mired chin-deep in a human skillet where Homo-Pathetica (that's MANKIND for you numbskulls) swirls in belief of swine-greased fairy tales like Al Qaeda. It's quite impressive that a few more of you ignorant subspecies of the one-legged marsupial have figured out that you've been hypnotized into actually believing you produce and direct relevance in the eternal puppet show in the middle of a mirage. As Burmese shamans say to condemn the willfully useless and overly pathetic: "You waste the rice and make the Earth too heavy," listing regrets is an act of documenting failure. My old pal Lemmy Caution had no regrets either because there are only about 63 people who actually matter here in Alphaville. Thank your lucky stars that I've merely scratched the surface. SUN CITY GIRLS' ALAN BISHOP RELAYS A MESSAGE FROM HIS DEBONAIR COMPADRE UNCLE JIM

Tony Rettman Gets Closure in 2005

And if Tony gets closure, we get closure.

From his review of the actor-fronted Germs in NYC:

Shane West did a decent enough job emulating Darby Crash's patented slashing howl. At one point, he even asked if anyone in the crowd had any lip balm he could use, which I'm guessing is the 2005 equivalent of yelling, "One of you get me a beer!" You could go on about how morbid the act of playing these songs was, but why? Many NYHC oldsters put on their retired moshing shoes for the occasion; even former Warzone vocalist Tommy Rat came out of the woodwork. The best part is I went home none the wiser, just happy in a warm and selfish way that I got to see something I've wanted to see since I was 14. Does this mean I can go buy a house now?

FMU has a review and pictures and lots of readers saying fuck shane west.

Top Top Lists of 2005

I don't know about you but these past few weeks wading through lists on MP3 blogs has been pretty boring. Even my list is pretty boring. I mean, Bill Callahan hasn't like killed anyone this year or shit on stage or made someone's eardrums bleed, right? American Analog Set? How straight!

Everyone seems to like the same albums which are also the same albums that Pitchfork and Tiny Mix Tapes likes. So here's some more off-the-beaten-path lists for y'all. Enjoy.

• Worst toys of 2005 - - via the Weekly Dig:

My Terry
Price | $89.99
Tagline | “’Aeeaaiggggggghhhhhhhhhh’ means ‘I Love You’”
Description | Terry Schiavo doll in toy wheelchair, complete with realistic drool slick and removable feeding tube. Features eye-rolling, gas-passing and reflexive smiling action. Comes with a six-week supply of nutritious food slurry. Batteries not included.
Hazards | May attract large, belligerent crowds.

Elbows MP3 Aggregator Top Tracks of 2005

- OK, this is sorta an indie list but it's got SCIENCE behind it, it's like the listing of free and legal Mp3s that have been linked by the growing roster of blogs that ELBOWs tracks. Number 1 is SOFT?!?! Who?

WFMU is getting into the spirit of offbeat lists. Here's one from their top 10 thinks I accidentally ate by Mark Allen:

Crest Peppermint, Cinnamon or Strong Mint toothpaste on a Saltine Cracker. I can't believe how good this is! These Crest flavors of toothpaste are un-real, like brushing your teeth with an ice cream sundae. I also tried this on Wheat Thins, and other whole grain crackers - but it wasn't the same. It did work well spread thinly between two slices of white bread (white flour seems to be the key), but oddly did not work spread on a plain bagel. Go figure. You know, I once read a news story about two women who were stranded on a boat off the coast of Florida, and they survived four days on nothing but a tube of toothpaste and a half bottle of flat, warm champagne. The warm champagne sounds gross to me... but I now know I could survive on toothpaste in a life-threatening situation.

Can't Stop the Bleedings List: Music is the Enemy:

includes a band named Pissed Jeans. Heh. Heheheheh.

Thurston Moore's Top List (besides him, I've heard of one other band - happy hunting) - see other lists that don't mention Sufjan Stevens at Volcanic tongues list of lists:

Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth/Dream Aktion Unit/College Girls Gone Wild)
Charalambides - Live/Dead (Wholly Other)
Can’t - 7" (Ultra Eczema)
Leslie Keffer - Devastates (No Label)
Family Underground - Slingshot Feud Vol. 2 (Sloow Tapes)
Eyes and Arms of Smoke - Moonburn (Ramparts)
Fricara Pacchu - Waydom (Lal Lal Lal)
Taurpis Tula - Steel Rods Bruise Butterflies (Chocolate Monk)
x.0.4 - All Alien Part One (Wabana)
Religious Knives - In Bed (Heavy Tapes)
Wayne Rogers - Blues-Ul Alb (Twisted Village

Banana Nutrament has a great worst of list. Alas, they have individual post links turned off so you'll have to scroll down to find it. Here's two samples:

Worst of 2005

Tom Waits
The apogee of phoniness. I think he gargled Roto Rooter after reading Kerouac. Then he fell asleep on a cold railroad track but lived. Too bad. Joe Strummer hated you also.

Trachtenberg Family Circus
Your twelve year old drummer plays at a ten year old level.

Mike Watt is 48

via

What would d. boon do?

Mike Watt Bass Scholarship


Mike Watt is 48 (movie)

My list 2005

Best LPs:

• Smog - A River Ain’t Too Much to Love
• Tarantula A.D. - Book of Sand
• American Analog Set - Set Free
• Castanets - First Light’s Freeze
• Cocorosie - Noah’s Ark
• Mountain Goats - Sunset Tree

Best live:

• Akron/Family - Angels of Light show (May 2005)
• Coachwhips - “I Made a Bomb” (live)
• Ben Chasny/Gary Higgins on WFMU (July 2005)

Best songs:

• Dungen - “Panda” ("She was mine / but I guess you don’t give a shit")
• Skeletons and Girl-faced Boys - “Git”
• Times New Viking - “Not High”

Best hoax: tie between Jada Pinkett Smith as nu-metal rocker and “J. T. Leroy,” Truck-stop ‘ho, scamming the NYT Book Review

Best band name - Gay for Johnny Depp (and yes, I am)

Reissues/Collections:
Dylan/Scorcese thing
Yo La Tengo 3 CD set
Songs for Nao (Japanese compilatoin)

Vinyl only stuff:
Devendra Banhart/Jana Hunter split 12"
Oneida/Plastic Crimewave
The Decemberist's Picaresque Double LP

Record label:
JagJaguwar

Online Music Store:
Forced Exposure

Brett Milano on Suns Reunion; Burma News

Risen Suns: Volcano Suns play two shows this week.

http://theedge.bostonherald.com/musicNews/view.bg?articleid=118742&format=text


At the invitation of a longtime friend and fan - Yo La Tengo leader Ira Kaplan - they’ll reunite to open one of Yo La Tengo’s annual Hanukkah benefit shows Friday at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, N.J. Proceeds from that show will be donated to help save Harvard Square’s Brattle Theatre.
The band members will warm up for it by headlining the Middle East in Cambridge on Thursday night. It will be their first reunion gig since a one-off show for WMBR-FM (88.1) five years ago. Joining Prescott will be guitarist David Kleiler and bassist Bob Weston, the last and longest-lived of Volcano Suns’ lineups.

”One thing I always loved about punk rock is that it was a finger in the eye of corporate rock,” Prescott said last week. ”So Volcano Suns was our way of making that finger even bigger. Not that it made much difference in the scheme of things, but it made us happier.”
Volcano Suns released seven albums over a decade, and the band’s sound and personality were consistent despite a few lineup changes.
”We always aimed to be some cross between comic and scary,” Prescott said. ”A lot of bands use noise to be completely frightening, but for us it was more like freedom. The kind of anarchy we had was more like the Marx Brothers than legendary noise band the Swans.”


Prescott says there already have been offers for further Volcano Suns gigs, but it would be pretty hard to be in two reunited bands at once. Mission of Burma is gearing up for action later in the year: Its new album, ”Aluminum Washcloth” - only its third official studio album - was wrapped up in the fall, and the band’ll be playing out again when it’s released in June. Fans can expect this one to be much further out than Burma’s first reunion disc, 2002’s ”ONoffON.”
”It’s a weird one,” Prescott said. ”On the last album, there was an overriding impulse to make sure it still sounded like Mission of Burma. Now that’s out of the way. We’re not worrying about it anymore.”

From the Burma website:


Burma will be a surprise (well, to most anyways)
guest at the Onion's War on Christmas Party on
Friday, January 13th at the Bowery Ballroom in
NYC.

Other acts on the bill include the Wrens, Eugene
Mirman, the Favours, MC Chris, Zach Galifianakis
and the world famous Pontani Sisters.

Tickets for the show are almost gone, so if you
would like to attend, we would suggest grabbing
them now!

And from a late October posting on Huffington, Roger Miller writes:

From September 28-Oct.12, we began and completed our third studio album. That made fifteen 12-hour days in a row. Got kind of blurry after a while. For this album/CD, only the band was involved: myself - guitar/vocals/songwriter; Clint Conley - bass/vocals/songwriter; Peter Prescott - drums/vocals/songwriter; Bob Weston - tape loops/sound person. Bob engineered it (he is a very experienced engineer who works for NPR as well as Electric Studios in Chicago), and we all produced it together. Whether or not this made it even more of an anomaly than our usual fare remains to be seen.

The band rarely constructs songs in a typical fashion, and we make no apologies for our basic lack of concern about having a mainstream "hit". But if one is interested in an unusual take on what "rock music" is, or isn't, Mission of Burma could be a place to look. The band, with three distinct vocalists and songwriters, functions in a very democratic/anarchistic fashion. And is not afraid of chaos, though
things are often highly structured if you look just past the surface. As an example of our atttitude, on one song from the just-recorded CD the following happens in the last 1 1/2 minutes: A near-disco groove unrolls with 'creamy' vocals in pleasing two-part harmony. Then we lurch into an "out of control/cacophonous" section where each player researches his own thesis. This morphs into a super-minimalistic riff/beat. Shorly a duet shows up between guitar and tape loop/tape manipulations. The song ends when the band/groove grinds to a halt, and the guitar and tape loop overhand just long enough to prove that things aren't what they appear.

It seems likely that the CD will be out in May or June on the Matador Records label.

Volcano Suns Rumbling...

excerpt:

After almost 15 years, Volcano Suns rise again

By Jonathan Perry, Globe Correspondent | December 23, 2005

''I was never that hot on reunions, believe it or not," says Peter Prescott, smiling puckishly at the irony of his remark.

The 40-something indie-rock veteran has, after all, spent the better part of the last four years drumming for the reconstituted yet still fearsome postpunk legend Mission of Burma. And now, after a nearly 15-year layoff (save for a one-off gig a few years back), he's getting ready to commandeer his post-Burma band, the Volcano Suns, for reunion shows at the Middle East Upstairs on Thursday, and then at Maxwell's in Hoboken, N.J., Dec. 30 as part of indie-rock combo Yo La Tengo's annual eight-night Hanukkah residency.

The funny thing is, the reunited Burma's now been together longer than they were the first time around, and Prescott is in better playing shape than he's been in a decade.

''If you're going to do a thing like this, you've got to do it well -- especially when you're regurgitating something old, you don't ever want to do it in a shabby way," he says. At the time of our interview, Prescott and his returning Suns bandmates -- guitarist David Kleiler, who now lives in Los Angeles, and bassist Bob Weston, who resides in Chicago -- haven't had a chance to rehearse together, but they've all been practicing separately.

''For the past month, I've been re-absorbing everything from the old records. The main concern for me" -- Prescott laughs -- ''is that I have to sing a lot more with the Suns, so that'll be a challenge."

The possibility of a Volcano Suns reunion (the band broke up in 1991) had been kicked around for years, but nothing came of it until Yo La Tengo singer-guitarist leader Ira Kaplan got in touch. ''This is the fourth year we've played all eight nights of Hanukkah [at Maxwell's], and we've tried to make the shows as spectacular as we can," says Kaplan. ''In spring of this year, we thought about the Volcano Suns. We were always fans of theirs, and equally important to us, we're friendly with Bob, David, and Peter."

David Grubbs DC Memorial Watch Update

per Fatcat Reccids 'n' Tapes

David Grubbs Live Dates

20/12/05

David Grubbs has just announced a string of live shows, in both solo and collaborative settings, including a show with the Wingdale Community Singers. The dates are as follows:

David Grubbs
28/12 - Steim, Amsterdam, Holland
(5.1 playback concert of new work, "The Battlefield Forecast"; info)

Wingdale Community Singers
06/01 - Tonic, New York City, NY, USA (w/ Damon and Naomi)

Susan Howe and David Grubbs
24/01 - St. Louis University, St. Louis, USA

David Grubbs (solo)
24/03 - STRP Festival, Eindhoven, Holland
25/03 - Steim, Amsterdam, Holland

Weirdo Mel Cameo in Apocalypto Trailer

The trailer is up for Mel Gibson's new movie - Apocalypto - which appears to be about the fall of the Mayan civilization. Mostly we see Mayans running through cornfields and gesturing at the moon, etc. and portentous music... but at 1:46 there's a quick cut that reveals Der Krazy Melster with beard and what looks to be a joint in this mouth and arm resting on one of the poor Mayan actors. Weird or cool depending on your perspective!

The Warlocks Update Myspace...

The 'locks have some new songs up at their myspace... "Caveman Rock" makes me wanna beat my chest and strangle my girlfriend (consenually of course)... and they are supporting an "about the warlocks" pitch written by B. Coley:

In many respects, the style-tombs this LA band plunders exist in the underground's collective subconscious. Rhythm guitar and organ combine like nothing but mid-period Velvets; gentler lead flourishes are pure extensions of the Angelino Byrds/Love/Rain Parade tradition; the pulse's slow-moving inevitability and the shimmering, staggering wall of heavy drug imagery are classic Spaceman 3. These building blocks have been utilised by entire generations of sullen youths. But the way the Warlocks assemble them makes it all sound new, loud and ripe. The band's considerable size (they're an octet) gives them a natural sonic width that skinnier combos lack. And their twin drums can conjure up either the 68 Dead or the 78 Cramps (two truly Platonic ideals). But for all this name-checking, the Warlocks' raunch is unique, thuggy and essential. By Byron Coley, MOJO

Take that Nick Sylvester, you turd.

For Locals Only: Meredith Bragg Solo tonight

Tuesday, December 20
IOTA
2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22201,US
http://www.iotaclubandcafe.com/
Meredith Bragg solo show. With Lejeune and the Positions
$10, 8:30 pm

New Releases of Interest

via ForcedExposure.com:



HIDDEN HAND, THE: Devoid of Color CD/DVD (SUNN 052CD) 14.50
"Five brand new songs from The Hidden Hand. Recorded in the summer of 2005. Featuring the explosive lineup of Scott 'Wino' Weinrich (formerly of the Obsessed, Saint Vitus, and Spirit Caravan also featured on the Probot album) on guitar and vocals, Bruce Falkinburgh on bass and vocals, and new member Evan Tanner on drums. A special audio preview of the new direction the band will take on their forthcoming album. Spiritually and politically on fucking fire! No-bullshit, balls out and heavy as ever!



PANDA BEAR: I'm Not/Comfy in Nautica CD (UUAR 006CD) 5.50
"Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), one of the influential voices in Animal Collective, returns with two essential new songs available on 45 rpm 7" vinyl and CD. Based in Lisbon (Portugal), these tracks represent some of the first recorded output Lennox has produced since relocating from New York. The optimistic lyrics and triumphant melodies in these songs are carried along by pitch perfect vocals sung humbly over ambient rhythms. In addition, Noah also releases records with his other band called Jane.



YETI: #3 BOOK/CD (YETI 003) 12.00
FORMAT: Book + CD: 244 page 6" by 9" matte gloss journal (gorgeous metallic cover), comes with a packed-as-possible CD of unreleased/ rare music fastened to inside back cover. CD CONTENTS: Unreleased music by Devendra Banhart (3 songs), Henry Flynt, Steffen Basho-Junghans, the Mad Scene, the Lights, Dan Melchior, Ian Nagoski, World, Birdbrain, the Apes, Dead Science, the Robot Ate Me, the Blues Goblins, KRMTX,the Postal Service, Iron & Wine, Jolie Holland, Colin Meloy from the Decemberists (a Morrissey cover), Haley Bonar, the Dream Lovers and Timesbold, plus rare tracks by Washington Phillips and the Fruit Bats (during their incarnation as I, Rowboat). BOOK CONTENTS: Unpublished interview with William S. Burroughs conducted in 1997 by Alan "Love in Vain" Greenberg; R.J. Smith's discovery of a hard-boiled anonymous crime scene reporter from 1940s African-American Los Angeles; rad felt-tip drawings by Mark Dwinell from Bright; Erik Davis on "West Coast art and spiritual collage"; Naomi Yang on her design work; comics by Jeffrey Brown, Jason Miles, Souther Salazar and Carson Ellis; diaristic photo letters by Michael Galinsky; a selection of BloodNinja's finest AIM conversations; a 'lost' manifesto by Henry Flynt; many pages of photos of modern Vietnam by Charles Peterson; the editor's interview with a discharged marine who may or may not be conning him; the 9-page "Apes Guide to Apes" (where the band the Apes tells in picture form what it is like to be the Apes); Nate Lippens on Eileen Myles; a parable by Steve Arntson; interviews with Neko Case, Schneider TM, Devendra Banhart and Timesbold; plus Goldcard in conversation with the Blues Goblins (Sam from Quasi). Full page illustrations by some of today's most excellent graphic artists--Sammy Harkham, Carson Ellis, Jeffrey Brown, Jordan Crane, Eric Reynolds, Gregg Einhorn and E*Rock--accompany each article.

Where Are They Now Dept.

Mike Watt gives an update on "Edward" fromOhio...

edward was born and raised in toronto, ohio (in the east part of the state, near stuebenville).

he did roadie as well as tour manage, sling shirts and even play trumpet for southern culture on the skids for a while but stopped that last year. he put his own band grand national on hold too. he's working on some solo material now. we talk on the phone, seeing he lives in chapel hill, nc. much respect to edward!

Making up Band Names (the Albini Division)

If you remember, a few months ago I posted (and even got a few comments for once) on made-up band names

Among my faves were:

• Fuck Me Troubadour
• Murph's Bald Head
• Cider Runs Down Her Legs
• Elf Wing
• Play Freebird!
• Purdie's Tuba Company
• I Know, You Know, So Fuck It
• Crazyglue Remover
• Mr. Durso's Gym and Geometry School
• The Post-Partum Depression of Brooke Shields
• is there a...
• Neutron Bureaucrats
• The Fuji Period
• Balk
• The Party Celebrating the Destruction of the United States
  
• The Asian Hand Puppetry Booth
• A Yo La Tengo Cover Band

Steve Albini's Electrical.com forum had a similar contest - here were some of the better contenders -- they voted on best name and proving that Democracy once again sucks, the worst name (Police Teeth) won. Here are the ones that should have won:

• Are you there god? It’s me Danzig
• Ed Begley, Jr. and Solar-Powered Corolla
• tightest diaper
• people, hi-five the pope
• Fuck You and Your Impregnable Fortress!
• Diarrhea Piñata
• Test Fuck
• Practice Wife

Hilly interviewed by CourtTV

he's talking about franchising CBGBs to South America, Asia and, as previously reported, to Las Vegas. here's an interestin clip - full interview here.

Q: I'd like to name some bands who've played at CBGB and get your recollection on what you thought the first time you saw them perform.

A: Okay.

Q: The Talking Heads.

A: Love them.

Q: Even the first time you saw them?

A: I've always loved them. They're fantastic.

Q: Patti Smith.

A: Wonderful. She played here for a few weeks.

Q: Pearl Jam.

A: Great. They played a few times.

Q: AC/DC?

A: Very loud. They were great. Spinal Tap was also very good. They are excellent musicians

Q: Courtney Love.

A: Very unpleasant. I will never have her here again.

Never Came Home coming home?

One of the oldest MP3 blogs, Never Came Home, went silent last year. Cynical, irreverent and all that shite, it introdeuced me to the Selfish Cunt phenom. When it went silent, it was a big loss.

I just checked it and there's a message dated 11/25/05:

Friday, November 25, 2005

Fuck this. Coming soon hyperadar.com but in the meantime hyperader.blogsome.com

posted by Z* @ 11:43 AM

Of course in its true cryptic fashion, one can find either links. However this works.

Dave Brubeck is 85

Christopher Orlet pays tribute to Dave Brubeck on his 85th:

WITH THE DAVE BRUBECK Quartet jazz was for the first time embraced by a mainstream audience, largely due to the Quartet's appeal to white college kids. Critics, of course, considered such vulgar popularity a sign of weakness. "The jazz world likes to view itself as outsiders from popular culture," said jazz critic Ted Gioia. "And jazz people are always uneasy whenever one of the fraternity crosses over to this large public audience." Jazz musicians were uneasy too, suspicious of anything not sticking to the familiar Kansas City four-four. "You don't swing," Miles Davis once sneered at Brubeck. Later, Miles had to admit that Brubeck did in fact swing, but insisted his band didn't.

Of course Brubeck did swing, and he was cool, in the sense that Elvis Presley was cool. And William S. Burroughs and later Andy Warhol. In the sense that he was a creator, not an imitator. Uninterested in the pose of the sulky, anti-social tough-guy, Brubeck wanted to be cool on his own terms; a jazzman, yes, but an essentially decent human being too.

Two Weeks Worth of Stuff I Can't Afford But Will Probably Buy Anyway

?Yeah, for Christmas shopping, I'm gonna have to go to the dollar shop and buy everyone a coffee mug.

I missed an update last week so here's a super big one... first batch are from Forced Exposure.




VA (MATT GROENING): All Tomorrow's Parties: 3.1 CD (ATPR 016CD) 14.50
ATP's latest compilation, curated by The Simpsons/Futurama/Life In Hell-creator, Matt Groening. Featuring performers from the Groening-curated 2003 All Tomorrow's Parties festival, this release is a reflection of the artist's passion and dedication to music, as well as a tribute to his past history as a music critic for the L.A. Reader. This compilation features regular album tracks, as well as some rarities, including an unreleased Jackie-O Motherfucker track, and Sonic Youth's interpretation of The Simpsons theme, previously available only on the 1996 compilation Go Simpsonic With The Simpsons. The cover art and pull-out poster should please any die-hard Groening fan and the music within provides a reassuring appraisal of a group of artists that, even after years and years of work, still remain relevant and vital. Artists include: Sonic Youth, Iggy and The Stooges, The Magic Band, Spoon, The Shins, Modest Mouse, Elliott Smith, Daniel Johnston, The American Analog Set, Electrelane, Deerhoof and Jackie-O Motherf***er.





ARTHUR: #20 January 2006 MAG (ARTHUR 020) 0.01
On the cover: SunnO))): Blacker Sabbath: Doombringers SunnO))) and Earth Journey Into The Void. Features: "I'm Just Saying" - New Orleans filmmaker Henry Griffin returns to the Ninth Ward; musician Alan Bishop listens to the Buddha Machine; "Business is Good" - by Douglas Rushkoff; "Under a Blanket" - Somewhere amidst the music-box plinkings, plangent strings and percolating drones of Colleen's music is Cecele Schott"; "Dr. Moustache and the Egyptian Gentleman" - American journalist/photographer Daniel Chamberlain concludes his travels in the Middle East with a journey through Syria and a return visit to Egypt; "A Deeper Shade of Doom" - How do the drone-metal bands Earth and SunnO))) get something out of nothingness?; "The Whole Enchilada" - David Lynch talks about Transcendental Meditation with Kristine McKenna. Plus: reviews by Byron Coley and Thurston Moore. Arthur is a free publication and you may add a copy to your order at no cost while supplies last




CARIBOU: Marino CD/DVD (DNO 072CD) 15.00
"For those of you lucky enough to have caught the Caribou live experience as it ploughed through North America, you were treated to an audio-visual experience to be remembered. And now you don't even have to do that, because now you can take it home with you. Marino contains over 60 minutes of visual and audio content taken directly from said tour. The videos featured were made by Dublin's Delicious 9 outfit, who have made all the visual content for the previous Manitoba and Caribou tours. Most of the images in the videos were hand-drawn and colored later on the computer and then meticulously pieced together alongside the kaleidoscopic swirl of electronics and the double drummer attack that is the live Caribou experience."

JANE: COcOnuts CD (PSP 012CD) 13.00
"Coconuts is a second official release by Jane, the duo made up of Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear of Animal Collective) and DJ Scott Mou (aka Queens). Recorded in 2002, Coconuts introduces the sound of the duo's early days -- the title track was made during Jane's first meeting. It was originally self-released as a limited edition CD-R. Psych-o-Path is proud to see this work through its first official release. A musical union that spawned from a mutual love of dance music has evolved into a sonic manifestation of a collective unconscious, one that eludes all conventional perceptions regarding what can be accomplished compositionally through the use of a turntable, mixer, keyboard and effects. Lennox and Mou relish in the freedom of home recording, calling upon the cooperation of the viscera and cerebrum in the listener, with two psychedelic jams. Through repetition and transcendence, these pieces form an erratic tide, straddling cohesion and sprawling, intently refusing to choose between the two. On COcOnuts, Mou and Lennox serve to challenge preconceived notions involving the constituents of psychedelic music. The overwhelming presence of sweat-drenched stringed instrumentation is noticeably absent. In it's place is percussion that is both pulsating and skeletal (achieved through Mou's masterful manipulation of the turntable), awash with keyboards and effects, joined by Lennox's mournful, amorphous vocals. The link between these musical mediums and the realm of psychedelia is indulgence. The abscesses of the Id are gracefully confronted and pondered. The ego, and its desire for instant gratification, has been swept up in this ocean of sound. Trusting is with its weight, it chooses not to swim against the tide, but float with it, and allow itself to be carried where this acoustic sea considers fit."

Via a BOMP!Records

GALAXIE 500 - PEEL SESSIONS Following up their
new full-length, The Earth Is Blue, on their new
20/20/20 label, DAMON & NAOMI have assembled the
rare, often-bootlegged, GALAXIE 500 Peel
Sessions, which capture the group at the height
of their abilities and feature a selection of the
band's personal favorites, along with some
unexpected cover songs. Includes both Peel
Sessions, recorded September 24th, 1989 and
October 30th, 1990 respectively. Wonderful. (GW
pick) import CD $15

Via Aquarius Records:

FURSAXA "Amulet" (Last Visible Dog) cd 11.98
Over the past couple of years, Tara Burke
(aka Fursaxa) has entrenched herself as a
mystical queen for the free-folk crowd,
channelling the disaffected sorrow of Nico as
well as the transcendent visions of 12th Century
abbess Hildegard von Bingen. On her previous
recordings, Burke sewed together her albums from
short vignettes of narcoleptic folk songs,
typically in the form of monotone lullabies in
which her resonant voice radiated through
stoned-and-droned acoustic guitar strum and / or
farfisa arrangements. So it's very rare to finds
a Fursaxa song that clocks in at anything longer
than 3 minutes, which curiously is ample time for
her to hypnotise her audience with her utterly
compelling songs. Amulet, thus, is a bit of a
detour from the collections of shortened songs as
she offers four extended pieces of sprawling
drones built out of delay-pedal loops. On the
first couple of tracks, it's Burke's voice that
takes center stage, spiralling into a hypnotic
set of oscillating patterns, mossy psychedelic
chants harkening back to the dark ages. She
accentuates these tracks with occasional
interludes for flutes and hand bells. On one of
the final tracks on Amulet, Burke sets forth on a
slow-motion acoustic guitar renditition of a
Glenn Branca symphony, aiming for nothing more
than transcendent hypnotic monotone. Beautiful,
beautiful, beautiful!


Via insound.com:

The Pink Mountain Tops
The Ones I Love/Erected (2005)

VINYL FORMAT. From the battlefield to the bedroom, we all need a little loving. Sex, war, rock'n'roll. A history of arms. Let the hard times roll into the strawberry fields, baby! Black Mountain singer and vocalist Stephen McBean gives us twno new Songs, in anticipation of the new Pink Mountaintops' full-length to come out early 2006.

7" Our Price: $4.40

Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice
The Flood (2005)

NYC psych-folk masters Wooden Wand return with their most realized record to date. Fans of the new psych underground will be really excited. Fans of Devendra Banhart, Animal Collective, and Johanna Newsom will not be disappointed.

CD Our Price: $13.99

Xgau reviews Double Fantasy

We haven't picked on old Senile Bob lately but here he is taking time out of his colostomy bag rotation to take part in the creepy media's "memorializing" of John "I'm just a bitter guy" Lennon on his deathday anniversary to settle an old score with Ira Kaplan over an obscure comment in an obscure newspaper:

Ira Kaplan of the band Yo La Tengo wrote in the SoHo News that the Dec. 7, 1980, suicide of Darby Crash of the Germs, a Los Angeles punk band, was a more important death than Lennon's.

"I thought that comment was obscene," says Robert Christgau, chief music critic for the Village Voice and a music writer since 1967.

"A lot of people were not excited about Double Fantasy [the album Lennon released just before his death], but I thought it was a great record. Was Lennon's solo work more important than the Beatles'? No. But the Beatles were the greatest rock band of all time, and they set an impossibly high bar."

I always thought the Beatles were a great pop band and a bit over-rated as a rock band.

Rollins Returns to Radio

Here's a nice present for the Christmas tree:

Henry Rollins and his show Harmony In My Head back on Indie 103.1 Tuesday nights 8-10 pm, starting December 27, 2005.

Hello. I am happy to announce that I will be back on Indie 103.1 with my show, Harmony In My Head, on Tuesday nights from 8 to 10 pm West Coast Time starting 12-27-05 (a year to the day we shut ‘er down last year).

Recently my manager told me that the Indie folks asked if I wanted to be back on the station, and seeing I was going to be in town fairly often in the next several months, I thought about it for about for half a second and said yes.

For those of you who listened to the show last year: It’s more of the same. All kinds of music and commentary and, of course, there will be visits from Heidi Almighty. The Harmony In My Head site, www.harmonyinmyhead.com, will be back up with all the annotated notes and the show can be streamed from the Indie site: www.indie1031.fm. I am presently working on the play list for broadcast #1 and it’s going to be a good one! The show wouldn’t be the real deal if Engineer X wasn’t there with me so I asked him if he could do it and he can so we’re back at full strength! If you liked the notes from the show last year, an expanded version of them is available as a book called Fanatic! available from www.21361.com.

Noel: Coca-Cola Jack is "Zorro on doughnuts"

LONDON - Noel Gallagher has berated White Stripes' frontman Jack White for writing a song for a Coke ad, saying it was as bad as doing an ad for McDonald's.

White revealed last month that he accepted Coca-Cola's invitation to write a song "along one theme of love in a worldwide form" for an ad, and Noel is not impressed.

The Oasis guitarist told the NME: "Jack White has just written a song for Coca-Cola. End of. He ceases to be in the club. And he looks like Zorro on doughnuts, I don't believe in adverts. He's meant to be the posterboy for the alternative way of thinking.

"Coca-Cola man. Fucking hell. And OK, you want to spread your message of peace and love, but do us all a fucking favour. I'm just not having it. It's like doing a fucking gig for McDonald's."

Gallagher also said he did not believe in ads and did not need the cash. However, Noel and his brother Liam are believed to be pocketing a six-figure sum from Toshiba for endorsing its 803 MP3 mobile phone.