June 2005
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June 29, 2005
BEHIND THE WALL OF HAZE
JAZZHAMMER. PRESENTS:
BEHIND THE WALL OF HAZE
a primer of the new generation of psychedelic rock
72M 26S
01 Dead Meadow - Golden Cloud
02 Dead Meadow - Me and the Devil Blues
03 Comets On Fire - Whiskey River
04 Major Stars - Song For Turner
05 Surface To Eceon - The Open Sea
06 Bardo Pond - Every Man
07 Six Organs Of Admittance - On Returning Home
08 Acid Mothers Temple - Universe of Romance
09 Sun O)) - Rabbits' Revenge
Behind The Wall Of Haze
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To mark my [hopeful] return to my site, I made a mix of psychedelic guitar rock (a.k.a. stoner rock) for you alls. I think it is a good way of reintroducing myself since I guess if I were forced to pick a genre that I fall back on, it would have to be this one.
This compilation starts of with a two parter from Dead Meadow, one of my favorite rock bands these days. As will be seen with a great portion of the tracks, the affirmative influence of heavy psychedelic rock fore-fathers, Black Sabbath is only the beginning. Dead Meadow display the most straight forward blend of solid Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd fueled psychedelic rock of all the bands covered on this compilation. Yet the results are still refreshing and show that this genre still has a few more tokes left.
Comets of Fire (which sometimes features Ben Chasny --who is Six Organs of Admittance) come in with a bombast that is straight up MC5 --The cannibus-inspired political rock jesters of the 1960s.
Next up is my local darlings, Major Stars. Once you hear this monster, there is nothing much else to say. Dueling guitar solos by both Wayne and Kate and plenty of feedback fun for the whole family.
Surface to Eceon come in with their Northwest blend of Space Rock. Complete with a concept of reaching the surface of Eceon, a planet millions of miles high above earth with some dragons and shit. Rad.
Bardo Pond, probably the hardest working and most underrated band in this compilation come in with a beauty from their last record. Formally associated with the 90s Psychedelphia scene, they put out some great records on Matador and now are on the All Tomorrows Party label which was specially created to put this and the Magic Band's new record. A psilcybin inspired, hazy and eerie folk and feedback laden beauty featuring vocals from the leading lady of psych-rock.
As previously mentioned, one of the darlings of psychedelic music today is the John Fahey and Raga educated Ben Chasny. He is a talented young guitar player who rocks out with Comets on Fire and does his own thing as Six Organs of Admittance. His albums usually contain acid folk, raga, ambient drone and he excels in them all. For more of the Raga and Folky Psych, check out Jack Rose and Glen Jones. (And also do hear the father of American Guitar Raga, John Fahey) Ben also touches upon the stylings of the Free Folk Scene which includes Tower Recordings, Jackie O' Motherfucker and No Neck Blues Band.
Acid Mothers Temple come to us from Japan. Having seemingly put out almost 100 records in the past couple of years, and not to mention that they try almost every combination of Psychedelic Rock possible --from drone to heavy metal to Ghostish traditional japanese psych, it is hard to pick something. I decided to put out a straightforward piece that shows them doing a simple whizzing and buzzing noise technique over some softspoken feedback often heard in this type of music. I think it comes off well.
Finally we reach Sun O)), named after the famous amps of the same name. Critics can say that they are a great Earth revivalist band but I just say lets end the night here, with Sub-Bass Doom Rock.
Posted by Fran at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 21, 2005
MAJOR STARS 4
So I guess I deserve this since I have been hesitant to write for a while. Bitchfork finally reviews the last Major Stars record. Which came out ...a fucking long time ago. Way to keep the hipsters up to date. Anyways, This has been my jam for a while and I swear I was gonna write about it and the Twisted Village scene. I actually wanted to write a nice piece on it (I have the notes if you want to see) since December but my life has lead me astray from my sweet, sweet psychedelic past. Substitute the score with a 9.3 and you kind of got what I wanted to say. Talk about a long disrespected band and scene. They are currently on hiatus right now unfortunately, but if you do happen to see that they playing a show near you (Good luck, not-Boston), do your undeserving ass a favor and catch them. Wayne and Kate will tear you a new asshole in yer ear with their elecric guitars. Plus, you'll see plenty great rock stances. Don't forget to wear ear-plugs.
So, let me explain my lack of updates...
I am in the middle or a reorganization of my life. I am trying to decide what direction I am heading in and when I am gonna get off my ass to do it. This blog is something I would defintely like to keep but not in its current state. Music blogs are already stale. Even the ones I like such as ::cough:: XXXX XXX XXXXX ::cough:: and XX XXX XXXX XXXXXX are becoming nothing more than just a band name drop of the day.
Basically, If I am gonna do this, I am gonna do this right. It just happens to be really hard to figure out how to do it right. It seems like all blogs are talking about music these days. I love kottke.org, but hearing him talk about music and film makes me cringe. And I can't really say leave it to the professionals since they aren't doing that much of a better job. (I miss WOEBOT. with all my heart.) It just seems like everything is basically an allmusic.com type deal where people look up a record and if it scores a certain point, they will get it. LAME! But then, a lot of people I totally respect ignore the internet all together, but then again, they are usually musicians who are far too busy to even bother keeping up with the latest DFA 12".
So back to my site, I don't want to be pretentious and tell you about some new band in town thats cooler than whats on Pitchfork since A. Thats too easy B. Thats not what this is about. I guess something I do like about what I have written is that (atleast with the original older stuff) it is somewhat personal. As it should be. Please remember that I am a complete nerd and that I am just trying to write about what I can't help rambling about. Musical taste is a journey and should not be guided to be cool or even to relate to others. HA! (So go ahead and play your Postal Service record if you want, I won't judge.)
So if you are still reading this site, then bear with me as I experiment and learn to project my thoughts better. I promise a new mix by the end of the week.
Now turn off your computer and go to Twisted Village and buy Major Stars 4 from Wayne. Your problems will melt away in syrupy feedback and will forget that sometimes life can be daunting and that you have some important decisions coming up. You will realize that rock and roll can fix all your problems and that instead of worrying about your own complexes and pretentions you can focus on improving your air guitar technique. Yes, you can do all of this --atleast until the record ends.
Plus, Wayne's a nice guy.
Posted by Fran at 09:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)