Brainwaves Videos

Here are some videos I shot at the Brainwaves Festival.

Strategy - Awesome Piano II (unreleased)
There's a couple of seconds that got clipped from the end, but you get the general idea.



Meat Beat Manifesto - Return To Bass (from Autoimmune)

Yoshi Wada - Lament For The Rise And Fall Of The Elephantine Crocodile

Yoshi Wada - Singing


A record like this doesn't come along very often. First of all, it's one that I am ridiculously excited about. Something I could listen to all day long. But there's something stopping me, you see. And that something is my wife. That's the other reason this is such a rare record. Elise and I hardly disagree on music. I mean, she doesn't always want to listen to the things I do but she at least respects them/doesn't hate them. And for us to be so separated in our views on Yoshi Wada's Lament For The Rise And Fall Of The Elephantine Crocodile can only mean one thing. It's that fucking good.

Two 30 minute tracks recorded in an empty swimming pool in 1981. The first one (titled "Singing") is made entirely of Wada's vocals, echoing and resonating throughout the pool. It starts out kinda scary, like you're entering The Temple Of Doom or something. But it rises and falls (sorry) and looses the eerie feeling, turning into something much more relaxing and transformative. I'm sure all sorts of fancy technical music terms could be used to describe how awesome this is but all I took was Intro To Music, so I'll just let Wada do the talking. (from the liner notes) "My concern is with the timbre and tuning of the multiple chords which enable me to evolve my improvisational singing and the mode in progression." If those words aren't good enough for you, then just listen to the song. This is truly a piece you need to hear for yourself as it's one that defies categorization.

And then there's the second track, "Bagpipe." Wada created his own bagpipe (originally called "An adapted bagpipe with sympathy") out of plumbing fittings and pipes, pumped with a large air compressor. What comes out is a beautiful almost static drone, with flitterings of high notes coming in and out of focus. It's gorgeous.

I can't recommend The Elephantine Crocodile enough. It's something so unique and wonderful, it really shouldn't be missed.

Catch Of The Week: Black Friday

Johnny Foreigner - Salt, Pepper, And Spinderella (from Waited Up Til It Was Light)

First of all, this is the best name for a song. I'm not quite sure what part of this song gets stuck in my head. I think it's the "Are ya hungry now? Are ya hungry now?" Or maybe it's the "cheap plastic seats" part. I dunno. It doesn't matter. I just love this song. And you know what? I love the whole album, too. It's got kind of a Pretty Girls Make Graves feeling to it. Except a little bit edgier. And it's just fucking super energetic. YEAH!



Max Tundra - Which Song (from Parallax Error Beheads You)

Is it even possible to get a Max Tundra song stuck in your head? Answer: Of course! His music may be all weird and wonky but even the weirdest stuff can be strangely catchy. The problem in this case is I have no idea what he's actually saying. I just kinda hum the melody in my head even though I know I'm way off key. "Which Song" is totally cool and it makes me wanna dance like Prince.



The Dodos - Joe's Waltz (from Visiter)
Link removed.

It seems like I'm a sucker for waltzes. It must be the 1-2-3, 1-2-3, rhythm/beat thing. I say this only because I absolutely love Built To Spill's "Velvet Waltz" and now here I am again, loving yet another waltz. This song is so rocking and kinda head banging. So fucking intense, with those urgent drums and yelling. "You neeeeed help! You neeeeed help!" I need to listen to this song again. Just one more time.

Mega Popular = No Downloads

So now I'm on Hypemachine and Elbows and instantly the bandwith on my free file hosting service got sucked dry. That means you can't listen to or download everything on my blog. Only stuff from the early days when I hosted files on Google Pages and everything new from here on out. My sincerest apologies to all. My bandwith on File Den gets reset in 20 days so until then, you're all shit outta luck.

What that means now is I'm using a new file hosting service that I have to pay for. Shitty, I know. So Anti-Gravity Bunny is officially costing money. Luckily for you, I'm still devoted enough to keep on truckin.

An Aqua Teen Hunger Force Thanksgiving

An ATHF Thanksgiving


Aqua Teen Hunger Force Enhanced was a promo CD we got at the radio station I used to work at. It's got a couple of actual songs on it, with the rest of the 60 tracks being clips from the show and radio spots. I've never seen any info about this online but I assure you it's a legit CD and not just some hack job I compiled with audio edited out of the show. And because today is a day of thanks AND giving, I thought I'd give you all the chance to download this strange and hilarious Aqua Teen CD.

Everyone should take a cue from Meatwad and invite their mean, balding neighbor over for dinner even though he's a grump.

Download Aqua Teen Hunger Force Enhanced

Thursday / Envy Split

Envy - An Umbrella Fallen Into Fiction

Envy - Isolation Of A Light Source

Envy - Pure Birth And Loneliness


Thursday sucks. I never liked 'em. Envy, on the other hand....Envy is tits. I wasn't going to by this record. You know, vinyl only, 1000 copies, hand numbered, all that jazz, I figured I'll let the real Thursday and Envy nerds go for this one. But a friend of mine accidentally bought two and, well, now I have myself a copy.

Now out of the 4 Thursday songs on here, one is pretty decent but it's only good because they're trying to sound like Envy. But whatever, Envy's got 3 songs on this split and because of that I'll still call it an awesome record. This new Envy stuff is fucking hard and epic. I can't get enough of it. I don't know how you feel, but I'm of the opinion that a lot of Envy songs sound quite a bit like other Envy songs. And usually that's a bad thing but not in this case. Envy's got such a cool thing going that it doesn't really matter to me.

I feel bad for all of you Envy fans out there who, like me, don't give a shit about Thursday and would never buy this record. So I'll put up all 3 of the Envy songs here for your listening pleasure for a little while.

Brainwaves Pics

Here are a bunch of pictures I took at Brainwaves. You can see more over in the Brainwaves Festival set on my Flickr.


Silver Apples


Major Stars


Rivulets


Jonathan Coleclough heating glass and sampling the sound it makes when it cracks.


Threshold HouseBoys Choir


Matmos


Nudge


Strategy


Lichens


To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie


Stars Of The Lid

Notable Bits From Brainwaves Festival

Obama on drums

*Was there no heat in the Regent Theater? Wtf. I had frozen toes for 3 days.

*The merch tables. Ooooooh the merch tables. Tempting the music junkies with their rare wares. Damn you Mimaroglu!

*Lots of pretty projections.

*The only standing ovation was for the first band that played. Manorexia. My guess is that people realized shit, we're gonna have to give standing o's to everyone if we keep this up. So, yeah, no more ovations after that.

*The Silver Apples dude is old. And still awesome. The record label wanted him to record a "psychedelic" song. His idea was that the way kids think is "pretty psychedelic", so he wrote a kids song called "Purple Egg" which goes "I found a purple egg in the ukulele bush and the Carrot Lady said come in and play."

*Meat Beat Manifesto's projection that had Barrack Obama's face superimposed on a drummer.

*Glenn Jones making his one guitar sound like 5.

*I'm pretty sure the Rivulets dude was pissed at his drummer the whole time.

*Gary Wilson....?

*Papa Gino's!

*Weirdest performance all weekend goes to Little Annie. That woman was just too weird.

*Jonathan Coleclough heated a pane of glass with a tiny blowtorch. And made music out of it. And became my hero in the process. Best performance of Brainwaves.

*Holy shit Threshold HouseBoys Choir (aka Peter Christopherson of Throbbing Gristle, Coil, etc) is terrifying. The music sounded like the kind of thing he would listen to while he was either making or watching snuff films. And the videos he played on his TV were creeeepy. Asian porn edited so it was just dude's faces. And weird piercing/self mutilation stuff. All in super slo-mo.

*The short guy in Matmos coming out after their set and doing a cover of some song, possibly Coil.

*Hey, did you know Windy Weber looks like a prettier version of Phyllis from The Office?

*Strategy playing a couple of songs with Nudge.

*Strategy saying, "Whoops, I put in the wrong tape.....Oh no! My tape player crashed!"

*The Boduf Songs dudes make the most depressing fucking music.

*Lichens doing an all vocal performance and totally blowing me away. That man is amazing.

*The Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie was pretty rocking. Didn't expect that.

*Papa Gino's! And 3 free slices!

*Stars Of The Lid live just makes want to curl up in a ball and cry.

Vacay

out brainwavesin'. bbl.

Catch Of The Week: Video Edition

Jesus. Christ. This song is fucking catchy. Not to mention awesome. Gotta love those keyboards. And the video is great too. All of that drawing. And morphing. That's some pretty sweet stuff. And that bubble effect during the guitar solo? Hawt.

Chromeo - Momma's Boy

Turtle Ambulance

OK, so there's these dudes. Two dudes to be precise. And they make music. You with me so far? Alright, and they call themselves Turtle Ambulance (TMNT reference perhaps? I fuckin hope so!). Now here's the kicker...they have a MySpace page where you can actually listen to their music. Crazy, I know.

So these Turtle Ambulance guys actually make really good music. Stuff that I like to listen to and maybe you would like to listen to. It's loopy and hypnotic and maybe even a little dancy. Also super-duper awesome. Kinda reminds me a little bit of Polmo Polpo and do I love me some Polmo Polpo. Especially the track "Swirly Slide." Very Polpo-esque. I highly recommend giving these guys a listen. I know it means you'll have to actually click a link to go to another page instead of just listening to an embedded clip on my blog but you know what? This time it's worth it.

They'll be playing a show in Cambridge soon (December 2) at TT's with some other way cool bands. Many Mansions, Truman Peyote, and Guatemala City share the bill. I saw Truman Peyote play with Black Dice at MassArt a few months back (click here to see a video of it) and it was the shit. So I guarantee this'll be one helluva good time.

MP3: The Mojomatics - Wait A While

The Mojomatics - Wait A While


This duo is Italy's answer to stuff like The White Stripes and The Last Shadow Puppets. It's got MojoMatt singing/playing guitar/harmonica and DavMatic drumming stuff. And so together they make up The Mojomatics. Heh. Geddit? Anyway, they got the bluesy energy infused garage rock deal going on and it's definitely working for them. And it works for me too. Some sweet tunes on their new album Don't Pretend That You Know Me. I'm especially digging the single/album opener "Wait A While." It's totally danceable and makes me feel a bit like a matador. Not in the "I fuck around with and kill bulls" way, though. More like "I wear super snazzy clothes and get to wave a huge red blanket around" way. That doesn't make me gay, does it?

Tim Fite Video

Yeah boyyyyy another Tim Fite post. This time it's a video for "Big Mistake" and oh man is it awesome. It's got this dude lying in a hospital bed, telling stories to this kid about all of the stupid ways he fucked up his life. Mostly due to animal related things. Shark attack? Check. Bird attack? Check. Tiger attack? More checks than you can handle! But the end is the best. And really weird. The Reaper tappin his toes kills me.

Parts & Labor - Receivers

Parts & Labor - Wedding In A Wasteland


Receivers is fucking awesome. I love Parts & Labor. They can do no wrong. Yeah, their sound changed a bit. But what did you want? Some stagnant dudes playing the same shit over and over again? Everyone loves the whole harmonious-wall-of-sound-pop thing and Parts & Labor have fully embraced that on their newest. Seriously though, if you like Parts & Labor, you'll like Receivers. And if you've never listened to them before, what the fuck are you waiting for?

Millipede - Hyrule

Millipede - Mirror Of Twilight


I'm crying right now knowing I'll never own a copy of this. Hyrule is Millipede's (aka Joseph Davenport) amazing and currently free for download noise homage to Zelda. There have been a total of 50 copies made up (originally 20 on CD-R, then 30 on cassette) but everything's way beyond sold out. Doesn't mean you can't listen to it, though. You can download the whole thing right here. Legally.

Hyrule contains songs with names like "Midna" and "Mirror Of Twilight" but you won't find any covers of video game music here. Instead, Millipede uses the Zelda games as inspiration to create totally bitchin noise records. But noise is a pretty generic term these days. I know. So what kind of noise does Millipede make? It's something along the lines of Yellow Swans (close to the end of their career) and really harsh My Bloody Valentine. Then throw in some Skullflower for good measure. It's mostly feedback laden guitar squalls but (like all good music) has additional layers of beauty unfurling underneath the nightmare.

Regardless of whether or not Millipede makes Zelda themed music, the results are nonetheless stellar. Because truthfully, you could listen to this and never hear anything remotely Zelda related unless you read the song or album titles. But knowing that I'm listening to a noise record called Hyrule just makes it that much better. I just wish I had some sort of Zelda-noise-radar that alerted me to when this was originally released.

Expanding The Family

Adopted a hedgehog today. Check it out.

Titus Andronicus Video

Whoa. OK. This video for the self-titled song (hate that, btw) by Titus Andronicus is pretty bad. The song itself is awesome. Love it. And their debut full length, The Airing Of Grievances? Also awesome. But this video is cheap and boring. Harsh, I know. But when a band shoots a music video and it's just them playing on a stage, I think it's a cop out. Yeah, maybe it shows off the primal dance urges that may result from seeing them live, but it's not fun to watch online. For a good example of a cheap video that's actually good, check out Hot Lava's latest.

MP3: Tim Fite - If You Please

Tim Fite - If You Please


Yay! More free Tim Fite stuff! Don't you dare complain about too much Tim Fite on AGB or I just might make this a straight up Fite fan site. Anyway, "If You Please" is a previously unreleased song that Tim did as part of his second Daytrotter Session. It's "a song about the emotional benefits of cloning" and it's slow and pretty, just like Mr. Fite himself. Go ahead, give it a listen.

Hot Lava Video

Hot! Lava! Here's their video for "Brainex." Super fun, lo-fi, gritty, poppy, and pretty much everything else I love. The video isn't gonna win any awards but they probably only spent 10 bucks making it. So they're cool in my book. Found via The Walrus.

Tim Fite - Ding Dong Ditch

Tim Fite - RAW


Tim Fite is tha man. Love him to death. I especially love that he treats his fans to a free Halloween EP every year. Well, when I say every year, I mean he started last year with It's Only Ketchup and did it again this year, releasing Ding Dong Ditch. So lets just hope he keeps that up.

His Halloween EPs are a lot of fun. Ding Dong Ditch sounds like your regular Fite run through a '70s disco-funk filter and then mixed with Kraftwerk and some Goblin. So in other words, Tim Fite has made another amazing record.

Simply by the very nature of Ditch (short and free), you shouldn't go in expecting a full-blown well-constructed uber-professional record. It has a little bit in common with Just For You, which is the more experimental side of Fite. But that's OK. I promise. Because no matter what Tim Fite makes, he always delivers the goods.

With such a short record, it seems like every song is a highlight. The cheesy, slow burning, sad bastard "Dead Girl Walking" is hilarious. And then there's "RAW" where Fite sings, "We don't need no fire; eat the mother fucker raw! Raw mother fucker! Raw!" At just over 16 minutes, Ding Dong Ditch definitely leaves you wanting more. But hey, when it's free, you can't really complain.

Both Ding Dong Ditch and It's Only Ketchup are still available to download on Tim Fite's website right now. I don't know who long they'll stay up (last year it was only up for one day), so get while the gettin's good.

The Record Exchange: November 9th

Went to the local record shop today. The Record Exchange is a nice place. It's not usually the kind of place you'd go to buy a new album (although they do get new stuff every week) but they have a nice selection of used vinyl and CDs. I go every once in a while hoping to find some used cheap records but today's trip yielded some sweet results that are definitely worth mentioning.

I found copies of Air's The Virgin Suicides Soundtrack, N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton, Brian Eno's Music For Films, and my personal favorite, Rapeman's Two Nuns And A Pack Mule. The best part is, they were all 5 bucks. Fucking awesome!

That Rapeman record is one I've been meaning to pick up forever but never got around to it/never found it anywhere. Man, if I'd have known how awesome it is, I would have gotten it a lot sooner and not worried about how much it cost.

I would just like to take a moment to thank Steve Albini for all of his amazing super genius powers and let everyone know that I think he is the epitome of cool. Honestly, he seems like the coolest person ever. And it doesn't matter who else he's playing with; as soon as he throws down those inimitable scratchy vocals and punk-as-fuck guitars, I'm swooning.

Staples: Jacob Berendes - Foreign Policy

Jacob Berendes - Parakeet Illnesses


Jacob Berendes - Hello Kitty Guitar


Staples is a feature about, you guessed it, staples in my music diet. Albums that no matter how (im)perfect they are, or how old or new they are, I always come back to them because they're that awesome.

A little known guy from the Providence area (I think) who is quite multitalented. I'm not very knowledgeable about his other talents, though. Only his musical ones. But boy oh boy does this Jacob Berendes guy have some serious chops.

Foreign Policy is one of his few records and you know what? I fucking love it. It's one of those records I put on when I'm in the mood for some seriously peppy music. But not the dancey kind. More like the kind that I want to sing really loud to. Jacob's lyrics are so catchy and light hearted, even if they're about sad things (which is pretty much every other song), that you want to sing every one of them. "H. E. L. L. Ooooo. And I say hello! Hello Kitty never looks away she's always watching you. But it's not creepy, it's kind of nice."

I'd rank Berendes up with the likes of Jeffrey Lewis and The Moldy Peaches. His sense of humor fits right in with theirs and the music is acoustic and super lo-fi. It sounds like when he recorded the album, he took his guitar and put it right next to a 10 cent mic he bought at a garage sale and played as loud as he could. The songs are totally blown out in the red fun.

You know how I do those Catch Of The Week posts every now and then? Well, this entire album gets stuck in my head all the time. The first words, especially. The opening track, "JLA Dreamer" starts out "My name is John Jones. You can call me John Jones. I'm a cop by trade. Oh ohoh." That gets stuck in my head all the time. And one of my favorite song lyrics ever comes from "Parakeet Illnesses." "All of my insecurities get in the way of his birdities." Awesome.

Seriously, I can't get enough of Foreign Policy. I've never bothered looking for other Berendes records but if they're anything like this, it's very possible there's a hidden musical genius living in New England.

Smash Palace

It's time for everyone to get excited. Ready? GO!

Semata Productions (run by Ricardo Donoso) and Tautology Productions (run by David Gross) are putting on a 3 day noise event right here in Boston and they're calling it Smash Palace (totally unrelated to Sharon O'Neill's album...I think). It'll be held at the Cambridge YMCA (820 Mass Ave) from December 4th through the 6th. And hot damn! The line up is something dreams are made up featuring some truly kick ass noise gurus.

Thursday night there's Human Hairs, Moshimoshiiamthedecider, Ouest and someone TBA (possibly Red Horse, fuck yes!).

Friday night's got Mcguire/Jefferson, Asher, Perispirit, and the man himself, Keith Fullerton Whitman.

Saturday runs all day with Ophibre, Forbes Graham, Karlheinz, and Jed Speare/Jason Lescalleet doing the matinee set and Zerfallt, Stillbirth, The BSC, and Heathen Shame rounding out the evening set.

Wow. Just...wow. These are going to be three days of sheer awesomeness. Tickets are 10 bucks per event or 20 for a three day pass (25 if bought at the door). TWENTY DOLLARS for 16 bands. I'll do the math for you. That's a buck and a quarter for each performance. You will never ever find something so cheap and so mind blowing than Smash Palace. I can't fucking wait.

More info on the Smash Palace website and tickets can be bought from Weirdo Records.

Guitar Hero Is Awesome

Some really great bands are on the new Guitar Hero (of which I am a huge fan). But OMG this song is wicked fun to play. Love. IT.

Silversun Pickups - Lazy Eye



And this one's pretty cool too.

At The Drive-In - One Armed Scissor

FUCK YEAH

Clutchy Hopkins - The Life Of Clutchy Hopkins

Clutchy Hopkins - 3:02

Clutchy Hopkins - 3:24


I can't tell you a thing about Clutchy Hopkins because no one really knows who he is. Oh, there are plenty of theories (DJ Shadow, Madlib, Beastie Boys, some random genius) but the truth is, his identity is unknown. There's lots of mystery behind this guy, like where his records came from (someone found them in the bottom of a bargain bin at a tag sale sorta thing) and who's met him but it kinda seems like it might be a Blair Witchian hoax. Make up an elaborate story, get other people to think they've heard it before, ask around, create a buzz, and BAM. You got yourself Clutchy Hopkins. But who knows, maybe this guy is for real. Maybe he's just a reclusive dude who knows how to make some sweet tunes.

Clutchy Hopkins is, to me, the perfect example why you never say, "Oh, I like all kinds of music. Except (fill in the blank). Yeah, I don't like that." 'Cause The Life Of Clutchy Hopkins is what I've told myself I don't like. It's cheesy, jazzy, R&B elevator music type stuff. But it's fucking great.

OK, so there are a couple of tracks on here that make me think, "Do I actually like this or am I just buying into the whole 'Clutchy' thing?" (The verdict is still out. Especially on the opening song.) But more often than not, the songs are out of this world. Super groovy and hypnotic, sometimes totally foreign sounding and others coming straight out of an American movie from the '70s. And there are some killer beats on this record. It's all instrumental and perfect the way it is but I wonder if someone will (or already has) chopped it up and threw in some lyrics. It's only a matter of time before that happens.

Please do yourself a favor and give Clutchy a chance. I don't care if you believe the rumors surrounding this guy or if you're the type to write off all music from a certain genre, just listen to a couple songs from this record.

There is another album out, as well, (Walking Backwards) and the CD version comes with a DVD chronicling the riddle of Clutchy which I have yet to see. It may be legit but again, it's hard to tell whether the people involved are sincere or just really good liars.