The Idealist - I Am The Fire (Nosordo, 2006)

The Idealist - The Cranium


It sounds like capital punishment via an electric room, which would be similar to the electric chair except this room would be more like a Tesla laboratory and you'd die from lethal amounts static electricity.

Full review on diskant.

Goat Of Arms at Weirdo Records

I had no idea Goat Of Arms had such a following. When I went to Weirdo to see Steve Norton, there were only 6 people in the whole room. Last night when Goat Of Arms played it was the exact opposite. There must've been 20 to 30 bodies squished into this tiny closet sized record store along with a whole drum kit. It was very, um, intimate.

The band brought a large tray of chocolates that they handed out to the audience (which seemed to consist mostly of everyone who knew everyone else). There were also some Tofutti Cuties being passed around (peanut butter ftw!). Somebody brought their dog. It was more like a party or cookout with friends than a proper "concert." And that just made it all the more pleasant.

So Goat Of Arms are a girl/girl accordion/drum duo. Imagine an accordion accompanied to some percussion. That's pretty much what Goat Of Arms sounds like. It's nothing surprising or out of the ordinary. Not to dis their music or anything. They're fucking great. They play wonderfully charming minimal, slightly foreign sounding tunes that I haven't heard from the likes of anyone else (partially because they're the only accordion/drum duo I know of). It was entirely acoustic (anything else would've been madness) with most of the drums and cymbals having some sort of padding to soften the blow. The drummer would occasionally sing in Spanish, doing the whole aye-aye-aye yelping thing. It sounded like it had been a while since they last played live, with the sporadic slip-up in timing & synchronization and the periodical mis-starts but that all added to the semi-uncouth magic of the evening.

One of the highlights was halfway through their set, some kid walking by on the sidewalk shimmying his way through the front door to sneak one of the chocolates left right by the doorway. I don't know who he belonged to or how the hell he knew there was free chocolate inside. Everyone who noticed looked at each other completely baffled and incredulous. We silently laughed as the band continued playing, either not noticing or not caring. 'Twas a great night that you should've missed only if you went to Gay Gardens to see Animal Hospital et all.

Aaaand I picked up a copy of Dead Machines Plays Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. FUCK YEAH. Should have a review of that (plus all the backstock of vinyl I got piling up) once I get my stylus in the mail.

Big Bear, Child Bite, Ketman, The Gondoliers at PA's Lounge

Big Bear
Big Bear
Child Bite
Child Bite
The Gondoliers

More photos on Flickr.


Big Bear and Child Bite put out a split 7" (green vinyl with killer artwork and it's only 4 bucks, fucking buy it already) and this was the record release show. It was also the beginning of their tour together. Aaaand if you went to this show, you got a free copy of the 7". Fuck. YES. Nothing so sweet as the words "free Big Bear 7"."

Anyway, The Gondoliers kicked the show off. Normally I'm not a big fan of bands with gimmicks, unless those gimmicks are awesome (The Locust, Harry & The Potters). The Gondoliers have been added to that list of exceptions. They were two guys on drums and guitar (with a shit ton of pedals), wore all white clothes, pitch black shades with words written on them (one said "Never" the other said "Quit!"), and kingly crowns that lit up. Of course, all the lights were turned out in the place, forcing them to play by halo-light. They didn't utter a single word to the audience. Instead, in between every few songs they had a computer recite in a Speak-N-Spell type voice little speeches they wrote that said something about how the governing party of The Gondoliers were not up for re-election and how even though they were quitting, it wasn't actually like quitting because they were letting Big Bear and Child Bite get their thing done (aka Palin's dumbass shit). Well, their shtick really got to me and I thought they were great. Not to mention their ridiculously awesome music. It wasn't anything super original but they did the math rock/sludge/metal/pop thing really well. Kinda reminded me if Torche was a duo and really into Don Cab. So it was pretty fucking great.

I skipped out for a bit and didn't see Ketman. Not that I'm all that disappointed. They're not really my kinda thing anyway.

Child Bite was up next and although I'd heard plenty about them and their "next big thing" status, I hadn't actually heard anything of theirs before I went to this show. I really enjoyed them. They had tons of energy to match their mostly-danceable punk rock fun. The bassist looked like a metal mix of Cheech and Chong and had massive hair that could not be contained by his hat. For some reason, he kept putting his hat back on and no matter how many times he did, his repeated head banging knocked it right off again. Kind of hilarious to watch. Also hilarious? The guitar/joystick solo duel. The lead singer had an arcade style joystick hooked up so it made crazy electronic sounds whenever you moved it around and pressed buttons. Kinda cheesy, mostly awesome.

And to finish off the night, Big Bear slayed, as always. This was the first time I'd seen them live where I was standing in front of Joanna playing the keyboard so it was weird to actually hear her. For some reason I always end up in front of Joel and all I can ever hear is his crazy guitar. Not at this show. They played 3 new songs (new as in not on their brand new record, which is self released and now available at their shows and you should buy because it's fucking great and you've been waiting years for it to come out). Those 3 new ones kind of sound like Big Bear's take on pop music. Which is fucking weird as shit and makes me think that Big Bear isn't quite as big as they used to be. If they keep heading in this direction, they'll end up being Regular Sized Bear. Which is fine by me. I love bears of all sizes. And their new sound is still awesome stop-n-start loudness.

Like I said, they just started their tour together so if they're coming your way, you best get out and see them. I'm fortunate because I get to see Big Bear pretty much whenever I want. You might not be so lucky. So take the chance to see them. And buy their new album and 7". Great stuff all around, I assure you.

Show Worthy 7/13 - 7/19

Monday, July 13
Animal Hospital, Truman Peyote, Our Brother The Native, Religious Girls at Gay Gardens (donate, 8:00, all ages)
Whoa this is a crazy awesome show. Animal Hospital & Truman Peyote are representing some of Boston's best accessible experimental (in a good way). Our Brother The Native and Religious Girls are on tour together and Fat Cat Records who saw OBTN at Death By Audio the other night said they were "rib achingly loud." Both OBTN and Religious Girls have that new ambient noise tribal dance stuff that you know you love. Like I said, this show is going to be crazy awesome.



Goat Of Arms at The Milky Way via telephag
Monday, July 13
Goat Of Arms at Weirdo Records (donate, 8:00, all ages)
If you're not able to make it to Allston Monday night, then go to Weirdo in Cambridge for some fun accordion and drums times.



Geoff Mullen & Keith Fullerton Whitman at Great Scott
Tuesday, July 14
Geoff Mullen & Keith Fullerton Whitman at Cafe Fixe ($5, 8:00, all ages)
Thanks to Non-Event for making this ridiculously amazing live collaboration happen yet again. Once a very rare occurrence, Geoff and Keith have performed together live maybe 4 or 5 times since the beginning of the year. BUT! This could be the last time. You never know. Anyway, mind blowing drone noise from two of the drone noise masters. This time it's going down at Cafe Fixe in Brookline with the caution that "the space is small and the espresso is amazing, so don’t be too fashionably late!"




Thursday, July 16 - Sunday, July 19
Homegrown Fest at Church ($10 per day, @6:00, 21+)
Ok guys. I mentioned it before. This is the one you've been waiting for. Boston's own Homegrown Fest, a 4 day psych/noise/experimental/mindfuck festival put on by Dan Shea/BOWAAC. Yeah, it's 21+ but the lineup is insane. Keith Fullerton Whitman & Geoff Mullen (yup, again), Infinity Window, Sightings, Bobb Trimble, Major Stars, Truman Peyote, Gary War, Kurt Vile, Blues Control, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, and TONS more. This is going to be fucking epic. Even if you can't go to all 4 nights, one will still be enough to destroy every other show this month. Full lineup and more info here and on Church's site.



Daryl Shawn's setup via deadbeatgeoff
Saturday, July 18
Daryl Shawn & Jonathan Lamaster at Outpost 186 ($10, 8:00, all ages)
Tape loops + violin = duh



Alash Ensemble by Peter Hasselbach via
Sunday, July 19
Alash Ensemble at New England Conservatory ($20, 8:00, all ages)
The Alash Ensemble are a group of Tuvan throat singers. So, obviously, I'm fucking excited as shit. Tuvan throat singing in my own backyard? Never in a million years did I think that would ever happen.

Haiku Review: Josstin Timberlake - Eat Fuck (CalmDownKidder, 2009)

Josstin Timberlake - Sfear


Josstin Timberlake
Eat Fuck (download)
/nasty 8 bit blitz/
/busted game, hard beats, sweet noise/
/owwww phantom thumb pain/

Miss Autopsy - Caterpillar (Lens, 2009)

Miss Autopsy - Caterpillar


Miss Autopsy isn't a "Miss" at all. It's actually a guy! HA! His name is Steve Beyerink. And in case you were looking for someone to give you an uplifting pep talk (aren't you always?) then STAY AWAY from Miss Autopsy. He's not gonna help.

I think Caterpillar is taking heavy influences from Albini and Slint except this is way way scarier. But not in the Gnaw Their Tongues hellish torturing scream filled nightmares kinda way. No, this is more like the "let's just back away from this dude 'cause he's giving me the fucking creeps" kinda scary. There's a lyric on the title track about him meeting a caterpillar in his garden who wanted to be his friend, but he squishes him with his fingers. Granted, he does also say afterwards that he can't sleep anymore once he kills the caterpillar BUT STILL. Definitely not the kinda guy I'm going to go out of my way to be friends with.

I think the vocals are what really do it, though. I mean, yeah, the minimal percussion and folky post-punk guitars definitely give off an eerie vibe but man his voice. Sometimes it's like an atonal pedophile dragging his claws down a chalkboard. Sometimes he sounds just like a regular depressed guy, but then you notice he's hiding a fucking meat cleaver behind his back.

There are a few tracks on here that could be considered pretty normal & digestible, though. Like "El Paso." Just a laid back solo guitar with Steve singing sad. And "Dead Loner Blues" is dark thematically but is otherwise not totally upsetting. Like your mom wouldn't think you were weird if she walked in while you were listening to it.

I'm sure Beyerink is a really nice guy in person but I'm guessing Miss Autopsy is a source of catharsis for him because it makes him seem sad or mad or both. Caterpillar is about as unsettling as it gets. It's fucking great if you like that sorta thing (aka miserable as fuck, disturbing, never ever catchy, anti pop). And it just so happens I do like that sorta thing. So Miss Autopsy, keep this shit up! It's awesome.

Monster Caves & Mario Karts

Braden J McKenna - Feedback From A Ghost


Braden J McKenna (Navigator, WYLD WYZRDZ, himself) has unloaded some more free awesomeness for everyone. I swear, he is the number one guy out there putting out consistently amazing music for free on a regular basis. <3 him.

Independence Day is from a band of his called Mario Kart with another guy named Stephen Walter on drums. It was written and recorded within 4 hours this past 4th of July and that's including a break to play Mario Kart (duh). It's more aligned to his Navigator work, lo-fi garage punkish tunes. And it's great.

Gigantic Monster Cave is some solo stuff under his actual name that is full of wide-eyed child magic songs, a lot of them dealing with a gigantic monster cave. His signature nonabrasive whine is sure to be found, but the music itself is more shiny pop-folk than the rest of his stuff. And it's great.

Download that shit. Then go to Magic Goat and download more shit from their Digital Magic Series. Totally worth it. TRUST ME ::nudge nudge::

Jungle Gym Vaginas - Wavy Caps (Scumbag Relations, 2008)

Jungle Gym Vaginas - Side A (untitled)


JUNGLE GYM. VAGINAS. Did you hear that? Say it. Out loud. JungleGymVaginas. Have you ever heard something so wondrous? So mysterious? So charming? So fucking hilarious?

There is ZERO need for me to describe the music to you. Because this band is called Jungle Gym Vaginas and that is ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW. For real. You think it matters what kind of music they make? Well you're wrong.

Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words - Lost In Reflections (Killer Pimp, 2009)

Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words - What I Wouldn't Give To Feel Alive


Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words is one Thomas Ekelund who created Lost In Reflections after being diagnosed with a "near crippling mental disease." How long after I don't know. All I know is that this was recorded in 05/06 and there have been many Dead Letters releases since then. Not that I think that context is necessary to fully appreciate Lost In Reflections. It helps, but it's not going to make or break the album.

Listening to Lost In Reflections is a strange journey of dynamic drone. However you don't realize just how strange until it's over. The first song, "The Room Seems Empty Without You," is a real slow burner. Something from way out west, like you've been dragging your feet through Death Valley for days on end with no water. It could be the foundation for some Godspeed song except here there's no grandiose climax (not yet). It's just you, the heat, and the endless horizon of sand and sky.

"Lost & Losing" goes from desert to ocean as you're floating face up, being dazzled by the sun beams shimmering through the water, listening to all the pops and cracks of the crustaceans scurrying along the sandy floor. Then "What I Wouldn't Give To Feel Alive" keeps you underwater, although now you're closer to death, hearing every little detail. Each guitar pluck echoes through the sea as if glimpsing a whale's heartbeat from miles away.

After you've made your way through the water, you become detached from Earth and drift through space. The stars buzz with their solar signals and the dust of the universe flows through your ears. And all of this up until now, going from land to sea to air, was the quest for "Himmelschreibenden Herzen." And the monumental 19 minute closer is absolutely worth that voyage. It's like traveling through a black sun, getting closer and closer to the core. Deafening bliss. Terrifying monstrous shrieking dark drone. Beautiful heavenly sunshine euphoria. Completely fucking amazing.

Lost In Reflections is something I couldn't even begin to imagine making. It's a record so deep and beautiful that I can hardly wrap my brain around it. This is of such high caliber, I'm surprised it's not exploding all over the place. Dead Letters should be a name up there with Fennesz and Eno. If Reflections wasn't the record to do it, I can't wait to hear the one that will.

Video: Garrett Davis & Kirsten Lepore - Story From North America

Ok, this is going to be difficult to explain. I know I get really excited about a lot of things and routinely profess my love for them. But you see, this video is different. It's different because I love it SO MUCH MORE than all of those other things.



I love the rhythm. I love the flow. I love every single lyric. I love the story. I love the animation. I love the imagery. I love the dad. I love the dad's voice. I love the son's voice. I love the old timeyness. I love the (faux?) outsider feeling. I love the dad's long nose and weird hair and worm nipples. I love the opening line. I love the dad caressing the spider's delicate legs. I love the page turning. I love that the dad decided to teach his son a lesson about morals upon being woken up in the middle of the night. I love that it ends with the dad saluting the spider and wishing him "Godspeed." I love every single thing about this video. I love Garrett Davis and Kirsten Lepore for making this. I hate Garrett for not making more music. In the past 4 days, I have watched this more times than I can count. I am currently memorizing every word.

Show Worthy 7/6 - 7/12

Daniel Harris via
Monday, July 6
Daniel Harris at Weirdo Records (donate, 8:00, all ages)
Harris uses instruments like the cello, glockenspiel, melodica, banjo, etc to make soundscapey folk tunes. Good stuff.




Tuesday, July 7
Animal Hospital, Quoins, Manners, Battle House at Great Scott ($8, 9:00, 18+)
This is gonna be a great show. Animal Hospital is blowing it up with his electroacoustic ambient post rock fantasticness. Quoins is new to me and there's no music on their Myspace so... Manners you should know already. Chill acoustic folky stuff. Real good. And then Battle House, who I've yet to see live, sounds like a mix between Wilderness and The Shipping News, doing that grandiose post punk thing. Like I said, great show.



Wet Hair via
Wednesday, July 8
Dianetics, Wet Hair, Happy Jawbone, Dead Luke at The Butcher Shoppe (donate, 9:00?, all ages)
It doesn't even fucking matter. Wet Hair people!! Ex-Raccoo-oo-oon! COME ON!



Big Bear
Friday, July 10
Big Bear, Child Bite, Ketman, The Gondoliers at PA's Lounge ($10, 8:30, 18+)
Big Bear & Child Bite put out a split 7" and this is the release party. You get a free copy of the 7" just for going. Shit, even if neither of them were playing that would still be worth it. Plus, the cover art has awesome alien walrus spiders on it. It doesn't get any better than this.



Nathaniel Bartlett via Tiffany Norman Fieldhouse
Sunday, July 11
Nathaniel Bartlett, Loop 2.4.3 at 119 Gallery ($10, 8:00, all ages)
Bartlett is performing as Immersive Music where he plays solo marimba and processes the shit out of it with his computer and eight channel cube of speakers to create "three-dimensional, high-definition, computer-generated sound projection." Um. YES PLEASE. Loop 2.4.3 is a couple of dudes making all sorts of transformative percussion. Super cool.




Sunday, July 11
Peter J Woods, Instinct Control, Sewer Goddess, Bereft, A Snake In The Garden, White Suns at The Butcher Shoppe ($5, 7:00, all ages)
Man The Butcher Shoppe is on fire this week. This is a killer noise show. The poster says it all. Harsh noise + circuit bent insanity = dead astronaut

Haiku Review: Bullion - Pet Sounds: In The Key Of Dee (self released, 2008)

Bullion - Caroline, No


Bullion
Pet Sounds: In The Key Of Dee (download)
/the other pet sounds/
/with rad cuts and bitchin beats/
/someone do bowie/

Ilyas Ahmed - Goner (Root Strata, 2009)

Ilyas Ahmed - Out Again


Drenched in lo-fi echo crunch and laden with loops. These tracks have the hypnotic quality of drone while still retaining some of the traditional song structures.

Full review on diskant.

Apple Jackzzzzz - Naptime's Over (self released, 2009)

Apple Jackzzzzz - Tamagotchi


Every time it's like "I can't believe I'm still actually listening to this." But I'm pretty sure everyone feels that way when listening to Apple Jackzzzzz's Naptime's Over. You see, the very first thing you hear when you hit play on this CD is a bunch of fart sounds. And the maturity level only drops from there. If you can make it past the first song, though, you're golden.

Naptime's Over is self described "Inner Child Rock." Still not getting it? There are songs like "I Just Want A Bigger Penis" and "Faking Sick > School" with lyrics such as "Liking cookies is not a crime. Why should I have to do hard time?" The songs are filled with poor rhyming and the occasional swear. It's written (and sang) in a style that makes it sound like a 5th grader wrote (and sang) it.

Listening to Apple Jackzzzzz is confusing. I'm pretty sure it's meant for electro obsessed ironic 20-somethings longing for the nostalgia of their childhood (yes I purposefully just described hipsters). But it's easy to think this is geared towards kids upon first listen. The drum machine beats and Casio melodies are super fun but nothing that's super amazing. It's like some Brooklynite thought it would be a good idea if Raffi made an synth dance rock record and knew there was no way in hell that would ever happen so he took matters into his own hands. I bet there are plenty of music critics who would tear this a new asshole because it's not really of objective high quality.

But Naptime's Over is SO much fun to listen to and not just for nostalgia's sake (although that has a lot to do with it). There's an infectious charm that, yeah, makes me feel like a kid again. Whenever I laugh listening to Apple Jackzzzzz singing about the sweet shapes that peel out of Fruit Roll-Ups, I know I'm never going to be 100% mature. And I'm totally fine with that. Something tells me I'm not alone.

Jason Crumer - Walk With Me (Misanthropic Agenda, 2009)

Jason Crumer - Pining


I must be a serious fucking idiot. I first heard Walk With Me about 3 months ago and became instantly obsessed. I felt about this like I felt about last year's And Still, Wanting by Prurient. It was love at first punishment. But the weeks went by and I stopped listening to it as much and I still hadn't blogged about it. I think I went almost a month without listening to it again and when I finally stumbled across it on my iPod Monday night, I almost punched myself in the face for not reviewing it yet.

Walk With Me is the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. You think it's sweet old grandma at first but it's not. Sorry little girl but it's a wolf. Which is great for me because it pleases both of my sensitive and masochistic sides.

The contrast on this album is what makes it. The light and the dark. The docile and the sadistic. Anyone can make a nonstop ear fuck but Crumer must have taken notes from Mogwai with their near-patented loud-quiet-loud method. It's like Walk With Me is saying, "Look at me I'm a pretty little Max Richter princess wait no I'm a motherfucking Merzbow demon whose sole purpose is to tear your lungs out through your chest and shit on your fucking heart."

And the final two songs on this masterpiece flow together in such a beautifully disastrous way, it brings a tear to my eye and a drop of blood from my ears. "Walk With Me" starts out with an unwavering Niblockian buzz that slowly accelerates down the runway until it gains enough speed to take off and becomes a fleet of twin engine Cessnas flying in perfect formation. After dazzling the audience with their majestic skillz, one of them fucks up and crashes into another, sending them all careening into a fiery spiral on "Pining" where they explode on the ground in a massive mountain of molten metal. Fucking epic.

Jason Crumer has scrambled right up to the top of the noise ladder in my heart, sitting right next to Prurient. I knew that I'd eventually find my noise record of the year but I had no idea it would come from a guy I'd never heard of. Now I sit patiently and wait for him to come to Boston...