Show Worthy 5/18 - 5/24

Monday, May 18
Night Moves, Eli Keszler, Kate Village, Dr. Oriental at Charlie's Kitchen ($5, 9:00, 21+)
You should know Eli 'cause I talk about him a lot. He does live stuff with Ashley Paul and he's one half of the ridiculously great Red Horse (whose new full length just came out). Kate Village is the guitarist from The Major Stars and Heathen Shame. Dr. Oriental is the Mike from Life Partners. Night Moves is a cover band that plays classic rock stuff, mostly Bob Seger, Steely Dan, The Band, etc. This is a very unique show. Lots of solo stuff that you probably won't ever see happen in the same room again.



Nmperign & Jason Lescalleet at Brainwaves '08
Wednesday, May 20
Nmperign, Tyler Wilcox & Paul Neidhardt at Outpost 186 ($donation, 8:00, all ages?)
Nmperign is Bhob Rainey and Greg Kelley. I loved Kelley's solo release, Self-Hate Index, and I got to see those two guys play together along with Jason Lescalleet at Brainwaves '08 and it was brilliant. Wilcox & Neidhardt seem to be two like-minded musicians who will collectively blow your mind, especially with a description for Wilcox reading "finding inspiration in the wind through cedars and lombardy poplars, rivers, melting glaciers." Um, yeah. Go to this show.



Mick Barr at PA's Lounge via
Thursday, May 21
Wolves In The Throne Room, A Storm Of Light, Krallice, Phantom Glue at Great Scott ($12, 9:00, 18+)
Wolves In The Throne Room is black metal for people who don't like black metal. And people who do like black metal. So it's a win/win situation. They're fucking amazing. A Storm Of Light are quite awesome as well, as I discovered when they put out a split with Nadja that I reviewed on diskant. Krallice is guitar shredder extraordinaire Mick Barr's (Orthrelm, Ocrilim, etc) new metal band. That alone should require you to go to this.



Mind Wheel at Oxfam Cafe
Friday, May 22
Mind Wheel, Selbyville, Graham, Dead Electrician at The Armory ($?, 8:00, all ages?)
I saw Mind Wheel open for Mountains at Oxfam Cafe and they were astounding. Selbyville looks to share at least one common member with Mind Wheel so that must mean good things. The rest of these guys are all local experimental awesomeness. This show gets the AGB Stamp Of Approval.



Neptune at The Middle East Upstairs
Saturday, May 23
Growing, Neptune, World Map, Long Knives at Church ($9, 8:00, 21+)
Growing puts on a super hypnotic drone noise show that you won't experience anywhere else. I've seen them multiple times and it gets better each time. Neptune is opening and if you live in Boston and haven't seen Neptune yet, wtf is wrong with you? Do it already. This is World Map's first show ever. Their Myspace doesn't even have any songs on it so your guess is as good as mine. Not sure about Long Knives, if that's even their real name...




Sunday, May 24
WizRock Iz Dead: A WizHop Blowout with Swish & Flick, Dumbledore, Big Whompy, MC Kreacher, DJFF, MC Remus & The Lupins, Griz-ed & Fiz-orge at The Middle East Upstairs ($10, 1:00 PM, all ages)
Harry & The Potters are putting on another one of their Wizard Rock shows except this time, as I'm sure you can tell, it's not rock, it's hip-hop. I'm pretty sure this is a once in a lifetime thing and I can pretty much guarantee it'll be fun as hell even if you're not a Harry Potter fan (like me). And it's a day show, so you'll still have time to do your regular Sunday night things like watch Adult Swim (or be a lame-o and go to bed early to get a good nights rest for Monday).

Haiku Review: Marilyn Roxie - Ermine EP (self released, 2009)

Marilyn Roxie - Sunset In A Breath


Marilyn Roxie
Ermine EP (download)
/eerie stringy synths/
/epic in all the right ways/
/not chill out music/

Ghost Grass - Hydrogen (Wire Sounds, 2009)

Ghost Grass - Side A (untitled)


Ghost Grass is the guise under which Max Lord records. I had the opportunity to see him do a live collaboration with Karlheinz and that was the first I'd heard of either of them. Lord blew my mind with his furious drumming and I knew I had to hear some of his recorded work asap. Sadly, I procrastinated in my quest for his tunes but eventually a copy of his newest tape Hydrogen came my way and man was it worth the fuckin wait.

Hydrogen is basically a synth/electronics tape with lots of live drums. In other words, TOTALLY FUCKING AWESOME. The A side begins with all out retro sci-fi mainframe meltdown for about 4 or 5 minutes until it coalesces into something your open minded jazz loving dad might call "music." It goes from more noise/less music and vice versa until it ODs on sedatives and morphs into an organic synth drone with a pulse. Absolutely beautiful, washes of thick hypnotic waves and hidden piano. A true standout of a piece unlike anything else on the tape.

Turn it over and you're welcomed by some more electronic mayhem with hardly any live percussion to speak of. I wouldn't quite call it power electronics but it's pretty damn close. When it slows things down, it turns towards the dark side with unsettling tones and menacing rumbling. In time, the pace quickens with the addition of Lord killing his drum kit and some electronic squawks all the while remaining just as foreboding but it again returns back to the minimal scariness sans drumming. The tape finishes off with the most spare and terrifying sounds offered.

I don't know if Hydrogen is anything like the rest of Lord's recorded output. But if it is, you can guarantee that I'll be picking up some more of his ridiculously limited and rarely distributed albums. Right now, this tape is only available through Lord himself at shows or you could probably contact him and ask nicely. If you give him some money I'm sure he'd send you one.

Dan Deacon, Future Islands, Teeth Mountain at The Middle East

Teeth Mountain


Teeth Mountain were fucking incredible.

Future Islands were fun as shit.

Something weird happened when Dan Deacon came on. I can hardly remember any of it because I was overcome with DANCE FEVER. The only thing that vaguely sticks in my mind is that it was the funnest night of my ENTIRE LIFE.

I'm sure my bro Ben over at Rebuilding Year will have more in depth coverage of the show if you're craving that sort of thing.

A. T. Gaul - Sounds Of Insects (Folkways, 1960)

Sounds Of Insects (No Vocals) [LINK REMOVED]


I found this in the back room of a local record shop and almost pissed myself when I saw it. I didn't care how much it cost. It had to be mine. Luckily, it was only about 12 bucks; the vinyl and jacket were in great condition and it came with the info booklet detailing how the recordings were made so I made out like a fuckin bandit.

Most of the sounds on here aren't field recordings, they're from experiments done in the lab (insect torture included). The record was probably a teaching aid at some point. A. T. Gaul delivers scientific commentary for the duration, saying this is this bug doing this, and look how the sound changes when you do this. There are things on here that I was surprised to learn about and it could still be used for educational purposes. But that's not why I got it.

What I did was edit out (almost) all of the vocals and created one long track of insect sounds. If you were ignorant of the source of these sounds, you could easily mistake a lot of them for experimental music. The power electronics of a giant beetle stomping around, the freak folk clamor of a wasp eating meat from a fish bone, the drone of the hornet fatigue experiment, or the spastic freakout buzz of a fly caught in flypaper, but mostly it sounds like minimal ambient noise and it's fucking great. Of course, when you get to the recording of a cicada out in the field with children laughing and planes flying overhead, it brings you back to the scientific reality of what you're listening to.

This record is so awesome. You really just need to listen to it yourself. I recommend listening to it first sans vocals (which you can download above), and then head to the Smithsonian Folkways website where you can purchase it on CD or cassette (really) so you can discover what each sound is and how it was recorded. Totally worth it, trust me.

Black Hell - How The Rest Was Lost (Sounds Of Battle And Souvenir Collecting, 2009)

Black Hell - Lycanthropy


My final test of greatness for metal of this variety is whether or not I would like to play it on Guitar Hero. Black Hell passes with flying colors. I would love to slay this beast on Expert and look totally stupid doing it.

Full review on diskant.

Keith Fullerton Whitman & Geoff Mullen, Eli Keszler & Ashley Paul, Perispirit, Zerfallt, Double Awake at Great Scott

Geoff Mullen & Keith Fullerton Whitman

Eli Keszler & Ashley Paul

Perispirit

Zerfallt

Double Awake

More photos on Flickr

Double Awake: thick drone, vocal based and stuttered out with abrupt volume shifting

Zerfallt: the audio version of a lead blanket so heavy your legs can't hold out

Perispirit: power beauty

Eli Keslzer & Ashley Paul: the usual controlled frenzied awesomeness with the addition of a bowed banjo

Keith Fullerton Whitman & Geoff Mullen: not gonna touch this one; you'll just have to imagine it

Show Worthy 5/11 - 5/17

Rehberg & Schmickler via
Tuesday, May 12
Peter Rehberg (aka Pita) & Marcus Schmickler at 17 Edinboro St #3 (Boston/Chinatown) ($10, 9:00, all ages?)
I have no idea how long this show has been in the works but my buddy over at Popular Influence just tipped me off a couple days ago that Non-Event was hosting Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler in our very own Boston. Rehberg is better known as the owner of Editions Mego, one of the most forward thinking labels out there. You also should know him as Pita, one of the names which he records under. And Schimckler is Pluramon! This show is going to be epic experimental electronic noise drone AWESOMENESS! And DJ Ning Nong is spinning in between sets. I just can't believe I'm not able to go to this.



Me, Dan Deacon, BJ Warshaw (of Parts & Labor) at The Milky Way via
Wednesday, May 13
Dan Deacon, Future Islands, Teeth Mountain at The Middle East Downstairs ($10, 8:00, all ages)
I know. Everyone and their moms know about this show. But Bromst is easily the best record I've heard all year and Deacon is touring with two amazing bands and a whole ensemble to back him up. Really surprised this show isn't sold out. Yet. That means you can still get tickets. And you should. Unless you're terrified of all ages shows at The Middle East, in which case steer clear. I'm pretty sure it's going to be worth it, though.




Friday, May 15
Radio Scotvoid (DJ set), Yatagarasu (live set), Moon Climb The Wall (live set), Gaurav Mehta (DJ set) at The Gulu Gulu Cafe (Salem) (FREEEEEE?, 8:00, all ages?)
This is gonna be a great show and might even be worth specifically coming to Salem for especially because there's nothing better going on in Boston Friday night. It's the first night of what is to be a series of events to promote the S.C.E.N.E Festival in Salem coming Fall 2010. It shall be a night of wonderful noisey chiptunes. I think the highlight of the evening is going to be Yatagarasu because they're on tour from Texas and those dudes just fucking rock.



Attila Vural via
Sunday, May 17
Attila Vural at Third Life Studio ($12, 7:30, all ages?)
Vural is on tour from Zürich and he plays some super smooth 8 and 14 string acoustic guitars. Nice, chill, slightly jazzy, and absolutely worthy of your hard earned 12 bucks.

Haiku Review: Meridian Signals - Escape Route (self released, 2009)

Meridian Signals - Consumer Confidence In Christ


Meridian Signals
Escape Route (download)
/transmissions from space/
/shimmering guitar drone bliss/
/gorgeous thick echoes/

Maniacs Dream - Zanzibar (Arbor, 2008)

Maniacs Dream - Side A (Untitled)


All hail the Finnish super group! For real, Maniacs Dream features members of Avarus, Kemialliset Ystävät, my personal favorite, Fricara Pacchu, making some seriously fucked tunes so this definitely counts as a super group.

Long has it been since I've listened to a band whose name was as accurately descriptive of the music. I bet you heard the name Maniacs Dream and didn't really think too much about it. Just another name. GUESS AGAIN FOOL.

Zanzibar sounds, quite literally, like a maniac's dream. Asynchronous percussion, atonal squeals, blown out static, almost every sound seems like it's trying to break free of the "music" label. If I didn't know better, I'd say a bunch of idiots got trashed in someone's basement one night, grabbed a bunch of non-instruments, and recorded the slop that came out. But these are highly respected musicians that made Zanzibar so that means it's genius, right?

All jokes aside, this record is flat out awesome. Not especially accessible, but fucking rad nonetheless. Total free electronic tribal folk noise with little sense of direction but plenty of depth. Listen to it a dozen times and you start hearing things that weren't there to begin with.

This is a review of the vinyl reissue of the 2006 tape on Lal Lal Lal. I don't think there was any re-sequencing or added tracks or anything but I just thought I'd throw that out there. Oh, also, it's pressed on light blue vinyl with super slick packaging and limited to 450 copies so get on that shit.

Dylan Ettinger - Bread Of The Dead (El Tule, 2009)

Dylan Ettinger - Side A (Pan De Muerto / Rosa Parks / Cross My Eyes)


Dylan Ettinger is the ring leader for El Tule Tapes and it seems to me that he's got some major skillz when it comes to makin tunes and he also gets mucho street cred for his curating with all the other tapes he's been releasing on this little label of his (like Women In Tragedy's stunning Nothing But Dreams).

Bread Of The Dead is exactly what you should be listening to right now if you live in Salem. I understand that most of you probably don't, but if your locale is lacking sun at the moment, then this tape is gonna brighten your day.

It starts out with "Pan De Muerto" where everyone's hootin and whoopin like it's Cinco De Mayo or something. Shit, I'm just realizing that I'm 2 days late with this review. Oh well. Anyway, it gets into a solid hypnotic groove that, like everything else on Bread, is completely blown out. The fidelity on this tape is utter shit and it sounds fantastic.

From "Muerto" it only gets better, from blissed out drone with skittering tambourines on "Rosa Parks" to the infinite looped rich golden melodies that Dylan wordlessly croons over on "Cross My Eyes." And that's just the A side.

Bread Of The Dead is fuckin beautiful (both sides). Ettinger knows where it's at. Groovy tunes, sweetly packaged tapes, and a super awesome label. Bread is already sold out of it's first batch, with a second one on the way. Tomentosa might have some available, though, if you just can't wait. And I'm pretty sure you can't.

Video: Food For Animals - Tween My Lips

Food For Animals makes some nasty hardcore glitch-hop. "Tween My Lips" is from 2008's crazy awesome Belly. The video, directed by Martin Sulzer, has a digitally bloated naked dude prancing around with his schlong hanging out. At first it looks like Chris Cunningham's Rubber Johnny but then it gets a lot less terrifyingly creepy and a lot more silly. Like, the dude eats a whole pig and then poops out the whole pig, no digestion required.

Driphouse - Sewer Mist (Gel, 2009)

Driphouse - Living Time Machine


I get this strange feeling whenever I listen to Sewer Mist that makes me feel like I’m driving a beat up Pinto through a wormhole. It has a filthy, spacey, down to earth feeling which I’m pretty sure I’ve never experienced listening to anything else before.

Full review on diskant.

Jakob Battick - Hiding In The Orchard (self released, 2009)

Jakob Battick - Sister Song


This is one I've been sleeping on for a while. I've been listening to it for weeks and have never been able to muster up the proper words to describe just how magically charming Hiding In The Orchard is.

Jakob Battick's been in a variety of projects including 1800s Sea Monster and Swollen Spring Violets, but unless you're from Maine, those names might not ring too many bells. He's also released some stuff under his own name, but Orchard is the first EP of all new material.

A good starting point for comparisons might be Beirut because Battick's wonderful voice kind of reminds me of Zach Condon's. The music is slow moving and very sleepy sounding; perfect for a moonlit autumn night, shuffling your feet through crunchy leaves on the forest floor. The minimal instrumentation sounds larger than you'd think it whould, making it nice and full. Still, somehow it feels like each guitar pluck and sung word is echoing throughout an open field, as if the sounds are only echoing off of each other and not physical objects.

Hiding In The Orchard is a beautifully understated record that probably won't be heard by as many people as it should be. Battick is likely destined for greatness and will one day have plenty of amazing full lengths that will be reviewed on Pitchfork and The Wire but for now, we'll just have to accept his gorgeous and humble EPs made of recycled bingo cards.

Show Worthy 5/4-5/10

Animal Hospital via
Tuesday, May 5
Brian S. Ellis, Paul G. Maziar, Animal Hospital, Greg Mullen at Church (FREEEEEEE, 8:00 21+)
This is the second night of The Whitehaus putting on a free show at Church. Last one was that Hunted Creatures/Ophibre/Nature/Peace, Loving show and it was AMAZING. This one seems to be just as promising with some really great bands. Just an FYI, Prince Rama was originally billed but had to cut out at the last minute and was replaced with Animal Hospital. AH just dropped the fucking ridiculously amazing Memory and he puts on an awesome show. And it's free. So you should go.




Thursday, May 7
Twin Crystals, Modern Creatures, Prince Rama Of Ayodhya, Quilt at Gay Gardens (FREEEEEEEEEish, 8:00, all ages)
More Prince Rama? Yes. This one goes down at Gay Gardens in Allston, and there are "mandatory donations" for all shows there. If you wanna be a dick about it, you could "donate" the spare change in your pocket but they have every right to turn you away. You should probably support the good people that are performing for you as well as those at Gay Gardens and you can do so by dropping some cash at the door or at the merch table. Especially because both Twin Crystals and Modern Creatures are on tour from Vancouver. So go have fun and be nice.




Friday, May 8
Multimedia Circus at The Armory ($10, 7:00, all ages)
Voidstar Productions and Arts At The Armory are putting on one helluva show. The Boston Typewriter Orchestra, DJ Darryl Hell, Bill T Miller's Orgy Of Noise, Nau-Zee-Aun, Empire SNAFU, Eliza Blaze & David Pendu, The Vomit Arsonist, Mike D & The 3:2 Percussion Ensemble, November 14 and more. "Aerialists, turntablists, circuit benders, 3D video, performance art, mixed media, experimental music, invented and found instruments, and more will fill this 3.5 hour long non-stop show." All for 10 bucks? Who are you kidding, there's nothing else going on Friday that's going to be cheaper or more fun than this. Except maybe.....




Friday, May 8
Sway, Yankee Blue Jeans, Mikey French Fries, The Tin Thistles at Plough & Stars (FREE-$6, 9:00, 21+)
Upbeat, charming, alt country stuff to stomp your feet to. Sway is probably the best indiecountryfolk band ever and if you haven't seen them live yet, now's the time. Also, Wicked Whiskey may or may not be playing this show.



Eli Keszler & Ashley Paul at Studio Soto via
Sunday, May 10
Keith Fullerton Whitman & Geoff Mullen, Eli Keszler & Ashley Paul, Double Awake at Great Scott ($8, 9:00, 18+)
OH. SHIT. Can't believe this is happening. Not only are percussionist extraordinaire Keszler & Paul the sax beast joining forces again but the noisedrone masters KFW and Mullen are doing another one of their super rare live collabs. I saw them play together at PA's Lounge a few years back and I left with my mind melted. And Double Awake is opening? FUCK. This is NOT to be missed.