The Untouchables

There was a time when Jack White reigned supreme. Those days have long been over. And this is the wave goodbye as the new Kings of the Mountain glide to the top. Their initials are TBK and they come to boogie. It's out next Tuesday. Go buy it.

but until then, I give you my copy...

-J.Christ.

And Still My Heart Sweats

The Japandroids, Post-Nothing

Even though the first time I heard this record was in the listless void that is an Alaskan winter, I immediately understood that this album is a love letter to the greatest summer of your entire life. A summer that was far more exciting in the rear view that it was while unfolding. The content of the album offers unlimited opportunity for tasteless irony and cliched nostalgia, but this record is unpretentious and honest, leaving little room for humor.  Loving girls, and quitting girls and being left by girls, boys leaving small towns to realize and actualize the seemingly infinite opportunity of the universe, cheap beer, impossibly good friends and french kissing for hours, help vaguely define our "better time" of youthful innocence and ignorance. For a two piece band these songs are fantastically full bodied.

Be prepared to Facebook stalk your first girlfriend.

We'll leave tonight and
We'll leave together
They'll say that ain't right and I'll say whatever
Leave all our friends back home
 
No talk of sons and all talk of daughters
We'll find a little place by the water
 Forget all our friends back home
 
I'll do the talking, you'll write the letters
I'll sing the beatles and you'll sing them better
Forget all our friends back home

It's raining in Vancouver
But I don't give a fuck
Cuz I'm far from home tonight

It's raining in Vancouver
But i don't give a fuck
Cuz i'm in love with you tonight....

Download Post-Nothing

Best Band Name Ever

Bass Drum Of Death, GB City

These guys create brutal,  heavily distorted, minimalist garage.  Their music might leave you with the implication that there are 4 or 5 people on stage but these incoherent genius's of violence are brilliant in their ability to create a sonic wall that could match a thrash-punk orchestra. If you put this on at a party, be prepared to clean the house up not with a broom, but with a shovel and a wheel barrow.

Grab your power tools before you download: GB City

'Bitch' House

The debut full-length from Balam Acab that officially releases on August 30th on CD and LP through Tri Angle Records is finally here. Yet another gloomy electro artist who has been thrown in with the ever-booming "witch house" genre. Honestly the most he has in common with all of these other artists like Salem and oOoOO is the lurky down-tempo drum machine. His first EP didn't really even have any vocal tracks and the feel although still super druggy was a lot more melancholic and dreamier than his more sinister and gothy peers and apparently this new full-length continues to set him apart. I'm really excited to hear it. His first EP See Birds is incredible and I'm itching to hear what he does with Wander/Wonder.

Enjoy

-B†ack‡Re†gnbOoOOo

Get Your Rocks Off.

The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street (1972)

     My job is to bring forth outstanding albums from the classic past. Albums that the likes of our generation have unintentionally glazed over, because there is just too much going on today to pay attention to an album that came out 40 years ago.

     Something that has always set The Rolling Stones aside from the transcendent likes of The Beatles, Hendrix and Zeppelin is that they always had the strength to make you feel that both we, and they are hemmed and torn by similar walls, frustrations and tragedies. They are tied to earthly corporeal issues while others dance wildly in other dimensions and heights that feel unattainable to mere mortals. That was truly the breakthrough of Exile on Main Street. Despite an absence of the band's best-known songs, the sweaty, grimy Exile on Main St. has grown into the Rolling Stones' most universally acclaimed record. Despite dozens of hits, putting together a cohesive album often seemed to be beyond the Stones. Exile is built not on hits but on vibrations, space and the united act of beautifully sleazy, gritty, basement noise. Exile is dense enough to be compulsive: hard to hear, at first, the precision and fury behind the murk and depth ensures that you'll come back. Hearing more with each playing. What you hear sooner or later is two things: an intuition for nonstop get down bang-outs, perhaps unmatched by anything in their catalog to date besides The Rolling Stones self-titled freshman release; and a strange kind of humility, love and pain emerging from a dazed and confused indulgence fiasco. Exile is about physical and spiritual casualties, and partying in the face of them. The party is obvious. The casualties are inevitable.
      Sticky Fingers was the flashy, dishonest picture of a multitude of slow deaths. A beautiful album, but an ugly, dishonest space in the lives of the band members. But it's the search for alternatives, something to do, something worthwhile even, that unite us with the Stones continuously. They are masters without competition at rendering the boredom and desperation of living comfortably in this society. On tracks like "Sway" most of us don't get the real words, because at their most vulnerably crucial moments they were slurred and buried in the panache of sexuality. Jagger had to sign it that way, in "Sway" and again in much of Exile, because thats the way his pride and works. Besides, anything else would make it all too concise and clear, like putting the lyrics on an album cover, which is the most impersonal thing any rock'n'roller can possibly do.
     Exile on Main Street was the great step forward, an amplification of the tough insights of "Gimme Shelter" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want." A brilliant projection of nerve-torn nights that follow all the arrogant celebrations of self-destruction, a work of love and fear and humanity. The plot  charts a rough path from drunken late-night revelry to next-day regret, and there's a profound need for redemption here unique to the Stones, an odd moment of guilt for a band known for consequence-free sexual/drug debauchery. The last complete sentence of the album screams this very angst, "You're gonna be the death of me." Even such a piece of seeming filler as "Casino Boogie" reveals itself, once the words come through, to be a picture of the chaotic, draining, scramble of life on the road. "Rocks Off" and "Shine a Light" present the essential picture. The latter addressing the half-phased-out but still desperately alive person who speaks in the first. This music has a capacity to chill where "Dead Flowers" and "Sway" tended to come off as a shallow attempt at nihilism.

I always hear those voices 
on the street
I want to shout
but I can hardly speak

I was makin' love this time
To a dancer friend of mine.
I can't seem to stay in step...

And I only get my rocks off 
when I'm dremin'

Headin' for the overload
Stranded on a dirty road
Kick me like you kicked before
I can't even feel the pain no more.

     The sense of helplessness and impotence is not particularly pleasant, but that's the way it was and still is for too many. Such withering personal honesty was certainly a departure and evolution for the Stones. "Kick me like you kicked before..." the Stones talking to their audience, the audience talking back. They certainly don't yearn like Nancy's to get back to where they "once belonged" but they do recognize the loss of all sense of wonder, the absence of love, the staleness and sometimes frightening inhumanity of this "new" culture. It is the drive for new priorities.
     When too many people are working so hard at believing that nothing exists besides their own worlds and perspectives, the Stones define the unhealthy state, attest to how far they are submerged in it, and wail at the breakdown with the weapons they have: noise, anger and utter frankness. It's what we've always loved them for. And it took a lot more guts to cut this than "Street Fighting Man," even though the impulse is similiar: an intense yearning to merge coupled with the realization that to truly merge may be only to submerge once more. The end of the line and depths of the despair are reached in "Shine a Light," a visit to one or every one of the friends you finally know is not gonna pull through. A love song of a far different kind:

When you're drunk in the alley baby
With your clothes all torn

And when your late night friends 
all leave you 
In the cold gray dawn
Oh, the Scene threw
so many flies on you
I just can't brush 'em off...

     When Mick says he can't brush off the flies, it's not some bit of macho misogyny, but a simple admission that applies to himself as well. "Soul Survivor" follows immediately with necessity, carrying the album out strong and fierce because the Rolling Stones are about nothing if not struggle. They finally met the 70's in its totality. What Exile is about, past the party roar, is absorption. Inclusion. Or  the recognition of exclusion coupled with the yearning for inclusion: "Let me in! I wanna drink/ from your loving cup!"


Exile on Main Street

Black Mountains or something...

White Hills are an up and coming 3-piece krautrock/space/psychedelic rock band from New York that just keeps getting exponentially better with every release. Their new album "H-p1" is a conceptual album releasing their frustrations with government and corporation controlled society in a 'nut shell' and thus is their most realized and darkest record to date. They've conquered the entire being of psychedelic rock from the droney spaced out jam drifts, to the wah-wah infused melodic soloing, the gritty catchy bluesy chugging riffs, dynamic drumming, all swirling together through the hazy wall of fuzz, synths and even some glitchy electronics here and there. This record blows my mind every time I put it on. Check it out. It's unbelievable start to finish, but for me the strongest tracks are in it's opener and closer, although I have a hard time leaving out "Upon Arrival" which carries this great Stooges-esque riff that I can never get out of my head...So effing good. This is the righteous reincarnation of the old greats ala Hawkwind and Circle with a modern edge. Try it out. For a full review and a good read check out the Aquarius low-down.

White Hills - "H-p1"

buy

download

-Blackrainbow

More of that Summertime Glee

The first time my eyes were opened to Givers was at Sasquatch Music Festival this year and they were definitely the upset of the festival. One of the few bands I had no idea about and I was completely taken by the first song. Immediately I went home found they're music and impatiently awaited the release of their debut album "In Light", which I have here for you.

It's now been a couple months and still I think I've got it at number one for indie-pop releases for 2011. I can't get enough of it. The uplifting energy that emits from every turn of the record is unrelenting. There is such a youthful freshness to it. Dance-y jangle-y guitars that intertwine, spiraling into the atmosphere of glittery shimmering synths. Ecstatic percussion with lots of shakers, maracas, drum rim hits. Afro-poppy bouncy rhythms. And the vocals (from multiple members- male and female) are incredibly catchy and really just put the icing on the cake. This is a must if you're into The Dirty Projectors, (late) Animal Collective, Local Natives, Vampire Weekend (..shhh), Yeasayer, etc.

Givers - "In Light"

download

///Raining the Black

Dutch Oven of Awesome

I've been jammin this all day, thought I'd share it. One of my favorite stoner rock records from last year. The band is The Machine, they're a three-piece from Holland, not the Pink Floyd cover band; and they conjure some of the heaviest sludgiest Kyuss-esque stoner rock ever. If you're into bluesy psychedelic stoner rock that'll plod you into the bowel of your couch for all eternity, this might be for you? Does that even make sense? All I know is i'm taken aback every single time I throw this record on. It's super groovy, super heavy, and super psychedelic-the three things I strive for in everyday life. I'm an idiot, whatever-just listen to it.

The Machine - "Drie"
buy

download

-Blckrnbw

R.I.P. Joe Yamanaka

Joe Yamanaka, vocalist/harmonicist of Flower Travellin' Band, died today (8/7/11). In remembrance of this incredible band, which may or may not be done, I give you their most acclaimed album, "Satori". Back when hard rock was erupting in the late 60s/early 70s England had Zeppelin, Sabbath, and Cream; America had Blue Cheer and Jimi Hendrix; and Japan had Flower Travellin' Band. They started out as a cover band to bring Japan the good news that was infecting the rest of the world, realized what they had, recruited a couple new members (one of which was Joe Yamanaka), recorded an album of covers called "Anywhere " (which also rules), and immediately started cranking out original material and that same year released "Satori". And it is glorious. If you like your rock hard and psychedelic, this is a must.

Flower Travellin' Band - "Satori" - 1971

Reignin' Bows of Black on the Daily (even if it's not on here...sorry 'bout that by the way),
Jon

No Future. Hate Tyrants. Be Someone.

The Sex Pistols, Nevermind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols(1977)

     As history played out, it showed that the majority of Americans misunderstood much of the no-survivors-not-even-us stance of the punk-rock New Wave, anarchy in the U.K. mentality. When the main enemy is an oppressive mood of collective hopelessness, no one learns faster from experience than the would-be, murderers of society... Enter Sex Pistols. In a commercial sense, the Sex Pistols didn't really destroy anything but themselves. But they took rock & roll seriously and personally, as a matter of pride and necessity, and they played with an energy and conviction that is transcendent in its hatred. It ain't pretty folks, it ain't all that accessible neither, it often sounds like two locomotives colliding under forty feet of mud, but it has a David and Goliath power that will give you goosebumps and lead you fantasizing about burning everything you own and starting the insurrection yourself, for no reason other than your own desire to throw beer bottles at riot police.

     Instead of exploiting the commercial potential of revolution, like what became of the Stones "Street Fighting Man" or The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again," the Sex Pistols chose to explore their actual influence on culture. In some sense they absorbed from reggae and Rastafarianism, the idea of a culture making such fantastically outrageous demands upon those who operate society. Demands that no government could ever satisfy; demands that will create a culture that will be exclusive, separatist, apocalyptic, righteous, and stoic, and that will ignore or smash any contradiction inherent in such complexity of stances. 'Anarchy in the U.K.' became, among many things, the white kids 'War on Babylon.'

     They were haters, not lovers and this open defiance of anything structured, stood in stark contrast, to the fact that any revolution in America, is usually based on a platform of a workers-united revolt or acid-casualties, holding hands around the Pentagon and trying to make it levitate. This new militant radicalism, demanding a complete reconfiguration of society, via an immediate dismantling of the government terrified and galvanized American youth. But before we make the Sex Pistols and their minions and associates into tea-and-crumpet Sandinista's, we must remember that this band had more on their minds than being a rock & roll centerpiece for enlightened political discussion. First and foremost, they are musicians, not philosophers, this means they are more interested in making the best and loudest possible noise, than they are in any logical, or illogical, inverted political doctrine.

      It's all speed, not nuance and explodes like a 500 gallon drum of diesel fuel. Johnny Rotten may be a lunatic, but he's got a right to be. Overpowered by his own brand of accusatory dynamite, he stands in front of the mirror, "in love with myself, my beautiful self",  the lyrics that result in the title "No Feelings." You ask for "Holidays in the Sun," he screams, "I wanna go to new Belsen." Johnny Rotten seems to saunter right on through the ego and straight into the realm of his own id and then proceeds to beat the mother-loving fuck out of it. On the subject of relationships or basic human interaction all you get out of Rotten is "See my face, not a trace, no reality," or openly thrashing his own cultural demographic "we're so pretty, oh so pretty/we're vacant/and we don't care," all in the same song where he declares that the Queen "ain't no human being" and England's "a fascist regime." All that said, NO ONE should be frightened away from this album. "Anarchy in the U.K." and especially "God Save the Queen" are perfect rock songs, classics in the vein of "My Generation," "Voodoo Child," "Satisfaction" or "Sunshine of Your Love." 

     Those that judge the Pistols specifically in terms of destruction should stop and remember that any theory of chaos as pretentious as Johnny Rotten's, also contains freedom and beauty. Because anybody who has the capacity for such extreme passion is probably not as much of a nihilist as they come of as, but rather ironically, a moralist and a romantic. In order to direct such passionate hatred towards an unjust system and establishment, you need some honest moral grounds to measure that injustice against. The Sex Pistols want to see everything destroyed, in order to see what is left. Johnny Rotten thinks something will be. Lets fucking hope he's right. 

Download Nevermind The Bollocks 

Here's a prime track that I'm sure most of you are unfamiliar with. 

It Aint Something You Can Synthesize

Jamie Woon - "Lady Luck"

I've already talked about Burial, who, at heart, really is just a massive R&B fan and goes so far as to show that by sampling Ray J and Christina fucking Aguilera. “Lady Luck” is about as close as you'll get to a Burial pop production; it's a less low-fi How to Dress Well, a less twisted Weeknd, but still something fresh and unique in the sense that it would still never be found on American airwaves that shy away from anything that has even a trace of an avant-garde trait. Burial's shit can be pretty terrifying, and while the song's minimal dubstep-like production is where his style really is found, that initial double-tracked burst of hyperventilation over what sounds like the distant march of an oncoming army of undead soldiers sets the tone. Like Burial's tunes themselves, the first few seconds give the track a personality that's soulfully seductive but with a profoundly darker underlining. But either way, Woon knows his voice is the only instrument that really matters here, his silky falsetto jetting to some alternate reality where Justin Timberlake frequently collaborates with James Blake.

Luck be a lady tonight. This song is fire.

Jamie Woon - "Lady Luck"

Atomic Bladio Groovin'

I honestly don't know a thing about these guys and I don't care. My friend Joose Washington sent this to me, and I can't stop listening and trying to figure out this dance. Lets boogie.

Download Groove Line

Alpha Beta Fix

Sound Tribe Sector 9, Peaceblaster(2008) "The New Soma"

STS9 has always been one of my favorite live acts. Although primarily Electronic, they meld Jazz, Rock, Hip-hop breakbeats, and tastes of classical. Each of their songs sets a theme, which they push and stretch the webbing and limits of, until they find a comfortable place where they settle momentarily then transpose the bastard into something else entirely.  Each songs specific set of experimental stipulations provides stark contrast in tone. Easily moving between spaces of positive, peace-love-dope vibrations, then, apparently no longer content with tranquility, they plunge with speed and force into the confusing, tempestuousness writhing in the cores, of their alienated community of an audience in this post-industrial age. There is an immediate sense of House influence here, but I assure you the percussion is far more exotic and complex than your typical warehouse bullshit. The layering is deep, and flows effortlessly through loops, and keyboards and synthesizers to funk-jam style guitars and bass lines. A song can often sound like two or three by the time it is said and done.  They are very atmospheric, almost visual, I can watch the album with my eyes closed.

The New Soma

The New Soma

-kori auditory

The Bird Brothers Are Tweakin'

The debut full-length by heavy rock duo Tweak Bird slays all. Their first EP Reservations I was quite fond of but nothing on that compares to this monster they released last fall. They have the heavy gritty dancey nature of Death From Above 1979, but instead of the synthy electro-ness of that band they take their twist towards spacey psychedelic rock.
Caleb Bird on baritone guitar lays down the bone crushing guitar riffage while his brother Ashton is pummeling you with drums. (If you see them live, guard yourself from the shrapnel of drum sticks spraying at you as Ashton will surely break a dozen with how powerful he hits them skins.) As you could lazily throw them in with 'stoner rock' these guys are sooooo much more. The powerful rhythm is matched by sweet guitar melodies, spaced out psychedelic freakouts, saxophone solos, flute, the list goes on, and their high-pitched vocal harmonies just soar throughout-mostly babbling about fantastical journeys and aliens and awesome. They are really in a league of their own and are quite difficult to compare. DFA meets Torche meets Sleepy Sun? How does that work you ask? It does. And it'll conquer the world if the public ever decides what good music is. Check out this video for track two, download the album and then buy it.

get you some bro on bro action

-Blakk Reynbo

Less Deadly than the actual Disease

This is a band that was birthed in the eclectic melting pot of Los Angeles, California. As far as new "world" music goes, these guys are IT. I know that's saying a lot, since "world" is such a ranged, loose genre, but I'm not taking it lightly. When most of the gunk coming out of "world" these days is contemporary and traditional these guys are hip and unpredictable.
Lo-fi psychedelic funk with eastern influenced surfy guitars, sax solos, all fronted by the beautiful Chhom Nimol who is a Cambodian goddess singing mostly in her native Khmer tongue with a 60s pop vibe. The mix is perfect. A lot of their earlier stuff is a lot more lo-fi and surfy and although it's still a huge part in this new one, the production soars over anything else they've ever done in the past and I love it. If you dig classy Indian and Southeast-Asian pop and you also like to funk it up, this is for you. Their grooves are massive, and even if she's not singing in English you'll be singing along the top of your lungs. I love love love Dengue Fever and I want you to too. This is a glimpse of one of my favorite tunes from the one that came out earlier this year, although you need to hear more to get a grasp on their entire sound. So download it. It's there for you.

Dengue Fever - Cannibal Courtship

-B↓åçk Ræñb°∙○

Hypnotic Summer Rock

Alright. I love Cave. They's good. Even though I'm sick right now, I'm doing my best to stay in the spirit of summer. Listening to these guys makes it easy. They're very kraut rocky. Lots of hypnotic grooves and synths, but with the up front rhythms and the jangly hooks and melodies-you never get drowned out. With a lot of this type of repetitive krauty stuff, your head can get caught up in the clouds, but these guys have a kinda punky (when i say punky I mean Lightning Bolt type punky, not PUNK punky, I mean they're a space rock band...) soul which keeps it very bright and fresh and danceable. They're like Hawkwind meets Can or Circle or something, but in a glass of fresh squeezed Orange Juice. It also helps that they're incredible musicians and very in tune with each other. The cover explains anything else I didn't mention. This has become one of my favorite albums for this time of year. It is my meaning of fun. I hope you dig it.

Cave - Psychic Psummer

-Blaque Rainbeau

A Satellite Has No Conscience

 Dianne Reeves, Good Night, Good Luck(Soundtrack)(2005)

     Good Night, And Good Luck  is a commentary on what is wrong with today's media and how it ended up as a grossly oppressive, corporate tool. Where has journalistic integrity gone!? It seems fitting then, that the soundtrack asks a similar question: in a world where pop divas by the likes of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Ke$ha dictate young girls pop sensibilities, one wonders, "Where the fuck have all the great classical songwriters and vocalists gone?"

     Oh, hello Dianne Reeves... This Grammy award-winning jazz vocalist is the engine behind the soundtrack. It is no surprise George Clooney chose her voice to tap into the era. Reeves voice invokes the innocence of the that time gone by and makes her listeners long for it. Reeves is able to reflect that joy, playfulness and pain in her interpretations of classics from Cole Porter's "I've Got My Eyes On You", Nat King Cole's "Straighten Up and Fly Right", Duke Ellington and Irving Mills' "Solitude", and Johnny Mercer's "One For My Baby". She transports the listener to that time in America when songwriting and music were so much more than the soulless bubble-gum factory twine of today's teeny boppers.

     Reeves invokes a true sense of time, place, and meaning. A time when a clean, well greased man, could take a filter-less Lucky Strike, toasted, for his throat protection, and light it in the workplace, from behind a large, mahogany desk. He takes a few, easy, smooth drags before asking his secretary to bring in a cool glass of single malt scotch, with a rich, deep aroma. A Motorola, wooden hulled radio, with 2 gun-metal black nobs, set to the left of a steel colored, woolen thread speaker cover, emit the sweet serenading waves of a particularly melancholic, Charlie Parker. The secretary, with her pulsing, glossy lips and auburn, shoulder-length locks, that are parted deeply on the side, and flow in soft waves that curl under in the back, saunters into the office. The soft melody writes her every move, the batting of her eye lashes and the shallow draw of her breath. The horn pulls her legs across the floor, and guides her toes to carefully selected places on the carpet. Suddenly she meets the mans eyes with complete horror... when they both realize they are in black-and-white... OK, well maybe not that end part but the album manifests the rest of it. The songs on this album manage to connect as an organic whole, and stand alone without the context of this film. Good Night, and Good Luck is that rare exception, the music not only lends itself to defining the film, but also stands alone as an exceptional jazz piece.

Download: Good Night, and Good Luck Soundtrack

-Fedor

Ain't nothin' sweet but the Swishers

Yeah yeah yeah, it's been a fucking minute. No excuses, just some fire for you. All of you already know about my sweet tooth for popular-as-fuck rappers, especially Wayne. I've always been kind of touch and go about Drake's shit, but when he drops the '90s R&B act and tries to keep up with the big boys, shit. is. SWAG. This particular song, a DJ Khaled joint (who I usually can't stomach because of his shameless/obnoxious self-promotion), has all the makings of a summer night anthem. Catchiest hook I've heard in I don't even know how long, beastly verses from all three of these rich assholes, and a supreme beat that falls right in line with the current merger of cool-kid-hip-hop and dark electronica (which I happen to be an enormous fan of). Put this on the next time you pop a bottle of champagne, and watch the pretty girls swoon :)

DJ Khaled - I'm On One (Feat. Drake, Rick Ross, & Lil Wayne)

This Cocksucker Here, I Found Him in the Storm Drain

Funk You Evil Dictator Suharto!!!

Wait. You're looking for something really funky? With fat bass kroozin' threads? With horn sections and psychedelic guitar riffs? Something with a spicy Latin twist and keyboard breakdowns? Whoa, whoa whoa... more specifically, you want progressive Pysch-funk with politically charged lyrics from illegal, underground, mid-70's, Indonesian night clubs, that were brutally censored and repressed for years by the evil dictator Suharto? Well.... I don't know if I can bring you an entire album, but here's a single track I found.

The Black Brothers-Saman Doye 

Download stuff that used to get people killed... 

Slippin' An'a Slidin'

Wet Willie' Greatest Hits(1971-1978)

 

'Wet Willie' from whence this pack o' southern scragglers derived their name, is a apparently a regional term, referring to an Alabamian practice of sucking on your finger and then shoving it in somebody's ear. It also means that dirty stuff you're thinking right now.

They're real rawhide power swaggerin' son's of 5 bitches, and commence to whoop out some of the hottest, nastiest, most needlin' on the point southern rock ever created. Gotta' say they do the best white rock slash James Brown act since the Yardbirds (disagree? ITS IN THE DAMN MOUTH HARP!). Vocals like Creedence, swag like Little Richard, collective instrumental harmonies like a dirtier grittier version of The Band, but instead of those extended jams the Allman Brothers were renowned for, Wet Willie were closer to the spirit of Booker T & the MG's or perhaps the Mar-Keys, much more steeped in sweaty, good-time R&B than the blues-rock of the Allman's or the likes of the Marshall Tucker Band. Think of what Lynyrd Skynrd would have sounded like if they had one lead guitarist and performed strictly on an all white chitlin' circuit... if such a thing ever existed....

If y'ur unfamiliar with all the bands I just referenced, I did a toad suckin', gawd awful job of critiquing these guys, but trust me and give 'er a listen.

Download Wet Willie'

-Creol'w Fedo'

 

All I Need Is Some Sunshine

This new album entitled Creep On Creepin' On by Timber Timbre I've had in my player quite frequently lately. I just had to share it. They're a dark swampy bluesy folk trio from Canada that conjure a spooky smokey mood that you can't help but be hypnotized by. They slowly build their merky atmosphere with deep baritone guitars , delicate violin and lapsteel, minimal percussion, saxophone, and cunning use of keyboards, samplers and loop pedals. All this woven together with the deep country-folk flecked soulful croons of main singer-songwriter Taylor Kirk. The vibe is akin to bands like Morphine, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, although they really have cornered a sound all their own with everything that's going on. I mean they're on Arts and Crafts Records so you have to expect a lot more arty experimentation, which is obviously apparant. Anyway, definitely worth a listen. I've fallen deeply in love with this band. If you like this, their self-titled that came out a few years ago is very similar and also highly recommended. The one before that (debut) you'll get a lot more of a lofi production value, especially on the vocals, also worth a go, but different tonally.

Timber Timbre - Black Water by Arts & Crafts

creep out

-Reign of Black

Another Nugget

So I decided I couldn't live without posting at least one more nugget. UK heavy progressive/psychedelic rock band Fuzzy Duck released their one and only album in 1971 and it rocks super hard start to finish. '71 is the year of all years, I swear to Jesus. Enjoy.

how fuzzy was he

-Blackness Monster

Good Ol' Texas Psych

Man, what I would do to be able to have existed back then when the shit was good. Well, shit's still good, but this shit was radical! A lot of what I love came out of the late 60s and early 70s and once in a while I'll throw some of it at yous.

Once upon a time in Houston, Texas there were a few young musicians who worshiped the rock, when united they called themselves Josephus. A few of the artists coming out of the scene at that time included Jimmy Vaughan, Johnny Winter (and their brothers Stevie Ray and Edgar respectively), The 13th Floor Elevators, Bubble Puppy, the list goes on. This was high time for Texas Psychedelic Rock. The birth of it really. Many of the bands playing gigs around this district never left Texas before they were kaput. Josefus is one of them. The original line-up was only around for about a year and a half. As well as some of the aforementioned bands, they also played with Quicksilver Messenger Service, ZZ Top, Grateful Dead, Grand Funk Railroad, John Mayall, etc.
Since their distant inception they've gained quite a cult following. This record, Dead Man, was self-released in 1970 and limited to only 3000 copies originally and since has become a quite sought after title for record collectors. It has since been re-released in a 2-in-1 album set also including their first recording Get Off My Case which has 7 tracks, 4 of which are also on Dead Man-just different recording sessions. If you find it, I definitely recommend getting it. This is free-form hard psychedelic blues rock and apparently doesn't even compare to their live performances, which I'm surely jealous I missed. These guys were really in tune with each other and on their massive jam of a final track you'll see what I mean.

get some

Love,
BlaqRaynebeau

Waiting at the Departure Gate

Alexander Tunrquist's third album Hallway of Mirrors just hit stores last Tuesday. If you aren't yet familiar with this young prolific experimental composer/guitarist, here's where you get on. Entirely instrumental melancholic experimental folk/drone. The foundation of his compositions are on his 12-string steel guitar, using rapid intricate and inventive tangles of repetitive guitar finger-picking creating a hypnotic dream-like atmosphere. This lush guitar drift is overlapped by soft chimes of the vibraphone, sweet violin, maybe some cello and other harmonics. Immerse yourself immediately into his otherworldly beautiful compositions. Perfect soundtrack for a morning hike after a gentle rain, which is all I'm getting here in Utah during the most elongated Spring I've ever endured. Either way, I'm a sucker for this stuff. He can be compared to other great minimalistic multi-instrumentalists like James Blackshaw, Kaki King (early), Jack Rose, Rachel's, David Pajo, etc. Pitchfork caught wind of his first album and branded him an 8.2 rating; his second reached #6 on The Silent Ballet Top 50 of 2009; and this one no doubt will garner attention as well. Not a bad reputation for an Idaho born 20-something (born in 1988). His skill and technique is to be revered, no matter the age.

buy it

give it a listen

-BleakRambo

Pourin' Lean & Collard Greens

 Big K.R.I.T., Country Shit(Remix)(feat. Ludacris & Bun B)

 

Let me tell you bout this,

Super fly, dirty dirty

Third coast, muddy water, 

Shawty pop that pussy if ya wanna,

Let me tell you bout this,

Old school pourin' lean,
Candied yams and collard greens,
Pocket fulla stones ridin' clean...

Big K.R.I.T. takes us back to a time when that Durty South Grime almost took over the entire planet, he carries on the legacy that UGK and early Outkast left behind. With a clear lyrical respect for candy paint, choppin' rims, poppin' hydrolics on tha corner and spillin' lean on the wood grain, the grime penetrates deeper on this track, bringing a soul sampled beat with mean swagger, that is as much influenced by selling crack and pimpin' as it is by gospel music. I gotta say "GOD DAMN!" it's good to see Luda back in action, he blows this track wide open with the first line, "Let me tell ya bout these old school Chevy's, Cadillac SS Impalas. If you smoking then we got mo' sacks then Troy Polamalu." For those of you who generally disregard hip-hop because it lacks substance, or any substance had, promotes bad stereotypes against everybody. Keep in mind that Luda and K.R.I.T. bring layers of intelligence and respect to polish their street cred, and maintain a very delicate equilibrium with lines like "No insurance on these whips tags all outdated,  might not be shit too you,  but my momma thinks I made it."

If none of this makes sense it's cause I've never written hip-hop and havn't listened to any besides Nas and The Beastie Boys in months. This track is worth everybody's time so SHUT UP, click play and dance your ass off. 

Country Shit (Remix) (feat. Ludacris & Bun B)-Big K.R.I.T.

Download: Country Shit(Remix) 

-Cee-Lo-Fee-Dough 

Delta Shock Treatment

 Muddy Waters, Electric Mud(1968)

Amplification. Electricity. I could leave the article at that and it would be better than any further elaboration. I'd say that almost anybody would acknowledge that the blues was created by black men. I'd also say that those same people would say that Rock n' Roll was a 'black' sound. I don't think that many people would tell you that Rock was a sound developed by black musicians at all, when it is widely credited to Zeppelin, Cream, The Stones or The Beatles. Although, it is acknowledged that a sound developed by black musicians laid the foundation for those previously mentioned, it is not acknowledged that maybe some black musicians made it onto or gave birth to the psychedelic movement before the white British rockers we love ever figured it out

Muddy Waters you sonofabitch. I always knew you were contributing from behind the scenes for the entirety of the 60's. But until I found this record I had no idea that you found psychedelia this early. Sometimes you need an album that kicks the fucking door in. This is one such album. Electric Mud  was Produced by Marshall Chess of Chess Records in 1968 (pause... realize... '68 was the year Cream disbanded, it was before MC5, Yes, Iron Butterfly, The Jeff Beck Group, Steppinwolf, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Vanilla Fudge, The Guess Who, Led Zeppelin I or White Light/White Heat..... pause... appreciate... continue), in part to rein in a new audience weaned on the burgeoning wave of psychedelic rock whose predecessors both jeered and worshiped the temple of Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Albert king and their blues brethren. The results, depending on your age, vantage point and general attitude, was one of either disdain (purists) or that of enthusiasm (young rock fans). The album was thrown together in hopes of attracting this younger generation who seemed to be attracted by inordinately loud decibel levels. Abandoning Waters' normal band, Chess rounded up a group of new musicians who dubbed themselves "The Electric Niggers." Once in the studio, the new band set their equipment to 11 in search of new levels of distortion and fuzz. I'd say they found it. This is blues driven Psychedelic Rock n' Roll that sling shots itself past capabilities or achievements of any other traditional blues guitarist. The album is built on Muddy originals, covers and re-workings, and gives the general attitude of incredible accidents and exploratory dumb luck. This is not clean or slick or sexy. This is dirty and misunderstood. Tru Grit. You put it on late at night, when you need the proper amount of voltage to kick doors down.

Download Electric Mud


-Corey Bleedoor

Will you show me around

Jamie xx and Gil Scott Heron, We're New Here (2011)

James Blake doesn't like remixes. Well I don't like James Blake. The remix isn't just a record company marketing tool; it's a valid art form, and has been for some time now. But is there a way someone can make a name for himself solely on chopping up and mixing other artists' tracks and stamping his suffix of a name on the thing? Most definitely, and that guy is Jamie Smith, who is best known as the producer and percussionist of the xx. I might beg to differ regarding this “best known” business though, because after an incredible couple of months, the man who goes by the very unoriginal stage name of Jamie xx (seriously?) is 2011's King of the Remix and certainly has the potential to eclipse his band even though he only has one “solo” song to date. While he's done a bit here and there over the last year or so, his big break was getting to remix legend Gil Scott Heron's new album, turning it into We're New Here. That's something, considering Heron is a known recluse, only communicates through written letters, released his first album in over 15 years, and is over twice the age of Jamie xx, But the pairing isn't as unlikely as it may seem. Heron's latest album, which is great, and definitely worth a listen, is an amalgamation of spoken word, soul, dark electronic, and is simplified, almost to an extreme. The xx are all about minimalism, and pride themselves on their use of negative space, so Jamie xx is obviously not out of his element. He can obviously cut it as an electronic producer, but if you listen to his samples and mixes he's also pretty damn soulful. Plus Heron's a pretty eclectic guy; on I'm New Here, he spits on everything from a simple acoustic riff loop to not one but two samples of Kanye's “Flashing Lights” to a stripped-down hand clap of a beat on the neo-gospel “New York is Killing Me.” The latter is utterly brilliant, a disarming present day a cappella-esque work song where the dude just really needs to leave the hellish confines of the Big Apple and get back home that good ol' southern cookin' of Jackson Tennessee. This is a track that really didn't need a remix. But Jamie's flip of it preserves the raspy anguish of Heron's voice and slaps just the right amount of dirty dubstepicity (yeah, I just coined that shit) to melt your face. There really isn't anything out there right now that sounds like Jamie's alarming, frenetic beat on this one, as he retains the simple darkness of the original in club format.

There are some hiccups along the way, especially tracks like “Home” and “Running” where the dude just sounds like he's fucking around on his laptop. But the real jams come later in what is a really bottom-heavy album. “Ur Soul and Mine's” one of them; I think the main reason I love this one so much is because it reminds me a ton of Crystal Waters' "Gypsy Woman," which is as classic of a 90s house tune as they come (you might also know it from T.I.'s 'Why You Wanna') and an obvious influence. The main line here is the possessive repetition of “your soul and mine,” filtered with odd, sporadic windchimes here and there. But then it just explodes, spiralling into a nightmarish world where the grisly gray-bearded visage of Gil Scott Heron holds you captive for eternity. “I'll Take Care of You” might be the most xx-ish song on the album, as bandmate Romy Madley Croft makes a subdued appearance, offering his warm, simple and airy guitar riff that reassuringly responds to Heron's promises. It's just another prime example of the ever-increasing collapsing of genre barriers; who said a gravelly old soul singer, an all-black donning English indie guitarist, a 22-year old electronic producer prodigy who is currently in the studio with Drake and Florence + the Machine, and a keyboard-driven house tune couldn't all just be thrown into one big dance music stew and turn out to be a blue ribbon combo? By not using one sample off of I'm New Here with the exception of Heron's voice, Jamie xx really triumphed in successfully merging old with the new. And since this “new” is truly forward-thinking in its genre-blending nature and isn't the same old recycled thing we've all already heard, well, as long as this guy continues to create sounds that make our ears happy - remix or not - I'm on board. And I don't give a shit if that whiny James Blake isn't.

-K.ZILLA

P.S. Check out two other unbelievable Jamie xx remixes: Adele's “Rolling in the Deep” and Nosaj Thing's “Fog.”

Download We're New Here

Electric Kool-Aid Funeral Anthem's

The Black Angels, Phosphene Dream(Sep, 2010)

     I'm not going to analyze the hell out of this thing because I'm just too god damn exhausted after the week I just had. But anybody who follows this site needs to know about The Black Angels. Dylan, Jon and I had the opportunity to see these guys at Slim's on Saturday and it was siiiick. These guys are the front runners of the neo-psychedelic resurgence that we have seen taking place during the last few years.  An ode to many things we know and love, their influences are deeply invested in classic rock bands, and they end up with a murky flower power atmosphere. Directly speaking, their sound is heavily based on The Doors and The 13th Floor Elevators and even borrow the bluesy shuffle sensibilities of The Animals. The vocal harmonies on this track "Bad Vibrations," reminds me of those shaman like Pink Floyd moments, where even if you have never tried LSD, something about the climax in David Gilmours voice makes you feel like you have consumed ungodly amounts of the stuff. They have a heavy organ accompaniment, and carefully intertwined blasts of vibrating guitar chords. As much as they derive their sound from 60's psychedelia, they often bring you down a much darker street than the colorful tied-died likes of their influences, instead they bring the impending doom of The Velvet Underground, and sometimes reach depths of much deeper despair, although the lyrical substance is nothing compared to that of Lou Reed. Also like the Velvet Underground, they get into some pretty eerie, lucid jamming but can switch it from dark side sonic exploration, back to a pop sensible quality on a dime and often do.

Bad Vibrations-The Black Angels

Download Album: Phosphene Dream 

-Fedor 

Moon Cabbage

Unkown Mortal Orchestra, Unknown Mortal Orchestra EP

      When you unleash “Thought Ballune” on your auditory vessels, despite whether or not you have actually heard this track, I bet you’ll ask yourself where you have heard this before. This brand of rock has a lot of influences. Bands today are really shattering genre barriers like we have never seen in the history of music and it’s never going to stop. I often wonder how far we will take this business of compartmentalizing, and dividing genres in an effort to label things, until we all lean back in our chairs, take a long cool drag of Makers Mark and just say….. Fuck. U.M.O front man Ruban Nielson has made me more, simultaneously confused and content than I thought I ever could be. Taking funk, neo-soul, surf and low-fi psych-rock and combing them with Grandmaster Flash break-beats and Beach Boys vocal harmonies to produce a nuclear transmutation of noise that sounds like it was randomly selected from the dusty, mislabeled, upper shelves of a Greenwich Village record store. The sound establishes presence in a seemingly unconquerable space, between the tear in black matter space-time, where Led Zeppelin caste Thor out of Valhalla; and the only P&M plutonium fueling station in the galaxy, frequented by Parliament Funkadelic on their quasi-psychedelic, 4th dimensional voyages to Pluto. This galactic voyage is showered with wah-wah pedal distortion, painful and delicate vocal chops, all supported by a rhythm section tighter than 3-inch diameter coupling nuts, tightened by a Craftsmen model 1019 Laboratory Edition Signature Series torque wrench(used by NASA).

     This EP would have a colder darker ascetic to it, if it weren’t filtered through an analogue sheen that adds that crisp flowery vintage sound. Because this EP has a bit of everything in it, any listener will feel a certain familiarity or recognize a bit of their own tastes and memories in these tracks. It’s almost as if you and Nielsen grew up together; rummaging through his parents record collections until you both agreed on the best albums available. Except you went on to sell insurance and he followed that child hood optimism and naivety to create something you always wish you had.

Download EP

 

Sex, Catastrophe, And Things Blowing Up...

John Paul Jones(bass), and John Bonham(drums) have absolute perfect timing on this song. This is one of the tightest rhythm sections that ever walked the planet, and this might be one of the best examples of how dead-on-balls accurate they were capable of being. Bonham's kick drum swings with anvil force around Jones' dexterous bass line. Jimmy Page's guitar pronounces itself, fat with menace, drawing hazardous and perfectly balanced symmetry.   Bobby Plant's vocal crooning's echo out across the audience like a cannibal chorus wailing in the infernal light of a savage fertility ritual. He matches the bands intensity with fierceness during the "Oh YEAH, oh YEAH, OH, HUH, HUH," then ushers the same beast in with delicacy during "I gotta walk, can't stand still, got a flamin' heart, can't get my fill."

Make sure your bass is turned up all the way, you are wearing headphones, and you are paying very close attention, with the highest possible volume at 3:27.

Download Led Zeppelin-Black Dog 

Download the entirety of BBC Sessions by Led Zeppelin that I didn't bother to talk about... 

-Corey