Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Radio Oscillator #3

Another week, another show. This week, i programmed a lot of songs, mostly because i didn't put many long one (like last week with Don Cab and Virus) so more songs fit in there...it wasn't something i planned, it's just happened that way. Enjoy the show anyway:

1. T Rex - 20th Century Boy
2. Be your Own Pet - Fuuuuun
3. Boxes - Bad Blood
4. Xtatika - Immolation
5. Arthur Brown - Fire
6. Islands - Rough Gem
7. 3 Inches Of Blood - Dominion Of Deceit
8. Flaming Lips - Pompeii Am Göterdämmerung
9. Misfits - Hybrid Moments
10. Gauze - Kane Kaese
11. Camera Obscura - Tears For Affairs
12. Swell Maps - Big Maz In The Country
13. Gånglîå - Copycat Ripoff
14. The Vaselines - Dying For It
15. The Screamers - In A Better World
16. Hüsker Dü - Iron Man
17. Masonna - untitled track 6 (Frequency LSD)
18. Charalambides - Dormant Love
19. Sham 69 - If The Kids Are United

Radio Oscillator #3.mp3

News And Rants

If you buy mp3s from iTunes i have some good news for you: You, sir/ma’am are an idiot, consider that you are paying for a shitty compressed file (meaning the waveform of the music gets taken elements from it to make it smaller) and then get charged like if it was actually full sounding song, biggest ripoff of the century!. So if you do that, stop; also, you can download a new EP by Deicide.

Sleater-Kinney are breaking up!!! People are sad!!!! It sucks that i never got to see them live but they were never my favorite band or anything; still a good band indeed. They are going on indefinite hiatus and have no plans to tour or record in the future; after their 5 scheduled shows this summer (Louisville, Philly, Washington DC, NY and Chicagopalooza), they kaput. Feminists, lesbians and Spin staffers are bummed.

And speaking of Spin, what’s with them turning into Blender? I mean, Spin was shitty, but turn the suck factor to pukatronic? Is the money better?

The Arcade Fire haven’t found enough instruments and ways of recording stuff for their next album. They have recorded 15 songs and are not done yet, they want to record in their living room, they have added a pipe organ and they want to record with an orchestra in Budapest. Just make sure to mix the thing properly, maybe you should try mixing it in Dobly.

Look out!!! For soon the Toribox shall be upon us. How much Tori can it get, it’s None More Tori Amos. Here’s what you get when you buy A Piano on September 26:

Disc 1:
"Leather" (Alternate Mix)
"Precious Things" (Alternate Mix)
"Silent All These Years"
"Upside Down"
"Crucify" (Unedited Single Version)
"Happy Phantom"
"Me and a Gun"
"Flying Dutchman" (Alternate Mix)
"Girl"
"Winter"
"Take to the Sky (Russia)"
"Tear in Your Hand"
"China"
"Sweet Dreams"
"Mother" (Alternate Mix)
"Little Earthquakes"

Disc 2:
"Cornflake Girl"
"Honey"
"Take Me With You"
"Baker Baker" (Alternate Mix)
"The Waitress" (Alternate Mix)
"Pretty Good Year"
"God"
"Cloud on My Tongue"
"Past the Mission" (Alternate Mix)
"Bells For Her"
"Yes, Anastasia" (Alternate Mix)
"Blood Roses"
"Mr Zebra"
"Caught a Lite Sneeze" (Alternate Mix)
"Professional Widow" (Merry Widow Version - Live)
"Beauty Queen/Horses"
"Father Lucifer"
"Marianne"

Disc 3:
"Walk to Dublin" (Sucker Reprise)
"Hey Jupiter" (Dakota Version)
"Professional Widow" (Armand"s Star Trunk Funkin" Mix)
"Putting the Damage On"
"Bliss" (Remixed Version)
"Suede"
"Glory of the 80's"
"1000 Oceans"
"Concertina" (Single Remix Version)
"Lust"
"Datura"
"Sugar" (Soundcheck)
"The Waitress" (Live)
"Snow Cherries From France"
"Doughnut Song" (Remixed Version)

Disc 4:
"A Sorta Fairytale"
"Not David Bowie"
"Amber Waves"
"Iieee" (Remixed Version)
"Playboy Mommy" (Remixed Version)
"The Beekeeper"
"Jackie's Strength"
"Zero Point"
"Sweet the Sting"
"Ode to My Clothes"
"Spark"
"Intro Jam"/"Marys of the Sea"
"Cruel" (Remixed Version)
"Dolphin Song"
"Gold Dust"

Disc 5:
"The Pool"
"Never Seen Blue"
"Daisy Dead Petals"
"Beulah Land"
"Sugar"
"Cooling"
"Bachelorette"
"Black Swan"
"Mary" (Tales Version)
"Peeping Tommi"
"Toodles Mr. Jim"

Demo Medley:
"Fire-Eater's Wife/Beauty Queen" (Demo)
"Playboy Mommy" (Demo)
"A Sorta Fairytale" (Demo)
"This Old Man"
"Purple People"
"Here. In My Head"
"Hungarian Wedding Song"
"Merman"
"Sister Janet"
"Home on the Range" (Cherokee Edition)
"Frog on my Toe"

OHHH this rules!!! Top Of The Pops gets cancelled!!! Damn! Now where will i be reminded what is the current Robbie Willaims, Pussycat Dolls or whoever was in the Spice Girls single?

Today is the release date for Flying Luttenbachers brand new fucking cd called Cataclysm, and you can only order it from their website. The bad news, they only pressed 500 copies, bummer is right.

Portishead has broken their silence and have post two, count them, TWO new songs for an album with a “?” for a title so far that will be released in 2006 by Island Records. Well, they are not really new songs, they are more like instrumental working things, if they are final songs, then i think it’s the end of the P-Head. Hear them
here.

Alright, whoever is shocked to know Axl Rose was arrested for biting the leg of a security guard in Stockholm then that person is an ignorant bastard who knows squat about the Axl man; that’s normal, everyday behavior to him and us GN’FN’R fans.

Hella are releasing an EP called Acoustics on September 12 where they...well...play some of their songs in acoustic form. While for most bands that means a giant YAWN!, for Hella that’s a big challenge considering most of their stuff is based on the power of electric guitar; seems like the axe has been drawn and war has been declared, wonder if and/or how Lightning Bolt and Orthrelm will react to it. Here’s teh tracklisting:

01 1-800-Ghost Dance
02
Hella - Women of the 90's.mp3
03 Cafeteria Bananas
04 Biblical Violence
05 Welcome to the Jungle Baby, Your Gunna Live!
06 The Devil Isn't Red

Xiu Xiu are not only dropping another weirdo elctro noisy Gamelan Sabbath lamentation of pain and suffering in the form of The Air Force, due out in September 12, but will also release a lead-in single as a limited edition 7” picture disc of the songs “Boy Soprano”/”San Pedro Glue Stick”; the thing is already available for preorder thru the label releasing it DoggPony but it doesn’t ship until July 11. The 7” is limited to 500 copies.

Big Big Big Big Big Slayer update:1) Christ Illusion’s Release Date: August 8 2) Christ Illusion’s Cover Artwork made by the dude who did the cover for Reign In Blood, South Of Heaven and Seasons In The Abyss: click
here 3) If you are willing to convert money to Euros, you can buy the new “Eternal Pyre” 7” picture disc single limited to a 1000 copies here and wait until June 30 to get yours shipped (when you do a pressing of one thousand discs it’s NOT a limited run, ok?) 4) if you live in the U.S. and are brave enough to venture to that underworld of decay and suffering that is Hot Topic, you can actually score a cd copy of the “Electric Pyre” single and 5) You can stream 3 Christ Illusion songs, “Cult”, “Eyes Of The Insane” and “Jihad”, here (they rule in a total “It’s Slayer and they hardly change their style” way)

On October 6, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead will either embarrass themselves further or will return to their glory of past because on that day they will release their next studio album.It also looks like Dr. Dre is going to help mix the album.

Atari Teenage Riot goes mainstream, it seems they use their song “Speed” on that Fast And The Furious movie.

Click
here to watch Cat Power’s gangsta christian track & field video for “Living Proof”

September 12 again, appearantly the day music will live and take us away from our money, will be the day Yo La Tengo will unleash I’m Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass; yes that’s the name and you bet your ass it will deliver it’s title when we finally get to listen to it. For now take a look at the coverart (by Gary Panter)
here and download a preview song here:

Yo La Tengo – Beanbag Chair.mp3

Hey, MP3.com: FUCK YOU YOU RACIST FUCKS!!!! Just because i’m in Mexico doesn’t mean i can’t watch the new Sonic Youth video for “Incinerate” does it? Well bitches, go fuck yourselves and your corporate crap. I’m not even linking the stream so if you want to see the Yoof get all glossy for MTV2’s Subterrenean, get it on a Bittorrent site or on Soulseek. Fuck MP3.com, let me see you drown next time your site closes down.

And speaking of Hüsker Youth, lookie lookie!!!
Ecstatic Peace website now sells stuff, it actually looks like a real record label website; but you can’t download the videos anymore? C’mon!!! well, they were a waste of space anyway. Check out the kickass videos of Be Your Own Pet.

Go to Narnack’s MySpace page to listen to Iran, they are pretty cool, and also check out a new song by Lee “Scratch” Perry.

September 26 sees the release of Wolf Eyes Sub Pop follow up to Burned Mind called Human Animal, this will be their 27th release this year so far, look for the remaining 84 recordings later on in the year.

So it seems the vinyl edition of Genghis Tron’s album is sold out...

Animal Collective is shooting for a late October release of their genius debut Hollindagain. That album along with the Prospect Hummer EP are my fave AC albums, everything they have done pales in comparisson. Speaking of Paw Tracks stuff, check out First Nation, they have an mp3 that sounds pretty cool, you can also check out the song at their
MySpace page.

First Nation – Female Trance.mp3

So yes, Terrorizer kinda reunited and they recorded a new album called Darker Days Ahead...no, seriously, it comes out August 22; the band has Jesse Pintado on guitar and Pete Sandoval on drums plus Tony Norman (a.k.a. the dude who is slaying on guitar with Morbid Angel) and vocalist Anthony Rezhawk; they recorded 11 new songs for the thing plus a new version of “Dead Shall Rise”...i might seem like a jerk here but why don’t you release the original Terrorizer demos and get over with all of this, ok?

Jack Rose is semi-on tour, catch the man if you can, the dude slays!

OOIOO will have a new album out on September 12 and it will be called Samba Pa’ Ti...i mean Taiga; this is like the most tropical Japanese noisers will ever get; i have it and it rules with capital Z; for those of you who like your mouths to get more watery click
here.

More new records news: These Arms Are Snakes have just finished recording their latest album which is called Easter, the cd on Jade Tree will be out October 10, the vinyl on Second Nature will be out on September 26, but that doesn’t mean you can’t preorder it (the cd at least). Sneak preview in the form of a compressed audio file will follow at the end of this sentence:

These Arms Are Snakes – Horse Girl.mp3

Load Records are pimping us new mp3s for the new albums by Coughs (out September 19), Teh USA Is A Monster (September 5) and Vampire Can’t (no date yet, Fall of ’06 appearantly) but as of right now, you can’t download them, you get an HTTP 404. Check back until they fix that crap.

If you have $75 dollars to spend and don’t know what will you spend them on, get the new RRR/Groundfault/Troniks 10LP boxset featuring each of these fine artists playing a side each: Amps For Christ, Cherry Point, Joe Colley, Control, Gerritt, GX Jupiter-Larsen, Moth Drakula, Open City, Oscillating Innards, Damion Romero, Rubber O Cement, Sixes, Skaters, Solid Eye, Spastic Colon, Tralphaz, John Weise, Xome, RHY Yau, Yellow Swans.

Antiopic will release an album by Tetuzi Akiyama/Oren Ambarchi/Alan Licht called Willow Weep And Moan For Me as part of their live series, the thing is labeled as “Coming Soon” but it sounds too good to hold back for a long time.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Radio Oscillator #2

So here i give you show number 2, i apologize for not upping it sooner, the reason why is because i was (actually, i still am) experimenting with other ways of making these available to you, so right now i'm using Badongo and sticking with it for a little while longer, actually, Badongo has been kickass so far; also, i had some throat problems so you can laugh if you want to. Anyway, by popular demand, here's the playlist:

1. The Fall - Rouche Rumble
2. Animetal Lady - Theme From Candy Candy(?)
3. Death Sentence: PANDA! - Boomer
4. Antioch Arrow - The Fixed Orbit
5. Double Leopards - Druid Spectre
6. Cannibal Corpse - Psychotic Precision
7. Raccoo-oo-oon - Stick Eaters
8. Sneaker Pimps - Spin Spin Sugar
9. Don Caballero - The Peter Criss Jazz
10. The Germs - Sugar Sugar
11. Virus - Endless Game
12. Shonen Knife - Twist Barbie
13. Daemien Frost - You've Changed
14. The Gerogerigegege - Golden Shower
15. We Versus The Shark - Ten Uh Clock Heart Uh Tack

Radio Oscillator #2.mp3

I'll appreciate all your comments

Friday, June 16, 2006

For It's Only A Melody That Can Save Us From Ourselves

TV On The Radio
Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
2004, Touch & Go



This boogie woogie album of distorted bass, vocal harmonies and ambient from hell or anywhere 4:00 am was released 2 years ago and it wasn’t a sleeper at all, no sir, it wasn’t; it was one of the top albums of the year, made several best of the year lists and so on; a year before they had issued their EP Young Liars to some good reception but this was the album that took everyone by surprise, in an era of post punk revivalists and persons of less moral value, it was a breath of fresh air, something so original and alive coming out of this amazing album, with such songs so complex and simple at the same time, in odd rock n’ roll instrumentation, it was a blessed thing, i tell you, or i might not have to tell you since you probably already know about it, hipster boy.



This band is based on the bass but they have little or nothing to do with funk or reggae, the basic of bass based musics, there’s not slap at all, no melodically rhythmic low end riffs, there’s plenty of bass riffs alright but not dancy ones; to add to the insult, they also use a drum machine and their music is not dancy at all, it might seem weird to you, throw you out a bit but, believe me, that’s part of the deal here. So let’s check here: bass, not funky not dancy, but brutal as the melodic motif of the music, as the basis of their collages, distorted sometimes, commanding always; just brutal. Drum machine, almost never dancy, almost always blending with the background, in camouflage clothing and with the face painted green and brown; in fact the beat is really kept by the bass more than the beatbox, while the d-machine adds little changes over it’s lines; note that i say the bass “keeps” the beat and it doesn’t create rhythms, since rhythms are few steps from dancing and jerkying around, and that’s not happening here, not on the surface at least. This is the mold where the other instrumentations and vocal harmonies are springled over, weird ass keyboards lurk everywhere, tracks one and nine have a honking sax, guitars sometimes squeal some notes just to make it weirder and more textured, like a velvet covered rock; the voices are the real characters in this soundscapes, more than one, like the ones in your head, even thought they never scream or are raised that much, most of the time they are singing, intercepting each other in the audio field, trying to encounter the end of one and complementing the other, maybe denying the first one, or rejecting the last, coming over everywhere, unexpecting to when will they fall back and leave just one, or when will they attack, or if they would stop attacking, agreeing on disagreeing and getting to saying the same thing at the same time, reinforcing the idea, the truth: The Melody, for it’s only a melody that can save us from ourselves, from the voices in our head, from the rain and the tape hiss; it’s allied or divide and conquer and the record is the warfield, waging for all to end...and does it end? I can’t really tell from here, but then again, who can win if the subjects fighting are one and the same? This is the explosions and lights of a battlefield made music...and it’s damn great music, i might add.

PS: They will be releasing a new album soon.



mp3:

Staring At The Sun.mp3
Poppy.mp3

Flashy, Ridiculous and Self-Serving: A Progressive Rock Ode By A Brit Punk Band

The Damned
“Curtain Call”
The Black Album
1980, Chiswick



Ahh The Damned, you know them, maybe you don’t know them; they were probably the funnest of the 1977 UK punk bands, certainly more so than the media hogging Sex Pistols or the self righteous Clash. The Dam-Ned had made a name for themselves playing fun, fast odes to...who knows, and beginning with their now classic Machine Gun Etiquette, the band had started to become more experimental with their music, but really being experimental; the band had adopted many sounds, past and present, and had incorporated them to their sound while at the same time, tossing their characteristic Damned Damned Damned style to the side, leaving just their approach and humour in, which was all it was needed to be honest.

So after 11 songs of macabre death rock that constitute the Black Album, what does a band that has gone up and down in the matter of minutes go? They wrap it up with a 17 minute prog rock epic of course. And it’s not just a prog rock epic, it’s one of the things the Damned had ever done.



It’s understandable that it’s a little understood song, since, when compared to “New Rose” or “Neat Neat Neat” or “Smash It Up”, it’s pretty opposite to what the band had been all about, or at least what they had been best at; but then again, people who think that are probably inventing genres and listening just to that, they might even believe the Sex Pistols invented punk and ended with them breaking up which always makes me laugh; so, listening with an open mind is a must, not just for the Damned, but for everything really, but let’s just leave at listening to the Damned. The song starts innocently enough as one of those summons of the deadly depressed feelings so common in goth rock (the kind which rocks, not the one which is just dumb and ridiculous) with keyboards and everything and Dave Vanian’s ghastly baritone all over it, then the pace goes up and the band starts to rock, then a few minutes later the band goes into Beach Boys vocal harmonies. The Fiends!!!!! It’s all good and games when the keyboards leave on droning and the piano plucking for the Phantom of the Opera, mask and shame to be seen and everything, stay to give place to something that sounds nothing like British punk at all and that’s where the genius of this piece lies, it’s nothing like what you expect, not the vocal harmonies, not the piano plucking, not the Yes references, not the droning, not the guitar solos, not anything. I mean i can certainly picture the band coming up with this song going “le’s do a 17 minute sung!!!” then, the band would wonder what would they fill it with, and then they would just brainstorm thru the whole thing, the influences, the instrumentals, the pretentiousness and the laughter, for those are perfect ingredients when it comes to vaudevillian music which is what the Dam-Ned did best, it’s also at the core of punk, Johnny Rotten said it on camera on The Filth And The Fury, the Ramones were all about laughs, they were a band for fun times, whether the fun times were as innocent as having a girlfriend or hanging at Rockaway Beach or as fucked up as sniffing glue, the New York Dolls were one big joke, i mean, you can tell it to friends, tell the story of the Dolls and it’s just laughs after laughs; and where can you take that when you’ve gone back and forth with the three chords and the dresses and the offenses? The real joke that is the Black Album was on the punks, but more than on the punks, it’s on the people who care about punk superficially, that category whose members include teh spiky haired possers and the rock critics, who to this day trash this album and consider it “sub-par” to their previous stuff. And when those people don’t like it, then the joke hits the fan, that’s when you know it works, that’s when music becomes punk, or punker compared to other music. The musicianship in this song is superb, no doubt about it, but it’s the song that shines, even if it’s designed to be flashy, ridiculous and self-serving, for that is a FUCK YOU to all who expected another brand new rose in town.


mp3:

Curtain Call.mp3

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Radio Show #1

Here i give you the first show of this site's radio program/podcast. The bandas i played on this program are Sonic Youth, The Arcade Fire, No-Neck Blues Band, Karp, Loop, M83, Yo La Tengo, Sonny Sharrock, Acid Mothers Temple, Agnostic Front and Ruins; some of those songs are live or rare. Listen up:

Radio Show #1.mp3

Leave a comment after listening.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

New things

Alright, so it's been a while since i posted, well, that's probably about to change, since i have many things in store.

First of all, i'm going to branch out start doing a paper, physical fanzine called, you guessed it, Oscillator. I still don't know when the first issue will be finished or how much it's going to cost or whatever, but rest assure, you'll know and (more importantly) i'll know for sure soon. And don't worry, it won't be boring, it will be more essay based instead of record reviews, yadda yadda.

Also, in the works is the radio show/podcast, show number 1 will be uploaded soon and show number 2 is in the works. I hope to do it as a weekly thing, and the show will have a wide range of artists, as is to be expected.

I'll keep you posted on what will happen next.