THE BEAT WiTHiN

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My old friend David Inocencio is Director/co-founder of a project called The Beat Within, a weekly publication of writing and art by young people in the juvenile justice system. Starting out in the San Francisco bay area, today, "The Beat Within staff and volunteers hold weekly workshops in many California county juvenile halls: San Francisco, Marin, Alameda, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Monterey, and Fresno. The Beat workshop model is replicated in Maricopa Arizona, in San Bernalillo New Mexico, Miami Florida, and in our new satellite program in Washington DC. Each week, we serve up to 700 detained youth and our San Francisco office provides internships and social services to more than a dozen formerly detained youth. Today the full-fledged weekly magazine is at 70 pages." Please friend The Beat Within and check out the writing. If you can spare a couple dollars they can always use your support.

Here's the story of The Beat Within:

SF State Beat Within Video from New America Media on Vimeo.

Jackie O Motherfucker

Jackie O Motherfucker "Where We Go" by FIRE RECORDS

Jackie O Motherfucker have returned with another full-length titled Earth Sound System, on Fire Records. It sees Tom Greenwood & company following down a similar to path to what they have been mining for a bit now, though still offering the occasional twist, as heard on "Here We Go". The song is propelled by a scuzzy bass line, some off-klitered guitar strums, & Greenwood's vocals located out front resembling a more garage take on classic JOMF tune.

Fire has also put up a mix by Tom Greenwood himself over on their soundcloud. Listening to the mix is akin to swimming through a pool containing a couple of Greenwood & JOMF's sonic influences. While listening to the tracks many of the sounds & musical structures can been seen as informing the sound Greenwood & company have built throughout their 15 plus year career.

Tom Greenwood - Jackie O Motherfucker Mix by FIRE RECORDS

The mix features an eclectic mix of tunes that feature some weirdo experimentation & traditional song form. While finishing my first listen I noticed the striking stylistic ark of the drum machines role within the mix, which begins with a weirdo track that is anchored by the snare hiss of some cheap casio drum machine by The Door & The Window & finishing with the smooth electronic flow of Eddi Flashin Fowlikes "Deep Cover". Definitely worth a listen until the Earth Sound System comes out July 4th.

AMANAR

@ iTunes // Facebook//MySpace

Last Nights Presents:

Last Nights Presents:

This Saturday July 2nd come join Last Nights at Shea Stadium for a night of fantastic music with the likes of

Sore Eros

A fantastic collision of lush sounds and textures, the record touches on "Blue Jay Way"-style psychedelic drone, melodic pop, and fractured country-rock, all brought together by soaring, cathedral-like production and intonated vocals. Now a fully-fledged three-piece with Andy Tomasello (of Eat Cloud) on drums and slide guitar, Sore Eros has begun to take their music directly to the people with a live show described by one concert-goer as "frighteningly no-filler... [A] fifth-dimension bar band performing an exorcism." -SHDWPLY

Psychic Reality

’ve read reviews that try to compare her work to early Björk, but I just don’t hear it. I think all of her material, though this record is her most lucid to date, is less traditionally beautiful than Björk. Instead, there is a reinvented grace and elegance. There’s a lot more here to the exposing and communication of the female soul. We hear a kind of playful intimacy, a vulnerable exchange of dreams, and girlish joy put on exhibition for the listener to experience. This is accomplished through the trippy rhythms and ethereal vocals that can be comforting, vivacious, and overwhelming that sometimes bring it all at once or presents itself as a tribute to a single instinct. -Foxy Digitalis

Octo Octa

With an upcoming 12" on 100% Silk (Not Not Fun offshoot) Octo Octa brings some strong communal dance-music vibes.

Special Guest DJ Jonas Reinhardt

Marking their first appearance in NYC since the release of their stellar album Music For The Tactile Dome, Jonas Reinhardt will be the DJ for the evening, providing tunes that'll keep the vibes going throughout the night.

"San Francisco-based analog astronaut Jonas Reinhardt is somewhat of a standout amidst the pile-up of experimental electro-synth albums the last few years have seen. The dude’s got a clear talent for crafting fully-realized and super-polished tracks that can span genres and moods while still managing, bless his heart, to keep it all positive." - Sick Of The Radio

Sat. July 2nd

@ Shea Stadium
20 Meadow St., Brooklyn, NY
$7 // Doors 8pm
For more info & to RVSP click here

HiLLSTOMP - Live Recording from Johns Alley - Moscow, Idaho - April 14th 2011

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Here's a great full set by Portland's Hillstomp recorded by my old pal Jeff Tomas (sound man/Bass player/guitar tech/roadie extraordinaire) from their set at Moscow, Idaho's John's Alley April 14th 2011.  As Jeff says, "the vocals are a little low at first, as my first concern is the house mix, but they get louder." Thanks, Jeff!

If you are a touring band I highly recommend you include a stop at John's Alley.   

Moscow is located about half way between Seattle and Boise and with two large universities nearby (UI in town and WSU a mere eight miles away) it's tough to have a bad gig.

The set is split into five tracks. Get 'em HERE.

-

SMOKE FAiRiES - When You Grow Old

@ Facebook // iTunes

Eric Copeland

Eric Copeland returns with a new full-length that continues to mine a weirdo beats & broken radio aesthetic that has come to be his trademark of sorts. the album comes after releasing a couple singles on PPM that began to showcase a new direction for the artist. Waco Taco Combo sees Copeland to tredding away from the overtly pop sensibilities of the last two singles more closely resembling. Whereas the Puerto Rican & Doo Doo Run 7"s contained short blasts of psych-pop grooves, complete with melodies and all, Waco Taco has Copeland digging into more beat driven arrangements. At times the album more closely resembles his work with Black Dice, for which he became known, though always veers back towards his own unique & identifiable sound. The album is released by Denmark based label Escho, in an edition of 500.

Eric Copeland: Waco Taco Combo by alteredzones

PPM has also announced a new 7" by Copeland titled Whorehouse Blues. The single contains three new tracks that, according to the press release, follow in a similar vein as the weirdo pop of Puerto Rican 7". You can check the video Black Dice made for Copeland's Fun Dink Death below. What a busy dude!

SCOTT H BiRAM - Still Drunk. Still Crazy, Still Blue

Scott Biram- Still Drunk, Still Crazy, Still Blue from Milk Products on Vimeo.

MiCHAEL TARBOX - My Primitive Joy

Michael Tarbox @ BandCamp // CDbaby // MySpace // Tarbox Ramblers

Michael Tarbox is best known for his band The Tarbox Ramblers, a seriously tough and dextrous roots/blues outfit from Massachusetts, but for his first solo album titled My Primitive Joy, recorded at Nashville's Fry Pharmacy studio, Tarbox has moved towards a more introspective, somewhat blues infused folk/baroque pop-infected sound that reminds me a bit of perhaps a rootsier Fred Neil, or the new work of Chris Cotton, while still retaining a good amount of the Tarbox Ramblers darkness. It's a lovely, poetic, and personal album that I think you'll treasure. 
Go download it for a paltry $7 at Bandcamp.

I hesitate to post these videos because the recording quality does not do the album true justice. But with that in mind, here's a taste:

THE CiGAR BOX GUiTAR REVOLUTiON

I have a gig writing a monthly column called (what else) Deep Blues for our local music magazine here in Saint Augustine, FL, Ignition. Here's a piece I did on the cigar box guitar revolution. Thanks to photographer Dan Florez for the use of the shots he took of my Lowebow.

“ So I went ahead and made me a guitar. I got me a cigar box, I cut me a round hole in the middle of it, take me a little piece of plank, nailed it onto that cigar box, and I got me some screen wire and I made me a bridge back there and raised it up high enough that it would sound inside that little box, and got me a tune out of it. I kept my tune and I played from then on. "  —Lightnin' Hopkins

         Have you noticed how everybody, their mom, and Warren (no relation to Jimmy) Buffet, is playing a ukulele these days?  The Uke has a new found respectability, with it’s own superstars like Jake Shimabukuro, Nellie McKay, the late George Harrison, YouTube darling Danielle Ate The Sandwich, and of course, Tiny Tim. Kudos to those who have taken up the long neglected little four-stringer.  You saved it from its lowly fate as a Hawaiian theme party prop and the instrument of choice for those pretending to relive great grandma’s flapper days.
The ukulele, roughly translated from Hawaiian to mean jumping flea, was introduced to Hawaii sometime in the late 1800s by Portuguese cabinetmakers who immigrated to the islands. The cigar box guitar (cbg) is believed to date back to as early as 1840 although the first illustrated documentation comes from an 1876 etching of two civil war soldiers from the Union side, one playing a cbg as his compatriot plays a fiddle.
When comparing the ukulele to the cbg, it’s not the Beatles vs. the Stones, or Lady Gaga vs. Black Flag. It’s closer to a Van Gogh vs. whittling thing.  And I heart whittling.  The ukulele has rules. Rules as to size, number of strings, tuning, and construction. 
The cbg, on the other hand, has virtually no rules.
As stated in the cbg documentary Songs Inside The Box  
“If you build a homemade cigar box guitar, you're going to have to try and tame this beast to play your own music.” “There’s no rules of how to play it, how to tune it, how to string it, how many strings are on it. So now you're making your own music.” “It’s freedom. I could never play anything before because I didn’t have the patience to learn the way people wanted me to learn.”
The cbg community has its stars too.  Shane Speal is the runs the Cigar Box Nation website and is owner of Pennsylvania’s amazing Cigar Box Guitar Museum.  Speal is also the self-proclaimed (though no one really disagrees) King of the CBG.  Speal made his first cbg in 1993 after reading about a cbg that the legendary Carl Perkins once had.  He’s gone on to make countless more guitars since then.  Memphis luthier John Lowe makes a one, two, three, and four-string CBGs called the Lowebow in acoustic and electric models.  The electrics feature pickups hand-wound by Lowe and use a 25 cent piece for the pickup contact.  Richard Johnston was one of the first to own a Lowebow. He used it at the 2001 International Blues Competition to blow the judges minds and garner the IBC’s first place, as well as the Albert King Award.   This was the first time a cbg had won an IBC award, let alone the first time a diddley-bow (one string guitar) had won.   John Lowe has hand-made hundreds of cigar box guitars; and his instruments are owned by the likes of Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars, Kid Rock, who got his Lowebow from Dickinson and proudly displayed it on CNN’s Larry King Show, Bo Ramsey, guitarist for Greg Brown and Lucinda Williams, singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett, and me.
Lowe was honored last month at the first annual Lowebow Fest in Orlando, FL.  It featured four nationally known Lowebow CBG-based bands: Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin's Purgatory Hill, a two-piece led by Pat McDonald, known for his hit The Future’s So Bright, Philadelphia’s Hymn For Her, Florida’s Ben Prestage, and John Lowe, who performs as Johnny Lowebow.
 
Bill Jagitsch, whose nom-de-blues is Blues Boy Jag, is another well-regarded CBG builder. Since seeing plans for a cigar box guitar in a copy of Make Magazine in 2006,  Jagitsch, who numbers each guitar, has built over a thousand guitars and has become a one-stop shop for the one-man band genre.   Developing his own cottage industry, Jagitsch builds cool little amplifiers housed in cigar boxes, as well as bass drums built from thriftstore suitcases, fretted and fretless cbgs, as well as wooden carrying cases for his guitars.  In an interview I did last week with Bill Jagitsch he said, “I also make Dobro style resonators cbg's, cb basses, dulcimers, ukuleles, acoustic cbg's and 6 string cbg's.  Over the years I've added other items such as my Boogie Board Foot Stomper which is an electric bass drum/stomp board for solo acts, my hand wound pickups which are designed specifically for cbg's, a how to play dvd with several gigs of videos and tunings as well as fingering tricks, slide tips and so forth.”
The cigar box guitar scene is not limited to the U.S. England has it’s own happening scene with artists (who have certainly more colorful names than the Americans) like Chicken Bone John, Blues Beaten Redshaw, Seasick Steve ( actually a Yank ), and Hollowbelly, who said in a recent cbg documentary titled Cigar Box Revolution:
“It’s a sort of anti-commercial, anti-technological, anti-establishment thing to do.  They are just unbelievable instruments. They’re very democratic.  That’s what I like about it.  You don’t have to be rich; you can make one, and get playing it.  I thought, even I could make one. It’s a stick in a box, right?  I strung it up and I thought, there’s no way it’s going to work.  But not only did it work it sounded super-fabulous!”
Hollowbelly has risen quickly to become the best known cbg player in the U.K. Seasick Steve is perhaps more well known but he uses an eclectic choice of instruments including the cbg and Hollowbelly sticks solely to the cbg.  With the howl and blues feel of an English Jack White and a U.K.-centric punk and political sense, Hollowbelly pounds new nails in the old timey bridge between the British mines and isles, and the American blue ridge mountains punk, piney hill country hollers, and dirty south soul.  In an interview I did with Hollowbelly for my Deep Blues blog in May of last year I asked him how he got into playing cigar box guitars:

“Well, I'd moved out of London 10 years ago and headed West. I had money for the first time ever- I was bored with standard tuning guitar so I found out about blues open tuning and resonator guitars- I can laugh at myself now- I blew the money on this stupidly expensive National resonator guitar from California- you know- those steel guitars you see the old black bluesmen play- I thought 'yeah man-now I'm a real bluesman' -ha ha ha!! An arsehole is what I was. 
Well, to my dismay it didn't sound anything like Son House or Fred McDowell.  I sold it at a loss, then stumbled across cigar box guitars on the web.  Two characters need to be mentioned really- Shane Speal, an American who was out there promoting cbg's long before they became better known about- and Chickenbone John, a Brit who I often refer to as the Godfather of the cbg movement here in the UK.  I bought a little £30 CBG from 'bone, and holy cow- there was the sound I was after- I shoulda guessed that an instrument that was made from poverty would give that sound, given where blues came from.  So then I made my own very crude CBG out of a bannister rail and an old tin and started writing some tunes.  Nine months later I'm at (London’s famous) the 100 club.” 
“You can’t get much closer to the punk ethic of do it yourself than making your own guitar, right?  Can't afford a Gibson?  No problem- shove a stick in a box, stretch some strings across it and you're good to go. It ties in with my loathing of social inequality.   That whole 'anybody can do it' thing is so appealing and central to the movement.   I mean you need zero cash- so its 100% inclusive.  Open tuning also democratizes- put a slide on your finger and away you go- you don't need to know scales or read music or whatever- start picking and sing what's in your soul.  There- you're playing your blues- how cool is that?  Very damn cool I'd say.   No more staring into music shop windows dreaming about a Gibson or a Fender.   When the CBG revival was started in the States there was, and still is, a 'no rules' policy- which is also true to the original punk ideology- heavy metal on a cbg-why not?  Funk music on a 2 string? Go for it.  Oh yeah, that's the way things should be.”

Shane Speal, known as The King Of The Cigar Box Guitar, has a story about his discovery of the cbg that runs somewhat parallel to that of Hollowbelly, and it will be familiar to most blues fans.  It involves the usual fanboy tale of the reverse engineering of musical history. In an email interview I did with Speal he said,
 
“In high school, I played bass in heavy metal and thrash bands.  When I went to college, I discovered the blues and was totally blown away.  It started with the usuals...Hendrix, Ten Years After and Led Zeppelin.  Then  I started asking the question, "who came before them?" That's when I discovered Muddy, The Wolf and Hound Dog Taylor.  I kept searching for the deeper links to the blues, ending up with the delta guys like Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson and Blind Willie Johnson.  I was beating an old Stella acoustic and struggling to play slide on it just like them.  In the meantime, I kept wondering, what came before the delta guys?  That's when I discovered the stories of guys building cigar box guitars. It was the one step deeper than the delta blues...a music so primal that you had to build your own damn guitar to play it.” 
 
Playing a cbg puts you in good company.  Jimi Hendrix played one as a kid, George Benson played a ukulele-style cbg, the aforementioned Carl Perkins and Lightnin’ Hopkins, Ted Nugent, Charlie Christian, Roy Clark, Albert King, Hound Dog Taylor, Robert Pete Williams, Big Bill Broonzy, Eddie Lang, Josh White, Johnny Depp, Billy Gibbons, and Scott Dunbar who played his like a violin.  Countless more musicians either got their start on the cbg or picked one up later in life. Here’s the thing that I dig about cigar box guitars: It’s an elitism-free instrument and totally egalitarian.  You can make a guitar for ten bucks that can sound just as good as one that cost a lot more.  There are no rules.  No worries about structural acoustics or whether or not your neck is made of some exotic wood or cut from scrap.  Nobody cares if you play a Lowebow, a Shane Speal, a Blues Boy Jag model, or a homemade thing you slapped together out of that cigar box your dad kept spare change in or grandma’s old jewelry box.  It doesn’t matter if the parts to build it came from the big box hardware store or some box of junk in the back of your shed.  You put it together; you string it up, you figure out how to play it in the way that sounds good to you.  Anywhere you take it you’ll hear people say, "Wow! That's so cool! Can I see it? Can I hear it? How can I make one?" Each cigar box guitar is different and unique, and as long as it plays, is completely valid as an instrument and, perhaps more importantly, valid as a work of art as well.
Do you want to build your own cbg or a cigar box uke, fiddle, banjo, violin, diddley-bow, amp, or bass?  For the beginner or the expert craftsman, cigarboxnation.com has all the plans you’ll need.  Join the nation and your fellow members will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have along the way. Need a real Ukulele?  Check out our local favorite uke store Grampa’s Uke Joint in Flagler Beach or at grampasukejoint.com/

 

           

POSSESSED BY PAUL JAMES @ Mac's 06.22.11

 Possessed By Paul James Previously // Video shot by Lil' Devilish Productions

Last Nights Presents:

Last Nights Presents:

Sore Eros

Psychic Reality

Octo Octa

Special Guest DJ Jonas Reinhardt

@ Shea Stadium
20 Meadow St., Brooklyn, NY
$7 // Doors 8pm
For more info & to RVSP click here

Ticket to ride... extremely!

Watching this is almost as convincing as one of those roller coaster simulators! Just hope wasn't disqualified for riding through the tapes a couple of times (or splatting the dog!)? I couldn't help noticing the pin-striped suit the competitor is wearing, too!

P h/t Pat Kirby

DELANEY DAViDSON - "An empty space, a puff of smoke, you blink, and she's there."

Delaney Davidson @ Facebook //  Voodoo Rhythm Records  

Thanks to my new pal Helen Keivom from New Zealand for the tip!

JESSE FULLER - Buckin' Wing (1966) & San Francisco Blues (1968)

Jesse Fuller @ WiKi

THE SiGNiFYiNG MONKEY

Via Wikipedia:

The Signifying Monkey is a character of African-American folklore that derives from the trickster figure of Yoruba mythology, Esu Elegbara. This character was transported with Africans to the Americas under the names of Exu, Echu-Elegua, Papa Legba, and Papa Le Bas. Esu and his variants all serve as messengers who mediated between the gods and men by means of tricks.The Signifying Monkey is “distinctly Afro-American” and is thought to derive from Cuban mythology, which depicts Echu-Elegua with a monkey at his side. Numerous songs and narratives concern the Signifying Monkey and his interactions with his friends, the Lion and the Elephant. In general the stories depict the Signifying Monkey insulting the Lion, but claiming that he is only repeating the Elephant’s words. The Lion then confronts the Elephant, who soundly beats the Lion. The Lion later comes to realize that the Monkey has been signifyin(g) and has duped him and returns angrily.
The Signifying Monkey is a classic routine originally on a comedy album by Rudy Ray Moore aka Dolemite.

RL Burnside - Bad Luck Monkey - mp3

R.L. Burnside - Monkey In The Pool Room - mp3

Smokey Joe Baugh - The Signifying Monkey - mp3

Signifying Monkey - mp3

Partytime Monkey - mp3

Signifying Monkey - mp3

Poolshooting Monkey - mp3

Willie Dixon - Signifying Monkey - mp3
R.L. Burnside - Mr. Shtbug - mp3

Way, way down in the jungle deep
The badass lion stepped on the signifying monkey's feet.
The monkey said, "Motherfucka, can't you see?
You're standing on my god damn feet!"
The lion said, "I ain't heard a word you said."
Said, "If you say three more I'll be steppin on yo muthafuckin head!"
Now, the monkey lived in the jungle in an old oak tree
Bullshittin' a line every day of the week.
Everyday before the sun go down,
That lion would kick his ass all through the jungle town.
But the monkey got wise and started using his wit,
Start telling "I'm gonna put a stop to this old ass kickin shit."
So he ran up on the lion the very next day
He said, "Oh, Mr. Lion.  There's a big, bad motherfucka coming your way.
And he's somebody that you don't know.
He just broke aloose from the Ringling Brother's Show."
Said, "He talked about your people in a hell of a way.
He talked about your people til my hair turned gray. 
He said your daddy's a freak and your momma's a whore.
Said he spotted you running through the jungle sellin asshole from door to door!
Said your sister did the damndest trick.
She got down so low and sucked a earthworm's dick.
Said he spotted yo niece behind the tree,
Screwin a muthafuckin flea!
He said he saw yo aunt sittin on the fence
Givin a goddamn zebra a french.
Then he talked about yo mammy and yo sister Lou,
Then he start talkin about how good yo grandmaw screw.
Said yo sister's a prostitute and yo brother's a punk,
And said I'll be damned if you don't eat all the pussy you see when you get drunk!
He said he cornholed your uncle and fucked your aunty and niece,
And next time he see yo grandmaw he gonna get him another good piece.
Said your brother died with the whoopin cough and your uncle died with
the measles
And your old grandpaw died with a rag chunked up in his ass, said he's 
goin on home to Jesus.
And you know yo little sister that ya love so dear
I fucked her all day for a bottle of beer.
So, Mr. Lion, you know that ain't right.
So wherever you run up on the elephant, I want you to be ready to fight."
The lion jumped up in a hell of a rage
Like a young man smoking some gage.
He ran up on the elephant talking to the swine.
He said, "All right, you big, bad motherfucka,
It's gonna be your ass or mine."
The lion jumped up and made a fancy pass,
But the elephant side-stepped him and knocked him dead on his ass.
He fucked up his jaw, messed up his face,
Broke all four legs and knocked his ass out of place.
They fought all night and all the next day.
Somehow the little lion managed to get away.
He drug his ass back to the jungle more dead than alive,
Just to run into the monkey and more of his signifying jive.
The little monkey said, "Look here, partner, you don't look so swell.
Looks to me like you caught a whole lot of hell."
Said, "Your eyes is red and your ass is blue.
I knew in the first place it wasn't shit to you.
But I told my wife before you left
'I should have whipped your ass my motherfucking self.'
Shut up! Don't you roar!
'Cause I'll jump out of this tree and whip your dog ass some more.
And don't look up here with your stuck 'ol case
Because I'll piss through the fork of this tree in your motherfuckin' face!"
The little monkey got happy; started jumping up and down
His feet missed the limb, and his ass hit the ground.
Like a ball of lightning and a streak of white heat,
That lion was on his ass with all four feet.
Thus, rolls of tears came in the little monkey's eyes,
Nothing he could see and nothing he could hear
But he knew that was the end of his bullshittin' and signifying career
And SIGNIFYING CAREER!!!! 

1962 AMERiCAN FOLK BLUES FESTiVAL Vol. 1-4 - Watch!

SONNY FORD - DELTA ARTIST (James "Son" Thomas)

Black and White 16mm documentary film based on fieldwork Bill Ferris conducted with Leland, Mississippi, bluesman and folk artist James "Son" Thomas. Included is footage of Thomas performing at juke houses, his wife preparing dinner, and Thomas making skulls out of clay. The film was made before the advent of 16mm cameras that could take syncronized sound.

Film by Bill Ferris, Josette Ferris
Produced by William Ferris, Josette Ferris
Cinematographer: William Ferris
Sound: Josette Ferris
Editing: Josette Ferris
Copyright: 1969, William R. Ferris.

Thx to T.Tex Edwards!

NOVELLER "ALONE STAR" from Matt Kleiner

To go along with the upcoming show at Shea Stadium, Noveller has just released her newest album Glacial Glow on Weird Forest. I remember recently reading a press statement discussing her "poetic guitar prose" & that may very well be dead on. As the video demonstrates Lipstate has managed to create expressive narratives within her work that seems to often be grouped with many modern guitar-drone musics. Such a comparison may at first seem obvious but the association may be flimsy at best as Glacial Glow extends Noveller's use of the guitar towards a unique aesthetic sensibility all her own.

"Alone Star" (posted above) is the lead track off of this new album. The composition expresses the expansive & ever so dramatic guitar compositions Sarah Lipstate has become known for. The video directed by Matt Kleiner provides a sleak & beautiful visual montage of time-lapsed movements throughout a city, the result captures Noveller's work wonderfully.

Let everything that hath breath...

Saturday night's alright for music! The official launch of the new 'Friends of West Mersea Parish Church' was both an inspiration and a privilege to be part of...

Setlist for Café Musica:

Help - The Beatles
Blowin' in the wind - Bob Dylan
You - Rob Halligan
Time to think - After The Fire
Are we alright? - Show of Hands
Harvest home - Traditional

With a little help from my friends - The Beatles
Forever young - Bob Dylan
Every breath you take - The Police
Railroad man - The Eels
Still haven't found - U2
Blackberry blossom - Traditional

Do you wanna dance? - Bobby Freeman

P

iMMORTAL LEE COUNTY KiLLERS @ Sin-E - Lower East Side NYC 2003

O LENDARiO CHUCROBiLLYMAN - CHiCKEN FLOW

Dear internets, 
I <3 you. My french pal, Nicolas Jacquet sent me (in N.FL)
this video of a guy from Brazil playing a song that's part DeZurik Sisters,
part Bob Log III, part Clarksdale/rockabilly that looks like it could have been filmed by Tom Waits. It's a beautiful world my friends. 
Blast this:

O Lendario Chucrobillyman @ MySpace // Facebook

Poster by Andrew Brown

Last Nights & Weird Forest Present:

Tom Carter

Noveller

Garrincha & The Stolen Elk

Zs: Diamond Terrifier

Friday July 15th

Shea Stadium

49 S. 2nd Street (BTW Kent & Wythe)

8pm // $7

All Ages

For more info & to RVSP click here

THE BUDROWS - Free ep download - Limited Time Only!

Via Cigar Box Nation: 

"In preparation of the release of The Budrows NEW CD coming your way very soon, we are giving away our 8 song demo CD download for FREE....you read it right, FREE. If you haven't gotten this foot stompin' demo yet, now is your chance. This will be available for a limited time as a FREE download, but only until the NEW album comes out.
Feel Free to share this link and enjoy your FREE music."

Circuit Des Yeux "3311" from Destijl Records.

Since about 2008 Haley Fohr has been steadily releasing a stream of albums under the moniker Circuit Des Yeux on such notable labels as Night People & De Stijl. Her embrace of downer neo-folk & youth, I believe she's 21 or 22, seems to lead minds to wander to the wider field of young gothic women cropping up as of late, the most notable person being Zola Jesus. But Fohr seems content on exploring a more acoustic edge of the spectrum thus far as demonstrated in the video above for "3311" from her upcoming album Portrait.

Portrait is her 3rd full length LP for De Stijl, something quite impressive for anyone let alone of Fohr's age. The press release informs us that it is "Seemingly inspired by something or someone that has pierced her young, little heart". creating an album that is as much about cathartic release as intimate sonic journey.

JUNiOR KiMBROUGH and CHARLiE FEATHERS

DJ Hillfunk reminded me that yesterday was Charlie Feathers birthday. I thought it fitting that I remind you what Mr. Feathers said about his friend Mr. Kimbrough:

Junior Kimbrough Is The Beginning And End Of All Music.

You'll find those words on Mr. Kimbrough's gravestone.

The Art of JUSTiN DeGARMO

Going back thru some files I came across a couple images that Chris Johnson had sent me ages ago of some Black Keys-related art work. I asked Chris to remind of the story behind this work:

Back in 2005, The Black Keys put that lawnmower painting on their website as the home page. I searched out the gallery that had it for sale, but it was already sold. I contacted the artist and we worked out a commission piece. Justin Degarmo lives in Phoenix, and I met him there on a trip and picked up my original (the van):

Here’s his website.

http://www.justindegarmo.com

Here’s the illustration of the lawnmower on his website

http://www.justindegarmo.com/illustrations.html

I also purchased another piece he had for sale in a charity auction. A lunchbox he painted. His isn’t the one I purchased, but similar.

Another website with more of his work.

http://jdegarmo.deviantart.com

Justin did the 2007 original deep blues logo with the guitar player. I have it on display the bbq.

-Chris

The Peace of the Lord be...

Well, I, for one, can't wait to see this movie based on Don Miller's cracking book 'Blue Like Jazz'. Instead of a 'coming of age' storyline it's a bit more of a re-discovery with some seriously perceptive observations of the church.

Love it!

P

R.L. BURNSiDE- Photos by David Ray Burke

shot by

David Ray Burke

SSPS , aka Jon Nicholson or Porkchop (of Excepter), has been a busy dude as of late. He was seen earlier this year releasing what constitutes his first full length album Highly Sensitive Safeguards Secure on the Obsolete Units imprint. As the video above demonstrates the CS showcases SSPS honing in on his improv electronics for a far more concise & maybe most engaging to date. It is a dark & straight to the point minimal synth affair, that establishes a relationship works of the past, like Obsolete Units cited Juan Atikins, Kraftwerk, & Conrad Schnitzler, while forging a singular path within this vernacular.

Now only a few short months after the release of Highly Sensitive comes the announcement of SSPS's 1st 12" "Sky Plane Field Road." The album is set to be released by Avant-God, which is co-run by another member of Excepter Nathan Korbin, sometime in the near future.

FAT POSSUM RECORDS OLD SCHOOL PROMO SHOTS

thx to DJ HWY 7 for the Junior shot!