United Waters - Live at Shea Stadium | Last Nights Presents Live

United Waters - Live @ Shea Stadium by LiveatSheaStadium
Back in early December 2011 Last Nights curated a fantastic lineup of musicians at Shea Stadium that included Decimus, Zaimph, New Monuments, & United Waters. I was unable to attend for reason out of my control. I was bummed, for various reasons.
Luckily Shea has come to my rescue & those of you who weren't, but I know desperately wanted to be there (is that stretching it?). United Waters entire set is up & ready to be streamed. A ram shackled Rock, check out Brian Sullivan's (of Mouthus) deep punk croon man. Who would have known? Some primal energy here, perfect for soundtrack for a beer.
United Water's debut album is available now via Arbitrary Signs.

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platetectonics from b sullivan on Vimeo.

Last Nights just stumbled upon a video for United Waters "Platetectonics" taken from the recent LP Your First Ever River. Some may already be familiar with Brian Sullivan, the man behind United Waters, & especially his work as 1/2 of the experimental noisniks Mouthus. In this case his new solo work may come as a bit of a surprise, but based upon the leading track heard above there seems to be much to unearth for newcomers & Mouthus fans a like.

Platetectonics is a ramshackled tune that merges beautiful guitar lines, electronic percussion, & fuzz in all the right ways. Along the way Sullivan low voice enters the picture offering a little melancholy & inspiration. While listening I'm constantly reminded of similar songsmiths of recent years. The work of Ben Chasny's Six Organs of Admittance standing at the forefront of my mind & ears. Yet even if briefly obscured by such references the overall composition structure manages to remind the listener of the uniqueness of Sullivan's work.

You can pick up United Waters Your First Ever River via the fine folks at Arbitrary Signs now.

It seems Peter Nolan's solo material as Spectre Folk is consistently understood as a side project in the public eye. After all it's hard to compete when your other band is thee Magik Markers. But maybe things will start to change a little in the near future as Nolan and company prepare for the release of the newest Spectre Folk 12" EP out on Woodsist March 29.

The Blackest Medicine, Vol II as it's called seems to take inspiration from the same pool of acidic stoned folk rock as the previous few Spectre Folk albums. This album sees Nolan joined by Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth) Peter Meehan (The Grey Lady) , & Aaron Mullen (Tall Firs).

Any doubts of the music coming second to such a star studded line up are put to rest by the end the title track The Blackest Medicine. Resembling moments of like minded musicians such as MV & EE, as well as the label's figure heads Woods. But then again Peter has been doing this for some time, before his time with Magik Markers, as Elisa Ambrogio points out in her insightful take on the release.

Peter Nolan is currently touring with Sic Alps, playing in Magik Markers. You can find the dates here.

And if you can check out the previous Spectre Folk release Compass Blanket Lantern Mojo on Nolan's own Arbitrary Signs label.