#Stephen David Heitkotter

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: David Nance

David Nance comes from a small town in Omaha, an unlikely hub for messy, lo-fi guitar pop, but a place with cheap enough rent and enough places to play that a musician can stretch out and find his own style. His bandcamp output is large and varied, but his latest, Negative Boogie (on BaDaBing) has brought a larger audience.  Of this album, Justin Cober-Lake observed that, “Nance, no matter what he’s singing about, sounds like he’s having fun while he’s doing it, but also as if the performance is a necessity. “

Catherine Ribeiro + 2bis — S/T

Although Catherine's other work with Patrice Moullet is fantastic (and truth be told the music is probably better on Alpes albums "Paix" or "Ame Debout"), this is still my favorite of hers. Riberio is straight-up psychotic and gives my favorite vocal performance of all time, holding true a decade after first being turned on to this. I don't speak french so I have no clue what she's saying, maybe at this point it's for the better?

Henry Flynt — I Don't Wanna   

Hootenanny drone? Yodel art-rock? Whatever it is, I can't stop listening to it. Legend has it Flynt swapped guitar lessons from Lou Reed instead of financial reimbursement for sitting in with VU when Cale was out with the Clap or whatever. You can totally hear Reed in his playing but Flynt's cramped violin hand is very much still intact mangling his axe neck. 

Taylor Kitchings — Clean Break

Kitchings' attempt at AM soft-rock fails in the best way possible giving us this "Corky's..." era Mayo Thompson record without all the art school and out-right hornyness. 

 Vernon Wray — Wasted 

God bless Vernon Wray for influencing Kris Kristofferson  and Kristofferson for influencing Vernon Wray and giving us the best Kristofferson record. World weary and optimistic. Bruised and pretty. A great record for being blasted on a couch at 3 AM. "When I start drinking, then I stop thinking of you..."

Stephen David Heitkotter — S/T

On paper, this record sounds like a fucking wreck; Fresno speed freak writes funky meandering guitar riffs and, without any explanation or planning, gets some dudes in his neighborhood to jam with him on tape. Actually,it sounds pretty good on paper. How is there such a psychotic rhythm section just hanging around Fresno?!? BUT it's really all about  the way he bends, hammer-ons, and straight up mauls his guitar. 

Loren Mazzacane & Kath Bloom — Sing The Children Over

Transcendental traditionalists. Kath sings the truth while Loren slides it. Bummer they won't play together anymore. Love is rough, but it seems like they both know that. 

The Raincoats — S/T

Perfect album. Not a shitty moment from start to finish. Everyone's on a quest for new musical horizons, technical skill be damned. Four hungry young women, in their prime, all writing songs, all leaving their heart on the tape.  Ana's glass-scratch guitar, Gina's aerobatic bass playing, Vicky's screech and drone violin and Palmolive's bashing coconut drums(my favorite recorded drumming of all time). Great lyrics too "...is it love when I fear you talking to me?...is it love when I don't know who you are?..."

Peter Green — End Of The Game

Pete Green-era Fleetwood Mac has been new territory for me in the past few years. Don't get me wrong, it's all great and fine, especially their 25 minute version of "Rattlesnake Shake" from those 1970 string of shows in Boston, but "End of The Game" is the end-all-be-all Green manifesto for me. My only problem with this album is whatever asshole at Warner Brothers thought it was a good idea to chop this jam up into "songs".  Why not let it be the brilliant mess that it is?  

New Haven, CT

My favorite scene in the US right now. Mountain Movers, Headroom, Alexander and whatever project Stefan Christensen is doing this week. Submitting this new Headroom song because my jaw is still on the floor from watching them play a few weeks ago. 

Brian Crook — Bathysphere 

While a bunch of Crook projects are in heavy rotation in my world, I have to put "Bathysphere" on the sole qualification of how many times I've listened to it. It has so much to offer; feedback stomp, otherworldly slide guitar grease, wah-wah AND phaser. Song structure seems like it's being pulled from thin air. I knew some offering of music from Maryrose and Brian was going on this list. Seeing the Renderers perform for the first time was one of the most profound musical experiences of my life. I was backing up Simon Joyner for a tour and we had just cleared hundreds of miles of desert and shit shows of playing to no one(the fun of a West Coast tour!) to get to Portland for a string of shows down the coast with the Renderers. I really had no idea what I was in for. I still remember the swelling feeling of joy and awe in my chest of watching them open their set with "A Dream of the Sea". Seeing and hearing these creatures conjure these noises/songs of love, pain, want, power, death and life out of their bodies/instruments was inspiring to say the least, and that was just the first night. Every night they got better, digging in more and bring more beauty and ugliness out of their songs. Those 5 shows we played with them left such a lasting impact on me. Thanks Brian and Maryrose.

[theelaggers]

Stephen David Heitkotter

[dogembassy]

had this in my music library for a while & knew nothing about it, i was expecting something completely different from the cover and i’m very pleasantly surprised

[oppositeofalex-blog]

Pretty much everyone's introduction to this record:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=-PjQVrg9lxk#t=185

Egon's meticulous, not so much that his interest becomes academic, but enough to where you know there's something important in the 32 page booklet that adds context to what's happening on this record. Which is something strange for sure. You can hear something under the raw, wasted, brooding proto-grunge. Tinted psychedelia where the evil cannot be seen, but if you get close enough to the glass, you can tell something's wrong. One cannot go without recognizing the homogeny of this album to that of Alexander Spence's Oar. Veeeery similar in spirit...

This doesn't belong in your collection near your numero compilations, rare drum breaks, flea market psych, or somewhere easily accessible for that matter. There's nothing it belongs near. So you might as well just hide it in a crate, you'll find it every once and a while and put it on, fall into a temporary existential crisis, hide it again, and return to your normal boring life.

Necessary / Essential / just get it.

LPs are limited to 1000 copies. So that mean's there are 1009 copies of this record out there including originals... unreleased demos included.

[rudy-blatnoyd]

I haven't really listened to psych rock but that Heitkotter album sounds pretty good