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howaminotinthestrokesyet · 3 years ago

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From Green River to Nirvana to Bush: A Brief History of Grunge

The origin of the term grunge, which means either repugnant or dirty came from most likely a Sub Pop music catalog to describe an EP released by the band Green River in 1987. “Gritty vocals, roaring Marshall amps, ultra-loose GRUNGE that destroyed the morals of a generation". The term grunge had been used since the 1960’s to describe an array of bands, but this was the first time the term had been applied to any music out of Seattle. One of the reasons the music coming out of Seattle sounded so dirty or sludgy came for a very practical reason. Most of these groups did not have very much money, which meant when creating new songs in the studio these artists could not spend the money they did not have on cleaning up the sound. The scene of Seattle first came from two colleges, Evergreen State and the University of Washington, which brought about the hugely popular radio station KAOS, where Nirvana would actually play in 1987. Many major bands that came out of Seattle like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden hated the term. One primary reason was the fact that it stereotyped these bands into one generic genre as even these three specific groups were vastly different from one another. Nirvana was pop punk, Pearl Jam embodied classic rock, and Soundgarden turned out to be much more metal. Ben Shepherd of Soundgarden would say he hated the term and did not want to be associated with it. Many musicians from Seattle all the way down the line never referred to grunge in any manner whatsoever. Rolling Stone would say that there did not exist any clear definition of what defined grunge as it covered a bunch of bands that were very different from each other.

The start of early grunge in Seattle began when Black Flag came to town in 1984. They were the poster child for hardcore punk at the time. Black Flag’s album My War was huge in terms of Seattle’s sound as it took elements of metal and traditional rock, then slowed it down. Steve Turner of Mudhoney would later comment. “A lot of other people around the country hated the fact that Black Flag slowed down ... but up here it was really great ... we were like 'Yay!' They were weird and fucked-up sounding." One of the people that went to these Black Flag shows was Buzz Osbourne, lead singer of local group the Melvins. After seeing Black Flag, he began writing riffs for his own band that were much slower and heavier. This became the very beginning of Northwest grunge, which producer Jack Endino called slowed down punk rock. Seattle musician Leighton Breezer would describe it as essentially playing punk rock backwards. Another key ingredient to grunge’s development came in the infusion of metal elements with the greatest influence being Black Sabbath. One approach for these early bands was to take a metal riff, then play it backwards with a ton of feedback, while screaming lyrics on top of it. Another other source of the grunge sound came with indie rock, which should not be discounted because it brought that pop melody into the equation. A huge influence on this emerged with Sonic Youth. Other artists included Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. Kurt Cobain identified with the former in particular as he noted in a Rolling Stone interview, "I connected with that band so heavily that I should have been in that band—or at least a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard." These artists did seem to embrace the ugly aspect of the music as they loved to pen dark lyrics mirroring society at the time. This stood in stark contrast to the mainstream sex, drugs and rock and roll of the hair metal coming out of Los Angeles. The Seattle bands would even take things from so called cheesy rock bands like Kiss. Buzz Osbourne would say they would steal from the ridiculous rock bands too seeing what they could get away with all the time. Rock writer Kyle Anderson would say this about grunge when reviewing Sixteen Stone from Bush. “The twelve songs on Sixteen Stone sound exactly be like what grunge is supposed to sound like, while the whole point of grunge was that it didn't really sound like anything, including itself. Just consider how many different bands and styles of music have been shoved under the "grunge" header in this discography alone, and you realize that grunge is probably the most ill-defined genre of music in history."

Certain artists prior to bands like the Melvins and Green River heavily influenced that Seattle sound including Here Are The Sonics, released in 1965 by The Sonics.[153] Neil Young's albums Rust Never Sleeps (1979) and Ragged Glory (1990). Neil Young symbolized everything that grunge and Seattle seemed to represent including plaid flannels and distorted guitar. He would even have Pearl Jam act as his backing band for the 1995 album Mirror Ball. These groups were soon labeled proto-grunge. Other artists included Elvis Costello, the Stooges, Led Zeppelin, and Creedence Clearwater Revival for their respective 1970’s and 1980’s albums. Another effect on the development of the sound came in the city of Seattle itself as it flew below the radar when compared with other cities. Sub Pop’s Jonathan Poneman would say in an interview. “Seattle was a perfect example of a secondary city with an active music scene that was completely ignored by an American media fixated on Los Angeles and New York [City]." Everything about the style that would become associated with Seattle came out of necessity, not really any choice. Trucker hats, pawnshop clothes, cheap guitar all sprung from the fact that Seattle in fact was a very poor town. For his part, Kurt Cobain when Nevermind went number one was actually living in his car. Local post-punk bands also had an effect on what eventually became the grunge bands of the late eighties such as The Fartz, The U-Men, 10 Minute Warning, The Accüsed, and the Fastbacks. Yet, one must note there existed a differential between these groups and those that came to define early grunge.

The very first grunge record has been regularly referred to as Come on Down from Green River. The band would later split up with half the group later forming Pearl Jam and the other half creating Mudhoney. Another release that hugely helped along the development of the Seattle sound was in the Deep Six compilation featuring tracks from six bands: Green River, Soundgarden, Melvins, Malfunkshun, Skin Yard, and The U-Men. Jack Endino would make this observation about the release at the time. “People just said, 'Well, what kind of music is this? This isn't metal, it's not punk, What is it?' ... People went 'Eureka! These bands all have something in common.'" Later around the same time, Sub Pop released a similar compilation, along with a new EP from Green River, Dry As a Bone. The effect of the Sub Pop label had everything to do with the Seattle sound too because of their heavy commitment to cleverly selling the brand to the rest of the world as one of the greatest regional music scenes in the history of the world. The early concerts sponsored by the label were not attended by very many people, but Sub Pop’s photographer made it look like the concert of the year. Their marketing was top notch when it came to letting the rest of the world know there was something incredible happening in Seattle. Sub Pop was not alone in spearheading the indie movement in the Pacific Northwest, but other labels released new music including C/Z Records, Estrus Records, EMpTy Records and PopLlama Records. In the late 1980’s, Jonathan Poneman of Sub Pop asked Everett True to write about the local Seattle music scene for Melody Maker. This article gave Seattle some of the first mainstream national exposure besides word of mouth. According to Charles R. Cross, the bands that embodied the grunge sound more than anyone else were not just Nirvana or Pearl Jam, but groups like Tad, Mudhoney, Blood Circus. Sub Pop actually looked to Mudhoney to be the breakout band from their label allowing Nirvana to leave without much protest.

The negative issue with such exposure became that new groups began to move to Seattle hoping to be discovered while claiming to be an authentic local group, when in reality they were not. Steve Turner would say, “It was really bad. Pretend bands were popping up here, things weren't coming from where we were coming from." The first group to sign to a major label was Soundgarden, followed by Alice In Chains and Screaming Trees soon after. Unfortunately, this really signaled the end of a truly independent local music scene, but the major labels coming to Washington state was probably inevitable.

The major label signings were expected but when Nirvana released Nevermind, the repercussions were in no way contemplated in any way whatsoever. The success of the record changed everything because it made what would become alternative music able to be sold as merchandise and in a cultural sense. Michael Azerrad said it represented "a sea-change in rock music" in which the entire country said we are done with hair metal. We want something a bit more realistic when it comes to our music. The newfound popularity of grunge made it possible for other niche audiences to consider the potential financially and culturally for their music to be successful. A more current example may be seen in dubstep and EDM. Pearl Jam would be the first beneficiaries of Nirvana’s lightning bolt, no pun intended. Jeff Ament and Stone Goddard, formerly of Green River and Mother Lovebone, had joined forces with a California surfer by the name of Eddie Vedder. People tend to forget that Pearl Jam’s seminal album Ten was actually released a month before Nevermind. By 1992, the entire country had embraced everything Seattle including Pearl Jam, Temple of the Dog, Soundgarden, and Alice In Chains. Journalists were starting to call the city the “New Liverpool.” Cameron Crowe even made a film centered around Seattle entitled Singles, which featured a fictitious band with Eddie Vedder as their drummer. The fashion fads of grunge did not go unnoticed to corporate America as knit caps and flannels would increase in price very quickly. Entertainment Weekly made this observation in 1993. “There hasn't been this kind of exploitation of a subculture since the media discovered hippies in the '60s". One could now see grunge being sold in the form of all kinds of products including an official grunge air freshener.

There do exist some characteristics of the grunge sound itself that people did agree upon, but much like the term itself there are open debates as well. As noted previously, the electric guitar had represented a dirty sound, hence the name grunge. There existed a heavy emphasis on distortion through the use of stompbox pedals with very large amplifiers connected to them. The other major characteristic that defined grunge besides distortion was loudness. Some critics have dismissed the artistry within grudge as merely noise, not anything else. Another effect utilized by grunge was the guitarists use of the Wah Wah pedal as evidenced by Pearl Jam, the Screaming Trees, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains. The controversial and debatable aspect of the guitar is the question of whether the popularity of the music helped to kill the guitar solo. Most of grunge’s guitarists despised the shredding solos made famous in the 1980’s by such musicians as Eddie Van Halen. Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains would say that guitar solos should serve as a complement to the song, not its own entity. Will Byers of the Guardian wrote an article that argued grunge’s guitarists like Kurt Cobain helped to effectively kill the guitar solo in popular music. Unlike classic artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and others from Seattle had very little interest in mastering the instrument. The Soundgarden guitarist would even say that he got bored doing solos, so he just filled it with fuzz and distortion anyway. The argument does fall apart a little bit when you look at the entire breadth of grunge at the time because Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready and the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan have been consistently referred to as some of the most influential guitarists in the entire decade. The production was also similar in approach as it heavily emphasized low cost, which always meant a low fi sound. For the band Mudhoney, they had to tell the record label to decrease the budget for one of their albums because they did not need to spend that much. The two important producers were Jack Endino and Steve Albini. They both took a very hands off approach to producing with very little to do with remastered effects and mixing. They both believed that the job of the producer was to simply record the music, but not impede in any way creatively for the artist. For example, In Utero was recorded in the same room with the entire band, while most mainstream producers would have recorded it separately then combined them on a multi track recorder. That approach would often give off a very live feel to a grunge release from the recording studio. Many bands simply wanted to replicate the sound energy from their live shows. A grunge concert was defined by bands who jumped, thrashed, and screamed on stage, while most of the audience would mosh or slam dance. The artists would never use any visual aids, props, or special effects to enhance the experience, but instead you were simply seeing essentially a local band. Dave Rimmer would write about the philosophy behind any true grunge show. It seemed “for Cobain, and lots of kids like him, rock & roll ... threw down a dare: Can you be pure enough, day after day, year after year, to prove your authenticity, to live up to the music ... And if you can't, can you live with being a poseur, a phony, a sellout?"

One of the negative aspects associated with grunge came in the question of how prevalent overall did heroin play in the lives of the artists. Not only did Kurt Cobain suffer from heroin addiction, but other artists did as well from that era including Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots, Evan Dando of the Lemonheads, Jimmy Chamberlain of Smashing Pumpkins, Courtney Love of Hole, and Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees. The comparison was made to the hippies of the 1960’s, who had embraced marijuana. The grunge musicians of the 1990’s seemed to look to heroin while in the city of Seattle. The downer effects of the drug represented what the lyrics told you about how these artists were feeling, self-hatred, nihilism. By taking heroin, someone could hide themselves from the world avoiding any sense of reality. The drug would take many casualties along the way including Andrew Wood of Mother Lovebone, Cobain, the keyboardist for the Smashing Pumpkins, Layne Staley of Alice in Chains, and later the bassist for the band Hole. One group that almost beat Nirvana to the punch of making it on a national basis was Mother Lovebone. Their lead singer Andrew Wood tragically died of a heroin overdose right before their debut album Green Apple was set to be released. They represented the number one band throughout the local Seattle music scene at the time. After his death, the remaining members of Mother Love Bone, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, and Eddie Vedder joined up to create the tribute band for the late singer, Temple of the Dog. One of the first times fans heard Eddie Vedder on record was not Pearl Jam’s Ten, but actually Temple of the Dog. Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard did eventually join up with Vedder to form Pearl Jam. Courtney Love would a later comment that she thought heroin was easier to get in Seattle, than it was in Los Angeles or San Francisco. Yet, Daniel House of C/Z Records would argue that the idea of Seattle being a mecca for heroin was simply not true. He said the prevalence of the drug was no worse than any other American city in the country, while magazines like Rolling Stone contended that marijuana and MDMA seemed to be more likely the drug of choice for these artists.

Another important characteristic of grunge was is the active role that women played as musicians, as well as promoters of the movement. These groups included acts such as L7, Lunachicks, Dickless, 7 Year Bitch, The Gits, Courtney Love's band Hole (and Love's other 1990s groups), and Babes in Toyland. VH1 writer Dan Baker would comment that L7 were an “all-female grunge band [that] emanated from the fertile L.A. underground scene and [which] had strong ties with ... Black Flag and could match any male band in attitude and volume." The lead singer of the all girl band Bikini Kill Katherine Hanna would help to start the feminist punk underground movement called Riotgrrrl in the Pacific Northwest out of Olympia, Washington. This social and political movement began to embrace some of the same qualities found within grunge music. Singer Hanna was also the person that coined the phrase Smells Like Teen Spirit as Cobain had dated her drummer Toby Vail for a time. Coincidentally, she would later go onto marry Adam Horowitz of the Beastie Boys.

By late 1992, there began a strong backlash against anything referred to as grunge. Both Damon Albarn and Billy Corgan of Blur and Smashing Pumpkins respectively would say at their live shows, “Fuck grunge.” Kurt Cobain would say in an interview that being famous was the last thing he ever wanted to be. Along with a return to their punk roots, Nirvana’s album In Utero subtly was intentionally “abrasive” as a form of protest against the entire grunge trend. Despite their efforts, the album still went number one in its first week of release. Everything grunge related saw incredible success including groups like Candlebox, Soundgarden, and Alice In Chains, as they all released records that saw platinum achievement very quickly. As LA looked for the next Motley Crue in the 1980’s, record labels now began to look for the next Nirvana. Some of these second wave groups included Stone Temple Pilots, Veruca Salt, and Toadies. Unfortunately, Stone Temple Pilots were called out in the press for jumping on the bandwagon that was the Seattle sound. Their biggest flaw came in being from Los Angeles, not Seattle. Another group that suffered from this backlash was represented with Bush, who released their second album in 1994, Razorblade Suitcase. Chuck Klosterman would write, “Bush was a good band who just happened to signal the beginning of the end; ultimately, they would become the grunge Warrant.” The exact death of grunge has been debated as to a precise date, but one of the biggest factors came when Pearl Jam and Soundgarden began to fade from view for a time. Another huge issue came with the death of Hole’s bassist from a heroin overdose. This just brought up memories from Kurt Cobain’s tragic death as his widow was lead singer of the group. Jason Heller of the av club would write the the final nail in grunge’s coffin actually came in the release of In Utero in 1993. He argued that once his angst became commercial, then it was time to leave the scene. Nirvana had made the scene, and they obviously ended it. Billy Corgan would say after the death of Cobain in an interview, “The party’s over.”

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fluidsf · 5 years ago

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Project Axis 02

Hostage Pageant: Shielding

Release Year: 2019

Label: Dead Gods

Catalogue number: GODS 35

Reviewed Format: C20 tape

Welcome to Project Axis 02 in which today I’m featuring this 2019 C20 tape by American Harsh Noise artist Hostage Pageant titled Shielding, which was released on the tape label Dead Gods. Hostage Pageant (Shane Church) is not an unfamiliar name to me, but this tape is the first time I’m actually digging into his works for a review and discovering his particular style of heavy Noise as well as how he approaches progression in his pieces and what struck me in particular of Hostage Pageant’s sound is his excellent combination of raw murky and quite low-frequency laden continuous streams of Noise and quite a lot of intriguing elements of change and sonic details within the muddy but very enjoyable two tracks that are spread over the A and B sides of this tape. The short format of Shielding also works quite well as a way of showcasing two different long form pieces of Noise which are noticeably connected with each other and have a great focussed sound making for a tape release that doesn’t last in terms of playing time but does leave you with a very on point impression of rich relentless layered Noise pieces that aren’t just harsh but also very well performed and varied enough to keep your attention. Hostage Pageant’s discography features a variety of mostly tape releases in this short format (though he has released more full-length releases) too on various labels like Rainbow Bridge, Fusty Cunt, Monorail Trespassing, A Dear Girl Called Wendy as well as various self-released titles with Shielding being probably the most recent one of his 2019 releases. Looking at the presentation of the tape first, I found that it’s actually a quite elegant kind of artwork for a Noise release of this murky raw nature. The cover picture photo collage is indeed a quite fitting kind of grainy sepia type of lo-fi image which seems to express both tracks through the division of the photo of the crime scene photo with police cars at the top and photo detail of a wooden structure of a building at the bottom. Whilst not quite as I imagined the imagery connected to the two pieces themselves, especially the wooden structure gives a good idea of the mechanical and rough aspect of the sound of this tape. On the spin of the J-card you can then find the element of elegant artwork I mentioned. It’s a very nice kind of knitted pattern of diagonal curls locking into each other, though still carrying a nice grainy look. It’s not necessarily very representative of the sound of Shielding but a nice extra nonetheless. The short side of the J-card on the back shows the equally elegant Dead God label logo and address info white on black. The tape itself mirrors the quite festive elegant artwork of the inside of the J-card when unfolded in grey scale as an A-side marker sticker with the B-side being unmarked. The J-card shows the artist name, release title, track titles and catalogue number white on black when folded and reveals the same grey-scale artwork featuring a nice composition of abstract curled lines and shapes from the tape sticker when folded out which adds a nice creative touch to the artwork and is quite pretty on the physical printed format really.

Now let’s move onto the two Noise pieces featured on Shielding themselves. Starting with side A which features the track Incapable. This piece immediately introduces the raw, relentless murky and quite low-pitched sound of Hostage Pageant’s Noise on Shielding through a 10 minute stream of what feels like the experience and sounds of travelling by train turned into a Noise piece. Low rumble within its base, a constant hollow resonance seem to resemble a heavily distorted version of the screechy harsh sounds of steel train wheels, abrasively wheezing brakes as well as the rumbling mechanics of the train drowned and blended into the mass of Noise Hostage Pageant has created on this piece. Incapable features a very continuous style of Noise which never decreases in intensity but keeps flowing in its scattered stream at time being interrupted by these very sweet sounding Noise “breaks” as the heavily distorted sound quickly disrupts its stream with abrupt explosions. In terms of structure Incapable starts off as a solid continuous “block” of abrasive Noise but after some time Hostage Pageant starts to create variations with the stream through various manipulations, new elements and at times moments of fierce eruptions of sound throwing on some more oil on the Noise fire. Even though Hostage Pageant’s style on this tape is very dense and muddy it’s especially great how he brings out these little details within the stream like distorted muffled fragments of voice and heavily distorted “tonal” fragments which sound like alarms adding tension to the mass of sound. Furthermore there’s exciting “spiky” sounds that occur later on in the piece as well as some tasty screechy sonic manipulations. But while indeed both tracks on Shielding are full on blasting Noise throughout I can’t help but also feeling this odd but recognisable kind of relaxing aspect about especially Incapable. The train like continuity, harshness, metallic abstraction has an effect that I find particularly comforting especially because I like those sounds personally. This perception obviously varies per person but I do believe there are calming effects that can be created by even the harshest forms of Noise and Industrial and I feel that’s quite a quality to get this vibe from such monolithic clouds of completely dissonant sound. On the B-side Hostage Pageant starts off Predetermined Outcome with a very similar sound to Incapable but fear not, as things quickly derail at the beginning of the piece with a very aggressive and “cut” like style of rapidly varying Noise manipulations making for an interesting mixture of some of the murky edge of Incapable with sound collage like jump-cuts within the Noise. There’s more of a crumbling rough crunch to this piece however and less of an emphasis on a resonant hollow sonic edge. Predetermined Outcome has a more Industrial sound to it with whirring, wheezing and hissy sounds throughout the piece, also resembling the swishing sound of the early stages of magnetic tape decay. Machinery, electrical like sounds add kinetic tumbling sounds to the Noise and feedback also makes a welcome entry in the beginning with some great short sections of quite clean “feedback solo��s seemingly popping in and out of the Noise. After the jumpy beginning Predetermined Outcome morphs into a kind of rain shower made out of Noise after some time. You can imagine this as being raindrops made out of rough Noise particles falling from the sky in a rough interference like rhythmic manner, very dirty sounds but less chaotic than the beginning part. It adds a great imaginative new element to the piece while keeping the fire burning. The last part of Predetermined Outcome then settles the rain shower into a more laid-back kind of Noise stream, like a river blurring out the rhythms. Tonal elements also enter the distorted mass which create increasing tension to the piece until the stream ends in a fade out to conclude this short but excellent tape. Definitely a great kind of cliffhanger to end with, leaving space to dig into a next Hostage Pageant release and I will definitely review more of Hostage Pageant releases in the coming months.

To conclude this Project Axis review, Hostage Pageant has delivered some excellent Noise on Shielding’s two 10 minutes tracks. The richness of textures, constant sonic energy, relentless fire and well performed progression and varied sonic manipulations make the tape a great release to blast into your listening space or dive into the curious hidden details within the Noise streams. Hostage Pageant’s style on this tape goes to show that there’s plenty of cool inspiring material to be found in these Noise works besides the loud physical experience and these works can have a quite mind-altering experience too. This is definitely a great recommended release for fans of (Harsh) Noise and abstract experimental music as well as listeners looking for Noise that’s both in your face but also varied in sound throughout, making for a great listening experience on repeated listens. Go check this out for sure!

I purchased this tape from WHITE CENTIPEDE NOISE where it's sold out by now unfortunately. It's advisable to check out Discogs or other Noise mail order stores to pick up a copy.

#Project Axis #02 #hostage pageant #shielding #2019 #dead gods #C20 tape #noise #harsh noise #review #underground music #experimental music #fiery #aggressive #progressive #continous #rapid fire #monolithic

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stormyrecords-blog · 7 years ago

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new arrivals 9-29-17

stormy records

13306 michigan ave

dearborn, mi 48126 313-581-9322

so many great new releases this week!!! wow!! call or email us if there is something you would like to place on hold or do mailorder for. we use realy great mailers!! THESE ITEMS IN STOCK NOW!! "ACID NIGHTMARES" Various Artists Double LP ($26.99) Re-stock of this excellent brand new offering from Numero Group as part of their 'Wayfaring Strangers' ongoing series. VERY psychedelic artwork in a gate-fold cover & includes a heavyweight comic book-style insert.

"DARKSCORCH CANTICLES" Various Artists Double LP ($26.99) Back In Stock after a very long absence. KILLER double LP (from Numero Group) of mainly undergound Heavy Rock Metal bands from the 1970's into the 1980's. Includes great tracks by the likes of MEDUSA, AROGANCE, STONEHENGE, HELLSTORM and more. Blue Foiled Gatefold Cover * 17 songs

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REAL ESTATE: "IN MIND" LP ($17.99) Released earlier in 2017 * 1st time in stock

TIMMY'S ORGANISM: "EATING COLORS" LP ($18.99) Brand New Full Length Album! w/ Download new items for friday SEPTEMBER 29th 2017 FUNKADELIC Maggot Brain (Clear & Blue Vinyl) LP $28.99 "1971's Maggot Brain is the all-out Funkadelic masterpiece. Absolutely no one working in soul and funk at the time had the scope, or vision, to pull off the kind of record that George Clinton and his collaborators have made here. Eccentric funk jams are book ended by two of the heaviest tracks ('Maggot Brain' and 'Wars of Armageddon') ever committed to tape. The title track, and album opener, is nothing short of mind-blowing, Eddie Hazel's guitar is a revolution brought on by Clinton asking him to play 'as if your mother just died.' Maggot Brain is an essential classic and the deepest album to come out of the Parliament-Funkadelic camp. Clear & blue vinyl in a deluxe classic style gatefold sleeve. Limited edition of 1,000."

AMBARCHI, OREN Stacte Karaoke II 12" $21.99 What happens when Oren Ambarchi is backed up by the world's greatest monster riff legends from his beloved homeland? Find out in the second volume of this infamous series where endless riffing and ecstatic shredding is the order of the day. Bonus intro track features some band from New York. Yah Boobay! Deluxe sleeve with photography by Crys Cole and Theresia Pfaender. Design by Stephen O'Malley. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. VABollywood Bloodbath: The B-Music of the Indian Horror Film Industry 2LP on Finders Keepers $29.99 this is one of carl's favorite records - he says it is absolutley essential 2017 repress; Double LP version. After what seems like a thousand years of blood, sweat, tears, and a lot more blood, the zombified disc-disciples at Finders Kreepers unveil one of their most exquisite, exhumed, ectoplasmic, and existentially essential collections yet. This musical mausoleum of malformed freak funk and dreadful discothèque pop has been resurrected from the maligned cinematic subculture of Bombay's bloodthirsty horror film industry and witnesses the cognoscenti of the Bollywood pop scene at their most creative, destructive, and experimentally effective. Bollywood Bloodbath features India's finest composers, such as Bappi Lahiri, R. D. Burman, Sapan Jagmohan, and Laxmikant-Pyarelal, making the kind of radical risk-rock that would, under normal circumstances, have studio security escorting these overworked maestros off-set for a well-earned break or a relaxing exorcism. You've heard Italy's most famous composers when they soundtrack unwatchable Roman slasher flicks on their own uncompromised and underpaid terms? Well that blueprint just turned blood-red with sub-shoestring, low-budget studio wizards gambling with rigor mortis rock, disjointed disco, and low-voltage electronics for seldom-screened scenes of desi Draculas, lycanthropic ladykillers, and psyched-up swamp monsters. The factual history of the untraveled Bollywood horror phenomenon is fully re-exhumed with this compendium in true Finders Keepers style. Carefully documenting the drummy theme from the first-ever 1949 Indian ghost film, this benchmark collection follows the sinister lineage as directors of bloody thrillers take chances on shuddering synopsis and haywire special effects. Leading up to the inauguration of the notorious Ramsay Bros film company (whose sibling revelry in the '70s and '80s lead to the inclusion of flight-style puke bags in participating picture houses), this compilation pulls no punches and plunges the "B" of Bombay into the heart of the B-movie, squirting a masala of bloody ketchup and red wine onto the sets of Bollywood's glorious filmic musicals. Licensed exclusively from the independent Indian film music companies (revealing incidental tracks that they didn't even know they owned), Bollywood Bloodbath is the result of avid stomach-turning research via VHS tapes, chewed-up cassettes, and LPs, 12''s, and 45s, remastered from some of the only existing master tapes; presented for both the hairy home listeners and daring DJs. Also includes tracks by Rajesh Roshan, Hemant Bhosle, Ratandeep Hemraj, Usha Kanna, Khemchand Prakash, and Nadeem & Shravan. LARAAJIAmbient 3: Day of Radiance LP+CD $27.99 LP version. 180-gram vinyl. Gatefold sleeve. Includes CD. 2015 remastered reissue. Includes lengthy interview with Laraaji. Laraaji's glistening 1980 debut Ambient 3: Day of Radiance has from the beginning been considered an outlier. Though widely celebrated at that the time of its original release (as the third installment in Brian Eno's emerging ambient music series), the album also brought with it an aura of mystification. Where did it fit in? An uncharted synthesis of resonating zither textures, interlocking hammered rhythms, and 3-D sound treatments (courtesy of Eno), Day of Radiance seemed to push open many doors at once, ambient music being only one of them. Though there are certainly aspects of the album that find sonic common ground with other Eno-related "ambient" projects (on the tracks "Meditation #1" and "Meditation #2" in particular), the album is not easily boxed into a singular genre. Day of Radiance also mines the ethereal spiritualism of late-'70s new age music (of which Laraaji is considered a pioneer), the harmonic and rhythmic repetitions of American minimalists Terry Riley and Steve Reich, and traditional global sounds from India and Java (particularly gamelan music). And while Laraaji never explicitly embraced the "Fourth World" theories of fellow visionary and Eno collaborator Jon Hassell, Day of Radiance echoes a kindred exploratory exoticism. In the late '70s Brian Eno had relocated to New York City from London and had begun a period of fertile intersections with musicians in his adopted home. Laraaji recounts how he and Eno first crossed paths: "I was playing [zither] in Washington Square Park and I usually play with my eyes closed because I get into meditative trance states that way, and opening my eyes and collecting my little financial reward from that evening, there was a note, on notebook paper -- it looked like it had been ripped from somebody's expensive notebook -- there was a note that says 'Dear sir, kindly excuse this impromptu piece of message, I was wondering if you would be interested in talking about participating in a recording project I am doing, signed: Brian Eno.'" The album was completed in two sessions; the first one produced the faster, pulsing "Dance" compositions (on the A-side) and the second session yielded something closer to Eno's own ambient constructs -- slow zither washes and waves with more pronounced sound enhancements (on the B-side). While the album is deceptively simple in its construction, closer listening reveals its extraordinary depth of field and its polymath influences. ELODIEVieux Silence LP $23.99LP version. Stephen O'Malley on Elodie, the project of Andrew Chalk and Timo van Luijk, and their album Vieux Silence: "Having been entranced by both Andrew Chalk's work with Mirror (and back to his solo works as Ferial Confine, plus multiple collaborations with David Jackman, The New Blockaders, Daisuke Suzuki, etc.), and Timo van Luijk (as Af Ursin, In Camera, La Poupée Vivante, and collaborations with Kris Vanderstraeten and others) for many years, I was naturally intrigued to hear about and hear their duo project Elodie. The project formed in 2010, and has spanned eleven beautiful albums already, to date. Vieux Silence for Ideologic Organ is their first release presented outside of their own record publishing nook, Faraway Press and La Scie Dorée. However this is not the first encounter between Ideologic Organ and Elodie, they performed at a night in London I curated in February 2012, alongside Jessika Kenney and Eyvind Kang. Elodie's performance was among the most delicately engaging and savant I have witnessed... so very quiet, with snow falling in London outside Cafe Oto's windows, the audience palpably entered a high intensity listening focus. The impression of this vivid memory is striking, considering how spare each of the individual elements present that night were. Vieux Silence, and Elodie in general, provoke a visual imagination in an instant, perhaps filtered through aged watercolor, tape grain, antique lenses, forgotten levels of listening, and observational patience. On this gorgeous album, Chalk and van Luijk also collaborate with piano, pedal steel, and clarinet (played by: Tom James Scott, Daniel Morris, and Jean-Noel Rebilly, respectively). Each detail carefully considered and coloring step-by-step, like an impressionist watercolor." Personnel: Tom James Scott - piano; Jean-Noël Rebilly - clarinet; Daniel Morris - guitar pedal steel. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering. 75 DOLLAR BILLWood/Metal/Plastic/Pattern/Rhythm/Rock LP $23.99 2017 repress. 75 Dollar Bill, a project by Che Chen and Rick Brown present Wood/Metal/Plastic/Pattern/Rhythm/Rock. "Che's interest in the Arabic modes of Mauritanian music has marked our sound quite a bit but I have brought some things, too. The plywood crate I play is a big factor, defining, by its positive qualities (a nice warm 'boom' sound) as well as by its simplicity, what we're likely to do in the percussion realm. Wood/Metal/Plastic/Pattern/Rhythm/Rock, this new record, differs quite a bit from the previous one, notably in the rhythmic 'tone.' Wooden Bag (2015) was all forward momentum, stomping and shaking, but the new record explores a long-standing interest of mine: odd and 'compound' meters. In most of my previous musical activities, I've convinced my partners to delve into this, but in 75 Dollar Bill it has just felt natural and I believe Che's modal investigations and melodic/harmonic tendencies enhance (and are enhanced by) this combination. The current record differs from the last in another big way: reinforcements! Over our few years together, Che and I have frequently had friends play with us at some of our gigs. There have been all sorts of permutations of instruments and some great friends/players who don't all appear on this record but here we are lucky to have a bunch of them: Cheryl Kingan (of The Scene Is Now) on baritone and alto saxes, Andrew Lafkas (of Todd Capp's Mystery Train) on contrabass, Karen Waltuch (of Zeke & Karen) on viola, Rolyn Hu (of True Primes) on trumpet and Carey Balch (of Knoxville's Give Thanks) on floor tom. Please enjoy Wood/Metal/Plastic/Pattern/Rhythm/Rock. 'Earth' saw is one of our earliest tunes and, I think, the first result of this 'compound meter' approach. It's a slow 9 beat phrase Che came up with for this odd groove. 'Beni Said' has no fixed rhythmic cycle but a roughly unison melodic phrase and a pulsing, loose feeling of 3s and 4s played using a box full of bottle caps. 'Cummins Falls' features Carey Balch on Diddley-beat floor tom and me reprising the maracas. 'I'm Not Trying To Wake Up' is another of our compound meter songs, this one using an 18 beat scheme." - Rick Brown TURRONERO, ELNew Hondo CD $17.99Pharaway Sounds present a reissue of El Turronero's New Hondo, originally released on Belter in 1980. There were two labels in Spain during the '70s which were essential to understand the birth of the rumba-flamenco-pop genre: Belter and Discophon. Thanks to the work of adventurous in-house producers and sound engineers like Josep Llobell, Joan Barcons and Lauren Postigo, funk, rock, disco and jazz arrangements were incorporated to recordings of folkloric flamenco singers and rumba bands. The result was explosive and the Spanish market was flooded with "gipsy-rock" or "rumba pop" 45s and LPs, some of them highly sought-after today by international DJs looking for exotic beats. New Hondo is an otherworldly mix of cosmic disco, funk, boogie, and traditional flamenco styles by Spanish "cantaor" El Turronero. New Hondo features the legendary Josep Llobell (Oliver's Planet, Enterprise) at the controls. Including "Las Penas" and more. Remastered sound from the master tapes; Includes insert with photos and liner notes by Txarly Brown (Achilifunk). "A flamenco singer with pedigree like El Turronero lost in Studio 54 on a hangover day" --Txarly Brown. HARRY PUSSYA Real New England Fuck Up LP (this item will be in NEXT week)Previously unreleased mid-'90s live recordings of Harry Pussy in peak trio formation, with extensive eye-witness liner notes by Siltbreeze label-head Tom Lax and Tom Carter of Charalambides. Edition of 500. "The 1996 Shadow Ring / Harry Pussy / Charalambides 'Rose Watson' tour. . . . There were two vans, three bands, two drivers. Tom Lax was at the helm, rationing the booze and blasting Killed By Death Volume Whatever all through the Midwest. I walked out of a gig in Ypsilanti and tripped on a large dildo. Soundmen held their ears in Cleveland. We rolled out of Rochester (after Adris and my bandmate Jason blew an entire soundcheck screaming insults at each other in Spanish) and the soundman stuck his head in the car and yelled 'don't ever come back!' Byron Coley booked a show in Amherst with an audience of zero. Harry Pussy and Shadow Ring played, we didn't, and everyone was hanging out afterwards in front of the Unitarian Church when the local bus pulled up. Its lone occupant stepped out, looked around, and asked 'Is this where the Harry Pussy show is?' The TT's show, snipped from the end of this tour, was a shambolic near disaster. The fact that a recording survives at all is a minor miracle. We arrived to witness openers the Cotton Kings fleeing the venue after eating a bunch of acid, destroying the PA monitors, and swiping Adris's cymbals, which one tripping, bathrobe-clad member slunk back to return later. . . . Mr. Lax tried to calm me down by feeding me bourbon shots. We played. The PA was shot and we couldn't hear each other. I hurled my guitar across the stage, poured my beer over my head, and threw a pair of slides into the crowd, narrowly missing Wayne Rogers. Harry Pussy took the stage and sandblasted the night into oblivion, while I hid in the van (Mac: 'What the fuck is your problem?') until I was sober enough to attempt to find the Greyhound station and catch the first bus back to Houston. Christina spotted me wandering off and forcibly dragged me back into the club." --Tom Carter VAEgypt & Lebanon: Cosmic Arab Disco & Searing Dance Floor Bangers 1974-1985 LP $21.99Egypt & Lebanon: Cosmic Arab Disco & Searing Dance Floor Bangers 1974-1985 is a monumental introduction to some of the hippest proto-electronic music from the Middle East in the 1970s and 1980s. These are some of the prime cuts that electrified dance clubs throughout the Middle East, from Cairo to Beirut, featuring psychedelic synths and organs, break-neck percussion, and mind-bending beats. The music is a flowering of experimentation with synthesizers, complex electronic flourishes, hard-disco funk, and swirling innovative melodies based on traditional forms. This LP compilation proves some of the most forward-thinking music being made in Arab world was conjured by absorbing everything that radiated from European and American discos and then furthering the dialogue, with sublime results. Features twelve, secret weapon tracks to set ablaze any dancefloor. Features Joseph Nemnom, Iman El Bahr Darwish, Isahn Al Munzer, Mohammed Jamal, Assa'd Khoury With His Oriental Electronic Organ & Band, Ammar El Shariyi, and Farid Atrache.

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