#jesse sparhawk

[dustedmagazine]

Elkhorn — The Red Valley (VHF)

Photo by Sam Erickson

The two guitarists of Elkhorn meet up again for a bout of mesmeric drone, the sound this time more electric than pastoral but as open-ended as ever. As always, Jesse Sheppard mans the 12-string, whether acoustic or electrified, while Drew Gardner plays the six, as well as a few other instruments notably zither and vibraphone. Gardner is responsible, as well, for the pounding, grounding percussion in The Red Valley, nothing complicated but a key component of making this duo sound like a band. And finally, Jesse Sparhawk contributes lever harp and pedal steel. It’s a lush, enveloping sound, nothing minimal about it.

“Black Wind of Kayenta” runs dark and more turbulent, building ominous, western-tinged expanses in distortion blasted low-end runs. An acoustic dances atop these shadowy foundations, bending and flowering in high blues licks. I hear a sunset here, the air darkening, the clouds lit up with brilliance, a few stray rays of sunlight still on hand but not for long.

“Inside Spider Rock,” by contrast, is a prickly blossom, all pizzicato runs and trebly flourishes, aided by Sparhawk’s lever harp. This is an instrument favored by Celtic musicians for its quick, hand-manipulated tunings (as opposed to the classical harp which works with pedals), and Sparhawk makes the most of its sparkling, note-flurrying radiance, an excellent match for the ethereal overtones of 12-string.

Elkhorns roots are in blues, folk and country, though you won’t hear much of the latter until “Jackrabbit Hops” with its eerie masses of pedal steel (Sparhawk, evidently) and bent notes melting like Dali’s clocks. A jangle of bells, a slash of cymbals works as atmosphere, but not really as timekeeping. This track moves on its own schedule, stretching minutes out like taffy and snapping back in quick rhythmic bursts.

“Gray Salt Trail” is the long one, quiet reverie that sits at the intersection of blues, folk and raga, very much the neighborhood Jack Rose inhabited when not in Dr. Ragtime mode. There’s a bit of rock churn in the way that the guitars roar up, a bit more distortion and dissonance than on, say, “Cathedral et Chartres,” but the vibe is similar. The song goes on for more than nine minutes, but who’s in any hurry when the shimmer hits the shadow like this?

Jennifer Kelly

[mitjalovse]

We have discussed the most typical electronic musicians for the labels here, yet we put a lot of their coworkers into a bin this way despite this not really being my intention. For instance, I will admit Kranky have many great musicians in their house, though we can agree Stars Of The Lid might be the epitome of the company. However, they haven't released anything since their Refinement Of The Decline and I don't think they will thanks to Brian McBride's death. The latter put the duo in a strange limbo, because Adam Wiltzie speaks of him releasing one last record of the group, yet there is a part of me that wishes the outfit is left alone now. Sure, I would like to hear more of them, though they did a fine finale. Anything else would've felt like an unneeded postscript.

[oathofoaksart]

If you're still accepting these -- 🎮, for Jester?

🎮 - what are three of your oc's favorite hobbies?

cars! jess is actually a stellar mechanic and a skilled auto thief-- helps him in the territory of being a getaway driver and what not, but also he just loves cars. he tends to use this as an excuse to spend all his time working on the joker's, if just to get away from everyone. he has a bit of a clientele within the henchmen/lackey circle.

music! he's the bass player to a band named the punchclocks, alongside a few other gotham henchmen including the two-face twins (min and max dobell), mr. freeze's ice maidens (christine caulfield and nevada jones), and the penguin sniper, sparhawk (carlo pierce). they play gigs at shrubby's divebar to pass the time and earn a little coin on the side.

women! ...yea.

more asks? here

[valentinsylve]

weird music shows coming to places possibly near you!

Universal Light is: Mike Gangloff (Pelt), Kaily Schenker (Solar Hex) and Jesse Sheppard (Elkhorn).

Tour dates: Mon 10/01 @ Rhizome, Washington DC, with Pergola and Jon Camp. Tues 10/08 @ Acoustic Music Works, Pittsburgh, with Pairdown. Wed 10/09 @ Northside Tavern, Cincinnatti, with Night Owl Noise and Pete Fosco. Thurs 10/10 @ Acme Records, Milwaukee, with Wooden Wand. Fri 10/11 @ Heardlove Music, St. Paul, with Matt Sowell. Sat 10/12 @ Hungry Brain, Chicago, with Chord and Joshua Abrams. Sun 10/13 @ Trinosophes, Detroit, with Nick Schillace. Mon 10/14 @ Waterloo Arts, Cleveland, with Powers/Rolin Duo. Tues 10/15 @ Pageant: Soloveev, Philadelphia, with Elizabeth Laprelle.

Strings and things from the hollers.

[adsmusiconstellations]

Stars Of The Lid – Stars Of The Lid And Their Refinement Of The Decline (2007)

https://kranky.net

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Autonomous Battleship Collective Presents: Feathers, Espers, Brightblack Morning Light, James Blackshaw, Jesse Sparhawk, Unitarian Meetinghouse, Amherst, Massachusetts, June 17, 2006

Back to freakier, folkier days! Via the Valley Society for the Evolutionary Arts Sound Archive, check out a stacked bill of Unitarian-friendly jams from some of the leading lights of the era. Nice to hear some live James Blackshaw -- did you hear he’s making a comeback?! It’s true. Also making a bit of a comeback: Espers! At least the band is putting some of its old records back in print via Drag City. Not making a comeback as far as I can tell is Brightblack Morning Light, but they sound great here, delivering beautifully mysterious vibes a-plenty. Settle back in your pew and drift away. 

[ytc-s]

Saved on Spotify "Light Cycle / Tetrahedra" by Jesse Sparhawk https://ift.tt/2Xw8zVd

[joyfulunion]

~Phinery 10 Cassette Autumn Batch

~Phinery will be releasing their Autumn Batch consisting of 10 cassettes. You can purchase the batch for $45. Or you can purchase them individually for $6 each. They are available for pre-order here. Release date is September 25.

Releases are as follows:

LXV - Inversion Method More Eaze - 2stre3ss Jim Strong - Vee and j. Rise after Car Burn G.S. Sultan Redundancy Suite Remixes Jesse Sparhawk - What Winter Was BIrdy Earns - Out Of The Picture Tourist Kid - Born To Do It Christian Michael Filardo - Ennui Divine Horaflora/Scy1e - Body Lag / Craedle Calls Philippe Vandal - Tabu Blank

[mike-tamburo-blog]

Happy to announce this is debuting on Bandcamp today! https://miketamburo.bandcamp.com/album/fantastic-tales Mike Tamburo’s Fantastic Tales is a sonically poetic tapestry of string tones and rhythms blended together in a heartfelt cosmic journey. Tamburo is joined in an exquisite collaboration by Jesse Sparhawk on harp, Galina Tamburo on monolina and zither, Ryan Jewell on drums and Anthony Molina on synthesizer and percussion. Tamburo’s rolling hammered dulcimer stylings and compositions are intertwined with Jesse Sparhawk’s crystalline harp, Galina Tamburo’s flowing drones and are held together by Ryan Jewell’s expressive percussion. Certainly an ode to the cosmic music of Alice Coltrane and the 1970’s spiritual jazz scene, the artistry and beauty of Fantastic Tales is experienced in the group interactions as they each evoke a quality of a story or narrative - the adventure - the tales that each song shares. --- Mike Tamburo - Hammered Dulcimer, Zither, Omnisphere, Looper, Percussion, Wavedrum, Monolina, Engineer Jesse Sparhawk - Harp Galina Tamburo - Monolina, Zither Ryan Jewell - Drums, Percussion Anthony Molina - Percussion, Omnisphere, Engineer Eric Carbonara- Mix, Master Cover Art by Tom Hall #miketamburo #hammereddulcimer #spiritualjazz #bandcamp https://www.instagram.com/p/B_qAH17DXMl/?igshid=155qbfp7d9mx8

[hiddeninstruments]

Here are a few collaborations between the Dirty Three (Warren Ellis, Mick Turner, and Jim White) and other artists. ‘Great Waves’, above, is from their 2005 album Cinder, and features Chan Marshall (aka Cat Power) on vocals.

I adore the band Low. Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk have been playing their beautiful slowcore for over two decades. They sometimes have a swimming, meandering sound that’s also typical of the Dirty Three and the two groups sync really well on this album. This is my favorite track, ‘When I Called Upon Your Seed’.

We could easily dedicate several posts to the collaborative history between the Dirty Three/Warren Ellis and Nick Cave. Ellis is a long time member of The Bad Seeds, and Cave & Ellis have composed a number of film scores together (incl. The Assassination of Jesse James and The Road) that are sparse, eerie, and lovely. This song, ‘Time Jesum Transeuntum et Non Riverentum’, was a hidden track on an X-Files soundtrack from the 90s. Pretty nerdy! Make what you will of Cave’s “Christ-haunted” (shout out Flannery) fable; I’m in it for the melody.

[dustedmagazine]

Fern Knight — Solstice (Self-Release)

Solstice by Fern Knight

Fern Knight’s Margaret Ayre, a classically trained musician who can play all manner of stringed instruments and sing, returns after a hiatus with a fine album of psychedelic folk. Her sound has turned quite a bit more fanciful and sprightly in this outing, 13 years on out from the tombstone chill of “Marble Grey” (on 2006’s Music for Witches and Alchemists). Ayre has added a harpsichord to our musical box of tricks since the last time we listened; it and a crack band of electrified folk non-purists give Solstice something a lot of New Weird America albums lack: a sense of fun.

Ayre moved to Philadelphia in the aughts, landing just about when the Psyche-delphia scene around Espers, Bardo Pond, Sharron Krauss and others hit full swing. Her current band took shape around this time, including Jim Ayre on electric guitar (now also her husband), Jesse Sparhawk on harp and other instruments, and James Wolf playing violin. For this album, she also has Peterson Goodwyn on drums. Her previous album, Castings, came out in 2010, a gap that can perhaps be partly explained by motherhood (she has a young son about the same age as the time between records). But in any case, she is back and in full form. Solstice is wholly sure of itself, dense with instruments, brash with rolling rhythms and witchily melodic. It starts from British folk but heads quickly out from there into droning propulsion, free-form instrumental interplay and 1960s rock.

“Goodbye July,” for instance, fills out a wistful melody about the end of summer with an eclectic mix of instruments. Here in the interstices are florid runs of harp (Sparhawk), baroque harpsichord (Ayre), battering Moon-style drums (Goodwyn) and soaring guitar solo. The song would be pretty enough sung a capella or with an acoustic guitar, but it crackles with excitement here in a way that feels more rock than folk. An extended instrumental coda lets the players cut loose on violin, harpsichord, drums and wailing electric guitar; it’s free jazz night at the Ren Faire and you’d be surprised how good it sounds.

“Fern Knight” likewise starts in eerie, alchemical folksiness and edges off from there. The harpsichord again serves as an intriguing texture, its wavery, shape-shifting notes sounding both archaic and 1960s-psych-experimental. But it’s the guitar solo (not sure if it’s Ayre or Sparhawk or Wolf, who all play guitar) that rips the cord and jumps, taking the cut way out there, which is where Fern Knight sounds best.

There’s a warmth and playfulness here that’s different from Ayre’s earlier work, at least to my ears. It’s less haunted, less melancholic, more full of blood and vigor. Maybe it’s hitting a groove with long-time musical collaborators, maybe the chaos of early parenthood has upended Fern Knight’s introspective gloom. Whatever the cause, it’s a very positive development. Solstice isn’t just a pretty tableau; it moves, it swaggers, it blasts the tunes.  

Jennifer Kelly

[tinymixtapes]

♫ Listen: Various Artists: Phinery - BE as HAPPY as POSSIBLE

A euphoric new compilation from Phinery featuring Mukqs, Padna, More Eaze, Raphael Leray, Nathaniel Young, Maria Moles, Nils Quak, Philippe Lamy, Ollestad, Carrageenan, Persona Mercure, Missing Organs, Jesse Sparhawk, Eschaton, Jim Strong, Schafer + Filardo, James Conduit, Charles Pender, Adam Basanta, Head Dress, Analoc, Karl Fousek, ju ca, Jeremy Bible, Sontag Shogun, Shinya Sugimoto, Angelo Harmsworth, Charles Barabé, Euglossine, Galen Tipton, Sam Gas Can, SUPPORT-SURFACE, and Black Dolphin. Happy me. http://j.mp/2nH21oN

[miamibeerscene]

Helium Beer: It’s Time to Set the Record Straight

Stone’s mythical Cr(He)am Ale, the helium beer that started it all. (Credit: Vimeo/Stone Brewing Co.)

February 22, 2017

It’s time to set the record straight about helium beer once and for all.

Beer fans are itching to hunt down this whale at any cost. Confused why they can’t find it in their local great beer store, I get emails about it all the time:

“Hey, where can I buy that helium beer?”

“Do you know if helium beer ships overseas?”

Guys — here’s the thing: helium beer isn’t real. It’s a myth. The Lochness Monster and that slimy thing from the Upside Down in Stranger Things are more real. In fact, it’s not even scientifically possible. Let me explain why.

(MORE: 9 Weird Brewery Names and the Stories Behind Them)

Science Behind Why Helium Beer Isn’t Possible

Let’s start with the science. In an August 2015 article, CraftBeer.com’s Andy Sparhawk outlines three important points from Stone’s Rick Blankemeier:

Helium is not soluble in water, therefore it’s not soluble in beer. You can’t carbonate beer with helium like you can with carbon dioxide or nitrogen.

Adding liquid helium would be impossible as it turns from liquid to gas at -220°F. You’d end up freezing your beer.

Even if you could somehow add helium to beer, it would cause gushing because (again) helium is not soluble in beer.

Bottom Line: Helium beer won’t ever exist under the laws of science — so why do we keep getting so many emails from beer lovers looking for it?

(MORE: Are Long Beer Lines Worth the Wait?)

How Helium Beer Became a Phenomenon

Helium beer became all the rage starting April 1, 2014 (April 1 is going to become very important in this article), when Stone Brewing posted a news release introducing Cr(He)am Ale, a cream ale with helium, in 16-oz cans.

At first glance, the news release looks like any other news release. It even includes these suggested food pairings:

Appetizers: Pickled herring, Funyuns®, deep-fried mozzarella sticks, Blooming Onion Soups: Cheddar, Garlic & Stone Ruination IPA Soup, beef, chicken or pork bouillon Entrees: Vegetarian lasagna, chimichangas, chy Cheeses: Humboldt Fog, Kraft singles, Cheez Whiz® Desserts: Crème Brulee, Niederfranks vanilla ice cream, aged Hostess Twinkies, Heath Bar Cigars: Dutch Masters, Swisher Sweets, White Owl Peach, blunts.

Twinkie? Funyuns? Kraft singles? Who doesn’t want a beer that pairs with everything your childhood dreams are made of?!

But let’s talk about that article timestamp again: April 1 is April Fool’s Day — and Stone sure got you good. So good, that the article is still whipping up a frenzy nearly 3 years later. Helium beer is the April Fool’s Day joke that just won’t quit.

For the love of God, please help us set the record straight about helium beer: share this article; tell your friends who dig beer that helium beer isn’t real. Also, take an extra second to check out timestamps on articles — April 1 news should always make you question its authenticity.

Whatever you can do to help spread the word about the myth helium beer, know that you are doing a good deed.

Science thanks you. My inbox thanks you. Cheers!

Jess Baker

Jess Baker is a 15-year media vet whose credits include tv producing, digital storytelling and overall social media magic-making. Enamored by the personalities, dedication and entrepreneurial spirit of America’s small and independent brewers, she brings their stories to life at CraftBeer.com. She’s a runner, an aunt, a big fan of beercations and also a die-hard Springsteen fan. Read more by this author

The post Helium Beer: It’s Time to Set the Record Straight appeared first on Miami Beer Scene.

from Helium Beer: It’s Time to Set the Record Straight

[outoftownfilms-blog-blog]

Jesse Sparhawk "Hummingbird" - Philadelphia, PA - 09/06/2012

Rigby Mansion, one of the more subtle and hidden gems of the Philadelphia music scene, is one that has an allure and majestic quality to its beautiful infrastructure, both inside and out. Walking up to the mansions grounds that evening, we were greeted by a vast front-yard filled with people, sitting on the grass and facing an elongated white, wrap around porch. In the center of the porch was the spotlighted musicians, to which everyone listened with the kind of patience and attention that one could only hope to be blessed with for a performance. 

Of the artists that played that night, we documented all four of them playing throughout the house. Marie Sioux on a lovely red velvet couch in an upstairs room, Philadelphia's Bad Braids in an elegant claw footed bathtub, French musician Martin Rousselot on a piano and this session with Jesse Sparhawk playing to an intimate living room group. He performed a song called called "Hummingbird," what to which Sparhawk responded once the song was over, "I don't need to write any more songs. That's the best one ever." We kind of agree. Enjoy.

[arboreamusic-blog]

Arborea - Beirut (Sun Room Sessions video by Derek Moench

[hearhearmusic]

Jesse Sparhawk - We Whirled Over The World Over When The World Was Over