Well, I was going to see Vetiver at Spaceland until I realized that my last paycheck was hampered by my having taken days off, and I have no money until an advertising check arrives sometime this coming week. What will I do until then? Well, not much. Today I went to work and had enough money to eat one yogurt and one bagel. Dinner was a box of Crispix I’ve kept around the house for emergency hunger situations for about the past year. Those year-old Crispix sure don’t taste very good anymore.
So, what are my plans this week? Well, I don’t have softball on Thursday night, but I’m going to Anaheim Wednesday to buy some tickets to a future baseball game. Friday night my roommate is having a party, and Saturday I think I might go see Tortoise at the Troubadour. The last two times I went there, I wound up drunk at Barney’s down the road. Anyone out there want to supply me with booze?
Is there a blogger who shills for more favors from readers than I? I guess I could constantly be running donation drives or shit like that, but I only did that once, and it was a dire emergency. I don’t plan on ever doing it again. I just…you know…if I’m going to make myself available to actually meet some of you creeps, it’s best for both of us if I’m drunk. It’ll make things way less awkward if I don’t say anything.
Alright, mix tape time.
RULES for uninitiated noobs: With roughly 100MB of web space, I give birth to a weekly Mix Tape to be deposited on your iPods or Zunes or Kingklangs or whatever the industry is currently pushing on you. Sometimes there will be themes that link all the songs together, other times I’ll just throw songs at a wall (not literally) and see what sticks. If there is a theme this week, it’s probably songs off new albums. I’ve featured a cut from the new Emeralds double-LP and a new cut from Master Musicians Of Bukkake. That album by The Caretaker was just reissued. The goal of this endeavor, as always, is to pique your interest in these artists so you’ll support the artists and buy their albums.
Sunday Mix Tape – Number 186
You Have Been Warmed
01. Emeralds – Candy Shoppe – Damn you, Emeralds. You dominated the top half my Best Albums Of 2009 list, and now you’re killing me with this new record, Does It Look Like I’m Hear? I just received it yesterday, and I’ve already listened three or four times. This bad, without a doubt, is one of the two or three finest, most consistent bands making music at the moment. See for yourself. (buy from Amazon.com)
02. Henry Flynt – Solo Virginia Trance – Swan Fungus reader Bennett e-mailed me some Henry Flynt music last week and it got me back on a Flynt kick. The New American Ethnic Music series is well worth your investigating. Drone, bluegrass, drone! (Recorded, 2003)
03. Foetus – Today I Started Slogging Again – My co-worker was wearing a Foetus t-shirt this weekend so it got me wondering why I haven’t listened to the recorded output of Mr. Thirwell all that much recently. If you haven’t already, be sure to buy his music from the Adult Swim program Venture Bros. which was just compiled and pressed on heavy vinyl some months ago. I miss that show. Is there a new season approaching soon? (buy from Amazon.com)
04. Hello Operator – Activate You – This was Rich’s band before Bear Claw. Or maybe he was playing in this band simultaneously while playing in Bear Claw. I don’t remember. Anyway, it kicks ass. Math Rock to infinity. The only problem is…I don’t know how to get a copy. Amazon doesn’t have it, I don’t know if Rich has any, and there’s exactly one website that knows of the album Internal Response. It’s a Dutch CD dealer who is asking almost 70 Euros for it. Hmm…maybe I should look into this…
05. Voice Of The Seven Woods – The Fire In My Head – Ian sent me a bunch of albums by this guy Rick Tomlinson who makes music over in England. It’s kind of psychedelic folk, but it has a lot of weird experimental tendencies. This cut has a weird Eastern/electronic feel to it. I dig it. (buy from Amazon.com)
06. Supreme Dicks – The Arabian Song – I was at a party last night and a guy I know grabs me by the hand and goes, “Hey man, this is my friend, I want you to meet him. He was in this band…” Turns out the friend was in Supreme Dicks! How fucking amazing is that? What a sorely overlooked amazing indie band from the ’90s these guys are. I’m trying to spread the word, but I’m only one man. This is beautiful, terrifying shit. (buy from Amazon.com)
07. Ida – Little Things – I saw this CD in the store the other day and felt compelled to play it. It’s so soft, and slow, and sweet. It really brought everybody down. And I fell in love with it all over again. (buy from Amazon.com)
08. Earth – Land Of Some Other Order – I feel bad about that Dylan Carlson joke I made yesterday so today I am making up for it by sharing an Earth track. A killer Earth track, too! All slow and Morricone-y…is there anything better than the marriage between Codeine-slow songs and the minimalist tendencies of Ennio Morricone? Nope. And that’s why Earth is capable of melting so many faces. Dylan and Co. figured that shit out a long time ago, and now they’re getting better and better as they age. (buy from Amazon.com)
09. Allen Toussaint – Nowhere To Go – After all that dirge, and all that sludge, and all that stalled-out weird rock, it’s always nice to throw in a random New Orleans R&B song to change up the pace a little bit. That’s how I approach my mix tapes. For a while it was, “How do I get this track to fade nicely into another track?” Now it’s more like, “What can I play next that’s going to make people question whether or not I’m sane.” Case in point: Earth -> Toussaint. (buy from Amazon.com)
10. Master Musicians Of Bukkake – The Heresy Of Origen – The name says it all, really. You don’t even have to listen to the music. Oh, who am I kidding. The music is even better than the name. And this album, Totem Two, is an early favorite to win the best album of 2010. It’s like if Earth started listening to Cambodian cassette archives. I can’t even explain it. It’s just so wonderful. It makes me so happy that I can find new music that doesn’t suck. (buy from Amazon.com)
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12. International Harvester – There Is No Other Place – A girl (What!?) came into the store the other day and tried to sell this CD. Too bad it was all scratched up to hell. I would have bought it from her for my own CD collection. Or I would have sent it to a friend in need of musical awakening. I picked a dull track from this album, but most of the cuts on it are really long and there were already lengthy tunes on this tape, so I settled for a short burst of fun noise. (buy from Amazon.com)
13. Vibracathedral Orchestra – Kids’ Drawings Eat Gloom – Slow, slower, SLOWER, SLOWERRRR, SLOOOOOWWWEER. That’s what I’m thinking when I listen to the English drone duo Vibracathedral Orchestra. You can tell an experimental band like this is really good because you start to get really mad if the pace of the vibrato or the bowed shards of metal start to increase. I want something I can just bliss out to. I don’t want to have to worry about getting my heart rate worked up. (Self-Released, 1998)
14. The Caretaker – Rosy Retrospection – Described by Aquarius as “two modes, slow shimmery gauzy ambience, and slowed down warped and blurred big band and jazz.” Notice how they used “slow” to describe both of the modes? Well, I was sold immediately. Now you will be too. (buy from Amazon.com)
15. Tarentel – Blessed-Cursed – This is older Tarentel, but that doesn’t even matter because there has never been a single dull moment on any Tarentel release I’ve ever heard. They’re like my Beatles. And “The Order Of Things” was like…well…I don’t know what it was like, but it was awesome! Sometimes I miss the band’s Neurot/Temporary Residence days, but then I listen to Home Ruckus or Live Edits and I realize that the band is so unbelievably talented that they have this huge body of work that is entirely fascinating and exciting and fun. See for yourself. (buy from Amazon.com)
