Sunday night. A long day at work. On the way home I stopped at Pat’s to take in the fourth quarter of the NBA Finals game. I don’t really care who wins, but I like to see my friends happy, so we’ll say I’m rooting for the Celtics. Upon winning the game, these crazed Boston natives decided it would be cool and fun if we all walked down the street — in an overwhelmingly Spanish-speaking neighborhood in Los Angeles — to a bar, where we could all cheers the Celtics and taunt Lakers fans. This, of course, was the bright idea my friends hatched no more than 48 hours after two of them got jumped for wearing Celtics jersies at the very same bar. Listen, I never said my friends were smart.
Well, since I’m writing this blog entry it should be obvious that I survived the ordeal. Everyone made it out of the bar unscathed. And now I can share this mix tape with you. So…thank the Celtics for this one, I guess.
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. This week is all about crushing heavy bliss juxtaposed to ambient and electronic noodlandings. Yes, I made that word up. What are you doing to do, call me on it? Too late. 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 187
“From Heavy To Heavenly…To Humorous!”
01. The Body – A Body – I just ordered this record the other day. I don’t know how it took me like a month to find this thing. This is like the best of post-rock, doom metal and noise juxtaposed to a full choir! It’s just an unbelievable piece of art that amazes me to no end. Does a band like this tour with the full choir? Will they be playing within 500 miles of Los Angeles? I need to know the answers to these questions as soon as possible. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. (buy from Amazon.com)
02. Aluk Todolo – Quatrieme Contact – I finally found an Aluk Todolo downloadable album that isn’t just two side-long tracks! And you my friend, are the big winner tonight. Especially if you haven’t ever heard Aluk Todolo. It’s like Krautrock, but heavier and sludgy. And they’re French. I like to think that if I had actually cared about the 14-year-old brace-faced French girl I made out with in tennis camp, and we had gone on to consummate our relationship-that-never-was, maybe she would be cool enough to throw some Aluk Todolo on while we did it. Of course, this could never happen, because that was thirteen years ago (yes, I was also 14 at the time), and Aluk Todolo was not making music as far as I know. Also, tennis chicks aren’t into Krautrock. Nor are they into body hair grooming. Then again, she was French… (buy from Amazon.com)
03. Lightning Swords Of Death – Vorticating Into Scars – My favorite LA black metal band is…well, they’re also the only LA black metal band I know, but even if I knew a dozen more LSOD would still be my favorite. Remember that time I interviewed Autarch? I wish I could tell him how proud I am of his band for recording such an awesome new album. Sure it will undoubtedly appear on the Swan Fungus best of 2010, but where exactly!? No one knows, not at least for another five and a half months. (buy from Amazon.com)
04. Harvey Milk – I Know This Is All My Fault – A new Harvey Milk record is always reason to celebrate. I know I chose a decidedly un-Harvey Milk track for this mix tape, but I kind of don’t want to spoil the surprise for you on this album, because it’s so fucking good I want you to hear it for the first time when you buy the CD. So I chose a random experimental track instead of a more typical Milk-y opus. You should have seen the face a customer made last week when I told him a copy had come into the store and I’d put it aside just for him. It was like I’d told him he was going to go home and get laid. Trust me, when you say something like that to a guy who frequents record stores, it’s a huge deal. (buy from Amazon.com)
05. Dog Faced Hermans – Volkswagen – Until a couple weeks ago, Hum Of Life was the only Dog Faced Hermans album I had ever heard. Then we bought some records off a random customer and it contained two albums I’d never seen before: a live one and the one this song was borrowed from (it’s called Those Deep Buds). Before I heard this, I was convinced that Hum Of Life was a flawless, all-time great album. Guess what? This one is even better. (buy from Amazon.com)
06. Claudio Rocchi – E Per Te – I would like to extend a brief thank you to the blog known as Mutant Sounds for steering me to two different records that are featured here tonight. Nurse With Wound List alert! Claudio Rocchi, Italian psychedelic folk weirdo with a funny accent (that is, if he speaks English). It kind of reminds me of Batiatto, but without as much synthesizer and with way more drone and raga. (Ariston, 1973)
07. Grails – I Want A New Drug – I’m pretty sure this is the most minimalist sounding cut I’ve ever heard from a Grails record. It’s barely there, which is why it was chosen for this mix tape. It’s the perfect transitional tune between the crazy heavy rock and the electronic stuff that will follow. Grails put out another Black Tar Prophecies EP. This is the fourth (identified via roman numeral IV). It’s good. It’s not my favorite of the bunch, but it’s still head-and-shoulders ahead of most bands putting out new music these days. (buy from Amazon.com)
08. Chamberpot – City – Ah, free jazz. I don’t understand you at all! And I don’t understand regular jazz, so you can imagine just how clueless I am when it comes to this genre. That’s not to say that I don’t like it — in fact I love a lot of it! I just don’t get it is all. I don’t know why I’m liking it. Maybe it’s a psychological thing…like, I realize that I appreciate a form of jazz so it makes me feel good about myself. (Head, 1976)
09. Blueneck – Lilitu – Ian was bragging about this shit last week, one of hew new band discoveries. He describe it to me as “Talk Talk, but heavier and more depressing.” I couldn’t download the album fast enough. Unfortunately, not a damned thing on the first half of the album sounded anything like Talk Talk. I asked Ian what was up, but he said, “Listen to Lilitu.” So I did. Yeah, this sounds like a huge Talk Talk rip off…but it’s also the only track on the album that sounds like this. In other news, Grails sounds like Stars Of The Lid….if you only listen to that one-note track I posted on this mix tape. (buy from Amazon.com)
10. Actress – Always Human – This fits in there with the new school of electronic music alongside Oneohtrix Point Never and Emeralds. It’s not nearly as avant or noisy or Schulze-y as Emeralds, but it’s still cool. This track is a bit more upbeat, a bit more dance-inducing, a bit less druggy. Unless your drug is ecstasy. I could see people rolling and listening to this shit and loving life, finger-painting and making out for hours. You go Actress! (buy from Amazon.com)
11. Oneohtrix Point Never – Actual Air – And what good is a reference to a band if you don’t give the people something to listen to so they can understand said reference? I’ll tell you what — it’s not good at all. It’s bad. It’s very bad. If you’ve been digging on all the Emeralds stuff I’ve posted over the last year or more, you’ll definitely be into this. It’s not the new album, but you should buy that one too. It kicks serious ass. (buy from Amazon.com)
12. Paul F. Tompkins – Jazz – Last but not least, some music-related comedy from funnyman Paul F. Tompkins. He doesn’t really like jazz either. Maybe he would like Eric Dolphy. I like Eric Dolphy. I should ask Mr. Tompkins if he’s heard Dolphy. Maybe that would change his mind. Other jazz? …mmmnot for me me. (buy from Amazon.com)
