Bitter Sunsets
We Might
Sanity a Dream
Zophiel
Archangel Trophy
Changes
Back to the Same
Zero Worth
Barachiel is at it Again
Ariel
Mulu Lizi
Mary Crazemas,
NØ
Essential Punishments
Rotten Straw Lips
Metallic Sweating for the Rich
Science Urges
Want, Need, Sream in a Dream
Sophia as Well
The Editor
A Little Old Picnic in Fort Collins
Disheartening Enveloppe
Get in There Before You Sour
Head is Made of Straw
Right on My Finger
They Ain't Kidding Me
Bone Fat
Very Crazemas,
NØ
Saloenliaze
Umbrella Mistress
House Full of Hurt
Eastern Promises
Blood Count
Through Wires
Blue Pale Queen
Tell Me What I Did Wrong
Winter's Gone
Diamond Teeth
Parry Crazemas,
NØ
Vanishing Tide
Atlantis is Rising
Black Mass
Lights
Tunnel Riot
Savage Letters
Mariposa
Swollen Neck
Hieroglyphs from Hell
Acacia
Only Nothing Is
Bury Crazemas,
NØ
We Feel the Silence
Running Away
It was Her
Dead Heart
Lola
Sea is Rising
Certainty
Arrest My Father
Some Sort of Justice
Five Different Pieces
If I Told You the Truth I Would be Made of Lies
Dairy Crazemas,
NØ
This following set of shares are for everyone that I didn't get to with a personal gifting: for jonder, Stinky, & Art58koen; for Reb & Rob & Rev; for Brian, Richard, Inertia, Pat Trip Dispenser, aboynamedstew & all the others that I've inadvertantly overlooked; for all the anonymous commentors & non-commentors; for the lurkers & leechers; for everyone that gives purpose to this here misadventure.
Wishing you all hippie, hoppy, holly Daze.
The 12 Daze of Crazemas
Last year I shared the 12 Dubs of Crazemas, a set of twelve releases from Mad Professor in the Dub Me Crazy series.
Here's another set of Craziness. In 2016, Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López announced that he would somehow manage to find time away from his other bands of the time:At The Drive In; Antemasque; & Bosnian Rainbows to release 12 new solo albums, one every two weeks from July 15th until December 16th on Mike Patton's Ipecac Records. On July 15, 2016 he released Sworn Virgins & reaching #12 on December 16 with Some Need it Lonely.
Omar's main diversion, the Mars Volta entered a hiatus in September 2012. Rodríguez-López started a new project, Bosnian Rainbows, then he & fellow MV Cedric Bixler-Zavala reunited in 2014 for a new project, Antemasque, then there were further At the Drive-In tours & recording sessions.
These releasess all contain material recorded between 2008-2013 & feature contributions from frequent Mars Volta collaborators. The first release is Sworn Virgins which features Le Butcherettes / Bosnian Rainbows Teri Gender Bender & Mars Volta / Bosnian Rainbows multi-instrumentalist Deantoni Parks.
If this doesn't qualify as Craziness, I don't know beans (well, OR-L did go on to release ten more albums basically every two weeks in 2017 finishing the madness with Doom Patrol). Here's the first Daze...
Pineapple Face
Not Even Toad Loves You
To Kill a Chi Chi
Trick Harpoon Stare of Baby
High Water Hell
Saturine
Crow's Fest
Heart Mistakes
Logged into Bliss
Fortuna
Twice a Plague
Nary Crazemas,
NØ
Aleck is a new Frenz of NSS. From comments he has made regarding his listening habits during the Reagan years, I have surmised that we are of the same generation & listened to the same musicks, at least in the Bonzo goes to Washington era.
My musickal tastes have travelled onward since those days & I'm sure Aleck's have as well. However, I have recently been revisiting a short-lived band that formed near the end of Bonzo's term (1987) that still really pack a punch for me. I have always meant to share their tuneage here but somehow never got around to it. I was lucky enough to have seen them twice live, two of my best times hearing live musick. I am gifting some of their sounds to new Frenz Aleck.
MrDave is a longtime Frenz of NSS.
He always imparts intelligent opinions in all his comments (or just says, sounds good, thanks...you know how it goes). I know from past conversations we've had that his collection of musick is vast. I know also that I have at times provided music that he didn't already have. I'm hoping I can hit a homer here.
In the winter of 1981, Executive Slacks, founder by Philadelphia College of Art students Matt Marello & John Young (joined shortly thereafter by Albert Ganss), fused the proto-industrialisms of early Cabaret Voltaire to the archly gloomy funk of Tuxedomoon along with the primitive, slashing guitars of No-Wave for an art-school Dadaist lark.
They used sound like a painter would use color & a brush. They combined tape loops & found sounds or anything lying around their house that would emit a sound. Kind of like Pop Art banality. Originally more sound collage, over time as they began to perform live & created more structured songs in a more traditional way, but with the spirit of sound collage always at the heart of their style.
The name Executive Slacks fell within the realm of the banal, the pop-art aesthetic. The name was taken from a magazine advertisement for mail-order pants: 3 for $9.99. They liked the dichotomy between the idea of the executive & the pathetic cheapness of the product. Also, the two words created an internal contradiction with “slacks” as meaning “lazy.” & they liked the contraction of Executive Slacks to Ex Slacks, the chocolate laxative.
Let's start at the beginning. Come with me now to the distant past. It was 1983...
These are for Richie Muster, a Frenz of NSS with very discerning tastes.
These all are Bruce Gilbert related.
Let's start with a pure one with just the right dose of bitter punk ironic Wire. Bite off your tongue & swallow it whole...
This set goes out to Stately Plump Buck.
Some fresh Dubs from the Observer studio, inspired by recent events, our rapacious approach to the natural world, & Lauren Drescher's Zoonotic print series.
Chiff-Chaff Dub
Pangolin Dub
Forty Days Dub
Sit You Down, Father, Rest You
Smash the System Dub
Mink is the second installment of International Observer's Zoonotic series, following on from Pangolin. Over five tracks, the Observer ponders on life, nature, isolation...accompanied by languid beats, jaunty melodies & Dub basslines.
Shipwrecked Dub
Hey Now Yesterday Dub
Man Next Door Dub
Lub Dub
I'm a Mover
The third release in the Zoonotic series, Bat finds International Observer in sprightly form. The five tunes consider love, liberty, & the future of Monarchy, all in a Dubwise fashion.
It is sometimes hard to determine exactly what musick certain Frenz of NSS prefer.
They politely comment, inpart their thoughts on certain shares, sometimes request re-ups of dead links but don't necessarily say what musick they listen to the most. With the wide variety of tuneage I share here, it's often hard to decipher.
Frenz djh62uk is one such.
I have accertained that he is another Dave, I have intuited that he is from the UK, & by his astute comments I have determined he is knowledgeable about many types of Musick. I'm just guessing that the gift I selected for him will meet his liking. If not, he may have to exchange it after the holly daze.
Neil Sparkes is mainly known as vocalist & percussionist with Transglobal UnderGround. He toured with the group from 1992 to 1996. He appears on all of TGU's albums from Nation Records & Sony. A long term commitment to synthesising his multi-media talents led to the formation of Neil Sparkes & the Last Tribe along with TGU founder Count Dubulah.
When I was at my recent lowpoint, Frenz monte walters (Doctor Art) & his wife KoreGoddess reached out to me with words of such heartfelt kindness that I was instantly lifted up from my nadir of despair. This gift in return comes from my heart & goes out to the pair. Thank you both so much. This Crazemas gift is my celebration of your freindship.
Trinity Thirty is a celebration & reinterpretation of the much beloved Cowboy Junkies classic The Trinity Session, on the occasion of the album's 30th anniversary.
The idea first began to grow when DJ & Dub-inflected minimal techno-electronica recording artist Deadbeat (Berlin-based Canadian producer Scott Monteith) heard the Cowboy Junkies' Trinity Sessions version of "Sweet Jane" playing in an airport a few years back. It reminded him just how much he had loved that album. Monteith reached out to the Junkies to ask if they had anything planned to mark the platinum winning album's 30th birthday. Even before Monteith landed in Berlin, the band had replied saying they had no such plans but would enthusiastically support whatever idea Monteith/Deadbeat might have.
Previously Monteith had some conversations with musician/producer & fellow Canadian-in-Berlin Fatima Camara about their shared love of The Trinity Session. He knew she'd be the perfect partner to involve in a reinterpretation. Camara was thrilled by the idea, & the two began meeting to explore how to approach things conceptually / aesthetically. This would be both their first collaboration as well as the first time either artist had featured their own vocals at the forefront of a project (with guest vocalist Caoimhe McAlister adding harmonies on certain tracks).
The Trinity Session is known for its naturalistic, profoundly languorous covers of classic traditional work songs like "I’m so Lonesome I Could Cry", "Mining for Gold", or "Blue Moon". It is almost legendary for having been recorded with a single microphone in single takes at Trinity Church in Toronto.
For Trinity Thirty, Deadbeat & Camara similarly recorded everything with ambient mics in a big open space relying heavily on natural room acoustics, committed to raw first takes, guided by an overriding strategy of slowing down all the tempos as far as they could while continuing to channel the warm asceticism of the original album.
Initially they imagining using a fair amount of electronic treatments during the mix, but instead Deadbeat & Camara found themselves absorbed by the space, silence, & atmospherics, guided by a spirit of preservation & restraint in further homage to the original.
Deadbeat sez:
"The result is a less electronic album than we imagined making".
It emerged as a gorgeous somnambulant collection of 'covers of covers', where the reference point is always the Cowboy Junkies original approach, stretched to new limits of deceleration & narcotized spaciousness. Clouds of textured drone & hushed vocals drift through cavernous space, where long decays gently warp, distorting the melodic vocal lines. The insistently languid percussion, anchored by thick saturated bass tones represents the most overt influence of the two creators.
Produced & recorded by Fatima Camara & Scott Monteith at the magical Studio Chez Cherie Berlin, 2016-2018. Additional vocals on tracks 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, & 11 by Caoimhe McAlister. Additional keyboards on track 6 by Ross Payzant. Mastered by Stefan Betke at Scape Mastering.
Side A -
Mining for Gold
Misguided Angel
Blue Moon Revisited (song for Elvis)
Side B -
I Don't Get it After Midnight (medley)
I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry
To Love is to Bury
Side C -
Dreaming My Dreams with You
200 Miles
Working on a Building
Side D -
Postcard Blues
Sweet Jane
Here's an additional stocking stuffer...
Frenz Mooz has his own niche on the Interweb, Moozler Music. He makes tremendous mixtapes of all varieties of musick. He knows way more about the entire vast sphere of Musick than I ever will. Another hard one to gift, but I'm really trying this year. Standing down by the winding river. Worth it for the Sabbath cover alone.
Back in April 2015 I shared The Space Negros Dig Archaeology I - 1980 - 1990 here. At some point since then I acquired both Dig II & Dig III. Decided this was a good time to share them & Mooz was the man.
These releases are on one of my all-time favorite small labels, Arf! Arf!, a Boston area label that was devoted to high-quality archival reissues of '60s Garage/Psychedelic Rock & Outsider/Incredibly Strange Music run by Erik Lindgren. Along with Erik's solo works & The Space Negros, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic; Willie Alexander; The Moving Parts; Flat Earth Society; & many more found a home here beside numerous compilations of New England area bands.
Concentration
Talk Talk
What Should We Do
Martians Have Landed
All Punked Out
Music for Saftey Ed Class
Seedy Blooze
MDMDM
Let's Go to the Moon
I Can't Talk Now
Happenings Ten Years Time Ago (revised)
Gymnopedie #3
Demolition Zone
Out to Launch
By the Winding River
Iron Man
Man to Man
Pink Noise:
Innards
Mini-Mammoths
Pop Tops
-
Flames in Trains
Untitled
Anti-Gravity
And Many Many Many More II
Murder on Mass. Ave
Well, all I can say is please don't go...
Frenz Charlie traverses similar turf as Diego, leading classes of students through the geological fields of the Sierra Mountains. He is one of the most ardent followers of Dubtembers & their ilk, commenting most every day with his thoughts regarding the offerings. Only fitting I should seek out a Dub treasure just for him.
I have shared much by the fabulous Iration Steppas, including their first two full-lengths. Decided the thing to do was gift Charlie with their less well known & more hard to find third release, here teamed up with the great Tena Stelin. It is my duty to warn anyone sharing this gift that it contains explicit, cantankerous, blackheart, unreleased Year 3000 Dubs.
