01 August 2015

Ex Lion Tamer’s Friend (or the AMA Took My Baby Away)

Re-upload by request 08/04/2024
 



Daniel John Riddle is King Black Acid.

Riddle was born on a hippie commune in the 1960s. He doesn't know the exact date. He grew up in the company of rockers. His mother's boyfriend worked for the Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Santana, & the Allman Brothers. Riddle moved to Portland from San Francisco in the late 80s. He became known in the local rock scene as both a nine-year employee of the infamous rock venue Satyricon & as the bassist of the experimental industrial/noise tribal alt-rock band Hitting Birth.


all decryption codes in comments

Tracklist –
Mayberry LSDNA
Same 18
GNMI
Fire (skit)
Pharaohs, Priests, & Pimps
Earth (live)
Happy Just to be Again
Why Hates All (Planet Fuck Turn it Up)
Air (live)
Smack
Love Me
Water (live)





Hitting Birth started out playing found materials in open-mic music cabarets. In their first appearances, Riddle & David Parks adopted the shopping cart as their central instrument. Later they morphed into a crazed rhythm & scream factory. Their live shows were ecstatic wildly unpredictable events with multiple drummers, strange stage props, & above-mentioned screaming. Translating this live chaos into studio albums was a hard row.

The band has said about their attempts: "although we never were able to capture in the recording studio what we could do live…..we had fun trying."

All that being said, IMO both of these releases, the earlier on the great Tim/Kerr label & the Freest are both most worthy.

Hitting Birth – Feel the Freest, Will Records WiL3637-2CD, 1995.

Tracklist –
Metatron
David
Drive On
We Are All
Jabar
Pie
AMA
WWW
Forwards that are Backwards
The X-Sword Swallower
Blueskin
The Birth
Fever Dream

Riddle began recording music under the name King Black Acid as a high school student in the late 1980s but it wasn’t until the early 90s that Daniel found his voice in KBA. He also switched from bass to guitar as weapon of choice. King Black Acid is Riddle’s persona to channel his musical muse more than an actual band. All King Black Acid material is written by Riddle, who sings & plays guitar during live shows but who plays a variety of other instruments in his own recording studio, Mazinga Studio, where he produces the releases under the name King Black Acid.

There have been numerous iterations of KBA: the Electric Chair Band; the Womb Star Orchestra; the Starseed Transmission; the 144,000 Piece Acid Army; or the Sacred Heart. Each variation has featured guitar-fueled, effects-heavy sonic free-for-alls. They are known for ethereal, melancholy grooves with a hypnotic rock sound. My personal favorites are from the Womb Star era.

"Think Away" is GAWDHED!


Tracklist –

Some Things Must be Believed to be Seen
Headfull
Think Away



Womb Star Orchestra: Daniel Riddle - guitar & vocals; Roger Campos – guitar; Melinda DiCillo – keyboards; & Scott Adamo - drums with Joseph Trump – percussion. WSO had a different bassist on each studio recording…on Sunlit EP it is Mitch Brown & on Royal Subjects it is Steve Dorris.

Where Hitting Birth haunt a domain similar to SteelPole BathTub, King Black Acid live in the spacey, neo-psychedelic guitar-land similar to Mercury Rev.


Tracklist –

60 Cycles Numb
Grand Mal Pleasure
Call Me on the Headphones
Only Wine will Tell
Passing Through the Photon Belt
144 Thousand Member Acid Army (I, II, III)
Exit Ground Level, Pt. 1
Royal Subjects



Starseed Transmission: Daniel Riddle – guitar & vocals; Sarah Mayfield – guitar; Erick 'Star Wars' Alley & Bobek Djeyfroudi – bass; Pete Ficht – keyboards; & Scott Adamo – drums.


Tracklist –

Butterfly Bomber
Kiss the Beast
Into the Sun
School Blood
I’ve Heard You’re Still Alive
Colorado (Wherever it is You Are)
Born to Sleep
Gentle Collapse (Feels Good)



Here's also a couple bonus tracks, KBA & the Sacred Heart doing their version of Elton John's "Bennie & the Jets" live at Doug Fir in Portland 2008 & KBA covering Bowie’s "Always Crashingin the Same Car" from 2013.
 


Enjoy,
 
 
 
 

10 comments:

  1. New to me! Cheers!

    -Xtm

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here are the new decryption codes:
      Fast/Thirst
      owxcwiI4JKNb4FYMdgW9eQJE7z9jsMf1UoptsO42TbM
      Feel the Freest
      f0OpGhs5IltrxPrcP2JP2ht9TFTYM5SJsibga6fKI6s
      Sunlit
      5SbWEPsv_0-FrzWD5CKdMdT_HTCRULiIW9zWBF9VjUc
      Royal Subjects
      xkvffDHAyInJujLgWkJoUhOMpXxbg1GrEU5gsTpq1WE
      Loves a Long Song
      wFwDveyHHnbIv-L8SgdPj4lijVqdslEnXMlo7ljrGGI

      Delete
  2. I have some King Black Acid track from Epitonic days...looking forward to digging into these. .

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you for introducing me to King Black Acid - Awesome

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. After your first taste, it's hard to quit. You could be hooked for life.

      Delete
  4. The new stuff is amazing too:
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLae5R811K2CKcz7kQb8TDcbgGB1aA55VD&v=JvefZDeBKeU

    ReplyDelete
  5. could you please reup thirst of the fast three years hitting birth thank you

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. nickzazo,

      It is still working fine. Cut the code under Fast/Thirst in the first comment, select the title under the album cover, & paste code when prompted by MEGA.

      Delete
  6. not workinG? would love to hear this! could i beg for a re-up?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's no begging in blogging...there's no begging in blogging. All you gotta do is ask & if I got it. I'll re-up it. Thanks for letting me know the links were dead. Enjoy.

      Delete