Space travel is fun...!

And we're traveling all over the place this month, which should explain my tardiness in posting this installment. I briefly touched down on terra firma for summer vacation the last couple weeks, ports o' call within my orbit from San Diego to Portland, but I'm back in the satellite now with a set of the heavy, the majestic and the obscure, just for you.

Attention metalheads! The first meaty chunk of this set is for you! If you're not so metallic don't let that frighten you off - this is only the most progressive of modern day post-metal, from Harvey Milk, Torche, Helms Alee and Oceansize. The once-defunct but recently regrouped Athens GA trio Harvey Milk bring the heavy to closeted metal lovers in the oft-effeminate indie scene. Torche, who I saw on a bill with Red Sparrowes and Isis (two bands that would fit perfectly in this set, but time doesn't permit), bring a surprising melodiousness to their manic punk-metal hybrid. Helms Alee came to me through the impeccable taste of my cohort Sully, who caught the Seattle three-piece at their recent stop at Petaluma's illustrious Phoenix Theater. Oceansize is a band I struggle with pigeon-holing, because despite hailing from Madchester UK, their drift and crunch conjurs not only their namesakes Jane's Addiction, but everything from Radiohead to Tool to vintage grunge circa Alice In Chains. Confusing? But not necessarily a bad thing.

We then transition to a proggier segment with the vintage keyboard saturated space travels of Zombi, the spaciest track from the stellar new Tortoise album, some shoegazin' bliss from Ulrich Schnauss, a motorik-inspired selection from the Phantom Band, and a Phil Spector worshiping slice of melodrama from Pink Mountaintops (side project of Black Mountain stalwarts Stephen McBean and Amber Webber).

Then it's time for a couple left-field departures, where Japan's Mono bring postrock ever nearer to neoclassical proportions on their latest release, and Australia's Necks launch jazz instrumentation into Space 1990. That's when things get really weird: Black Eyes are not for everyone, and can be just as painful as their namesake to those unaccustomed to the abrasive textures where ART meets NOISE. But fear not, after the band broke up their helium-voiced singer formed a new band Mi Ami that melded the sandpaper skronk of his previous outfit to mind-melting echo chamber dub! And as icing on the noise cake, three epics of endurance: one from the enigmatic Majik Markers, one from the latest installment of the saga that is Sonic Youth, and a lengthy closer from Kiwi atonalist Birchville Cat Motel a man who straddles the line between aural and textural as well as anyone in the history of spacerock.

I hope this reaches you in time to annoy the neighbors at your Independence Day BBQ and ignite fireworks in your brain. Happy Birthday America! May your current trajectory carry us like a comet, arcing ever higher and never crashing to earth!

The following tracks should appear in the player below:

Death Goes To The Winner - Harvey Milk - Life... The Best Game In Town
Amnesian - Torche - Meanderthal
A New Roll - Helms Alee - Night Terror
Catalyst - Oceansize - Effloresce
Earthly Powers - Zombi - Spirit Animal
High Class Slim Came Floatin' In - Tortoise - Beacons Of Ancestorship
On My Own - Ulrich Schnauss - A Strangely Isolated Place
Throwing Bones - Phantom Band - Checkmate Savage
Axis: Thrones Of Love - Pink Mountaintops - Outside Love
Battle To Heaven - Mono - Hymn To The Immortal Wind
Next - The Necks - Next
Yes, I Confess - Black Eyes - s/t
Echonoecho - Mi Ami - Watersports
Axis Mundi - Majik Markers - Boss
Antenna - Sonic Youth - The Eternal
Chi Vampires - Birchville Cat Motel - Chi Vampires

June Gloom?

Got politics? What a clusterfuck this world is in! Ah, nevermind... the weather's great up here on the satellite, let's forget about petty human affairs and blast off into SPACE!

We start this month's installment with some seriocomic glam/prog entries from the Crazy World of notorious British eccentric Arthur Brown (circa 1968) and a tongue-in-cheek slice of "social commentary" from vintage Roxy Music ('73), winding out with THE all-time space-glam epic from our beloved spaceman Ziggy Stardust ('72) and a classic from little-known but highly influential analog synth oddballs the Silver Apples ('68). Our progression shifts to quasi-shoegaze with San Francisco's Halcyon High (a one-man psych-guitar extravaganza), and Chicago's notoriously "difficult" Labradford proudly wearing their influences on one of their most linear and accessible tracks.

From there it's a decidedly motorik affair with Swedish retro-futurists The Low Frequency In Stereo, the UK's The Horrors (suddenly dropping their Cramps/Birthday Party goth tendencies in favor of smooth krautrock for their second album), and San Francisco's Wooden Shjips from their fine second full-length release. Splintering off from that realm, the Phantom Band shows the motorik/instrumental side of their Beta Band/Super Furry Animals-style psych-pop which leads us to some acid-soaked Americana from Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound, from their long-lost first album (look next month for a track from their just-released third album, a contender for best of the year!), MV & EE, The Tower Recordings, Dead Meadow and Comets On Fire. Aussies The Dirty Three then uplift us from the morass with an upbeat instrumental love-ditty composed of guitars, violins and... bagpipes?!?!?

Finishing this set on an up note, musical breathren Oneida and Pterodactyl drop some spaz-prog science, Fridge put the chill on post-rock and Unwound take their moniker to heart. All in a day's work, folks... enjoy!

The following tracks should appear in the player below:

Prelude/Nightmare - Arthur Brown - The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
In Every Dream Home A Heartache - Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
Moonage Daydream - David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
Oscillations - Silver Apples - s/t
Close Your Eyes And See The Light - Halcyon High - Live on KDVS
Soft Return - Labraford - Prazision
Solar System - The Low Frequency In Stereo - Futuro
Sea Within A Sea - The Horrors - Primary Colours
Down By The Sea - Wooden Shjips - Dos
Crocodile - Phantom Band - Checkmate Savage
Creeping Spirits & Talkonaut - Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound - s/t
Canned Happiness - MV & EE - Green Blues
Other Kinds Run - The Tower Recordings - The Galaxies' Incredibly Sensual Transmission Field Of The Tower Recordings
One And Old - Dead Meadow - Howls From The Hills
Brotherhood Of The Harvest - Comets On Fire - Blue Cathedral
Doris - Dirty Three - Cinder
Up With People - Oneida - Happy New Year
Share The Shade - Pterodactyl - Worldwild
Astrozero - Fridge - Early Output 1996-1998
Side Effects Of Being Tired - Unwound - Challenge For A Civilized Society

May Day!!! May Day!!!

Happy Beltane!!! That's all I got by way of topical or witty banter this month. Let's cut to the chase, shall we?

We start slow with some stream-of-consciousness motorik from Psychic Ills, whose great new album has a more improvised-in-the-studio feel, and Wooden Shjips from their debut album (I'll be back next month with a track from their brand new one!). Then an oddball track from Mercury Rev's new one, a free download on their website, which is entirely instrumental! Just as you're drifting off you'll be startled out of your reverie by a blistering track from the incredilbe new Trail of Dead album, their best in a long line of great albums and a true return to form (thanks to Kevin at Pandora Studios for the invitation to a private Trail of Dead taping - that was AWESOME!). We move on into a set of some proggy polyrhythmic pandemonium from our beloved Animal Collective (new one's brilliant!), Marnie Stern (last track from her for a while, I swear!), and Lucky Dragons (file under WTF?!?!?). Then we have some Chicago-school jazz-prog from Pit Er Pat (sounding alot like Pram, who I've been playing a lot of lately) and some full-on space-kraut from Japan's Rovo (always amazing).

Then, as I am wont to do, we drop shear off the cliff into oblivion, with Birchville Cat Motel, a one-man experimental "outfit" from New Zealand, lo-fi San Diego noisemonger Wavves, also a one man band, and a meandering krautrockin' track from late-great San Francisco absurdists Chum Frink (hi Derek!). Speaking of absurd, if I wasn't familiar with the individual members' pedigrees (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Le Fly Pan Am... basically a who's who of the Montreal post-rock scene) I wouldn't know what to make of the next band, Pas Chic Chic, but suffice it to say their "trippy Francophone pop" is meant to be both tongue-in-cheek AND spacerockin'.

And I daresay the remainder of the set is a collection of the most linear stuff I've ever compiled on the Spacerock Continuum (barring the more free-form January best-of editions): Crystal Stilts' surfin-'in-Motown psychedelia, Sian Alice Group's PJ Harvey-esque minimalist post-rock, the Cocteau Twins-esque retro-futurist leanings of School of Seven Bells (featuring an ex-Secret Machines guitarist and the two lovely sisters from On! Air! Library!), a vintage shoegazing classic from Slowdive, the aforementioned Secret Machines whose third album, from which this track is taken, is not as bad as their miserable second but not as good as their stellar debut, and one of the greatest tracks from the sorely-overlooked and long-defunct Chameleons (UK), circa 1985. Of course I have to leave you with a mind-melting show closer, so in this case prepare to be utterly transported by Germany's Daturah (fittingly named after the traditional name for the powerful hallucinogen jimson weed). Work for you? It did for me...

The following tracks should appear in the player below:

Mantis - Psychic Ills - Mirror Eye
We Ask You To Ride - Wooden Shjips - s/t
Because Because Because - Mercury Rev - Strange Attractors
Far Pavilions - ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - The Century Of Self
Lion In A Coma - Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Grapefruit - Marnie Stern - In Advance Of The Broken Arm
Givers - Lucky Dragons - Dream Island Laughing Language
I Am The Jungle - Pit Er Pat - Emergency
Cisko - Rovo - Tonic 2001
Damn Infinity Hair Tie - Birchville Cat Motel - Four Freckle Constellation
Sun Opens My Eyes - Wavves - Wavvves
Palimony - Chum Frink - EP
Vous Comprenez Pourquoi - Pas Chic Chic - Au Contraire
The Dazzled - Crystal Stilts - Alight Of Night
Way Down To Heaven - Sian Alice Group - 59.59
Sempiternal Amaranth - School Of Seven Bells - Alpinisms
Morningrise - Slowdive - Catch The Breeze
Have I Run Out? - Secret Machines - s/t (third)
In Shreds - The Chameleons - What Does Anything Mean, Basically?
Ghost Track - Daturah - Reverie



And how's about a bonus video? One for Mogwai's biggest mindfuck ever? Well, okay then:


Mogwai - Mogwai Fear Satan from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Is there spring in space?

Okay we're back to the random spacerock this month after a couple exhausting lessons in experimental rock history... no theme this time, no focus, no plot, just a cluster of stars that spun itself off into yet another galaxy in the Spacerock Multiverse! We begin with a bit of epic ridiculosity from the ever-reliable Germans, the lost-to-obscurity Agitation Free and the freak commune known as Amon Duul II (vintage krautrock can always be depended on for some kitsch psychedelia and in these two tracks our intrepid Teutonic explorers head to Eastern outposts), and then off into some Gabriel-era Genesis, who unfortunately are not actually intending to be tongue-in-cheek here, but are still notable in this context. We then delve into some polyrhythmic pandemonium from the early 80s (23 Skidoo) and just last year (Mahjongg), and then transport to some acid-fried Americana from Tobacco (also from last year, spun off from Black Moth Super Rainbow) Religious Knives (also last year), The Gun Club, Green On Red and Red Temple Spirits (all three are originators from the 80s and as such these recordings are poorly mastered, so turn 'em WAY up, especially the Gun Club!). Then we settle into an extended passage through some pastoral psych/folk weirdness, beginning with a track from Black Mountain to commemorate their recent passage through the Bay Area to which I was lucky enough to bear witness - mind blown? check! - culminating in the new single from the almighty Circle's latest album... with vocals in English even (courtesy of one Bruce Duff, former singer for the Jesters of Destiny, an obscure and long-defunct LA prog-metal also-ran)! Will wonders never cease? In there we hear from the very enigmatic Jane, the very French Benoît Pioulard, a pair of tracks from Ulann Khol and Hala Strana, who are basically the same person (Steven Smith from San Francisco's Thuja), a solo guitar workout (in keeping with the two previous tracks) from Charalambides, minus the usual soaring vocals of Christina Carter, and a couple of tasty morsels from freak-folksters Wooden Wand and Akron/Family. Last but not least: settle deep into yer oooohhhhmmm... with the indescribable sounds of the man known as Lichens.

The following tracks should appear in the player below:

Malesch - Agitation Free - Malesch
Deutsch Nepal - Amon Düül II - Wolf City
Riding The Scree - Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
The Gospel Comes To New Guinea - 23 Skidoo - The Gospel Comes To New Guinea
Rise Rice - Mahjongg - Kontpab
Backwoods Altar - Tobacco - Fucked Up Friends
Downstairs - Religious Knives - The Door
Walking With The Beast - The Gun Club - The Las Vegas Story
Narcolepsy - Green On Red - Gravity Talks
Exorcism / Waiting for The Sun - Red Temple Spirits - Dancing To Restore An Eclipsed Moon
Bastards of Light - Black Mountain - In The Future
Berserker - Jane - Berserker
Ragged Tint - Benoît Pioulard - Temper
Untitled 1 - Ulaan Khol - II
Wood Scree - Hala Strana - These Villages
Pasé el Agora - Charalambides - Our Bed Is Green
I Am the One I Am And He is the Caretaker of My Heart - Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice - Buck Dharma
Raising The Sparks - Akron/Family - Akron/Family & Angels Of Light
Connection - Circle - Hollywood
M St R Ng W Tchcr Ft L V Ng N Sp R T - Lichens - Omns

More Legacies and Influences

Okay class, this is another history lesson like last month. Pipe down, pipe down... it's for your own good. A little education goes a long way into understanding space rock. Specifically, the experiMENTAL side of rock music. It's basically what happens when you remove the blues influence and start incorporating esoteric ideas like, dissonance, drone, undertones, overtones, just intonation, atonality, microtonality, harmonics, xenharmonics and a whole lotta other concepts with fancy names that aren't really necessary to for you to know. You'll understand this music when you hear it... you'll KNOW it because you hear it all the time. This kind of music is more in tune with the natural rhythms and melodies of your body's own chemistry than any western blues-derived motif could ever be. It's the music of the cosmos!

Before this begins to sound dry, just listen to the tracks. We start with a relatively rockist number from Rhys Chatham, who has composed songs (or movements) for up to 400 electric guitars, all tuned slightly differently, and created a number of sprawling pieces like this one back in the 70's and 80's. He and his contemporary Glenn Branca, another multi-guitar proponent and "symphony" composer, begat Sonic Youth who incorporated a little punk rock and attitude into the mix, with screwdrivers jammed under the strings of their guitars, unorthodox tunings and a complete lack of cymbals on the drum kit. They're represented here with an aptly-named track from their seminal 1988 classic. The more formal side of this ethos is demonstrated by Steve Reich and Terry Riley, who really are more modern classical composers but have heavily influenced experimental rockers like Stereolab, Spacemen 3 and Brian Eno, whose collaboration with treated guitarist Robert Fripp (from King Crimson) is one the most quintessential non-rocking "rock" experiments of all time. I've thrown in some lesser-known devotees like French-Canadian sonic pranksters Le Fly Pan Am who add the element of recording manipulation (yes those little glitches are intentional), the godfathers of motorik Neu! (who in turn influenced Stereolab), fretboard sorceress Marnie Stern whose own downtown NYC milieu has strong ties to the legacy of their forebears (Branca, Chatham, Sonic Youth et al.), Texas psych duo Charalambides (just guitar and voice) and enigmatic whatchamacallits Glissandro 70 (delayed guitar and electronics). Confused? Just sit back and LISTEN...

The following tracks should appear in the player below:

Die Donnergötter - Rhys Chatham - An Angel Moves Too Fast To See
The Sprawl - Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Swimming Pool - Charalambides - Glowing Raw
Partially Sabotaged Distraction Partiellement Sabotée - Le Fly Pan Am - Ceux Qui Inventent N'ont Jamais Vécu
Electric Counterpoint 1 - Steve Reich - Electric Counterpoint
Something - Glissandro 70 - s/t
Shea Stadium - Marnie Stern - This Is It And I Am It And You Are It And So Is That And He Is It And She Is It And It Is It And That Is That
Hallogallo - Neu! - s/t
Analogue Rock - Stereolab - Transient Random Noise Bursts With Announcements
A Rainbow In Curved Air - Terry Riley - A Rainbow In Curved Air
Swastika Girls II - Brian Eno & Robert Fripp - No Pussyfooting
Second Movement (The Horror) - Glenn Branca - Symphony #10
Ecstasy In Slow Motion - Spacemen 3 - Dreamweapon

By the way, I recently felt the need for a little terra firma (it gets lonely up here in the spacerock station) so I beamed myself down to earth, Petaluma specifically, and this is what I saw:

The Classics, Their Legacies & Beyond!

Okay, back to the Space Rock! This one's about EVOLUTION: the evolutionary transitions bands make and the influence they have on other areas of musical evolution. Starting with the modern hipster shoegaze of the Dandy Warhols and the post-krautrocking haze of Psychic Ills, to vintage Loop, sounding like a sum of their influences from Spacemen 3 on down to J&MC, then a track from Main, the stripped-down project into which Loop devolved. Then it's personal fave Grails (Hey Emil!), sounding so much like mid-period Floyd that, well, I just had to back them up with mid-period Floyd, from their stellar soundtrack to the obscure French film 'The Valley (Obscured by Clouds)' that is so freekin' awesome that it stands on its own as one of their greatest albums, albeit one most people haven't heard.

Then we venture deep into the realm of the near-kitsch, the almost-but-not-really tongue-in-cheek world of vintage PROG, and, dare I say, Classic Schlock, with Queen, Hawkwind, BOC, King Crimson and... The James Gang!!! Yes, that's Joe Walsh's first band - remember "Funk #49"?!?!? This track slays, with a dubby Noel Redding-style bassline and spacey delayed slide guitar of a David Gilmour bent. But I'm not spoofing when I say I dearly love all of these bands (especially Queen, whose early material is ridiculously underrated). However, I draw the line at Yes or Rush, so don't even ask. Ech...

Then it gets... WEIRD. From the atonal avant rock of the Velvet underground, to vintage (and very, VERY obscure) Eno, to modern practitioners of WTF?!?!?-rock like Health and Shit & Shine. Then we delve deep into epic, cinematic post rock with Germany's Daturah, and finish up with pure STONED improv from O.G. "Philladelic" maestros Bardo Pond. I "highly" recommend some sort of mood-altering substance for this, one of my most hardcore mindfuck sets, even just a small afternoon or late night toke or two...? You've got two hours... what you do with them is up to YOU.

The following tracks should appear in the player below:

Nietzche - The Dandy Warhols - 13 Tales from Urban Bohemia
I Knew My Name - Psychic Ills - Dins
Straight to Your Heart - Loop - Wold Flow (The Peel Sessions)
Flame Tracer - Main - Hydra-Calm
Acid Rain - Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday
Mudmen - Pink Floyd - Obscured By Clouds
The Bomber - The James Gang - Rides Again
Psychedelic Warlords - Hawkwind - Psychedelic Warlords
7 Screaming Diz-Busters - Blue Oyster Cult - Tyranny and Mutation
21st Century Schizoid Man - King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
European Son - The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico
Juju Space Jazz - Brian Eno - My Squelchy Life
Triceratops - Health - s/t
The Germans Call it A Swimming Head - Shit and Shine - Kuss Mich, Meine Liebe
Shoal - Daturah - s/t
Lomand - Bardo Pond - Selections Vol. 1-4

2008...

...could be looked back on as the Crystal Year, because it was the year we saw fabulous debuts from the Crystal bands: the abrasive underground techno-punk of Crystal Castles, the Phil Spector does kraut-damaged surf-rock of Crystal Stilts, and the ballistic acid-fried proto-psych of Crystal Antlers. However, despite the tastiness of all three acts, only the latter made it into my playlist of the best music of 2008. It was also crystalline in its clarity last year that THINGS MUST CHANGE. Otherwise I'm leavin' this dirtball planet BEHIND, and headed for SPACE! Join me?

This New Year's installment features songs from the very best releases of 2008, and as usual it's the least spacerock, per se, of any set. The motto is, after all, "not ALL spacerock, and not all the time". That said, it's got loads of heavy-deavy, freaky-deaky material for those connoisseurs of such, as well as some diverse and even poppy tracks from fairly well-known and plenty of lesser-known artists. Also, bein' a little less spacerock results in less-lengthy songs so you've got, count 'em, 27 of 'em!

First, a video from THE band of the year:



A snapshot of 2008: we start with Indian Jewelry, of course - their neoprimitive agit-prop shoegaze absolutely SLAYS me. TV On The Radio can seemingly do no wrong, and this album's their most soulful, if least spacey. Icelandic eccentric Mugison continues to refine his unabashed Bolan/Lennon worship. Two "sunny" songs, one from Glasgow's mighty postrockers Mogwai with their best release in a decade and one from Long Beach's acid-punkers Crystal Antlers from their eponymous debut EP (can't wait for a full-length!). Boris put out their most accessible album yet (relatively speaking) with two very different versions in Japan and the US, but both seriously RAWK! LA's prog-punk duo No Age continue to amaze while the Raveonettes offer more of their exquisite gauzy Phil Spector meets Jesus & Mary Chain ditties. The Dears were more concise, hard-edged, and slightly less melodramatic than usual, and Beck (?!?!?) was pretty much par for the course, great-sounding and fun yet slight, but this track's kinda psychedelic - me likey. Deerhunter put out their most cohesive effort yet while Portishead made a comeback bar none - their best record EVER, and one of the top ten albums of the year. M83 sweetened up their analog synth excursions with a nostalgic wistfulness, while Au captured the ecstatic joy of their live collaborative chant-a-longs. Abe Vigoda, Gang Gang Dance and Marnie Stern shared New York City's current obsession with African polyrhythms (and phenomenal guitar playing), while Collections of Colonies of Bees brought transcendence to elaborate and oblique postjazz/rock. Black Mountain return with a fresh-cut slab of their monolithic psych, and White Hills appear with a squall of frenzied acid-kraut, Ulann Khol take us on a fuzzed-out journey through the soul and The Black Angels into a psilocybic pit of hell. Jucifer managed to make a 21-song tribute to Marie Antoinette rock by careening from hardcore punk to sludge metal to acid-tinged balladry, and Nick Cave proved his continued relevance with a textured and varied work worthy of all his past output with elements of both his Birthday Party and Grinderman forays into artpunk angst. Sun City Girls returned with another installment of their spazz-rocking "ethno-forgeries" (to paraphrase Can), their best since Torch of the Mystics, probably because it contains outtakes from those very sessions, the prolific Grails put out two amazing albums and this track is from their very best yet, and Fuck Buttons manage to make utter noise seem beautiful, a catharsis for bright new year. ENJOY!

The following tracks should appear in the player below:

Swans - Indian Jewelry - Free Gold!
Halfway Home - TV on the Radio - Dear Science
Mugiboogie - Mugison - Mugiboogie
The Sun Smells Too Loud - Mogwai - The Hawk Is Howling
Until the Sun Dies - Crystal Antlers - s/t ep
Buzz-In - Boris - Smile (Japanese Version)
Cappo - No Age - Nouns
Hallucinations - The Raveonettes - Lust, Lust, Lust
Disclaimer - The Dears - Missiles
Chemtrails - Beck - Modern Guilt
Nothing Ever Happened - Deerhunter - Microcastle
Silence - Portishead - Third
Highway of Endless Dreams - M83 - Saturdays = Youth
Are Animals - Au - Verbs
Skeleton - Abe Vigoda - Skeleton
First Communion - Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna
Transformer - Marnie Stern - This Is It And I Am It And You Are It And So Is That And He Is It And She Is It And It Is It And That Is That
Flocks I - Collections of Colonies of Bees - Birds
Stormy High - Black Mountain - In The Future
Radiate - White Hills - Heads on Fire
Track 7 - Ulaan Khol - 1
Doves - The Black Angels - Directions to See a Ghost
L'Autrichienne - Jucifer - L'Autrichienne
We Call upon the Author - Nick Cave - Dig Lazarus Dig!
Souvenirs from Jangare - Sun City Girls - You're Never Alone with a Cigarette
Predestination Blues - Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday
Bright Tomorrow - Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing