coming soon.
March 31, 2009
March 29, 2009
from the archives: alpha bmx
as is the case with a lot of stuff from the okanagan contingent that i’ve got, i was never really sure who was behind any of it unless it involved kevin rivard and/or scott august. the reason for that was that i never talked to anyone other than those two, rivard especially. so he’d just send me all the stuff on his (incredible) VEGASp label and vaguely mention who might be involved, or not. so if the liners had no info, i was screwed and am especially screwed now since i can’t really recall conversations from 12 years ago.
musically, it’s somewhere between oh i dunno… the best bands from the inland empire like refrigerator and nothing painted blue and something more uh.. math-y/post-y. i like the instrumental tracks best, though whoever is singing on this does have a sort of franklin bruno/peter hughes thing going on that is pretty good. there was a whole host of bands who had tapes on vegas (filler, delhoya, alpha bmx) that, to me, sounded an awful lot like wonderboy. none of them WERE wonderboy, but all we’re good. the thing was, though – as much as i do dig these tapes, it was always a sense of “well, i might as well just listen to wonderboy.” some kind of epic split double vinyl comp of all these guys would be welcome, though as would information on who the hell any of these bands were…
sunday housecleaning
a few programming notes here from DSQ…
the next tape should be done soonish (7-10 days) and is something i’m not involved in, but a good friend from LA with some synth scorchers. v. excited. i’ve still got about 3 (maybe 4) godseye tapes left. after that, maybe something from the archives – not sure. we’re throwing around a lot of ideas. some good oklahoma fronts coming too (alms, language of light, mass ornament). it’s a good time to be alive.
hoping to post some more bugskull and vegas rips this week. the alpha bmx has been staring at me lately, and it’s a good one… homestyle math/post rock. very good. bugskull continues to inspire. also, i finally got the lofi show ripped and just need to cut it into tracks. it’s even better than i remember (well, MSR and ramon speed. my songs kind of suck and i sound douchey, but oh well – i was 16).
i also found my copies of the first (now out-of-print i believe) azusa plane CD and also his amazing double-dip, america is dreaming of universal string theory. if anyone wants me to up those, just say the word. they’re ridiculously good and total highlights from the ambient/guitar drone era.
March 28, 2009
from the archives: neil campbell vol. 1
this is the first of two old neil campbell tapes i’ve got, both of which are pretty awesome and out there. i hadn’t actually listened to this in years until about two weeks ago, and didn’t remember what it sounding like. but what can you say? neil’s beeing doing this for a long time now, and is still on top of his game. these early documents show you that he was destined for greatness. ha.
March 27, 2009
whiskey you’re the devil: bingo trappers
this one is for all my dutch friends out there. bingo trappers were one of the best – hands down. there was a huge contingent of incredible hometapers in belgium & the netherlands. sure, there were folks everywhere doing stuff, but there seemed to be an inordinate amount in those two lowland countries. wio (now of de portables, then of studio muscle and six million bands) & i used to joke about the tulsa->brugge pipeline. we were sister cities, no doubt. my introduction to the waffle contingent was via one of the founders of toothpick (& studio muscle?), hendrik dacquin. hendrik is an awesome, awesome guy – he wrote the first ever column on foxy digitalis – and was generally just hilarious and full of knowledge (full of shit? i kid…).
anyway, bingo trappers. i first heard them because of their shrimper tape (which is great) and got in touch with waldemar noe somehow. they first appeared on our chutes & ladders compilation (see bottom of post for a bonus download of that song, “rebel’s digest”) and eventually sent me “blue carpet tiles” for whiskey you’re the devil. this is another example of bands giving incredible (INCREDIBLE!) songs for compilations. i rate both of these songs as two of their best.
so of course i have a bingo trappers story. in the summer of 97 (i think – maybe 96?), waldemar and his significant other, tinca (who ran the great luveable nurse label, who released the best of all bingo trappers albums, girliefood) came to the US to play shows and travel around. i believe they started in california, rented a car, and drove cross country. so they stopped through tulsa. i don’t think they expected me to be a mere 17 (must have been 96 then), heh – but we got along really great. they crashed at my parents’ house (obviously – where the hell else was i living?), my mom cooked a huge dinner, and everyone just hang out, had a great time. i interviewed them (one of the few in-person interviews i did) and asked waldemar about the story behind “rebel’s digest.” i wish i remembered who the song was about, but he started playing it and we did an impromptu jam (waldemer on guitar/vocals, tinca on vocals, me on tambourine – ha!) of the song. i hope i still have the tape of the interview somewhere. it was great.
a few weeks later we met up in omaha and played a show – little jupiter, bingo trappers, irving klaw trio, ramon speed, + one of conor oberst’s bands. it was a great time – tons of incredible music, just all around awesome. i emailed a bit with waldemar again six years ago when i was living in seattle and getting started with digitalis, but haven’t had any contact since. it’s a shame because they apparently continue to crank out some good tunes.
blue carpet tiles
(note the fucked- up mastering job where the ukraine song from whiskey bleeds in at the end… fucking firey bros. music, ugh. that’s a long story, but suffice to say they totally fucked the mastering job of the CD and i’m still bitter 13 years later).
March 26, 2009
from the archives: jeff fuccillo & ryan poulos
i honestly don’t know a lot about this specific tape except that i’ve played it a lot over the years. fuccillo was obviously the man behind union pole, irving klaw trio, etc. poulos played ik3 as well as his amazing solo stuff, help me. pretty sure they’re both in hochenkeit too (i know fuccillo was). weirdo electronics and god only knows what else, all whirring and spizzing in a congealed mass. in other words, awesome.
union pole was one of the most consistently good labels around, and this tape is no exception. nobody does weirdness like this these days.
March 25, 2009
mega digitalis ltd batch
seven (!!) new tapes from peter broderick, andrew coltrane, the north sea/current amnesia, pete fosco, pummeler, the old rig, & vega stereo… lots of goodies. check ‘em out HERE
if ya want to order them all, i’ve got a package deal going so just email me.
p.s. – also have the second edition of the ELM (jon from barn owl) CDR available. YEOWZ!
from the archives: bugskull “subversives in the midst”
so my love for bugskull has been well-documented on this blog, and i figure the best way to start exploring that is to go back to where it all began, and that’s subversives in the midst. i don’t know much about this tape – i don’t even remember how i first got a copy of it (as i’m pretty sure it was long sold-out by the time i discovered shrimper). my best guess is through the amazing ajax catalog (r.i.p.).
anyway, i think the story is something to the effect that sean byrne sent a tape to dennis callaci out of the blue which, obviously, blew callaci away. and thus, bugskull was born.
this isn’t my favorite bugskull release, but it’s still got some great/demented moments. a lot of really loose jams and space debris. you can certainly hear the early signs of greatness, though. you should really make an effort to track down some of their later albums – they’re all mostly still around, and all pretty damn great (snakland is obviously a personal favorite).
March 24, 2009
out of action
sorry for the lack of posts the past few days. we’ll be back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow with rips of bugskull, a jeff fuccillo/ryan poulos cassingle, + more.
March 22, 2009
the motherload!
holy crap… the dude who runs this site, luigi, got in touch today about filling in some holes in his cactus gum discography… dude knows more about my old label than i do! i’d forgot about half of these releases. and check out his discographies of other labels, too. AMAZING. major props to luigi, who i hope will become a huge asset to this ol’ blog. heh.
