...

I am horrible at prioritizing so, in no particular order:

Grails- Doomsdayer's Holiday

Real Estate- Fake Blues 7"

Pak- Guilded Lace

Amiina- Seoul

Peaking Lights- Imaginary Falcons

Valerio Cosi- Heavy Electronic Pacific Rock

Various Artists- Harmonic Series: Musical Works in Just Intonation

James Ferraro- Clear

Uke of Spaces Corners County- So Far on the Way

And a happy new year.....

Don't Be Frightened Loves

My dear friends...it is with great pleasure that I'd like to virtually wish some of the coolest people in the great land of Wrinkleboro a big badunkie dangle congrats on their recent engagement. I hope it's not poor etiquette to blog about such a local happening before consulting with the couple, but this is news that I'm super stoked about. My good friends Ellie and Mike are officially taking that proverbial trip around the kitchen table (i.e. Full House).

Here's the story I got about how this went down:

"Now, don't be frightened, loves," Mrs. Whatsit said. Her plump little body began to shimmer, to quiver, to shift. The wild colors of her clothes became muted, whitened. The pudding-bag shape stretched, lengthened, merged. And suddenly before the children was a creature more beautiful than any Meg had even imagined, and the beauty lay in far more than the outward description. Outwardly Mrs. Whatsit was surely no longer a Mrs. Whatsit. She was a marble-white body with powerful flanks, something like a horse but at the same time completely unlike a horse, for from the magnificently modeled back sprang a nobly formed torso, arms, and a head resembling a man's, but a man with a perfection of dignity and virtue, an exaltation of joy such as Meg had never before seen. No, she thought, it's not like a Greek centaur. Not in the least.

From the shoulders slowly a pair of wings unfolded, wings made of rainbows, of light upon water, of poetry.

Mike fell to his knees and clasped Ellie's Palmolive hand and spoke....

Let's show 'em some warm wrinkle love cuz they know what that stuff is. Congrats y'all!

Muzorama

Amazing 3D animation based on the artwork of French artist Jean-Philippe Masson (aka Muzo).

Muzorama from Muzorama Team on Vimeo.

Happy New Year lil buckas

[wxyc]Copy + Paste

So, I kind of stalled out at 13 -- could go further but then I'd have to start looking at other people's lists to refresh my memory on what came out this year. That would be lame. Three way tie for #1.

1. Keith Fullerton Whitman - Taking Away - This is just insanely good. No one else makes music this smart right now.
1. Peaking Lights - Imaginary Falcons - Just beautiful. Was disappointed at first because it's not as immediately gratifying as Clearvoiant, but it's all still there. PISSED I missed them @ NL
1. 3 LP Kluster set on QBICO - Oh my god what a pleasant surprise! Unreleased Kluster tracks, 6 LPs worth. Jesus. Someone buy this for me please?
4. Starving Weirdos - Into an Energy - Zone-out soundtrack of the year. Also the most well-recorded album I happened to like. Excellent headphone material.
5. Secret Boyfriend - Savage Weekend - This tape has been jamming in the boombox glued to the dashboard of my car for months now. Chest-beating noise/beautifully fucked pop songs. Killer diva-karaoke moves live.
6. Yoga - Megafauna - I wasn't crazy about that Matrix Metals CS on NNF everyone was so hyped on, but this is seriously good. Fucking bleak.
7. Russian Tsarlag - Open Casket - How can something so simple be so good? Tsarlag show @ my place was one of my favorites this year. Weirdo bedroom-folk vibes in my bedroom. What?
8. Sean Mccann - Phylum Sigh - Dude needs to slow his roll on his release schedule, but this one is really good. So are some others, I can't remember
9. Infinity Window - Artificial Midnight - I was a total sucker for synth based drone nonsense this year. This one blows most others out of the water (I'm looking at you Hyperborean Trenchtown). Also, really fun-to-look-at album art by Robert Beatty.
10. Expo '70 - White Ohms - This guy is my new Manuel Gottsching. Smoooth.
11. Savage Young Taterbug - Boys of the Feather - Daniel Johnston stylings from some Deadhead crusty-punk wanderer? Sure. Picture of some 14 year old hitting a huge bong on the insert
12. Dreamcolour - Spiritual Celebration - Hitches it's wagon to that Parson Sound eternal groove and holds on. TOTAL fucking blogspammers though. Had a hard time getting past how many last.fm messages they've sent me asking me to scope their band.
13. Analog Concept - Listen Already Today to the Music of Past! - Of course I like this.

Blogs of the year:
http://rootstrata.com/rootblog/
http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.com/ (DUH)
http://kicktokill.blogspot.com/
RIP Cassette Tape Superstar & his exceptionally low-quality MP3s
http://youandmeonajamboree.blogspot.com/

BRING IT ON 2010. NO MORE PALM TREES ON ALBUM COVERS OK? CARRBORO NOISE BISEXUALS KEEP IT REAL.

-Lloyd

Showzen Stuff

There's another upcoming show that is worth pointing out to folks in the triangle area. Cold Cave and Nite Jewel will be gracing the stage of the Local 506 on February 7th. Tickets are $8 in advance. This sounds like a night of Killer Casiotone and Roland Your Eyes. You may want to be there just to catch some of the keyboard sweat!

Tomoo's Sound

Here's what seems like a rare glimpse at Tomoo Gokita's entrée into the world of sound. I've seen this guys artwork but never knew that he was into the electronic palette before. I hope you enjoy watching these guys wiggle around on their instruments. If you don't enjoy the wiggle here, see below.




Check out this Incapacitants video. These guys are straight squirming! And noising up the sanctified outdoors...so excellent!

The Gneissest Aural Things of 09

Best of 09

"Listen to the space in the room. If you can't do something more
beautiful than that, shut the f--k up." – Bill Dixon

1. Emeralds - S/T (Gneiss Things)

2. Bill Dixon/Aaron Siegal/Ben Hall - Weight/Counterweight (Brokenresearch)

3. Neokarma Jooklo Trio - Memories from the Age of the Dragon (Qbico)

4. Outer Space - Gemini Half (Wagon)

5. Greg Kelley/Alexander Neilson - Passport to Satori (Golden Lab)

6. Red Horse - S/T (rel)

7. Masayuki Takayanagi - Archive 1 (Jinya)

8. J.D. Emmanuel - Solid Dawn (Kvist)

9. ATOM™ - Liedgut (Raster-Noton)

10. Julian Lynch - Orange You Glad (Olde English Spelling Bee)

11. Rice屎Corpse - Mrs. Rice (Dual Plover)

12. Alan Licht - YMCA (Family Vineyard)

13. Oneohtrix Point Never - Betrayed in the Octagon (No Fun)

14. Stellar Om Source - Crusader/Alliance/Ocean Woman Trilogy (self-released)

15. Leo Coomans - Basement Recordings 1978-1982 (Ultra Eczema)

16. Bill Orcutt - A New Way to Pay Old Debts (Palilalia)

17. Black to Comm - Alphabet 1968 (Type)

18. Claudio Rocchi - Suoni di Frontiera (Die Schachtel)

19. Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe - Fazo IV La Kvatlito de Speguloj (Rainbow Body)

20. Robert Beatty - Solos (What the...?)

21. Oren Ambarchi – Intermission 2000-2008 (Touch)

22. Incapacitants - Lon Guy (Harbinger)

23. Peter Kowald - Bass Solo (Qbico)

24. Various Artists - La Bamba (Ultra Eczema)

25. Various Artists - rrr1000 Lock Groove (rrr)

26. MV & EE - Road Trips: Live Road 2002-2009 (Blackest Rainbow)

27. Ata Ebtekar & The Iranian Orchestra for New Music - Performing
Works of Alireza Mashayekhi 'Ornamental' (Isounderscore)

28. Kawabata Makoto - Rainbow Of Love (Blackest Rainbow)

29. Mos Def - Ecstatic (Downtown)

30. Lawrence English - It’s Up to Us to Live (Sirr)


Honorable mentions/reissues:
• Various Artists - Institute of Sonology 1959-1969
• Charlie Nothing - The Psychedelic Saxophone of Charlie Nothing
• Mauricio Bianchi – Armageddon
• Matrix Metals – Flamingo Breeze
• Mark Lord – Blair House Nosebleed
• Mark McGuire – Tidings II
• Eliane Radigue – Triptych
• Blood Stereo – Your Snakelike King
• Hallicrafters, Inc. - 10 poke 54272+int(rnd(1)*25),int(rnd(1)*256) goto 10

• Idea Fire Company – Beauty School
• C. Spencer Yeh - Solo Voice & Electronics: Memories Of Murder/Always Been A Storm
• Oren Ambarchi – Destinationless Desire
• Chris Corsano – Another Dull Dawn
• Flower – Corsano Duo – Chocolate Cities
• Radio People – S/T

• Willie Lane - Known Quantity
• Bill Dixon – Tapestries for Small Orchestra
• Tatsuhisa Yamamoto & Muneomi Senju - A Thousand Mountains (Acoustic & Synthesized Drums and Percussions)

Here's to next year!! Please post more end-of-year lists if you feel so inclined.

Cheers!

Dang...

susan the bear posted this on Dec 07th, 2008 at 02:07:21 pm

...i admire that you bike in the winter. I do not have the balls or constitution to do this myself but appreciate that you guys do. -stb

jennastix posted this on Dec 07th, 2008 at 02:08:25 pm

Thanks! :) WE MAD!

As requested: Nightlight, Sat 02/06 Mountains (Thrill Jockey ) / Tape (Sweden)- 10 PM

Black To Comm "Hotel Freund"

Vladislav Delay "Toive"

Vladislav Delay - Toive from Leaf Label on Vimeo.

Best Of 2009

I'm reposting these as an entry because I wasn't sure if anyone saw them tucked away in the comments. I also added some movies....

-ALBUMS:
1.Martyn "Great Lengths"
2.2562 "Unbalance"
3.Cloaks "Versus Grain"
4.Demdike Stare "Symbiosis"
5.Kotchy "89"
6.Rival Consoles "IO"
7.The Caretaker "Persistent Repetition Of Phrases"
8.Disrupt "The Bass Has Left The Building"
9.Lukid "Foma"
10.Architeq "Gold + Green"

-12"s, EPs, Etc.:
1.Mount Kimbie "Maybes" & "Sketch On Glass"
2.Rustie "Bad Science"
3.Untold "Sweat/Dante" & "I Can't Stop This Feeling"
4.Jamie Vex'd "In System Travel EP"
5.James Blake "Air & Lack Thereof"
6.Darkstar "Aidy's Girl Is A Computer"
7.Otto Von Schirach "Bass Low/Bass Galactica 8"
8.Tapes "Hissing Theatricals EP"
9.Babylon System "Hyphy/Get On Up"
10.Blue Daisy "Space Ex" & "Strings Detached EP"

-DJ MIXES:
-Modeselektor "Body Language, Vol. 8"
-Jay Haze "Fabric 47"
-Magda "Fabric 49"
-DJ/Rupture & Matt Shadetek "Solar Life Raft"
-2562 "FACT Mix 81"
-Martyn "The Count's Secret Planet"
-The Gaslamp Killer "Hell & The Lake Of Fire Are Waiting For You!"

-MOVIES:
1.District 9
2.Thirst
3.Watchmen
4.Sin Nombre
5.Observe And Report
6.Moon
7.World's Greatest Dad
8.The Perfect Sleep

Here's to 2010 homies

Best Music of '09

So here is my list after much wringing of hands and head scratching, in the end there were only three requirements, I had to own a physical copy of it, it had to have moved me over the course of the year and still could.


TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2009

1. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - Phoenix
2. High Times - Washed Out
3. Rice Boy Sleeps - Jonsi and Alex
4. The XX - The XX
5. Merriweather Post Pavilion - Animal Collective
6. Miike Snow - Miike Snow
7. Phil Cook and his Feat - Phil Cook
8. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
9. Love is Not Pop - El Perro del Mar
10.Dark was the Night - Various

TOP 10 TRACKS OF 2009

1. My Girls - Animal Collective
2. Listzomania - Phoenix
3. Boy 1904 - Jonsi and Alex
4. Tightrope - Yeasayer
5. Animal - Miike Snow
6. Feel it all Around - Washed Out
7. Moth - Burial / Four Tet
8. Just Like Today - Phil Cook
9. Change of Heart - El Perro del Mar
10.Plain Material - Memory Tapes

TOP 10 Remixes OF 2009

1. My Girls (Hatchmatik Disco bootleg) - Animal Collective
2. Animal (Treasure Fingers) - Miike Snow
3. Two Weeks Of Hip Hop (Dead Prez vs Grizzly Bear) - Hood Internet
4. Psychic City (Classixx Remix) - Yacht
5. 1901 (Immuzikation Remix) - Phoenix
6. Love Cry (Joy Orbison Remix) - Four tet
7. Ambling Alp (Memory Tapes remix) - Yeasayer
8. Kids (Feat. MGMT) - Chiddy Bang
9. You've Got The Love (XX remix) - Florence + The Machine
10.Little Dreamer (Jones Remix) [ft. Victoria Legrand] - Future Islands

Fun times!

I hope everybody has this much fun for the holidays:



Who wants ice cream in bed?

PermaFLOW Never-Clog Drain

See-through "never clog" sink drain

The $20 PermaFLOW Never-Clog Drain seems like a good idea!

"With its innovative, self-cleaning design and integrated wiper that removes blockage, PermaFLOW eliminates the need for chemical drain cleaners, plungers, and expensive pipe repairs. This smart alternative to traditional P-traps installs in a snap and even allows for easy retrieval of accidentally lost jewelry and other items."

Amazon has videos of it in action.

Ilog

Last post for today...this is a clip of the iLog test for a model made specifically for Philip Jeck:



More sound samples found here.

New Vicki Bennett (People Like Us) Genre Collage set

Sweet video

New Vicki Bennett (People Like Us) Genre Collage set

Faves of 2009

Hey everyone....all 4 of you. If at all interested, please feel free to post a list of your year end favorites. This can be related to music, movies, books, shows, sexual experiences....anything is fair game. I'll be posting my top albums of the year in the coming weeks but, in the meantime, please contribute anything that you think was awesome about 2009. Forget the naysayers. Don't be shy, step right up!

If you need some motivation, here's a sweet year end list from Susanna Bolles of Dusted magazine.

http://www.dustedmagazine.com/features/865

ROCK AND SHOP

Hey y'all. My friend Michelle has curated the 10th Rock and Shop Market that will be held in Raleigh on Saturday, December 19th. I've been to a few of these and they are always interesting, with good beer and good merchandise. You can get really buzzed and buy a bunch of stuff.

THE 10TH ROCK & SHOP MARKET!
Saturday December 19 - 1-5pm - All Saints Chapel, Downtown Raleigh, Only $3

The Rock & Shop Market is an indoor shopping, music & fashion event spotlighting emerging local bands and designers selling their wares.
This market features a well-curated selection of over 65 up-and-coming local and national designers selling modern handmade goods: hand-sewn fashions, silk-screened apparel & pillows, soap, belt buckles, jewelry and more with live performances by Schooner, Starmount and DJ Melissa York. Food & beer provided by Only Burger and Aviator Brewing Co.

I think I read somewhere that there will be more merchandise for guys at this event than there has been at previous events. Also, the fashion show last time was pretty good, which featured one girl wearing a dress made out of yellow caution tape. I think WXYC's own Ethan Clauset has actually DJed this event in the past. C'mon out and hear some good music and meet some good people while supporting your local design/craft scene, especially if you still have some gifts to scoop up. Here's a link for more info:

http://www.rockandshopmarket.com/

Jack Rose RIP

Fellow music lovers...

It's with a heavy heart that I relay the message that the warm guitar giant Jack Rose died on December 5th at the age of 38 of a heart attack. Although I didn't follow Rose's early work, he was a founding member of the influential guitar drone band Pelt and for the last 10 years had also focused his talents on his solo acoustic guitar playing. His guitar style was informed by traditional ragtime, blues, country, and 1920s jazz… even some Indian classical music. He played everything from a six-string to a 12-string and various lap steel guitars. He has released several solo acoustic guitar releases that illustrate his intimate fingerpicking. My favorites of these are his Kensington Blues album on VHF and his untitled album that was released on Archive in 2006 (and later re-released in LP format on Tequila Sunrise). Jack was simply a guitar extraordinaire and his shoes simply cannot be filled.

From ProgArchives:

"Jack Rose is a talented American blues rock guitarist which in parallel of his solo albums has released several items for an experimental, minimalist eastern tinged raga inspired project named Pelt. In this production, the acoustic, folk side of his musical background is orientated to unconventional, highly mystical experiences released with the help of traditional instruments as acoustic modal guitar, bowed strings, cello, bowed metal and addition of amplified sounds. In this adventure, Jack Rose is accompanied by three others musicians whose Mike Gangloss, Pat Best and Skipp James Connell. The quartet explores the universe of suspended "drones", the meditative density of eastern classical music and post rock. They provide a rather luminous, static and cinematic extended exploration throw infinite time. Pelt has published their first "classic" double album in 1996, called "Brown Cyclopedia". After that they have recorded the free form Burning/Filament/Rockets in 1996, then "Max Meadows", recognised for its great sense of diversity (a mix of Eastern raga, psychedelic rock and "world"). "Empty Bell Ringing In The Sky" marks their most psychedelic effort with freak out epic tunes. "Ayahuasca" ( 2001) is dedicated to the acoustic guitarist John Fahey. It features fingerstyle over ecstatic raga accompaniments. Published in 2003, "Pearls from the River" is an other exploration throw acoustic folk, monochord & calming raga sonorities."

From Pitchfork:

"Rose was a versatile player with an experimental bent, known for his work both with his group Pelt and as a solo artist. Following in the footsteps of left-field steel string guitar pioneers like John Fahey and Robbie Basho, Rose incorporated elements of drone, ragtime, folk, blues, and Eastern classical into his playing. He was featured on the landmark Golden Apples of the Sun, the Devendra Banhart-curated 2004 compilation that served as a high-water mark for freak-folk. Rose released albums on such labels as Three Lobed and VHF. He had recently signed to Thrill Jockey, who are set to release his tenth solo album, Luck in the Valley, on February 23, 2010."

Here's a video clip of one of Jack's solo ventures taken from his 2006 untitled album on the Archive label, featuring his slide guitar stylings:




R.I.P. Jack Rose (1971-2009)

Local Record Fair

The first ever WXYC Record Fair will be held at the Nightlight on Rosemary St in Chapel Hill this Sunday (December 6th) from 11am-5pm. This event is free (though we will gladly take donations if you feel so inclined) - so come on out to show your support for WXYC and snatch up some great music. There will be vendors coming in from all over the state with some great records at reasonable prices. WXYC will also be present and selling supercool 'xyc gear that makes for great holiday-time gifts (sense the satisfaction from thou model shown above). Good music, good people, and the bar opens at Noon! What more could you want out of a Sunday afternoon?

rivers and tides

From "Envisioning Information," by Edward Tufte
a good christmas gift for anyone who has an interest in information organization and/or graphic design.

Latest

Hey, my last post for the evening...but this new LP by Bill Dixon, Aaron Siegel & Ben Hall entitled "Weight • Counterweight gives me a full erection. A spooky erection indeed. Here's a short review from mimaroglu:

documenting a meeting between venerable improviser bill dixon, composer/percussionist aaron siegel, and graveyards / mêlée / brokenresearch’s ben “hell” hall, this quartet of improvisations is a veritable master class on timbral synergy ... esp. with dixon playing the only “melody instrument” (largely a-melodic, natch, focusing on tube-resonances & assorted breath/mouth/air pressure fluctuations) alongside the jazz, classical, and extended technique-laced percussion vocabularies of siegel & hall ...

A sound clip available here:
http://www.mimaroglumusicsales.com/labels/brokenresearch.html

Off to the bouffant...

Roman Signer

Yet another excellent clip from Signer's Suitcase...I've got to pick this DVD up. Can anybody vouch for this as being a completely necessary purchase?



Peas!

Oh, and now these nutty-ass candy cane Joe-Joe's are beckoning...if you'll Excusez-Moi!

Gristleism

I had to post something about this new Buddha box...the Gristleism...featuring 13 loops from Throbbing Gristle that can surely be tampered with. Check out this video:



Also, for more info, point your clicking little finger here:
http://www.gristleism.com/content/details.html

Anyone out there? Please speak up or I'm gonna have to start inviting more seagulls to this trash heap!