take 3

I don't know if anyone is still out there, but if you are, hi! thanks for sticking around! as is the way of things, this blog has been on the wane for the past couple years, but I believe now is as good a time as any to remedy that. as before, I'll hopefully be posting music related things on here over the next while. not a lot has changed in the past two years. I still write for dusted, though I've moved to north carolina and my radio allegiance has switched from WPRB to WXDU. I'll hopefully start posting playlists for my show, a bit stranger, wednesdays from 4-6pm, here at some point. so yeah. that's all for now. more to come soon. I promise. 
¶ 1:21 AM 1 comments

Carla Bozulich

Tonight I had the privilege of seeing Carla Bozulich live in concert. And while I don't have time right now to post my full thoughts on the matter, I will say that it was one of the most intense live music experiences I've ever had. Nothing was held back; it was raw emotion made into music, something I'm gonna call "limnal ecstatic" music, being the overeducated music dork that I am. I'll flesh out the idea more in a later post, but for now I'll say that other limnal ecstatic artists include Scott Walker and Diamanda Galas and probably more to be determined with a less tired mind. 
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New Reviews

Had a pair of new things in Dusted this week: Mammatus and Matmos. The fact that their names have essentially the same letters is a mere coincidence. 
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A Bit Stranger Playlist 6/2/06

This show aired Friday, June 2 from 1-4pm on WPRB

New-Request-Compilation-Artist-Song-Album-Label-Comment

Background: Glenn Branca - The Ascension - 99

Caetano Veloso-Irene-Caetano Veloso (1969)-Philips-recorded while caetano was in jail

Josephine Foster and the Supposed-Well Heeled Man-All the Leaves Are Gone-Locust
Oneida-Distress/Happy New Year-Happy New Year-Jagjaguwar
The Mekons-Teeth-2x7"-Virgin
N-Mission of Burma-Man in Decline-The Obliterati-Matador
N-Karate Party-Three-Four-Black Helicopter-S-S
Matmos-Solo Buttons for Joe Meek-The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of the Beast-Matador-feat the kronos quartet

David Thomas and the Pedestrians-Hurry Back-Variations on a Theme-not the version I wanted to play. boo
Tarkus-Tema Para Lilus-s/t-amazing 70s peruvian hard rock
N-C-Soul President-Got to Have It-Eccentric Soul: The Big Mack Label-Numero
Danielson-Bloodbook on the Half Shell-Ships-Secretly Canadian
N-C-The Del-Byzanteens (with Jim Jarmusch)-My Hands Are Yellow (From the Job that I Do)-New York Noise 2-Soul Jazz
N-Eleventh Dream Day-Lately I've Been Thinking-Zeroes and Ones-Thrill Jockey-a more solid rock album I have yet to hear this year
Six Organs of Admittance-Black Wall-The Sun Awakens-Drag City

The Keepers-In the Meantime-In the Meantime-Hyped2Death
N-Moondog-Bumbo-The Viking of Sixth Avenue-Honest Jons
N-C-Linda Rich-Sunlight Shadow-Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies from the Canyon-Numero
Yo La Tengo-Orange Song-New Wave Hot Dog
LCD Soundsystem-Daft Punk is Playing at My House-s/t-DFA/EMI
Sonic Youth-Stereo Sanctity-Sister-SST
Chicago Underground Duo-track 4-In Praise of Shadows-Thrill Jockey

Bonnie "Prince" Billy-O Let it Be-Summer in the Southeast-Seanote-live in 2005 w/ Matt Sweeney
Flux of Pink Indians-Neu Smell-Strive to Survive/Neu Smell-One Little Indian
MOTO-Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance to the Radio-Kill MOTO-Criminal IQ-best label in chicago, easily
Os Brazoes-Pega a Boga Cebeludo-s/t-gal costa's sometime backing band
Proles-'73-Thought Crime-Grand Theft Audio
Burning Star Core-I Wanna Make a Super-Sonic Woman of You-Mes Soldats Stupides-Cenotaph
Jandek-It's Your House-Put My Dream on This Planet-Corwood-played under the Burning Star Core
N-Parts & Labor-Repair-Stay Afraid-Jagjaguwar/Brah

Tim Buckley-Moulin Rouge-Starsailor
N-Circle-Earth Worm-Earthworm-No Quarter
R-Slayer-Alter of Sacrifice-Reign in Blood-Def Jam-don't forget, 6/6/06 is the day of slayer
Spires That in the Sunset Rise-Sheye-Four Winds the Walker-Secret Eye-best group of witches in chicago
R-Circulatory System-Outside Blasts-s/t-Cloud


Akron/Family-Moment-Split CD w/ Angels of Light-Young God
N-Tortoise/Bonnie "Prince" Billy-It's Expected I'm Gone-The Brave and the Bold-Overcoat-Minutemen cover
Times New Viking-We Were High-Dig Yourself-Siltbreeze
R-United States of America-Garden of Earthly Delights-s/t-Edsel
N-Little Killers-She Don't Love Me-A Real Good One-Gern Blandsten
N-Polysics-I My Me Mine-Now is the Time!-Tofu

Sparks-Do-Re-Me-Woofer in Tweeters Clothing 
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Radio Waves

After a year away, I'll be once again populating the glorious airwaves of central Jersey and Philadelphia. This Friday from 1-4pm Eastern, I'll be back on WPRB, once again warping your ears with strange tunes and, well, even stranger tunes (and maybe a few that aren't strange, but don't count on it). So tune it. It'll be fun.

a bit stranger w/ dan
friday, june 2, 1-4pm eastern
wprb 103.3 fm in the greater central nj area
streaming to the world at wprb.com

old playlists 
¶ 6:43 PM 0 comments

Songs of my Life: Galaxie 500 - Song in Three

I've never really listened to that much Galaxie 500. I know about their 3 albums from the late 80s, but couldn't tell you a song on them. Haven't even seen a Damon and Naomi record, and have never been that interested in Luna. So my only exposure to Galaxie 500 was when Ryko sent my college radio station a copy of the their odds and ends collection "Uncollected" a few years back. It's a perfectly enjoyable set of songs that mostly somehow never made the cut for their albums. This song, one of the unreleased tunes from 1989 or thereabouts, continues to floor me every time I hear it. How it never quite managed to get pressed onto vinyl at the time simply boggles my mind. The song is, just as its name implies, in 3. But not your everday throwback waltzy 3. This is a lurching, back loaded three (and sometimes 6) that puts all the emphasis on the third beat which simultaneously manages to subvert all the associations of being in 3 and push it constantly forward. Dean Wareham sings a simple tale of a boys thoughts on a first date, obsessing over the girl's soda pop, jeans, voice and cigarettes, while his vocals reverb nearly endlessly. The guitars jangle and the song ends with a simple guitar solo that plays around with the melody then totally wigs out. It's infinitely charming, one of those songs that can be listened to endlessly in a swirl of good feelings and high hopes. 
¶ 2:35 PM 0 comments

Songs of my Life, pt 2: Os Brazões "Pega a Voga Cabeludo"



Of all the music I've discovered while working at the Dusty Groove, Os Brazões are possibly my favorite. Essentially, they were for Gal Costa what Os Mutantes were for Gilberto Gil, a psychedelic backing band that went on to do their own thing. However, unlike their genre-bending older brothers, Os Brazões never really got any recognition anywhere. I'd never heard of them until a Brazilian reissue of their one and only album randomly appeared in store and even more randomly appeared as a play copy. I was sold on it immediately, a slightly less ambitious version of Os Mutantes that's plenty psychedelic, with requisite references to everyone from Hendrix (in "Canastra Real") to Sergio Mendes ("Caroline, Carol Bela") and everything in between.

It is the album's opener, though, that really hits me. It begins with a slow build of congas then flutes (two of them, in gloriously paired harmony) then a closed high hat then some groovy acoustic guitar strumming that takes about 30 seconds to fully gestate and (to paraphrase a friend) more or less begs, pleads, demands some kind of crazy acid/fuzz guitar lick. Os Brazões leave you in suspense for a few more seconds, letting the anticipation build before unleashing a monster of riff that runs almost continuously for the song's duration. Then, they start singing in occasionally broken harmonies but with a fantastic staccato delivery that is quintessentially Brazilian. I wish I knew what they were saying, but that's probably for the best since I can't really imagine that their lyrics are really that interesting. The song follows a pretty normal arc, ending with a fun little wink of a guitar chord. I can't quite figure out why these guys didn't somehow get revived in the David Byrne inspired resurgence of all things Brazillian in the mid 90s. Maybe it's because in the end they aren't as exceptionally different as the Tom Zes, Caetano Velosos, and Gilberto Gils of the world. Their lack of inclusion on the first Tropecalia compilation probably sealed their fate as an also-ran. But all this is just speculation. Their biography is totally spotty for those of us who can't read Portuguese. They are, however, a competent, occasionally brilliant, melange of all the styles in the air in Brazil in the late 1960s that are more than deserving of some recognition. 
¶ 11:15 AM 0 comments