Community Noise

I decided it was time to put together another playlist. I didn’t have a theme in mind, so I offer some random things that I’ve been listening to recently, tossed together with some new stuff that I hear on the radio as I write this.  All but one track can be listened to at the YT link.

Community Noise Playlist #6

1. Nox Novacula – “The Path”
Local goth band. Really cool stuff. As far as I can tell, they’re only releasing their stuff digitally and, dammit, I like my LPs and CDs.  Somebody needs to straighten these guys out.

2. The Temptations – “Papa was a Rolling stone”
For a couple of years now, I’ve been digging 1960s-1970s soul. When I’m home, an LP can find it’s way onto the stereo at any time.  When I’m out around, there’s some on my MP3 player, so it comes up on random play.   Such was the case one sunny Friday afternoon when I was walking over to my shop.

3. Pleasures – “Star and the Equal Time”
On Saturday evenings, DJ Sharlese has taken the reigns of the long-running radio show Audioasis, dedicated to local music.  She’s finding some pretty good stuff, and plays a lot of good old stuff.
Unfortunately, … I couldn’t find this on YT. You can listen to it here:
https://pleasures.bandcamp.com/track/star-and-the-equal-time

4. Sonic Youth – “My Friend Goo”
I’m reading Kim Gordon’s pretty good memoir, Girl in a Band. After I’m done, I’m sure there’s a post or two to be written about this woman. In the meantime, I always loved Goo best.

5. Tom Waits – “Clap Hands”
Rain Dogs is one of the most innovative albums that I’ve ever heard. Incredible.  It’s one of the records in my collection I go back to say “damn” when I listen to it again.

6. Paul Simon – “Under African Skies”
Damn.  Simon’s Graceland is one of the most innovative albums that I’ve ever heard. Incredible.  That stanza, Joseph’s face was black as night |The pale yellow moon shone in his eyes |His path was marked | By the stars in the Southern Hemisphere | And he walked his days | Under African skies …  really well phrased.  It’s as good as any Dylan, and that’s a mouthful of praise.

7. Sly and the Family Stone – “You Can Make It If You Try”
This album, Stand!, sits in front of the stack, and generally outside the crate, patiently waiting for me to spin it again.  And again.

8. Velvet Underground  – “ Foggy Notion”
I have this Polygram sampler, 3 songs on Side A from The Velvet Underground, Van Morrison, and Richard Thompson; and another 3 songs, one each, on the B Side.  There used to be this cool record store, Uptown Records on Queen Anne; the buyer was named Ann (no relation), and we developed a little rapport; she’d always thank me for buying cool stuff, ‘cause that meant she got to go buy more cool stuff.  (Instead of, you know, more Abba.)  One night I walked up to the cash register with this and she simply froze; “Where did you find this?”  She didn’t know the store had it and was mad that I was buying it and not her.  And she still wouldn’t date me.
With a story like that, I’m having a hard time deciding to part with this, but I never actually listen to it.  It’s an odd place to see VU playing.

9. Childish Gambino – “Saturday”
Watching Saturday Night Live, and this popped into my life.  Good to listen to, and fun to watch all the dance and performance art going on.  Must have been 25 people on stage. Damn.

10. Posse – “Voices”
Don’t forget to listen to Posse.  They have more out now than the 7” I featured last year.

11. Goat Girl
Also, the new Goat Girl album is out – buy it on LP or CD from Rough Trade Records.  I love these girls.

12. Ben Thomas – “Tangent 7”
The Live Music Project had it’s fourth birthday party last week, and I won a CD in the raffle. I don’t see how it could have been rigged in my favor, plus there must have been about 50 prizes. The ensemble might feature a bandoneon. Wikipedia says it’s a type of concertina “particularly popular in Argentina, Uruguay, and Lithuania.” OK, but I don’t know what a concertina is either. Look at the picture, duh, it’s a squeezebox.

 

Here’s a random note. It requires 6 clicks and a paste to add a video to a YT playlist. That’s when I already have the link for the song that I want to add. And it takes some hunting around to just find the place to create a new playlist. Couldn’t we design a better interface?

 

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© Community Noise 2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Checking out, the cashier asked if I found everything I was looking for.  I explained that I did no homework for the day; I like to walk in and let things come to me.

For Round 1, I went to Silver Platters up in Lynnwood.  Mid-morning by time I got there, there was no line to enter the shop, the clawing for one-offs had died down, and the long line for one of four cashiers was moving quickly.  It was Record Store Day, 2018 – last Saturday, 21 April.

I picked up, all vinyl, a Brian Eno EP, a re-issue of Shiho and her Japanese electronica, a compilation of girl garage bands from the 1960s; on 10-inch vinyl I selected Sublime, Flaming Lips, and Noah Gundersen.  Free stuff was 2 flats, huge flats, 18”-square, of Aretha Franklin and The Smiths.

Not homework, but I will admit that I had the local radio station playing Friday afternoon; they were reviewing material that would be available on Saturday.  DJ Kevin was interviewing Matt Vaughan, owner of Easy Street Records and RSD co-founder.  (Easy Street is a really cool store, and café, whenever I make it over the bridge to West Seattle.  Think of it, next you find Seattle.)

Vaughan was delighted that Flaming Lips put something out interesting to listen to, but I couldn’t remember what exactly that was; I chose one of their two 10-inch records available.  The DJ was excited that Noah Gundersen was playing a live set at a different record shop, but I couldn’t remember that I actually heard anything of his playing.  My attention zeros in and fades away.

The thing about a 10-inch record, it could be a 45-rpm or a 33-rpm play; the label is vital.  Not labeled, I started this one out at 33 and the music was great, but Noah’s voice sounded a little slow.  Like he was mumbling in a cemetery soon after his own death.  I moved the speed up to 45, and his voice sounds right, but the band sounds rather normal.  Let that be a lesson to him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sEj1q8bEF4

If you want the interviews and whole in-studio experience, you can watch and listen:

Noah Gundersen – Full Performance (Live on KEXP)

Good grief the Sublime 10” is amazing.  The ska/rap/punk/pop mixture has texture and themes; rhythms and just enough sounds in-between the reggae thing.  I have listened to a lot of reggae over the years – local radio has had a Saturday morning reggae show for at least 33 years – but this is different.  The reggae beat is not the dominate idea; other aspects of the composite sing out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sVxEWIRvY4

The Shiho stuff is a beautiful experience.  My favorite record store experience: pick something up, don’t know anything about it, but something clicks inside.  “Give it a shot.”  Take it home.  Cue it up.  Whammo.  Something cool, never knew it existed.  Exploring the electronica and atmospheric music areas is pretty new to me; this was a good place to continue my brief education.  The bright clear-pink vinyl is extra credit, which is normal for RSD.

Girls in the Garage, volume 3.  On searching, there are at least 6 volumes to this series.  It’s good we have a chance to remember the multiple precursors to Riot grrrl.  I randomly provide one selection.

The Liverbirds “Why Do You Hang Around Me”

You can listen to the whole thing, of course, on YT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0YtRBHqRGw

RSD 2018, round 2.  Fun, but less eventful.  I searched and noticed a couple of record stores that I didn’t know about.  In the afternoon, I went down to Jigsaw Records, on the eastern edge of Ballard, not far from where I live.  Cute little shop, a hole in the wall on a strip long known for funky drinking wells.  I took a chance on Television Personalities, and it’s OK.  I’m still digesting it.  No free stuff.

I want to know.  Did people celebrate Record Store Day this year?  Where?  What did you buy?  What did you find to love?

Let us close up with some Aretha, why not?

 

On a bright, beautiful, sunny Spring day, I went spider hunting in a cemetery more than a century old.  It wasn’t eerie or creepy, and my sister thinks I’m crazy.  I am a volunteer for the arachnologist at Seattle’s Burke Museum.  I guess the preferred term is “spider collecting.”

I picked up Rod in the morning and drove south towards Vader, not even a wide spot in the road off the I5 corridor, and not terribly far, in miles or spirit, from where I grew up.  The cemetery is just out of town, but you’d never notice being in town.  Sounds like a movie, Spider Hunt: Cemetery Watch

During the drive, I thought about spiders, trying to think of music that had something to do with our arachnid friends.  I remembered the Lime Spiders, a psychedelic band from the 1980s, and I remembered not listening to them much.  That would have to change.

They’re pretty good.  Randomly, here are some tracks.

The Lime Spiders — Slave Girl

Lime Spiders — Out Of Control

Lime Spiders — Too Close To The Sun

The Lime Spiders — Volatile

I learned many things during the day.  A spider is an order of arachnid.  Arachnids are a class of arthropods (joint-legged invertebrate animals).  The arachnids also include scorpions, ticks, mites, harvestmen, and solifuges.  (You are not alone, I had never heard of a solifuge.)  (For those that don’t remember high school biology, the taxonomy goes like this: domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species.)

To catch, hunt, or collect spiders, and properly catalogue them, you need to pay attention to the habitat.  On this Saturday, in this pleasant graveyard, we searched leaf mulch, moss, fir trees, shrubbery, grasses, tomb stones, fallen pine cones, and an out building (for house spiders).  Across the road, in a clear-cut / new-growth forest area, we further searched the habitats of ferns and tall grasses.  There are different techniques, which generally have something to do with trying to get the spider to “fall out of it’s habitat” so you can see it.  (The exception is the wolf spider, which quickly runs amok in 20 directions, trying to avoid you.  I caught several and felt badly for the little guys.)  For example, hunting in leaf mulch: you pick up some mulch, put into a wire-mesh shaker, shake onto a white sheet, and see what falls out.  Bits of dirt and partially-degraded plant matter, lots of little beetles and ants, centipedes, and other creepy crawly things, and spiders.

 

 

 

 

Of course, there’s  “Boris the Spider” from The Who.  But you don’t need kill spiders; be not afraid – the spider just wants to eat bugs, and those also probably freak you out.

Rod wants you to know that the house spider that you guys call a “daddy long-legs” is not a spider, it is a harvestman.  It is an arachnid.  It is a myth that its venom is poisonous to humans.  It is a myth that its fangs are too small to bite you – it doesn’t bite you because you are not its prey.

Rod was telling me that his favorite music was primarily bebop jazz.  Benny Goodman had a trio, sometimes quartet, that played some innovative jazz; of course, he’s more well known for his work in the big band swing era.  Benny Goodman — “Where Or When”

And for jazz vocals, he prefers Anita O’Day.  I’ll feature “Honeysuckle Rose”.

It was 24 years ago today that Kurt Cobain said goodbye.  I do not celebrate a person’s death, typically; I prefer to celebrate one’s life.  However, local radio is playing a bunch of Nirvana songs today, and interview clips, and assorted things.

Lots of really good songs that I like to listen to.

It makes me a little nostalgic.  I am a little sheepish to say this, but I always felt like I related to him, a sort of kinship.  Sheepish because I tire of people that say somebody else speaks for them.  Enough gushing; speak for yourself.  It’s not Kurt’s great lyrics that I think about when I suggest that I relate to him.

I grew up in a similar place, little lumber town in Southwest Washington.  I understood a flannel shirt as a practical shirt; cold and wet until you start working, then tie it around your waste; not a fashion statement.  Dressing in layers.  And it was cultural – dad wore one, granddad wore one.  I can’t remember ever not having one.

After I moved away, I realized that a lot of my friends and people I grew up with were stupid assholes.  Hateful.  Homophobic.  Chauvinistic.  I was like that.  I knew people unaware of the vast world out there ready for you, if only you had an open mind.  It was Kurt’s interviews and whining that I always related too.  When he talked about where he grew up, I knew exactly that life.

When I think of Kurt now, I have a certain sorrow.  And glee.  His music is delightful; funny and loud, tender and angry.  I miss you, Kurt, and thanks for all the great stuff.

Here are some favorites.

I always loved the childish terror in this song.  Some people worry about me for that.

 

indeed, it is “I need an easy friend”, not “I need a lizard friend”.  When in doubt, it’s almost always a lyric that makes sense.  (I dunno know if that’s a valid rule.  It is art.)

 

It’s not Kurt’s song, but he owns it.

 

I am in the process of moving, and blog posting, while I need it and miss it, must take a back seat.  I hope to be back in play sometime in February.

However, learning today of the demise of Mark E. Smith, I feel obligated to take a break from worrying about the stuff in my life, and say something homage-like about this strange and brilliant man.

I am of two minds, with a unification to one thought.  Of all musicians and music that I know through listening, I could not be more grateful for Mark E.  While issuing 32 studio albums, I am sure he lived without material wealth, yet he demonstrates a valid way to live life: your own way.  Mark E. invented himself once, then again, then over and over, again and again.  He never rested on earned laurels, and never concerned himself with harsh criticism: he was already busy moving on to the next thing, his own thing; who has time for what others think about the last thing?

The dichotomy is that he could have taken one of his numerable themes, worked on it, made it a recipe, and earned good financial success.  Or, he could break up a fantastic band to explore bad ideas and dead ends.  He tended to do the later.  There is plenty of music from The Fall that I find confused or confusing, but the totality of The Fall is priceless.

I have to admire that.

Out of that pile of rubble and gems, let’s celebrate a few things.

The band he put together for The Frenz Experiment, it has to be, the best band he every assembled.  This song, “Oswald Defense Lawyer”, to me, is a bad experiment gone very well.  Close your eyes:  what do you visualize?  I see a long-haired head banger, slowly rocking his shoe-gazing head back and forth.

Brilliant.  or something.

From the same album, is this shiny and shimmering song, “Hit the North”

 

Finally, this is the greatest song I have ever heard.  I’ve tried to write about it before, “Kurious Oranj”, but I can’t finger the “what is it?” that I adore so; the song has style, rhythm, and that bizarre horn sound.  The subject matter … it’s murky to me, but reading about The Oranj and interpreting the lyrics is fascinating.  This song has punk-ethic elan, with a sense of knowing musicianship, somehow the secret covenant I’ve been always searching for.

 

I saw The Fall play once, in the late 1990s.  I was not living in Seattle, but back on holiday.  I was alone at Seattle’s Crocodile Cafe.  At one point, the guitarist looked up and appeared bewildered — Mark E. had left the stage, but we could all still hear him singing.  I could spy him through a void in the wall — he was sitting on the couch in the band’s dressing room, crooning, as he does.  It remains a wonderful memory of shows.

R.I.P.

 

My one-year blogging anniversary passed by last week.

I am delinquent for frequent posting – it will be like that.  I work full-time, I have other hobbies and commitments, and I have my moments.  Moments were I just need to tune out, walk away from all the stuff, and do something else.  Or do nothing.  Or pretend to do something.

Regardless of my infrequency, I appreciate those that stop in and see what I have to say.  I really, really, appreciate those that take an extra moment to send a comment, and those that take an extra microsecond to send a ‘like’.  I learned that the accolades come slowly, and I learned that is OK.  Writing is its own edification.  Writing gives me a new way to learn about music and it gives me a new lens to comprehend what’s going on in between all those notes and poetic words.

Over the past year, looking for kindred spirits, I have been exposed to other bloggers.  Honestly, I never followed blogs before; I may have read one here and there, but I never paid much attention.  There is some stuff out there. Wanting to share the talents of others, in random order, I present five other blogs.

 

1000 Mistakes

https://a1000mistakes.wordpress.com/

William, in Australia, writes this one.  He refers us to great music, new and old, stuff we all know, stuff we all should know, and stuff, man, who’d ever heard of this?

William writes like somebody that has something to say – a blast of exuberance and unconscious knowing.  Plenty of typographical errors, he has accidental vitality.  Our musical interests overlap – turns out to be a bonus for me.

 

The Poetry of Photography

https://thepoetryofphotography.wordpress.com/

For a very long time, I did not pay much attention to photography.  It looked too easy.  I could never draw or paint, so those that mastered free-hand drawing were masters to me.  Photography – play around with gadgets and click click, there you are.

Then I started taking pictures myself.  Slowly at first – just shots of completed projects of my woodshop, then some travel shots, then I met photographers, and they forced me to start to taking it seriously.  I began taking photographs.

When I went looking for other music blogs, I kept finding photographers.  Wonderful photographers.  People that understood composition, light, and emotion.  It is amazing what people do.

Everyday Melinda shows a glimpse of her incredible eye, and each black-and-white photo has an accompanying haiku.  (Everyday?  Who has time to share so much?)  She is thoughtful and eyes-wide-open funny.  She sways between finding beautiful things to shoot, and making banal things beautiful.  I hope others find their way with her.

 

Square Pig in a Round Hole

https://kareneisenbreywriterdotcom.wordpress.com/

I had the pleasure of meeting Karen when I previewed her brother for a show in Seattle this year.  Wonderful host, with tea and baklava.  She might be even more shy than I.

Every week, real or imaginary, she presents 5 band names and says something pithy about each.  It’s an easy and delightful read.  My experience, so far, if I think I have a new band name, peculiar, that maybe she should know about, she already wrote about it.

 

hotfox63

https://hotfox63.com/

Ich erinnere mich noch genau daran, wie ich mit 13 zum ersten Mal die Beatles gehört habe – danach war ich ein anderer Mensch.   // I still remember exactly how I heard the Beatles for the first time at 13 – after that I was a different person.

I have things to learn from this gentleman, alas I don’t speak his language.  (I have tried.  I fucking swear.  I have a whole, cute, futile story about trying to learn German.)  Anyway, I have things to learn from this guy, and I don’t even know his name.

I thought there would be a translator plug in – a virtual babble fish – that might translate an entire blog page for me, but I haven’t figured it out yet.  Still, it’s worth the time to spend an afternoon listening to part of this guys’ life soundtrack.  Clipped to the right, is just a portion of his word cloud.

 

The Perimeter

https://theperimeter.uk/

A bloke named Quintin is taking the walk around Britain’s sea coast – all public access trails – and shooting everything in sight.  It frequently looks like he is the only person on Earth, enjoying the final days of light and questionable weather.  Really, this guy can point a lens and shoot.  Well done!

I have completed a half days’ worth of this trek, down near Penzance, and I intend to do more someday.  In preparation, I have been following this guy for months.

 

Live Music Project

https://livemusicproject.org/author/kowalski/

A baker’s quintet – I cannot let this go without a sixth blog mentioned, for a I love the work I do for the Live Music Project.  Not exactly my alter ego – it’s really just a way for me to learn about other musical styles and talk to people about how they create new music and interpret those sounds.  It’s a good gig.

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Oh yeah, this is supposed to be a music blog.  So, listen to these:

1. from Mary Kouyoumdjian,

https://soundcloud.com/marykouyoumdjian/children-of-conflict-samars

(be aware that Sound Cloud has an autoplay feature that I haven’t figured out how to kill.  It’s OK to listen to all of Mary’s work – she’s great – but the piece I’ve posted is only some 5 minutes long.)

2. Honoring Aussie friends, one of my favorite songs, from the Hoodoo Gurus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTmfQVXgqXw

3. I like Courtney Barnett; she is funny and melodic with ironic visions.  While enjoyable to have the new Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile thing playing, I haven’t figured out what I think of it yet.  Help?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHCtH15dpmU

4. Similarly, a friend directed me to listen to Wolf Alice.  She has elements – she sounds like she has most of my record collection – but I can’t figure out what I think.  Not yet, anyway.  Tell me what you think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG6cozRDXU0

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© Community Noise 2017.  Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited