Podcast - old news - we got you covered

Darren and I are back with the leanest out of date news. All the records that are long sold out because we aren't CNN. Like the Damaged Bug Record from Castleface. Possibly this Bill Callahan Dub record and this Sore Eros / Kurt Vile split. I bet this craziness from Numero Group is sold out and maybe this Mac Demarco singles club or a Quasimoto shaped disc - gone. At least you can watch A trailer for the new Stones Throw doc and listen to Darren's report on a Kool Keith show from back in the day.

Go subscribe or listen over here.

We are watching this vinyl doc called VINYL for next weeks episode with Travis from Buckflix.tk

Woods/Kurt tour split + FHM record release party!

Hey there, super brief update this crazy rainy Friday, got an email this morning that woodsist has some of those split Kurt/Woods singles that were available on tour only! All exclusive to the single and I love both of these guys, so unreleased stuff is perfect for the single and I can't wait to hear this.

WE HAVE A FEW COPIES OF THE WOODS/KURT VILE SPLIT 7" FROM TOUR. 2
tracks from woods, 3 from KV. all exclusive to this release. limited
to 1000 on black vinyl. tracklist below

01 Woods: "Skull"
02 Woods: "Cold Blue"
03 Kurt Vile: "Commercial Reject"
04 Kurt Vile: "In/Out Blues"
05 Kurt Vile: "Water Fingers"

$8 ppd USA
$10 ppd CANADA
$12 ppd WORLD

PAYPAL TO:

cassettes(at)gmail.com

Raven Sings the Blues talked about it a while back and I wasn't able to catch them, so nows your chance.


I also want to mention that this tueday, September 27th, Fat History Month will be playing along with Lushes, Florida and Shareef Ali Elfiki at Legion Bar, 790 Metropolitan Ave. It's a Sweaters & Pearls Record release party for their single I just put out, so come by and say hi, see these awesome bands.

Kurt Vile - He's Alright 7" on Matador

Kurt Vile's first single on Matador, just picked it up at Academy the other day, 3 tracks starting with 'He's Alright' on the A-Side, you might be thinking this was on another release like I did, but I checked Constant Hitmaker and The Hunchback EP and it's not on any of those or anywhere else. These three are exclusive to this release... even if it sounds like something off CH though, slow strumming with a bit of echo. Verse after verse of that folk storyteller monotone, very Dylan, he's getting away with it, even though I know better. It's compelling, his nasal 'haaaaaaaaannndss' half hearted delivery, it's a lot of work to half mumble.
He's got a distinct strumming style which might be making this sound like an extension of a Hitmaker track, every other strum is a little louder a little faster, making it sound echoed, he's pushing the expressiveness of the standard action.
And then there's this line I kept pickign up on:

'Some people they use up all their cash / records and such they sit around but I don't care about that.'

Kurt? But I just bought your single...is this some kind of cruel joke? A song about wasting my money on records? Damn you!

The B-Side first track Farfissas in Falltime is an instrumental throwaway reverb wobbly guitar, it sounds like a distorted looped sample. On top of that Kurt is solo-ing with a tight distortion that almost is synth. It's pretty cinematic, like Vangelis or something, using elements that are a little dated, but getting away with it, even elevating those sounds to something you can actually listen to and respect.
I appreciate it's on here, but I'm not going to seek it out probably.
'Take your time' is more solo acoustic Kurt and what you're going to spend time on picking over the lyrics, deciphering. God I hope no one takes him or any other acoustic guitarist seriously as a poet. Come on, poetry is just a separate animal, don't try to publish the verses on the page. it's one thing as liner notes, but Dylan as poetry? I don't buy it. It's a song...very different. It may be thanks to all the freshman English teachers who bring in Freewheelin' or Blood on the Tracks and yell at kids 'Listen to this! It's poetry!, Someday you'll understand!' that it's been ruined. You have to separate the two. The Beats may have killed poetry. That was the peak, and it's been downhill from there (take any spoken word show with the word 'slam' in it for example). I guess I'm going off on this tangent because he's got that gift for really effective songwriting, really universal but describing a pretty specific experience I feel like I share? Let;s just not get carried away.

Get it from Matador direct, or a million other places probably. I can't tell if this is the 7" that comes with the preorder of his Childish prodigy full length or not, I have to pick that up and see where Constant Hitmaker is going next.

Jack Rose/Kurt Vile/U.S. Girls/Meg Baird-Meet The Philly Elite 7” on Kraak records

This sounds like a pretty amazing 4 way split from Kraak, a label based out of Belgium, apparently they had these four over for a festival and talked them into releasing all exclusive stuff to this single. Kurt Vile, alright, can't wait to hear what weirdo thing he's comitted to wax, U.S. Girls, more super weirdo punk and Jack Rose, can't get enought of his instrumental Fahey influence acoustic. I don't know Meg Baird, but she's from Philly, hence the comp name and must be equally interesting. Can't wait for this one.
I'm also just realizing that they are all from Philly...crazy, way to go PA.

So far I've seen this at Scratch records and Fusetron, kraak is sold out already and the other US distro link they have on their site wasn't working for me.

Kraak says:
Meet The Philly Elite | 7inch
MEG BAIRD/U.S. GIRLS/KURT VILE/JACK ROSE
KRAAK loves Philadelphia. In recent years Marshall Allen, Bardo Pond, Espers, Clockcleaner, Fern Knight and many other artists climbed the KRAAK stage. With some of them we developed a modern internet relationship. As if we were young lovers we decided to fly over to their side of the water for an evening of cheese steaks, Rocky Balboa and live music. On 6th July 2009 KRAAK set up a show at Kung Fu Necktie. The Flemish Primitives met the Philly Elite: Jack Rose, Meg Baird, Kurt Vile and U.S. Girls. To celebrate our love we also pressed this very awesome 7" with four exclusive tracks!
Master finger picker JACK ROSE is the mastodont of Philadelphia. His mix of drone infused raags, bluegrass and acoustic folk is as sweet as a crate of Saison Dupont. "mr. Rose visits Washington D.C" is a live improvisation from the first solo tour Jack did with Six Organs of Admittance and Fürsaxa. It's a raw piece dating from before his debut album.

KURT VILE's hit singles were the big surprise of the most recent Kraak festival. Classic American road pop and nineties melancholia. The dude likes his Duvel cold. "I Wanted Everything" is an amazing new song in the melodic Vile tradition, containing the lyrical one liner of the year "I ain't never going to go to work no more".

U.S. GIRLS is Megan Remy. With a reel-to-reel tapedeck, some delay and distorted vocals she became the Philadelphian queen of ultra lo-fi pop music. Sounds like tunnelvision Kinks after serious car accident caused by too much Orval. With "A day at the races" she delivers the shortest but most mind frying track on this 4-way split.

We never had MEG BAIRD solo on stage here, but we did admire her when she came around with her psych folk friends of Espers. On her own she's pretty much digging in the same zone: sixties folk, traditionals, hippy love and tea OD. "Wave crashed on rocks" is a cover of British eighties rock unit Felt.

Kurt Vile in williamsburg tonight + The Balkans

FRIDAY, JULY 31
BEST WORST MOVIE
An acclaimed feature length documentary that takes us on an off-beat journey into the undisputed worst movie in cinematic history: Troll 2.
Venue: On the lawn of Automotive High School
Address: 50 Bedford Ave. @ North 13th St. (Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
Directions: L to Bedford Ave. or G to Nassau Ave.
Rain: In the event of rain the show will be held indoors at the same location
8:00PM: Doors open
8:30PM: Sound Fix presents music by Kurt Vile
9:00PM: Films
10:30PM: Filmmaker Q & A
11:30PM-1:00AM: After-party: Open Bar at Matchless (557 Manhattan Ave. @ Driggs) Courtesy of Radeberger Pilsner
TICKETS: http://newyork.going.com/event-618911;Rooftop_Films_presents_Best_Worst_Movie#

Check it out....Kurt Vile and a documentary...hope the weather holds out.


I was also contacted by the Balkans, from Atlanta about a couple of shows they are playing this weekend: Puppestube (75 Ludlow) on the Lower East side of August 1st, and in Brooklyn at Little Field, August 2nd.
They have a bunch of singles on their myspace, hopefully I can pick a few up and give you a full report monday. The tracks I heard so far are great, especially 'F3'...looking forward to this.

**Northside Fest** Grooms - Blues Control - Kurt Vile and the Violators - 6-13-09

The Grooms have the best drummer I have ever seen. The most entertaining to watch, looking like he's flailing around, but completely in control, throwing his whole body into it. Dedicated to these crazy half beats and never ending fills, totally in his own structure. He's pounding the weirdest way...he half falls off his stool from rocking back and forth.
I hadn't expected to catch the Grooms at the Less Artists More Condos annex on Bayard Street but I'm glad I did....they were the best thing all night.
I loved this space...it was big enough to not have the DBA problem of being packed early in the night and impossible to get into...it's cavernous...it looked like it must have been a photo studio. It's great to see a show in these places that aren't even venues. There's something about seeing bands here that makes you feel like you're in on something important...no tickets, the band is setting up their own equipment...piles of empty cans on top of an amp. But what happens when they get knocked over? Someone grabs a trashcan and sweeps the whole thing into it. It's a beautiful moment.
But back to the Grooms...a perfect three piece...bass, guitar, drums. Really Sonic Youth inspired, weird guitar tunings, distortion is an instrument. Slide guitar with a beer can, bursting into walls of sound...he even sings along with the guitar melody like Thurston at points. Songs are built around indiscernible chords....an anti-melody, coming down out of it to hint at something, rework the rhythm. Minor chords into a high phaser melody, rising out over the wall. The drums are following this lead, changing the whole time from all out fill patterns, rim shots, muted crashes...perfect...I loved it. I'm gong to have to get this album...the myspace is great stuff. I had to get up this morning and put on Daydream Nation just to make sure I wasn't completely insane...and it's the next best thing until I pick this up.


Blues Control were up next, I got this single from Sub Pop a while back and wanted to see what they would bring live. They have an extensive setup with multiple racks of keyboards, power for everything...pedals lined up, two guitars...unfortunately it just didn't work. There's a wall of sound and then there's just a wall of sound. The rhythm would start on a flat drum machine and then all the sounds would just pile up improvising on top of each other. It's two people trying to make as much noise as possible...there was just nothing to grab onto...nothing to keep me interested after the first 5 minutes of pounding on a synth into delay...distorted guitar chords. There's no energy, no direction. It's all jamming around itself. It's fun to play, and hear what things are working their way out of the cloud.... the sounds you didn't even play, I just wanted something?


Then finally Kurt went on around 2, 2:30...half of the Violators must have been playing another show or something...we had to wait for them to show up...so how was it with the band? Just ok.... I really wanted to like it so bad...Constant Hitmaker is amazing. It had nothing to do with the sound, the time...I tried to block it all out. The band must be a recent addition, the drummer is playing along with a click track and the few songs I recognized were extended versions of the concise little jems of experimental intimacy. It was huge here...so Kurt can yell and really get into it, but the vocals are lost and the refrains go on forever. He's really channeling Dylan, I know its crazy, but there was this folk singer, acoustic guitar, storytelling in an outsider way.