Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Prunalogsusan Pentagram on Trigger on the Dutendoo Records



Ahhhh, The days of old Lou Barlow cassettes, where I couldn't be sure if my friend taped them over something else that was coming through the background, if that last song on the side was even Sebadoh? It's funny because recently I got Sentridoh 'losing losers' at Academy and it's the only record that sounds wrong on vinyl. The warbling, the finger on the tape rollers slowing it down, this is all wrong to me listening to it on the record.
The one nice thing about this project name is it's impossible not to find every possible mention of it in every corner of the internet. Once you spell this out and hit return, there it all is. I think this name is a little genius just for that. So what if you can't remember it on the street, or on a flyer or anywhere. It's an anti-name, but once you got it, you have everything. Including this little blurb from the label?:
Prunalogsusan = A (as in "one") Wisconsite. Veteran of various un(der)heard bands across the underground music spectrum, dating back to when dingbat46 was still shitting in three-cornered pants. 13 songs that were culled together over 10+ years' worth of recordings; I really don't know how to describe them, so I'll roll with hardcore filtered through a (possible?) Zappa listening session and rinsed in noise? I suck at descriptions, but I like his jams.

This goes for the record label name as well. Trigger on the Dutendoo? I have to consult my anatomy book, but I'm pretty sure I know where that part is and I feel bad anyone has their trigger on it. The whole release is a little mysterious though...Most of the links or mentions of PP have been deleted, the band/label myspace, blogspot references....and get this I have two copies, numbers 302 and 303 out of 300!
Same goes for the A-Side of this single, a ten year retrospective jammed into 33 1/3 rpms it's 17 tracks of home recorded weirdness. It's a sketchbook of undeveloped songs. Should some of these gone on longer? Probably not, self restraint in picking the weirdest moments from this guy in the past 10 years is a good start. But I'm a sucker for the ultra home recorded, late night, solo artist. Can any of it be really terrible? Sure. But I'm into this crazy mess, it's pretty inspiring. Have all these recording techniques been retired? Has this era of 4-track disappeared? I think there's always something to learn from it and apply it to whatever direction you're going. The cover 'Light is Faster than Sound' from big brother and the holding co. is unrecognizable. It's pulling on my Ariel heartstrings for a few moments here and there, and I have to say this kind of thing will always keep me buying that random single I know nothing about...to find a little jem like this. Get it if for nothing else than an audio Brian Eno Oblique Strategies, there's an insane amount of experimentation happening in the short bursts.

B-Side - or sighed two. Backwards vocals, xylophone, slide, distortion, turn the pitch down, which I love and completely forgot about. That big pitch dial that went unexplored on the 4-track until I heard Ween. I wish there was a crap, stripped down Tascam version of garageband...or someone would add just random unlabeled effect buttons you had to play around with to audacity.
That's what is so great about a Moog. There's no way to save that sound, every time you flip the switch you start from zero, reset the dials and start playing with the sound. Recording should be the same way. What does that do, mess with it, get something no one else can even duplicate.
A little funk, sound effects, theremin (?) blown out alien harmonies, broken guitars, a capella layers...banging on the keyboard. My favorite title this side... 'Learn how to drive fuckface'.

Get this direct from Tim at trigger.on.the.dutendoo (at) gmail.com... it's on a nice dark grey green marble...my only criticism is the sleeves are printed on really thin crappy paper, which reminds me of 80's sleeves, maybe it was printed on an ink jet and hand glued? This packaging should reflect a tiny amount of the audio inside. I don't know what exactly...stick it in a ziplock with some leaves, put a bow on it, woodcut, spraypaint, collage...I want some texture, some mess...or completely the opposite...all tinfoil, minimal.
Whatever, I'm no artist.

I have one of these to give away... comment below, and I'll pick a winner.

6 comments:

  1. Sounds cool to me!!
    -Pat

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  2. prunalogsusan4:11 PM

    ha-ha. NEAT! thank you so much.
    love-n-sh-tuff!!!

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  3. Anonymous9:00 AM

    actually, that blurb thingy is from a previous 7", which has the ten year retrospect. the 17 songs on this one here '23' were all recorded this last fall/winter over the course of ten cases of leinkugel's berry weiss...:)

    -timT

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  4. Tone roids,
    YAY!
    You got yourself a copy of the single, email me your mailing info.

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  5. My old band was actually lucky enough to play with Kinetic Friends (Tim's old band) over the summer. When we left the greatest house in Wisconsin, Tim was cool enough to give us a shitton of 7" bits of fucked-up goodness. And now that I finally got a turntable, I got a chance to listen to all the stuff. Tim, you are one of the coolest people I've ever met, and I really do hope we get to play again sometime in the far-off future.

    -Alex

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