William Burroughs on Sub Rosa via Fusetron

Was in boston this week hanging out with my friend Matt, working on stuff and driving back to catch Explosions in the sky.
I was all set to talk about a couple of Ty Segall singles and then looking at a fusetron email, saw this single from William Burroughs and just had to mention it.

First off, I can't find any info about this release anywhere, not from Sub Rosa, or any other UK singles distro's...tons of searches later and there's not a picture or description to be found. I'm still trying to decide if this actually is a 12"?
But if Fusetron says it has it, then I'm buying.

A long time ago I picked up a single of Burroughs and Gus Van Zandt called Millions of Images...which was crazy...I guess Gus is playing guitar and drum machines under some recorded spoken word Burroughs insanity...it's a document. I always wondered if Van Zandt did this after the fact or they actually got together...did Burroughs know about it? If so that's the only Burroughs 7"....until now.

I bring up Matt because we got into a long conversation driving back from Boston about the Beats and how much they influenced our college years. And I think it wasn't just us. It was the period of our lives when we should be reading that stuff...I mean I was amazed I never heard about any of these characters in high school. It was that combination of this underground scene and that reaction against the 50's let down...it was perfect.
I think I saw Naked Lunch on HBO, but I didn't get it. It just fit into our world view perfectly...we were moving away from home, writing on old typewriters with rolls of paper, taking roadtrips in shitty cars...being completely ridiculous. Documenting everything, who was going to be Neal Cassidy?
We met Allen ginsberg in Washington square park, he signed our copies of Howl. There was a Ginsberg doc at Film Forum...a show at the Whitney...it seemed like it was everywhere. Kerouac GAP kahki ad's.
Anyway, I wonder now if that was us discovering something on our own that then there happened to be a reintrest in this time period by coincidence or we were just into it thanks to these little signifiers. They just seemed cool, how could a couple of art school kids in the 90's connect with this? Does anyone still? Are there kids now as excited about that shit as I was? Completely blowing my tiny mind?

Anyway, these are outtakes from the LP that was released on Sub Rosa, or maybe just tracks off that full length, but I'm going to contact fusetron and pick up a copy and read On The Road again.

From Fusetron

*Artist: BURROUGHS, WILLIAM S.
Title: Three Allusive Tracks From Break Through In Grey Room
Format: 7"
Label: Sub Rosa
Country: Belgium
Price: $14.00
"Three extracts from one of Sub Rosas absolute classics, William S. Burroughs Break Through In Grey Room (SR 008CD/LP), featuring extraordinary, cut-up voices recorded during the mid-60s in hotel rooms in New York, Paris, and London. Available in a very limited edition of 300 copies only, with labels designed by famous French artist, Stéphane Blanquet." -Sub Rosa

plus Fusetron has got copies of that Black Dice tour single I reviewed a little while back.

cold cave from hospital productions

I have been hearing a lot about Cold Cave and I probably overlooked this single from Hospital Productions because I wasn't expecting this synth direction from the Hospital at all. It didn't exactly fit with the sort of thing I've investigated from this label in the past. I know Cold Cave has a 12" out as well which I haven't been able to track down...it's probably gone because this Cold Cave business is occupying that space between blank dogs and SIDS. Anotherwords it's more great messed up electronics. It's more distorted than Blank Dogs and darker/moodier than SIDS.
Not to be confused with the other CC, Crystal Castles.
I think I had it with Crystal Castles after a few weeks anyway, but seeing them live really blew it. More because of the crowd. I really felt like I was surrounded by a bunch of douchebags.

Here's hoping Cold Cave will scare the pussies away.

From Hospital Productions:
COLD CAVE - painted nails - 7" i have seen the future, and it's no place for me. this is a special record for hospital. although we have always shared a certain love for trance, power noise, synth pop, and 80's industrial music it is the first time we directly venture into this controversial and rhythmic world. cold cave presents 3 tracks of authentically morose epic anthems with the texture of a shattered champagne glass. imagine a highly damaged downward spiral era demo hitting the raw nerve to heart where all breaths freeze in rapture and all feelings croak in the blood of the beat- less heart.
to order: http://www.hospitalproductions.com

Some left at fusetron...(actually, they ran out before I could post this....literally like a few hours ago....sorry)..go get that triple split I posted about before. I know I did these out of order.
I'm a blogger, not a journalist!

John Peel - mystery box of 7 inches + Amber Alerts

After john Peel's death a list was published of all these singles he kept under his bed, for whatever reason, they were his most influential, favorite, given to him by the artist etc...but there they were in a box under his bed.

That's how I want to go, but at the moment it's a couple of cases...and not in any kind of significance or order....just the way it is. I have a huge reorganization coming. Like that scene in high fidelity, they are going to take up the whole apt. I'm going to need a few straight days of stepping through the piles.

Yesterday I came across this message board thingy where people have been compiling zipped MP3's of every single on the list...so far they've gotten almost all of them. Most of the contemporary ones are missing...all the White Stripes singles on the list for example, but there's some cool obscure stuff still available to download and check out.
Figure out the mystery.
Go check that out.


I think Mr. Peel would also appreciate this offering from Florida's dying: Amber Alerts. I can imagine him hearing a lot of Buzzcocks and punk in this electro-leaning garage band, singing 'My dick is the bomb'. That's the combo that will always make the most sense, incorporating local elements....cheap keyboards, drum machines, cheap recording equip...using it in the basements and garages of suburbia, or the warehouses in the city....it doesn't matter what exactly the 'instruments' are, it's what's being done with them, the attitude of carrying this plan out.
'I hEr u screemz' is my favorite...garage-fi, just enough low quality to make it scary. The vocals get more and more frantic in the background and the far away yelling is awesome, it starts out kind of hardcore punk...this guy has a great voice, it's separated in both channels. Everything has great room sound, but the vocals are ruling over all the layers of drum machines and keys. It's a great mix of rehearsal space and 4 track sound...the best of both worlds. These guys are blending it all together the low and hi fi, really successfully. Keeping the edge from the original recording..or the scratch track or whatever...good stuff.

Artist: AMBER ALERTS
Title: Ghoast Houze
Format: 7"
Label: Floridas Dying
Country: USA
Price: $5.50
"Heavily synth damaged punk rock from some shit-heel teenagers in nowhere Alabama. Featuring a member of Wizzard Sleeve." -Floridas Dying

Available from fusetron or Florida's dying

Blank Dogs - on 4:2:2

This sold out immediately from the source in Denmark...like 2 days. The only place I could still find it even listed was fusetron.
The number of steady releases by Blank Dogs is seriously staggering. I'm listening to Setting fire to your house, and even everything on the LP, I hear this home recorded industrial Cure sound. The guitars especially remind me of a lot of those early singles from 'Standing on a Beach'. But then it has nothing to do with any of that. It's dark, and just great song construction...weird sounds...I love the lyric quality, and then the onslought of 7 inches...I don't know why, but I'm after it all. It's exciting, and catchy and sounds completely contemporary. The bleeding egde of sound... like listening to the future.
On his blog, Mike Sniper constantly posts weirdo recordings that inspired him. I don't know where this is going or where this will end up, but all the attention is deserved and stands out completely alone and awesome.

From Fusetron:
Artist: BLANK DOGS
Title: Setting Fire To Your House b/w I Was Counting
Format: 7"
Label: 4:2:2
Country: Denmark
Price: $10.00
"The new single "Setting Fire To Your House" b/w "I Was Counting" is now available from 4:2:2 Records, a Danish label. These are limited to 500 copies with 100 on red vinyl. Unlike past releases, the a-side of this 7" will be on the 2xLP/CD "Under and Under" scheduled for release in December of this year on In The Red Records." - Blank Dogs

Podcast Episode 24 - We play Everlasting the way, a magic eye single from June of 44's Sean Meadows, Pixies demos, talk about 33 1/3 books, mix up the kim's. We play Bastro & Codeine, RTFO Bandwagon....did I mention we are probably drunk?

Vivian Girls at Death by Audio

I came across the Vivian Girls after seeing that they were opening for Love is all at Market Hotel and looked up their myspace. I missed them that time, but the tracks on myspace were so great I ordered the singles still available immediately.

Then an email came through from ToddP about a last minute show at DBA supporting The Woods and Meneguars record release. After a walk around the block, and some confusion with the nights lineup, they were just finishing setting up.
I never get over how much I love this space. It's falling apart, the graphitti is ever changing on the walls, the ceiling tiles are more broken every time. Who's jumping up there and punching them? What guitars/mics have been thrown into the air?


They soundchecked the essential echo/chorus effects on all three mics, which was feedbacking along with the high range vocals, blending into a long screeching wail after the vocals faded. This part doesn't come through as much on the recorded material. The feedbacked endless echo is so much a part of this upper harmony/ethereal sound. It completely becomes another instrument taken to this endpoint, so completely pushed to the limit of possible echo that gives up coherence for pure harmonized vocals. They really use to their voices as women to their advantage, 3 high part girl harmonies working with the range of the intentional feedback... I just kept thinking 3 guys could not get away with this, it just wouldn't work.

The lyrics are so completely an afterthought live, they work completely... recorded, here it's the wall of harmony sound, all hiss and feedback. You reach for a little of the melody peeking through a punk rhythm, and jangly treble twee guitar.
I think that's the key to this sound that I love so much, the contrast between the usual moodiness tempo of this genre's sound. The My Bloody Valentine effect....with the echo set to '11' the first instinct is to slow down the tempo and draw out everything from the chords to the syllables. It turn's syrupy slow fall asleep town. Every track here live was probably faster than the stuff on their sold out self titled LP, the double snare hits are punked out, the chord strumming trying to keep up. The crowd was definitely bouncing around to the girl trio punk-gaze-a-thon.

They are living up to whatever kind of hype is already coming their way, it's an impressive debut album and the singles are so great. the way it's reworking a lot of elements: like mod/50's girl Phil Spector groups all the way through to Ramones punk to Shoegaze Jesus and Mary Chain and twee Swirlies, taking the best elements of all of that and keeping it fast and sounding new the whole time.


Tomorrow they play the Yard which is just a bad ass amazing space/venue, I'm sorry I'll miss it, this band is worth it... but there is a ridiculous lineup there anyway, I'm insane and you're insane not to go.


Here's a single still available from Woodsist (after July28th): VIVIAN GIRLS- "Tell The World" 7" (WOODSIST016) irresistible mix of shoegaze, punk, and 60's girl-group sounds with beautiful reverb drenched vocals. features three self recorded tracks of lo-fi goodness. first press of 1,000 on black vinyl.

7"= USA = $ 7.75 ppd Canada / Mexico = $ 10.75 ppd World Airmail = $ 12.75 ppd

price includes S&H and paypal fee paypal to cassettes( @ )gmail.com

WWW.WOODSIST.COM

little claw - physical sewer records

Little claw counts Psychadelic Horseshit and Times New Viking as friends in the Ohio scene of no-fi, these guys are from Detroit and also share a member with Tyvek, but they aren't all guys in fact the lead vocals are by a Portland lady....not too much info on their myspace... basically it's all echo-y, there's a giant delay on her vocals, it sounds like it was recorded kind of live, in their rehearsal space. You can hear the echo is through a PA that must then be mic-ed. It's kind of nice experimental jam-through-it better than average pieces. It's all informed by playing with these other noise/fi acts who are all influencing each other and coming up with this new sound.

It makes sense now that it's not about the geography, and a specific sound having to do with a part of the country but it's about the proximity of bands to one another...how many shows they share the bill with, and prectice spaces, and have listen to each others stuff....or fans coming to both...that's what makes these little scenes happen. It could be driven by just hitting on a particular sound and all adopting it as interesting....well count little claw in with those other guys and see what they're up to.

From Fusetron distro
Artist: LITTLE CLAW
Title: Why Not
Format: 7"
Label: Physical Sewer
Country: USA
Price: $5.50
"Little Claw done an excellent lp last yr that Id meant to include in my year end top picks but in my haste to ge the thing up, I inadvertently skipped it. Now they done this little fella in conjunction w/some western tourin & I was lucky enough to get one after an amazin performance at some record shop last wk in Austin. The 3 tracks included herein ably summon forth the bizarre beauty & mutant psychedelic frug once exclusively patented by Christchurch & Dunedin sodbusters whose names begin & end w/both vowels & consonants. I mean really, do I have to name them for you? This thing leads off w/the scratchy creeper crawl Little Claw is known for while the additional tracks work inside a space devoid of gravity yet brimming w/neon & helium. The exhale is pure ecstasy. This bunch just keeps gettin better. Edition of 300"- Tom Lax, Siltblog

Siltbreeze is also releasing a single from these guys shortly as well, so it's endorsed by heavy hitters all around.

titmachine - ????

After the review on siltblog, I had to go see if this version of 'I want to be your dog' was on their myspace and sadly it's not, they got my attention... this cover might be great, but everything here was just horrific. Really untalented, terrible. It reminds me of how bad the late 90's could be when it seemed like every open mic had a shit waste of electricity band like this. I could tolerate it, but can't anymore...there is nothing redeemable about this in any way. And you might think, 'well that's an accomplishment then isn't it?' Or 'Everyone hated the Sex Pistols when they first played.' It's not even on the same planet, it can't compare...I could score 4 minutes of silence...but I'm not John Fucking Cage! This is such blatant boring posturing, it makes me sick. They are billing themselves like some kind of novelty, having met in prison and this is the only job they can get?... they are a joke. The worst track has to be the live one. What blew my mind was imagining anyone going to see this shit for free.

I can't get back the five minutes I just wasted.

From Fusetron:
TITMACHINE
"If youd have asked me yesterday if I needed to hear another cover of the Stooges Wanna be your dog", the NO wouldve resonated like one of them Alps yodellers in the Riccola commercial. But after hearin Titmachines version of said overdone classic, Is liked to have choked to death on my cough drop. A tremendous neanderthalic, witchy all-fem DIY sucker punch right between the eyes of any of the greatest punk primitief classics you can name, right up there w/Kleenex & Manisch Depressiv. Id have peggedem as Swiss too, but theys Dutch & much like their infamous elm disease, Titmaster is more than capable of complete devastation. The B-side a wondrous mess as well & I am goin to the front of the line to wait impatiently for their next amazing release. Cmon, lets have it! NOW!" - SILTBLOG. "The four members of TITMACHINE met in prison (each was convicted of crimes she did not commit). Unable to find gainful employment upon their discharge from stoney lonesome, the ex-inmates formed a band, naturally, the ideal vehicle for the unemployable. The lucrative alternative Dutch music scene rewards them handsomely in exchange for the quartets release of pent-up rage fueled by continuing injustice. Since October 2006, Titmachines raw and loose sound has remained unhampered by the constraints of talent, and answers questions anyone has yet to ask. Kinda like the Dutch Shaggs meets the female Monks and Flipper with a conscience."-Meeuw Muzak. Restocked!

Oh well, there's a new Podcast EP 13: Rex (helicopter one) both sides, Bored fortress club vol1 - dramcatcher/birds of delay split, tuxedo killers - don't rape the okope,
What the fuck kind of a playlist is this? (19:24)

This has to be a lowpoint for 7inches. It's time to start the 12 step program.

tv ghost - atomic rain

TV Ghosts seems to exist in the place between Times New Viking and Deadbolt, the recording itself has that otherworldly fuzzy, distant, no-fi sound. Is this becoming like a preset on boards or for protools? I mean it's easy to not worry about capturing every instrument individually in an isolated room, microphone angles, and amp emulators, but it's just as specific of a choice these days to sound like this, almost as much work...so to say, 'oh they just stuck a tape player in the corner of their practice space' might not be true. I just wonder how much that's really happening and how much is a highly crafted niche.
I want to believe, and I do, that TV Ghosts is recording with whatever's on hand, making the hiss and muffled treble another sound to be manipulated, a happy accident. It's working for them, and I want to hear these projects sweating away in basements and on the fringes of everything. They sound like they're influenced by the hot rod surf sound, heavy on the reverb and instead of zombie's it's ghosts, and from Indiana, so there's no pigeonholing them. I guess I'm questioning if it's me finding this and writing about it, or it's just popping up everywhere. This has to be some kind of movement at this point.
I can't wait to see Jay Retard tonight and hopefully no one fucks with his shit.


"How many records just feel mysterious these days? The debut Pink Reason 7" had it, the Los Llamarada LP has it in spades, certainly the Blank Dogs can pull it off whenever "they" choose, but most records will sit before your jaded eyes and ears and perform exactly the dance they appear to advertise: powerpop, electro-beep, folkie stems n seeds, etc. This here TV Ghost 7" is more in line with the aforementioned bands as a new X Factor on the micro-popular music scene, a band whose sound is difficult to categorize and resists easy comparison. No, they dont sound like the Blank Dogs, they are working a vein that drives a path back thru indie rock all the way to early No Wave and threads forward to us thru the LAFMS archives with a pitstop in Port Chalmers for a spot of homebake. It helps that the songs on this record feel like excerpts from a larger whole, and that the vinyl tends to make your needle act like its haunted by St. Vitus in the middle of one side. Musico Mysterioso. Please kids, no limited-to-50 cassette follow-up to this, get this shit out to the "masses"… "-RW, Z-Gun.

From fusetron

or direct from Die Stasi

bruce russell - walkie talkie

Bruce Russell as I'm discovering was a part of the Dead C, a band I remember getting a few used EP's from at one time or another, and it was pretty atmosperic, kind of in a non exploding out mogwai way. A lot of static, and weird sounds, like UFO's...it figures they were released on siltbreeze. They were really pioneers in experimental guitar improvisation and I think I even remember a friend had a 7" of the dead c vs sebadoh, which I've been looking for.
But this description of this seven inch completely caught my attention. Dead C is probably the most recognizable experiemental new zealand band, but feedback from walkie talkies? Seven inches are the perfect format for a conceptual idea like this.
I have a couple of shitty walkie talkies and I am going to try this...like a poor man's theramin...you can get really weird feedback with nextels, like this chirping that starts to change into something else.

Russell, Bruce ~ Cadenza Freedom Vol. 2: Toy Walkie Talkie
Chocolate Monk ~ $5.00
7 inch 1997 M-/M-
My fave Russell solo release. A laff-riot of squealing feedback made by simply holding a couple of walkie talkies too close together.

I don't think this is still in print directly from the label Chocolate Monk but you can still get it from fusetron or weirdo records.
and surprisingly Norman records.

wooden shjips repress - blue

If you took Dead Meadow and played it in a room then recorded that sound back into a room playing that sound back on itself, a feedbacking, long echo ear piercing guitar screech, on top of layers of sleigh bells and you might get an idea of what wooden shjips sound like. They have steadily been building hype on the release of only one 7" and one 10" which have been universally acclaimed by everyone, and for good reason.
It isn't just sound for sound sake, like the mess of industrial bands that ultimately amounted to their own self-destruction. There is a hypnotic drone rhythm to it and real solid bass lines keeping it all together. But essentially all the pieces are pretty understated, but I can see why in describing this, reviews are all over the place...you pretty much have to hear it.
I also saw that Subpop is soon to release their next 7", sometime in October, that's pretty good for 17".

I found that fusetron in my neighborhood has a few copies, I haven't been over there yet, so this is as good of an excuse as any.

Aquarius records
WOODEN SHJIPS "Summer Of Love (aka Sol '07)" (A Sick Thirst / Holy Mountain) 7" 5.98
The red vinyl version of this single song psych drone blow out from these SF boys is sold out and gone, but now they've repressed the thing on blue vinyl, yay! It's the same in every way, just a different color. If you've already ordered the red version, you're gonna get the blue version, cuz it's pretty much the same, minus the color thing, after all these are for listen' to, NOT collectin'...right?
A single song teaser to these local boys' long awaited full length, out now on Holy Mountain. And if you've been digging their past releases (a 7" and a 10") then this brand new single will
definitely hit the spot. More of what we love, a relentless, neverending blown out fuzzy groove, all warm whirring organ, fuzz guitar, and throbbing bass, the drums a super solid motorik
framework, the vocals sort of sung / spoken, reverb and delay EVERYWHERE, the strangest addition is the haunting horns on the A side, that drift and moan ghost like over the fuzz jam below. One song spread out over two sides, by side 2, the band have locked it in and sound like they are never gonna stop. A looped cyclical minimal fuzzrock jam that sounds almost like some crazy crossbreeding of the Doors and Spacemen 3, which should appeal to Circle, Salvatore and Magyar Posse fans as much as all the druggy psychrock dronesters out
there.
BLUE vinyl now, in plain plastic sleeves (like past releases)
and all proceeds still go to Food Not Bombs...