To Live is Dying, Saved in Bombay

So, after getting this in the mail the other week and listening several times, I've finally formulated a review for the new To Live and Shave in LA. Here's the XYCified version:








Artist: To Live and Shave in La
Album: Noon and Eternity
Label: Menlo Park

What has happened here!? Tom Smith and his demented vehicle To Live and Shave in LA have returned with a behemoth of brooding sound unlike anything theyve released before. The tracks are long, tedious and still a difficult pill to get down, although this time it isnt as much for the abrasiveness, oh no. This time, its for the sheer size and depth of the cavernous compositions within, roaming through a desolate black canyon of bad acid trips and stereophonic drifts. Gone are the abrasive shitstorm of samples and destroyed noise orgy. Gone are the blatant sexual images and perverted derivations blared in uncomfortable excess. Instead, TLASILA brings us four tracks that read like a book of grotesque musical wanderings scripted from a group of crazed soothsayers, forecasting an infinite spiral of despair and degradation. I think I even heard an actual guitar chord in there. Smiths vocal approach has also shifted, focusing more this time on clarity and range, rather than intense-as-possible screams of vein-bulging depravity. Joining him are long-time friends and contributors Rat Bastard, Ben Walcott, Don Fleming, Chris Grier, Mark Morgan, Thurston Moore, and even Andrew W.K. on drums. This isnt a causal listen. You need a pair of headphones and a solid hour of your time to properly digest the meticulously edited escapades of gurgling depth and disgust. There are moments of utter brilliance that shine through the sludge (see the crescendos in Tracks 1 (~12:30 in) and Track 4), but it definitely takes a while for the first three tracks to get to the climax, rumbling slowly along in mechanical drama. I prefer the tight-packed sensory overload approach of old, but I can respect what the boys are doing here, especially with the amount of time and effort they still put into the recording and editing. Its a big one to suck on, thats for sure, but dont be frightened to swallow.

Silence!

It's coming, and WXYC will not be participating.

Some guy from England named Bill Drummond has decided November 21st should be No Music Day. He cites stagnation in musical creativity as one of his primary reasons and hopes that a day of silence will kick-start something really new. I think he's not listening to the right stuff (does he have the Gordon Monahan and Tim Hecker releases that graced WXYC's rotation this year?), or maybe he's forgotten how to listen.

He has a point that there's a lot of musical fodder out there, but after reading his rant I personally think his idea is silly and contrived. So, despite the fact that London's excellent Resonance FM is participating, I'm glad that we are not.

I believe you can make a much more meaningful (if still futile) statement by participating in Buy Nothing Day this Friday.

Correcting A Misunderstanding

In an effort to correct misconceptions about what this blog actually is for, I submit the following list of carefully considered guidelines.

What This Is Not / Ain't According to The Talking Heads
My beautiful house
My beautiful wife
No party
No disco
No fooling around
No Mudd Club or CBGG

Oh, the Hypocrisy!

The good Reverend Ted Haggard, the honorable ex-Representative Mark Foley, and their assorted hypocrisies were discussed and remixed ad nauseum tonight on the Feedback Farm. Missed it? Download it. (25MB MP3)

Relive the BBQ

If you missed the Backyard BBQ live at the Local 506 on October 20th, you missed a great show with great food. Embarrassing Fruits, The Nein, The Moaners, and Black Taj provided the music; and the BBQ Joint catered.

At this point, we can't help you out with dinner, but we can help you partly relive the evening. MP3s from the show are available for download on the Backyard BBQ home page. Click over and check it
out.

To hear Robin S's interview with Black Taj mere hours before their Backyard BBQ performance, click here (18MB MP3).

Be sure to come out to the next Live Backyard BBQ coming soon!

Roommate on WXYC!

Hey everybody,
Today at around 4pm on WXYC I'll be interviewing Kent Lambert, aka Roomate , who reached number one on our charts last summer with his debut full-length release Songs the Animals Taught Us . In addition to being an internationally-acclaimed musician (he's gotten pretty cozy with the volk over at Studio Brussel ), Kent is a prolific video artist . I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about and I hope you'll tune in. After the interview, Kent will be performing for free at the Carolina Union Cabaret . If a live interview and free performance haven't sparked your pancy, check out this picture I found of Kent from his run for the U.S. house of Representatives in 2006.

WXYC's new Southern music show premieres Friday

Hey gang - Well, we've been at work on the concept for the whole darn semester, but finally, we're proud to tell you that a new show is about to make its debut on WXYC. This Friday at 4, you'll hear the first "Carolina Breakdown," a coproduction of WXYC, the UNC Curriculum in Folklore and the ArtsCenter in Carrboro.

It's a pretty straightforward concept -- an hour of locally peformed, Southern-oriented music each week, along with brief interviews with band members and songwriters. We've been taping acts at Graham Memorial's Thursday on the Terrace series, and will do so again this Thursday. We've also been taping acts at the ArtsCenter, and will -- guess what -- do so again on Friday and Saturday.

We'll provide frequent, though not annoyingly frequent, updates here as the show evolves.

The show will primarily feature artists and bands that define themselves as "Southern." We'll be exploring what it means to be a Southern musician -- whether it's hip hop, country, bluegrass, roots rock, or anything that falls in between.

On the premiere show, you'll hear The Carolina Chocolate Drops, a great African American string band from Durham, and the Allen Boys, a "sacred steel" quartet out of Mount Airy.

Next week's show will feature Nashville singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell and Mississippi free-style hip hop artist Top Notch the Villain.

The show will also be available as a podcast. Details here soon.

We're looking for suggestions to book bands for the spring shows. Got one? Email us at carolinabreakdown@unc.edu.

Thanks to all the great WXYC staff who've supported the concept. We hope you'll enjoy the first show this Friday at 4.

~John

Get Your Head Wrecked

Holy shit. I've been waiting for this news for some time, and now, it's official! The Psychic Paramount are scheduled at the Nightlight for Thursday, November 30th, and they are coming to obliterate your sense of self with psych jams heavy enough to erase space and time. Seriously, this is the real deal, one of my faves, and I am excited.

You can visit their website for a little taste: www.thepsychicparamount.com

Definitely watch the live in Rome video for a visual tour of how completely fuckd this show is gonna be. There are also audio clips there for your enjoyment. They released a live album recorded in France and Italy back in 2002 that was an amazing testament to their live abilities, which they last displayed locally at the dearly departed Go! Studios with Acid Mothers Temple in 04 maybe? Their studio full-length came out in 2005, and I get chills every time I hear it. Ballstothemuthafuckingwall. They've apparantly got some double album thing coming out this month that documents solo recordings of the group members prior to the conception of Psychic Paramount, with the accompanying disc revealing new(?) material.

Brief history: Two of the band's members, Ben Armstrong and Drew St. Ivany, were in the short-lived mindfuck Laddio Bolocko, along with Blake Flemming (Dazzling Killmen) and Marcus DeGrazia. Laddio Bolocko were the sheer essence of demented rock distorted to the point of insanity, crunching metal with guitar strings and building a bridge to hell. A short-circuited radio melts on your tongue and all over your hands, electrifying your desires and processing them out the other end, reeking of wrecked consciousness and the smell of a black limo filled with rotting carcasses. They existed from 96-00, after which they splintered into two factions: Ivany and Armstrong took the talent to Psychic Paramount, while Flemming and DeGrazia decided to suck at life in Electric Turn to Me. Conclusion: Go see this show. Nightlight. November 30th. It will be loud and it will be heavy. Please share in the joy with me.

On that note, there are TONS of amazing shows lined up at the Nightlight in the coming month, so if you live in the Chapel Hill area, do youself a favor and check out the Nightlight website for a full line-up. Three cheers also to Mr. Charlie St Clair, a fellow XYC jock, who is kicking ass and bookin the names over there. Go Nightlight, Go!

computer-generated music

Check out these links if you are interested in computer-generated music!

Wolfram Tones: Variations on cellular automata, simple programs that produce very unpredictable results. A cellular automaton is made of a line of "cells" which each have a single value and two neighbors. The program computes the next cell based on the parent and its two neighbors. Output features stable local patterns and fractals such as the Sierpenski triangle. Wide variety of genres. MIDI format.

Fractal Tune Smithy: Annoying visual interface, fascinating results. Choose from an enormous selection of scales, rhythms, structures, etc. from all around the world. Results are often unclassifiable.

Whitney Music Box: Mesmerizing audio/visual display of harmonics and polyrhythms. Line of colored dots unfolds into a whirlpool of spiral shapes while musical scales perform in synchrony.

Crap + Junk = Feedback Farm

The Feedback Farm returned to explore Crunk Music (Crazy + Drunk, or so they tell me) tonight. Hear the results for yourself by clicking here (19MB MP3).

Tune in on November 15 at 9pm WXYC-time for the next installment of Feedback Farm!