Jandek Box Set

Another first arrived from Corwood Industries today - a four disc box set from Jandek chronicling the two live sets performed in Brooklyn, New York on September 7, 2005. According to Seth Tisue's website, the Representative played electric guitar (a fretless for the second set) and Matt Heyner and Chris Corsano joined on double bass and drums respectively. I have no idea what this sounds like so I'm looking forward to putting it on.

New Releases From Elektrohasch

New releases from German psychedelic rock label Elektrohasch arrived compliments of All That's Heavy. Although not new music, they reissued a pair of albums that came out a few years ago. Recorded by in the late 90s, 'This Is...' by The Beginning gets a reissue treatment with a couple of bonus live tracks. The other reissue is of Electric Orange's 'Platte' which might have been a vinyl only release. Included are a couple of long bonus tracks. The third Elektrohasch album I bought was the debut from The Kings Of Frog Island who feature members of Josiah and The Beginning.

For a freebie I received 'Spit Blood' by The Atomic Bitchwax which includes a sampler from MeteorCity.

Pair Of Important Records

Arriving in the post today was a pair of new releases from Important Records. The next in the Floating Frequencies/Intuitive Synthesis from Eleh comes on thick 200 gram black wax and is dedicated to Charlemagne Palestine. There's a warning that due to the low frequencies, side B must be played at a higher volume than side A. Side A reminds of the last record while side B has some nice low frequency pulses and gives the hi-fi a good low-end test.

The next release in their Arts & Crafts series comes from Barbez who I absolutely nothing about. It's a nice 7" on red wax with a nice instrumental on side A and apparently a sort of protest song on the flipside. Sounded pretty good on my first spin.

Red Sparowes Debut LP

I bought the repress of the debut double LP from Red Sparowes titled 'At The Soundless Dawn'. The LP features different artwork from the CD version. Robotic Empire did two color variations for it and I went with the "clear with smoke". The wax itself sounds awesome on my system so I couldn't be happier. This was one of my favorite albums from 2005 and still my favorite Red Sparowes release to date.

Trace Bundy, Acoustic Music San Diego, San Diego July 13, 2007

Having only seen a video on YouTube and a few snippets on his website, I got invited to go see acoustic guitar player Trace Bundy last night. I wasn't sure what to expect from him but the samples I heard were decent.

Hailing from Boulder, Colorado and taking a complete grassroots approach to music, Trace has released three CDs and has toured all over the country and overseas. Having an arsenal of five capos, he would pick, strum, bend and tap his way through classic pieces, traditional folk songs, modern covers and original compositions. His fretboard work was top notch as he constantly displayed his "ninja-like" attack. Most of his arrangements attempted to play the bass, rhythm and lead parts all at the same time as well as incorporating percussive beats on the body of the guitar and using a looping/sampling effects pedal to add a background for him to play over.

So going into the show not knowing what to expect I was pleasantly surprised by his playing and rapport with a audience that had such a wide age gap.

Pair Of Collaborations And A New One From Three Lobed

Out on Supernatural Cat Records is a collaboration between Italian psychedelic doom kings Ufomammut and the "ambient postcore" (that what it says on the website) of Lento. Lento I have never heard of before but I love everything that Ufomammut has released so far. I bought the special edition which has been hand-printed and numbered by artist Malleus. I like what Malleus did with the Morkobot album and decided to get the limited artwork. The packaging isn't quite as good as the Morkobot artwork but it's still very nicely done.

The other disc is both a split and collaboration between Rosetta and Balboa titled "Project Mercury". Balboa goes first with three tracks, then Rosetta with a pair of songs and the final track is the collaboration between both groups.

The latest from the ever consistent label Three Lobed Recordings is a recording from Tom Carter, Robert Horton and Michael Shannon called Turnstone. Apparently they all got together for a five hour jam session and this disc represents the best material. There's definitely a jam type of vibe as the music just seems to be stream of conscious without much structure. There are all kinds of instruments used throughout which makes it harder to grasp the first listen through. Seems to be a continued thread in the recent crop of albums from Three Lobed that requires that the listener give repeated listens to uncover all the nooks and crannies of the album.

Wolves In The Throne Room, Weedeater, Earth and Sunn O))) at the Casbah, San Diego July 2, 2007

Southern Lord's 777 West Coast Tour kicked off in San Diego last night. I'm unaware if it was sold out, but there were many folks on hand to throw up some horns and doom claws.

Wolves In The Throne Room got things started with a couple of long songs. After their first song was over the guitarist/singer announced they were playing their last song of the night. About 20 minutes later they were done. The first thing I noticed about Wolves was that they don't have a bass player so their sound lacks the bottom end that I love so much. They have a blackish metal sound that incorporates some ambient and progressive rock elements. Not exactly my type of music but I they were good at what they do.

Next up was Weedeater from one of the Carolinas (I forget which one). They play a mix of doom and stoner rock with a their bass player handling frontman duties. The drummer and bassist put on a hell of a show but the guitarist seemed like he was going through the motions (I guess he's just a low-key type of guy). Despite falling in genres that I like, I couldn't get really into them. But I'd like to hear a record of theirs before I pass complete judgment on them.

Earth had a lineup of some kind of keyboard, drums, bass and of course Dylan Carlson on guitar. They played almost (if not entirely) new material from their new album which is due next February. The material continued where they set out with Hex, but with a bit more variety in the mix. The guitar parts had some nice fills and touches not present on Hex and the keyboards played a larger roll in the sound. The title track from their upcoming album and "Carrion Crow" are sure to be highlights. Can't wait to hear the finished album!

Sunn O))) capped off the night with something I didn't expect from them. Earth's keyboard player (who I believe is Steve Moore) joined the band along with an upright bass player and vocalist Attila Csihar. After a heavy amount of fog pumped out of their fog machines, Steve, Stephen (on guitar) and Attila took the stage for about 15 minutes that a mix of guitar noises, both Golem-like and Gregorian chant-like vocals and trombone. It's one of the better and unique songs I've heard Sunn O))) perform. Then came Greg and the upright bass player to add the low end to the performance while Steve switched from trombone to a Moog synth. Eventually they built up a massive drone that had long periods of the sound waves beating and Attila took a nap on the stage until coming back with Golem-like vocals in the end.

Having never seen Sunn O))) before, it certainly was an experience. I can't remember having felt the music so much as the speakers pushed enough air to vibrate my entire body. Along with the fantastic "tour only" merchandise from Sunn O))), it was a fantastic night of music.

New goods:
Sunn O))) - Oracle 2CD
Sunn O))) - Oracle LP