On this edition of Audiography, we feature reviews of the latest releases by former White Stripe Jack White, Spencer Krug's experimental project Moonface, a remix of Battles' Gloss Drop , and the bass-pushing production of Bassnectar. We also include my conversation with Built to Spill's frontman Doug Martsch. I caught up with him as he and his band were preparing for a week-long stint at Austin's 2012 South by Southwest Festival. The two of us talked about the band beginning work on their latest album and looked over the history of Built to Spill, including the band's [...]
Halo Benders at Jabberjaw. Doug Martsch on guitar.
The Halo Benders — Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want (Smiths cover) From Don't Touch My Bikini ( Fire Records ; 1995) See, the life I've had / Can make a good man bad
The Halo Benders — Don't Touch My Bikini (1994) The Halo Benders never stood a chance. Formed in '94 by Doug Martsch ( Built to Spill ) and Calvin Johnson ( Beat Happening ), the group was a lovably sloppy force of off-kilter hooks and interlocking vocals. "Don't Touch My Bikini" (from God Don't Make No Junk ) is possibly their finest moment, pitting Johnson's baritone against a dusty, foot-stomping melody. A forewarning: you will be [...]
I've always regretted my chance to see the Halo Benders. I can remember it so well: 1996, Seattle, Wa, Hub Ballroom on the UW campus, Modest Mouse opening. Maybe I couldn't get a ride, maybe I got sick, maybe I was just lazy, but by the time I moved to Olympia, they had already broke up and I thought it was never to be. But, amazingly, it happened. When I bought a ticket to see Built to Spill and the Hive Dwellers last month I thought that, perhaps, Calvin would hop on for a song and it would be [...]
The other day my co-worker told me she was going to see the Built to Spill/Hive Dwellers show in November at Olympia's own Capitol Theater, siting the fact that an impromptu Halo Benders reunion could occur. I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it, but the Hive Dwellers is Calvin Johnson's new band, which means Doug Martsch and Calvin will be sharing a stage and...who knows? This got us excitedly connecting on our love of the Halo Benders. Perhaps the first band I really listened to on K, I was 14 when I mail ordered [...]
Think about all the time you wasted Thinking about and working on your BOMB SHELTER! The Halo Benders, "Bomb Shelter pt. 13 I've been thinking about this for awhile. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I read Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road' a few months back. The best part of the book - the only part where you feel any glimmer of hope - is when the father and son stumble across this hidden, abandoned underground bunker full of food and supplies. It was a great moment, made [...]
Það hefur varla farið framhjá neinum að veturinn hefur nú dundið á Reykjavík með mikilli snjókomu sem virðist ekkert ætla að hætta næstu dagana. Að því tilefni hefur Rjóminn tekið saman nokkur gömul og góð vetrar- og snjólög sem ættu að létta vetrarskapið hjá flestum... Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow Yo La Tengo - Winter A-Go-Go [...]
so i've just finished the third revision of my top 100 albums list — which to avoid confusion/arguments is a personal selection, not an attempt at a best of all time list — and to build some interest/excitement in the list beyond myself and the 1-2 other people that have traditionally cared about this i've decided to do a ten day countdown leading up to my number 1 album choice, vh1 best [whatever] of [decade] style. [100 - [...]
On more than one occasion I've been shooting the breeze with someone about music and cool live shows we've seen and the other person will say something to the effect of "...by far the loudest concert I've ever been to was Dinosaur Jr." And from how they always go on to describe it to me, it doesn't usually sound like it's even all that close. And while co-headliners Built to Spill and their brand new CD are getting just as much attention as the Dino Jr. boys, the thing that is being overlooked here is the opening band. [...]
i've slowly begun working on the third revision of my personal top 100 albums list. as planned, this year i am making the transition to a one album per artist limit... which has automatically disqualified twenty excellent albums from last year's list (see below). this has been a hard step for me to take, but i think one that was ultimately necessary to maintain the integrity of the list. there are definitely benefits to allowing multiple albums per artist... a second favorite album pick can in some cases tell more about a person's tastes than what [...]
I'm a music collector, first and foremost. Like any collector, I have a tremendous wealth of items I picked up simply out of habit, items I've never really taken the time to appreciate. Over the past month I've been working on changing that. Let me make it more concrete for you. I rocked Audiogalaxy and LimeWire back in high school, Direct Connect in college, and I figured out torrenting not too long after that. I've also worked at my share of radio stations over the years, and ripped everything I [...]
Doves So the great and powerful Moz turned the big 5-0 last week - do you think that when being presented with gifts, he thought, "please, please, please let me get what I want this time"? No, probably not. But even if I personally don't care for much of what he's done post- Smiths , I salute the man on the occasion of his half-century. And I'm sure his fellow Mancunians in Doves do likewise. No strangers themselves to the mopey end of rock, Doves paid tribute [...]
For those of you into all the newest lo-fi hits of the last few years, there is really one man we need to look towards: Calvin Johnson. The man was the driving force behind the great Beat Happening and also the Halo Benders , which featured Built to Spill frontman Doug Martsch. Clearly, this man's fingerprints have been all over the musical landscape, and he's at it again this Saturday night at Emo's, as he takes the stage with his [...]
Une chanson de saison aujourd'hui : « Snowfall » des Halo Benders, groupe indé des années 1990 dont je ne connais, à vrai dire, pas grand chose. Pas grand chose sinon qu'ils dépeignent la chute des flocons avec la plus grande justesse et que, à les entendre, il me semble apercevoir une pluie de cristaux blancs flotter doucement sur la ville ; et que, à les entendre, je crois marcher dans une rue enneigée, le cou enfoncé dans le col, pressant le pas pour rejoindre ma chaumière. Une chanson de saison vous dis-je. [...]
not mine mp3: the halobenders - crankenstein i had one of these done the other morning. it's pretty interesting stuff to look at, except that it takes a solid 45 minutes of being prodded in the chest with what looks like a well lubed dildo to produce. i ended up playing "crankenstein" over in over in my head to try to take my mind off the probing... this section in particular: you are not following your heart's desire to be worthy [...]
In one of the more outlandish gig experiences of my life, last night I found myself sitting in an overgrown back garden in Deansgrange with a bunch of music fans, watching a baritone fortysomething dude with an acoustic guitar strum a few tunes. So far, so hippyish. The thing was, the fortysomething dude was all round indie hero Calvin Johnson, founder of K Records/Beat Happening/Half of the Halo Benders/Narcotic Dub/etc/etc/etc. The gig went down in a place called Hideaway House. Hideaway House is occupied by an exceptionally pleasant young lad called Dylan, who, from what I can gleam, [...]
despite the meager details , doug martsch letting it slip that there may be a new halo benders album sometime in the possibly distant future really tugged at my heart strings... one of which is connected to a 100 watt incandescent bulb buried deep in my chest. doug pulled the string and the bulb -- thought to have burned out years ago-- slowly flickered back to life. as the bulb warmed up and began to radiate, its heat spread to a certain dark and musty chamber of the heart, and the obsessive halo benders fan boy inside me awoke. [...]
mp3: the halo benders - don't touch my bikini mp3: the halo benders - virginia reel around the fountain Paste: Any plans for another solo album or more work with Boise Cover Band? [Doug] Martsch: Nah, neither of them. But maybe in a year or so we'll try to get a Halo Benders [side project with Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening] record made. We got together a year ago, or maybe two years ago, and started doing some things, but then our schedules got [...]
The Halo Benders: Bomb Shelter Pt. 2 [ purchase ] "The Halo Benders' music is characterised by untraditional sounds, movements, and song structures. Additionally, the vocals of the baritone Johnson and the pitchy Martsch overlap often... often entirely unrelated... Johnson has said that the two write lyrics for songs largely independently." - Wikipedia Take one part Beat Happening , one part Built To Spill , mix with several other ingredients , and what do you get? Why, it's the [...]
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