This one is...it's just awesome. Look at that cover and tell me you wouldn't empty your wallet to hear what the hell was stored in the grooves of this record. Pure gold, right? Albums like With Love...From Me To You are why I've so deeply fallen in love with "real people" records. The masterminds might not be the most masterful, the songwriting might not be as sharp as well known artists, but I guess there is a place in my cold, black heart that loves listening to the gamut of emotions felt by my fellow humans. [...]
From Hippie DJ Kit: "Damon is the artistic name of David Del Conte, a genius American gypsy musician who is responsible for one the rarest and most sought-after psychedelic album of all time. Based in Los Angeles, David Del Conte and Charlie Carey had already pursued careers in popular music for many years before deciding to embrace the underground rock movement. His debut album, Song of a Gypsy , which was originally released in 1969, has a totally unique sound, with the "crooner-like" voice of Damon, the omnipresent melodic fuzz guitar of Charlie Carey and truly atmospheric [...]
I don't know if I've already shared this, but even so it is such a fantastic record it deserves to be heard again and again and again. I found a cheap copy of the vinyl sometime in the last two weeks, which made me so, so happy. I know I normally don't side with the folks at Dickfork about anything, but they ranked this somewhere near the twenty best records of the '80s, and even though I think it might be one of the ten best, at least they knew well enough to include it on their list. [...]
Every once in a while, the Los Angeles music scene churns out something that isn't total shit masked by perfect hair and vintage clothing. I think the last time I heard a good album from a band out of LA was before I even moved here, in '04. The Autolux record Future Perfect . That was a good one. It should come as no surprise then, that Autolux member Greg Edwards was also a member of a sadly unheralded (at least by modern standards, like the music blog) late-'90s psychedelic pop band Lusk. Along with Brad Laner [...]
I wrote about this record in March when I was compiling my top ten list of "outsider" records I was enjoying. I'm sorry it took so long to get my lazy ass in gear and put this together for you, but I hope you enjoy it! From Aquarius Records: "What is more amazing than discovering a whole movement in music that had never been documented, let alone even heard of. EVER! No mention in any books, magazines, not a single trace. What if that music was in fact the music of Funerary violins. A music created [...]
From The Mongoose : "The following is a rather unfavorable review from Trouser Press that I mostly disagree with: "Stylish but awkward, this French artist is at his best on weird, moody synthesizer workouts — those songs that rely on choppy guitar and weak singing aren't as effective. A version of Bowie's "Hang on to Yourself" (on Algorhythmes) is skittish and tense, but not especially different from the original; its inclusion seems purposeless." I think the reviewer is missing the point. The synth, choppy guitar and so called weak singing all work perfectly [...]
Not to be confused with M83! This is totally different (and better). This album, originally released in 1999, was one of the first drone recordings I ever heard. After hearing this album by M87 and Aidan Baker's At The Fountain Of Thirst , I began to discover and appreciate more experimental drone music. Notcilucent Threnody was described by my mother during a 6-hour drive to Vermont in 2002 as, "Scary haunted house music." She clearly didn't appreciate the celestial aspects of the record. Huge crushing waves of static, transmissions from beyond the stars, and deep [...]
The following recording was taken from WFMU's Beware of The Blog , and I have no shame in posting the files here because I will be providing their blog with fresh content later today! I think that's a fair trade-off, right? I blog for them, I can extract from their audio goldmine the occasional in-studio performance. Everybody wins. Except for the WFMU blog readers who have to grin and bear my verbose drivel every other Thursday. On October 13th, 2008 I went to see Killdozer at The Echo in Los Angeles . Less than a month [...]
From the venerable Kosmiche tome Cosmic Dreams At Play : "Sperrmull's only album has all the musical variety you'll ever desire from an early 70s German album - the jolly mandolin tune on "Me And My Girlfriend", Floydian effects on "No Freak Out", Deep Purple-like guitar and organ lines on "Rising Up" and powerful solo work with dynamic arrangements on "Right Now" (the longest track). The rest, "Land Of The Rocking Sun" and "Pat Casey", were more conventional rock songs, and could very well have been the A and B sides to a catchy single (but weren't!). [...]
I'm pretty sure that even my longest-time readers will be hard pressed to remember this entry . One of the first record reviews ever published on this website was for the album Voila! Enough! by a group called Alterations. Three years have passed, and apparently the album is now out-of-print! Naturally, that makes it okay to share with you. So, if you've been reading this site since October of '06 and begging to hear more Alterations, now is your chance. My original review: "Sure, free music is nice (even if it is [...]
![Cosmic Michael - Cosmic Michael [Private (Bliss, 1969)]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/1873502_lg.jpg)
This one came into the store last week. I don't know too much about it, but the basics are that Cosmic Michael is a "real people" record by a guy who calls himself - wait for it - Cosmic Michael. The only thing is, he's a little too talented for it to be a legitimate "real people" record. There are melodies and decent songwriting involved. Michael first lived in New York, where he recorded this album, and got by selling copies of it on the street. Then he moved to Los Angeles, where he recorded a second album, [...]
U.S. Christmas, also known as USX for short, hail from the mountains of North Carolina. Their sound is huge, enveloping, painkiller-slow jams. Totally psychedelic and far-out, this is one of the first bands in a few years I have been excited about hearing new material from. Ian introduced me to their vinyl EP a while back, and I've been praying for more releases at night before bed ever since. I say, "Dear God, bring me more spaced-out demonic music, please. Bring me heavily-effected druggy fuzz rock, and also tons of gash, and money, and pills." Then I fall asleep crying [...]
Another album from my list of the top ten private press records all music fans need to hear during their lives. Lovingly donated by an anonymous Swan Fungus reader. Two short reviews culled from the Acid Archives: "Mega-rare light psych item is one of the few in the genre in which the creative force is a woman, Sue Akins. This isn't really much like all of the Airplane-wannabe bands, either; Hendrickson Road House has a distinctive sound with mildly jazzy arrangements, subtle lead guitar, a tad of autoharp, smooth vocals and a definite late-night feel. The guitar playing [...]
As described yesterday, here is a must-hear private press album by Gandalf The Grey, which was lovingly donated by an anonymous Swan Fungus reader. The Acid Archives say, "Fashioning himself after a Tolkien figure (with a cape and hat no less), this NYC wizard cut a rare DIY folkrock trip that's been known for decades on the private press scene. I love the title track and a couple of other hobbit-oriented numbers, while some of his neighborhood observations sound less interesting and more typical Village product in my ears. Nice basement sound is a plus in [...]
It's been a few years since I've listened regularly to the music of Will Oldham. I haven't purchased an album of his since '05, but until last year or the one prior I would return to Ease On Down The Road and I See A Darkness if the occasion felt right. I have - with more frequency - enjoyed the studio recordings released as Palace/Palace Bros./Palace Music. I think they've matured well. That said, these Black Sessions represent one of the first live experiences I had involving Oldham, so they hold a special place in my [...]
I will continue preaching from the gospel Robbie Basho until you are all converted. Upon first hearing Seal Of The Blue Lotus I have been hooked on his steel string acoustic ragas. Along with John Fahey and Leo Kottke, he helped pave the way for modern folk masters like Jack Rose, Sir Richard Bishop and James Blackshaw. Basho was inspired by Sarod playing, studied with Ali Akbar Khan, combined music with Japanese, Hindu and Native American philosophy, and ascended to otherworldly levels of song-crafting. He employed various open tunings and 12-string guitars to recreate the drones [...]
Taken from the Acid Archives, as reviewed by Aaron Milenski: "There is no album I own that has as much emotional complexity and depth as HARVEST OF DREAMS. Bobb Trimble's previous album, IRON CURTAIN INNOCENCE, is of equal musical value, but HARVEST OF DREAMS is the one that exposes all of his inner demons, all of his hopes and all of his joy. Everything about this album, from the strange album cover to the name of his publishing company, can be interpreted in multiple ways, and every listen to the record reveals new nuances. How far [...]
You know what this page hasn't featured in a long time? A genre-melding rock band from Chicago. Frontier (guitarist Steven Wessley, bassist Kevin Ireland, drummer Michael Tsouios) formed in the early nineties, and quickly garnered buzz for their intense live performances, which would include a blinding light show followed by the trio's choking out everyone in the room with liberal use of smoke machines. Never underestimate the power of a smoke machine at a rock show. When attempting to bring an audience into your world of dub-infused, feedback-drenched postmodern rock music, I suppose there's no better way to achieve your [...]
From Julian Cope's Head Heritage , as written by The Seth Man "'High Tide' is putting it lightly: it's an extremely apt description of where this group's muse was at when they recorded this rollicking and utterly distorted screech out. And where they were at was to approximate the feel in every track of a Flying Dutchman pitching uncontrollably on heavenly seas. Furthering this connection is not only the title, but also the beautiful Peter Whitehead colour gatefold painting of a cosmic sailing ship, complete with superimposed photograph of a nude woman as masthead in open-mouthed ecstasy [...]
This is one of those rare LPs that you usually only see once in a lifetime. It's been repressed and bootlegged and made available on CD, but to find an original is near-impossible. The number of copies in existence is said to be extremely low following an incident which led to the destruction of many copies before they could be sold. Whoever had the idea to shrink wrap the albums on a meat packing machine helped deprive more of us the opportunity to own this fantastic record. Much like the Dandelions LP I posted earlier this [...]
Swan Fungus
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