the of mirror eye

* Grateful Dead: St. Stephen (11.0 mb) | The Eleven (8.0 mb)
From Complete Fillmore West 1969 : Grateful Dead Records

*note* This is the first in a series of postings on the Grateful Dead

Well, my hippie lady friend had a yearning to listen to the Grateful Dead of yesteryear so I, remembering that I had acquired this set a little bit ago, but never listened to it much, pulled it out and put it in ye olde music player for her. And since I already had it out, decided to take another listen re-realized just how much I like this band.

For the longest time though I couldn’t, for the life of me, appreciate this band. I wanted to. I really, really wanted to. I mean, I’d read countless reviews and I could appreciate them intellectually for creating this whole society, but I just couldn’t into the music. I also couldn’t get past the images of crusty old white dudes, aimlessly noodling about while crusty hippies sold their patchouli oil and danced all funny. But beyond those images, I just thought the music wasn’t very interesting. Well, obviously I wasn’t listening to the right stuff. When I heard this music from their legendary 1969, 4 day run from the Fillmore West, I was pretty blown away. This is the time period where they were leaning away from their bluesy, garagey roots and starting to stretch out more.

Without a doubt, by the time that the concerts featured on Fillmore West 1969 were held, the Grateful Dead had perfected its freewheeling improvisational approach, and nearly everything it touched dripped with the psychedelic transcendence that was forged within the swirling vortex of Dark Star’s revolutionary crucible. Arguably, then, the collection contains the most primal music that the band ever unleashed. Although it remained tethered to the R&B-flavored roots favored by harmonica and keyboard player Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, the group had made tremendous strides in pushing the boundaries that defined its music outward in all directions. (from The Music Box)

These recordings were originally released in super truncated form as Live/Dead. But this boxset compiles every single note played by this band during that run, gloriously remastered from the original 16 track soundboard tapes. This was such a gold mine for dead heads, that the limited run of 10,000 copies sold out during pre-orders. If nothing else, the Grateful Dead were always very progressive about their recording techniques. This is, I believe, one of the first (if not the first) 16 track recordings made. The sound really is magnificent. There’re small amounts of distortion here and there, but overall the sound is pristine.

So, for this post, I’ve decided to start off in the middle of an epic Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven from March 01, 1969. While this may sound backwards, I’m doing this mostly because Dark Star is such a long track that from listening to the last two parts, you can decide whether or not you want to download the beginning. So, in other words, today St. Stephen > The Eleven, on Monday, I’ll post Dark Star. The post after that will probably explore some of their shorter, dancier, bluesier numbers.

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* Howe Gelb: Paradise Here Abouts (3.5 mb) | Hey Man (3.5 mb) | Neon Filler (6.5 mb)
From ‘Sno Angel Like You : Thrill Jockey Records : thrill 167

I first heard about this gospel based project by Howe Gelb, front man for Giant Sand, about a week ago and immediately thought, “Brilliant!”. For those who don’t know, Giant Sand has been churning out desert based music for over twenty years now and has been the primary musical outlet for Mr. Howe Gelb. Appparently, having one band isn’t enough though, and he also makes music under a couple of other monikers, as well as solo. Well, this one has Howe teaming up with a gospel choir for some electrifying results.

In 2003, Howe was invited to perform at the Ottawa Bluesfest, and billed to play in a church with singer-songwriter Jim Bryson. Howe was surprised to find their sets sandwiched between the performances of gospel choirs. Little did he know, that coincidence would lead to his inspiration for this album.

When one of gospel choirs performed, “that’s when it all began to make some sense to me,” Howe says. “I was held captive by the sensation, glued to my seat there. I had never heard anything like it, never felt anything like that, and when you get to be my age and something grabs your heart and head like that, you celebrate and bask in it. I was physically moved.”

Rainstorms are always a good omen to a man from the desert. When Howe returned to his hotel room to reflect on the experience of the gospel shows, the sky erupted in a stunning storm, he took it as a sign. “The instigating sound in my head persuaded me to return to the church even though I knew the music was long over. I felt I had to make some connection before I left town,” Howe says.

(from the website)

This is an absolutely fantastic album. If there’s one criticisism I have of Howe Gelb’s music, is that he is at times very unfocused. His use of the choir though, keeps him right on track. The music is mostly spare, with guitar and drums, so the gospel choir adds an incredible richness to these proceedings. Also, at no point does the choir seem like an add on. This music, it seems, was conceived with this choir in mind.

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* Prince Paul: Booty Clap (6.0 mb)
From Psychoanalysis: What Is It?! : Tommy Boy Records

* Zoffy: Smoke On The Water (6.5 mb)
From Thou Shalt Not Mess With ZOFFY!! : Acid Mothers Temple : AMTCD-011

* The Gories: Nitroglycerine (5.5 mb)
From I Know You Fine, But How You Doin’ : Crypt Records

* Boris: Ibitsu (4.0 mb)
From Akuma No Uta : Southern Lord

So, my friends were in town the other day and we had a smashing time. We ate great food, walked the city, and ate more great food. We also went to a White Sox game. Now, for those who don’t know me, I’m not a big follower of sports. I don’t really watch them on TV and I don’t read about them. In fact, I’ve never even been to a baseball game before. So this was actually pretty exciting for me (which was made even more exciting by free tickets a dozen rows above the ChiSox dugout) and I found myself actually enjoying the game. Of course the beer and the fries and the bratwurst and the funnel cake certainly helped out. But what does this have to do with music? Well, I was thinking, now what if I was a pro baseballer? What song would I have them play when I walked out to bat?

It’s actually kind of tough picking songs, because you’ve gotta find songs that have great couple second snipets that you can use. But, I found a couple of songs that I thought would be pretty kick-ass/amusing to play.

First up we’ve got Prince Paul (ex-producer for De La Soul) with this Miami Bass inspired song from his twisted debut album. I just think it’d be awesome to have the whole crowd doing the booty clap.

Next, we’ve got Acid Mothers Temple side-project, Zoffy and their, um, completely out of tune, Smoke On The Water. I think it’d be pretty cool to hear those first ten seconds of the song blasted everytime I walked out on the field. People would definitely be confused.

And then we’ve got the Gories with their fantabulous tune, Nitroglycerine. I love the “Fire in the hole!” at the very beginning of the track, followed by some Link Wray inspired power cords. Genius.

And last but not least, we’ve got the Japanese power trio, Boris. Could you imagine hearing those first fifteen seconds of the song everytime you walked out on the field? I think that would even pump up the dead.

So, there we have it, my leftfield choices for “walking onto the field” songs. I purposefully avoided the classic rock genre because it’s so prevelant, but could definitely think of a couple more songs. Most notably, songs by T. Rex or David Bowie.

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Hey all. I’m having some server difficulties, but everything should be ironed out shortly. Thanks for the patience!

* Skip Spence: Cripple Creek (3.5 mb) | Weighted Down (The Prison Song) (9.0 mb) | War In Peace (6.5 mb)
From Oar : Sundazed Music Inc : SUNDAZED SC 11075

Well, here in the Midwest, the lazy, hazy days of summer are almost upon us. And Oar, by Skip Spence is the personification of these up and coming days. Former drummer of Jefferson Airplane, member of Quicksilver Messenger Service and founder of Moby Grape, Skip Spence has an impeccable psychedelic resume. Personal instabilities though, a combination of mental problems exacerbated by rampant drug and alcohol use, prevented him from lasting any amount of time in either group. In fact, he was only present in that psychedelic “summer of love” from 1965-67, before trying to attack one of his bandmates with an ax and, subsequently, being commited to Bellevue, a mental institution in New York City.

After his release, he bought a motorcycle, rode to Nashville and cut a record in four days. The record was, in a very literal sense, all he had left. He poured everything he could into that album.

Oar is typically thought of, even by those who love it, as the unfiltered-yip and moan of a confused, tormented soul. Oar is certainly unretouched Spence, straight from the id. But there is just as much reason as intuition in the sound and character of Oar. Spence knew exactly what he was doing.
….The elemental instrumentation was partly a result of Spence’s one-man-combo methods, partly due to the constraints of recording on three-track tape (a peculiar, outmoded configuration by 1968). Yet the languid, bass-y ambience of the record was deliberate-to emphasize intimacy and heighten the dank air of enforced isolation. These were, after all, songs written behind bars and locked doors.

(from the liner notes)

And Skip never made another record after that. He spent the next thirty years in various halfway homes and homelessness before succumbing to lung cancer in 1999.

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* Amon Duul II: She Came Through The Chimney (5.5 mb) | Archangels Thunderbird (5.6 mb) | Cerberus (6.5 mb)
From Yeti : Repertoire Entertainment : REP 4914

When I first started getting into psychedelic music, I’ve always heard whispers about this mythical album entitled Yeti. Created by a group of communal living Germans, Amon Duul II had supposedly created a psychedelic krautrock masterpiece. I even remember reading a story where Robert Pollard, formerly of Guided By Voices, agreed to play a show, with the payment being a pristine vinyl copy of this album. Unfortunately, due to there being a bunch of different semi-official, poorly mastered copies on various labels that weren’t so easy to find and not so affordable, I’d never been able to track down a copy of it, so I couldn’t hear what I was missing.

But, a little bit ago, I finally ran into a copy that seemed mostly official and with decent sound. And I don’t get it. I’ve listened to this album numerous times and I feel like I’m still missing something. I don’t understand what the big deal is. The album is alright, but it’s not the balls out, psychedelic krautrock masterpiece that I’d been lead to believe it was. But I want to like this album. In fact, I want to really like this album, so please, can someone explain this one to me? Please?

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* Pussy Galore: Rocks Off | Rip This Joint | Shake Your Hips | Casino Boogie
From Exile On Main Street : Shove Records : Shov 3

Back in the day, when I was getting into the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, I kept hearing about his former band, Pussy Galore, but didn’t really get to hear any of their music. Known for their musical incompetence, Pussy Galore, originally hailed from Washington D.C. Fronted by Jon Spencer (future leader of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion), the band made a move to New York City where they picked up a couple more members, including one Neil Hagerty (future leader of drug damaged Royal Trux).

Neil Hagerty convinced the band to record a complete cover of his favorite album, Exile On Main Street by the Rolling Stones (although I’ve also heard that Neil didn’t really like the album, but just wanted to do this on a lark). Well, for whatever reason, they made this track-by-track cover of Exile and ran off a bunch of cassettes. Their music ineptitude is definitely front and center, as they can barely keep it together for one song. At any rate, they made a bunch of cassette copies and sold them locally. This is super rare and out-of-print and something about it almost makes me think that is should remain that way. I can’t decide if I think Exile is a work of unmusical genius or if it’s just a bunch of debutante trash rockers making suckers of everyone (which, come to think of it, is almost how I feel about the original album).

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