the of mirror eye

* Times New Viking: Devo & Wire (2.5 mb) | New Times, New Hope (4.0 mb) | Love Your Daughters (4.5 mb)
From Present The Paisley Reich : Siltbreeze Records : SB93

It’s really cool to live in a city where decent record stores exist. I’m not gonna say that they’re the best in the world, but it’s nice to walk in to a store and get recommendations that you can trust. This group/album is one such find.

Times New Viking are a three piece (guitar, keyboard, drum) from Ohio that have been quietly producing some amazing lo-fi indie noise. Almost as if, back in their primes, Guided By Voices and Pavement had a love child. Swell Maps is also a band that gets referenced a lot, but I can’t be too sure about that, since I don’t know Swell Maps. This is also a band that famously got the head honcho of Siltbreeze (fantastic 90’s indie/noise label) to come out of retirement and release this bands albums.

* Radio Birdman: Burned My Eye (3.0 mb)
* The Saints: This Perfect Day (3.5 mb)
* The Riptides: Sunset Strip (5.5 mb)
* Scientists: We Had Love (7.5 mb)
From Tales From The Australian Underground Vol 1 - Singles 1976-1989 : Feel Presents : FEEL001

I’ll confess to knowing next to diddly squat about the Australian indie/garage rock/punk scenes, but with the number of compilations that’ve come out over the years about it, I wish I knew more. With at least five or six different compilations out there about this scene, I decided to take a shot and started with this one. And whoo boy am I ever glad that I did. This is a complete rip snorter of a compilation.

Created over the course of five years, Mr. Tim Pittman (a total mover and a shaker in the Aussie scene) put together a list of over 1000 songs that he wanted to include in the compilation. And then whittled that down to 45 songs presented over two CDs. This is an amazing accomplishment and one that has me green with envy at the thought of all those hours spent previewing songs from his youth and discovering long-lost gems of songs.

At any rate, enough with the process, it’s the songs here that shine. Hopefully these songs’ll pique your interest in the phenomenal Aussie underground scene.

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Is anyone else as excited as I am about Grindhouse? I can hardly contain myself.

* Joe Meek: The Entry Of The Globbots (5.0 mb) | The Valley Of Sarooes (4.5 mb) | Orbit Around The Moon (4.5 mb) | Magnetic Field (4.5 mb)
From The EP Collection : Castle Music : CMXBX1461

Those of you long, long, long time readers of this here blog know of my great love for anything Joe Meek related (look here, here and here). He was a true producing genius who stopped at nothing to unleash the sounds in his head. So, when I stumbled upon this mammoth EP collection (12 CDs in all) at my local record shop, I just had to have it. Mostly because it’s Joe Meek but partly because it’s packaged in a kind of ridiculous format, seemingly designed just for record geeks like me. I mean, they could’ve easily fit this on 2 CDs, but instead decided to package all the EPs in individual miniaturized replicas of the old sleeves. For many, the EP format was where Joe Meek could really shine.

It could be argued that Extended Plays - as evocative of an era as the producer himself - were the ideal format for Joe Meek. Sometimes he struggled to cram all of the ideas that were swirling around in his head into a two-and-a-half minute single; conversely, he often didn’t have enough strong material at his disposal to ensure that full-length albums were consistently entertaining. Over the course of four songs, however, Joe was in his element, able to combine expansive flights of fancy with his innate Pop genius - as can be gauged from this collection of a dozen key Meek EPs. (from the liner notes)

My previous posts didn’t get to touch on his weirder recordings, not because I didn’t want to, but because I didn’t have any to post. So I was super excited to see that this EP collection had not just the first EP of his space rock odyssey, I Hear A New World, but the unissued second EP as well.

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Before I forget, if you enjoyed this the fine folks at Comfort Stand have provided a full CD of Joe Meek demos (look here) for our enjoyment.

* Cloud Temple: Evenin’ Dulcimer Raag (1.0 mb) | Black Diamond (1,0 mb) | Smoke Blossom (2.5 mb)
From Speaketh In The Tongue Of The Forest : CDR

The best part of going to the brick and mortar stores is finding some magical recordings that you never would’ve seen or heard about before. This band is one such find. I was flipping through the bins the other day when I came across this band, Cloud Temple. The description for the band name checked John Fahey and Six Organs Of Admittance, two of my favorite musicians ever. Plus, this album was just self-released in a semi-ridiculous edition of 25, in the double 3″ CDR format. So, I just had to pick it up.

Not knowing anything about the band, I was complete blown away when I finally got home to put this on the CD player. These are some beautiful songs filled with acoustic guitars, drones and Eastern tones. Probably due to the format, the songs are more like short sketches whereas his full length, which I would love to hear, has only 3 songs. You can still get this and his full length on the Reckless Records website or through the artist himself on his page. Highly, highly recommended.

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* John Zorn: Meanwhile, back at the major label Nonesuch (2.5 mb) | I remember they called me into Krasnow’s office (4.5 mb) | It was very exciting, being in Japan (1.5 mb) | The jewish side of my identity was never something that was an issue (3.5 mb) | Shortly after completing Kristallnacht (1.0 mb) | His answer was over 200 melodies (1.5 mb) | Masada - Ruach (5.5 mb) | Closing, third part (0.5 mb)
From Documentary (Part 3) : BBC Radio 3 : London, England

Sorry for the brief interruption, but the Irish side of me took over and I just had to post something in honor of St. Patrick. At any rate, here’s the section second of the third part of this radio documentary on the works of John Zorn. This one has a continuation of his hardcore-metal groups as well as the transition into his Jewish jazz groups. Wonderful stuff, really.

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And as before, download this as a complete package (look here).

* The Pogues: The Sickbed Of Cuchulainn (4.0 mb) | Sally Maclennane (4.0 mb) | Navigator (5.5 mb)
From Rum, Sodomy & The Lash : WEA Records : 5046759592

Well, apparently on this day we’re all Irish. Living in the windy city, there’s absolutely no escaping this day. Therere a number of parades, the river is dyed green, previously free Irish-like pubs are not charging for entrance and the beer is green. Well, as they say, “When in Ireland, do as the Irish do”, or something to that effect.

So, what better music to play than those favorite sons and daughters of Ireland, The Pogues. I’ve been diggin’ on this band for years, as they magically combine the best of traditional Irish music and English punk in one super great package.

Their music basically a sped-up, amplified and attituted-up take on Irish folk music of the Clancy Brothers/Dubliners sort. Superficialities only go so far. They were never really a folk band in the purest sense. There was always too much Bo Diddley in their backbeat, too much Clash in their attack. Neither were they simply a parody of Irish music, a high-speed punk rock joke band with accordions. They used Irish music as a well to draw from, much as The Stones used Chicago blues; they took its form, its depth of feeling, its melodicism, its romance and longing and every other quality you want to hang on it, and wed it to their own roots in punk and high-powered pub rock, and came up with something uniquely their own. John Lennon once referred to the blues as “a chair,” in respect to its relationship to rock’n'roll music. Irish music was The Pogues’ chair. (Alan K. Crandall)

They released three incredible albums before the lead singer’s (Shane MacGowan) drunkenly erratic behavior became too much. Unfortunately, he was also the heart of the band and after a couple of decent albums, he left the band. The rest of The Pogues tried to soldier on, but to disappointing results.

So, enjoy the music and Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh!

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Fear not, we’ll continue the John Zorn documentary next week.