the of mirror eye

* The Music Tapes: The Television Tells Us (9.5 mb) | Music_Tapes_MP3 (113.5 mb)| Music_Tapes_Flac (327.0 mb)
From Live At Athens Popfest : Aug 16th, 2008 : Athens, GA

One of the best shows I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen a lot of them) was this band, The Music Tapes. I first heard about them because of their connection to one of my favorite bands, Neutral Milk Hotel. Lead guy Julian Koster had a completely idiosyncratic musical vision that, upon first listen, completely blew me away. I loved his choice of instrumentation and the loosely based plot line involving televisions and aliens. In a world of cookie cutter music, his was utterly unique and incredibly compelling.

And then I got to see them play. They had put a call out in the liner notes to contact them if you wanted them to play your barn, yard or field. And luckily, someone in Maine did just that. Pulling up to the show, I had a sense that something special was about to happen, but little did I know just how special it would be. Walking into the barn, I saw these wooden clapping hands, a television and a 7 foot tall metronome, along with the regular assortment of instruments. Needless to say, the show was absolutely stunning and I’ve been entranced ever since.

I hadn’t really kept up with The Music Tapes though, and thought they’d stopped recording music because it’d been almost nine years since their first album. But, luckily for us, they haven’t. I was a little worried that the magic might be gone, but one quick listen to their new album quickly dispelled that silly notion.

The new album spotlights Julian Koster’s songcraft and distinctive vocals, his almost religious devotion to the singing saw, and numerous contributions from other musicians in the Elephant 6 orbit. As on previous efforts, recording was done using an array of antique hardware, giving Music Tapes for Clouds and Tornadoes a timeless, texturally rich sonic palette. It is the sound of Julian’s world poking through the curtain surrounding objective reality. In his words, “I just find the imaginary more real than the physical. Magic, the way we find things beautiful, the light behind eyes, kindness, and how we want to serve and protect the things we care about, these things seem like the real foundation of the world to me. I hope that the songs on this record can be more that just postcards from a world, but an invitation to it, to anyone at all who may find such a place comforting and nice.” (Merge Records)

This recent show at the Athens Popfest just serves as a reminder to me of how excellent this band is. I wish I could’ve been their as they’re absolutely on fire throughout the whole show. Big thanks to the taper who captured this wonderful moment. It’s a great recording of an incredible show.

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* Sunburned Hand Of The Man: 01-twelve-(excerpt) (4.0 mb) | Sunburned_MP3 (76.5 mb) | Sunburned_Flac (265.0 mb)
From Live At The ICA : June 20th, 2008 : London, UK

With the goal of a collective mind toward music making, the Sunburned Hand Of The Man always manage to make a glorious, glorious racket. Although they’re usually lumped along with other collectives like the No-Neck Blues Band and Jackie-O Motherfucker, Sunburned Hand Of The Man usually take a more groove based approach to their music making.

Sunburned Hand of the Man is a band in the loose sense of the word; it’s better described as a banner under which a collective of musical freaks have gathered. Based in Boston, Sunburned Hand of the Man grew out of trio which called itself Shit Spangled Banner and featured John Molony and Rob Thomas who would later become anchors of the Sunburned coterie. According to Molony, Shit Spangled Banner was conceived as “a cross between the Melvins and Sonic Youth,” but the group was fast picking up a host of like-minded dropouts and musical wanderers who would show up at their loft, and their sound soon began to incorporate everything from early American folk music to drone, free jazz, space rock, and funk. (allmusic)

Because of their improvisatory nature, you never know what you’re gonna get when you go see this group play. One of the shows I got to see had the collective blasting their way into my mind with a set of deep, bass heavy “songs”. This show on the other hand, given the title “Twelve Rules for Black Square Voids: A Long, Irrational Projection” and is a much spacier affair, with the band playing along to a short film that they put together.

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* Pikachu & Makoto: 01-I (excerpt) (3.0 mb) | Pikachu+Makoto_MP3 (49.5 mb) | Pikachu+Makoto_Flac (174.0 mb)
From Live In Japan : Dec 11th, 2007 : Osaka, Japan

What we’ve got here is an incredible set of crazy psychedelic music courtesy of Pikachu from Afrirampo and Makoto Kawabata from the Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso UFO. If you’ve spent any time here at this blog, than my love for all things Japanese, noisy, psychedelic and out there, should be no surprise at all.

While Makoto Kawabata (guitar and vocals) has been one of my favorite musicians in the universe for a long time now, Pikachu (drums/harmonica and vocals) has been a more recent fascination for me. I first became interested in Afrirampo due to their association with the Acid Mothers Temple and quickly became a huge fan of the chaotic duo. With a pedigree like this, I nearly flipped head over heels when I first ran across this short, but sweet, set by these two noise makers. There was a super, duper long shot that this duo wouldn’t deliver the goods, but luckily that’s not the case. These two create an awesome racket that’s sure to please anyone who might be remotely interested in psychedelic music.

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P.S. Ignore the *.md5 file if you’re downloading the flac files. That *.md5 was for the original *.shn files. I converted the files to *.flac because that’s the format that I prefer. Sorry for the confusion.

* Anthony Braxton & Evan Parker: IV (6.5 mb) | Braxton_+_Parker_MP3 (69.0 mb) | Braxton_+_Parker_Flac (190.0 mb)
From Live At Weiler Concert Hall : June 02nd, 1994 : New York City, NY

What happens when two masters of the saxophone meet and play music together? Do you even need to ask? A MacArthur “Genius”, Anthony Braxton has played, in his extremely idiosyncratic fashion, through over 100 albums. Currently a professor at Wesleyan University, Anthony Braxton is an exception to that old adage, “Those that can’t do, teach.”

Braxton’s music is difficult to categorize, and because of this, he likes to reference his works (and the works of his collaborators and students) as simply “creative music.” He has claimed in numerous interviews that he is not a jazz musician, though many of his works have been jazz and improvisation oriented, and he has released many albums of jazz standards. In addition to these, Braxton has released an increasing number of works for large-scale orchestras, including two opera cycles.

Braxton’s music is highly theoretical and mystically influenced, and he is the author of multiple volumes explaining his theories and pieces—such as the philosophical three-volume Triaxium Writings and the five-volume Composition Notes, both published by Frog Peak Music. While his compositions and improvisations can be characterized as avant garde, many of his pieces have a swing feel and rhythmic angularity that are overtly indebted to Charlie Parker and the Bebop tradition. (Wikipedia)

No slouch himself, Evan Parker is a similarly incredible saxophone player. Hailing from Great Britain, Evan Parker assimilated the greats of American jazz players like John Coltrane and Albert Ayler, while retaining his own identifiable sound. His constant experimentation with methods and equipment

His music of the 1960s and 1970s is harsh, raw and unsettling, involving fluttering, swirling lines that have shape rather than tangible melodic content; sometimes he makes use of pure sound in a manner that recalls Steve Lacy’s more radical 1970s recordings or the work of some AACM members. He began to develop methods of rapidly layering harmonics and false notes to create dense contrapuntal weaves; these involved experiments with plastic reeds, circular breathing and rapid tonguing which initially were so intense that he would find blood dripping onto the floor from the saxophone. (Wikipedia)

Really though, this is an amazing concert, a true meeting of equals. Their saxophones (Anthony Braxton on various reeds and Evan Parker on tenor/soprano) intertwining and communicating at the most intimate of levels.

* Bill Callahan: Diamond Dancer (6.0 mb) | Callahan_MP3_Part2 (61.0 mb) | Callahan_Flac_Part2 (213.0 mb)
From Live In Vienna : May 22nd, 2008 : Vienna, Austria

Well, as promised, here’s the second part of this concert. Sorry it took so long to post this, but life just got too busy for me. Definitely nothing going wrong, but just had too many things to do. At any rate, I hope you’re enjoying this concert. Although I’m having trouble putting my finger on it, there’s something totally awesome about Bill Callahan.

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I apologize for the long time in between posts. Just wanted to assure everyone that I’m still around and that I haven’t disappeared. It’s just been super busy around these parts. Rest assured, the second part of this show is coming very soon.

* Bill Callahan: Diamond Dancer (6.0 mb) | Callahan_MP3_Part1 (74.5 mb) | Callahan_Flac_Part1 (229.5 mb)
From Live In Vienna : May 22nd, 2008 : Vienna, Austria

As with many of my currently favorite bands, it took awhile for me to warm up to Bill Callahan (aka Smog). I first heard about this band/fellow because The Flaming Lips covered his song, Chosen One. I thought the song was absolutely amazing and Wayne Coyne had a long intro about touring with the band. Unfortunately, when I listened to Julius Caesar, the album with that particular song, I didn’t really get it. The songs were poorly recorded (beyond “lo-fi” it seemed to me) and it just didn’t speak to me, or so I thought. Because apparently it did. A good number of years later, I chanced upon that very same album and decided to give it a second chance. And, obviously (or else we wouldn’t be here right now), I “got it”. The songs started making sense to me and I started listening to his albums. A lot.

With its dark undercurrents, brooding repetition, and sparse, intimate production, Bill Callahan’s music plunges a psychological subconscious at once brutal and sublime. Born in Silver Spring, Md., Callahan’s first homemade cassettes released in the late-Eighties under his longtime moniker Smog were saturated with dissonant Jandek-inspired noise experiments. (Austin Chronicle)

At any rate, even though the music remains pretty much the same, he’s decided to record/tour under his own name. So, what we have here is a pretty awesome performance in Vienna with the horse+donkey band. This is part 1, with the second part to follow shortly. Hope you enjoy!

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