Archive for the ‘Sightings’ Category

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Sightings: The Tower, “The Logical Means of this Destruction”

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011


As keen as I am on the new age tones resonating in the contemporary underground, there will always be a part of me that is comforted by the fact that honest-to-god garage rock is still being made somewhere, by someone. In this case, the location might be a little surprising. The Tower hail from the island of Costa Rica, which is internationally known as a tropical oasis. Like the other eight artists featured on The Free Music Archive’s Si San Jose compilation, they pump out noise drenched, guitar driven sounds that might not sit too well with the tourist population. However, the raw, kinetic energy of this track is undeniable. Guitar, bass and drums sludge together, creating a hearty soup of fury — while the spastic, yet simple guitar riffs and overall distortion recall early Sonic Youth. The track makes its daring exit with a slow, high register feedback burn. While their music may not be pushing the medium, The Tower may make you want to jump out of your chair and rage.

The Tower: “The Logical Means of this Destruction:

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Words: Samantha Cornwell

The Si San Jose compilation is available for free download from the Free Music Archive

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Sightings: Zillions, “Even Though”

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

I must give my sincerest thanks to my blog-bro Yvynyl for sharing Rosali Middleman’s debut track under the moniker Zillions. “Even Though” pounds a driving, infectious rhythm under a glossy and similarly addictive guitar riff with great affect. Middleman’s powerful vocal performance and rhythmic inflections are, however, the track’s biggest draw. Her penchant for R&B-esque vocal deliveries floating over a bed of atmospheric effects and skittery riffs recalls the best moments of the Dirty Projector’s opus, Bitte Orca. But where that group seemingly sought to be off-putting and strange, Rosali uses similar methods to comfort and reel in listeners. I believe that the end result makes listening to “Even Though” the closest that I have come to understanding the term “vibe-ing” in reference to an aural experience. I quite enjoy it.

Zillions, “Even Though” (Self-Released)

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Words: Marc Picciolo

Stream “Even Though” above, or by head over to Bandcamp to download

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Sightings: Discombobulated Ventriloquist, “yuh io klop”

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

The name Discombobulated Ventriloquist doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. However, the strikingly zany name of this project isn’t too surprising when you consider that it is coming from master cymetic theremapist, Ron Rege Jr. (Lavender Diamond). Rege obviously loves a good experiment, so it is no surprise that his project recalls the minimalist, avant-garde aesthetics of Steve Reich. The track “yuh io klop” comes from an album called 2010 which interestingly enough, was released in early 2011. Perhaps 2010 was a particularly extraordinary year in Rege’s life, or perhaps the number itself has some significance that is unknown to me. Whatever it may be, the album is populated by stripped down, percussive, minimalist transmissions, that are generally quite brief. “yuh io klop”, which is just under 11 minutes, is by far the lengthiest track. Its expansiveness allows Rege’s style to evolve from pure repetition to a subtly detailed, mantric groove.

Words: Samantha Cornwell

2010 is available now via Bandcamp

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Sightings: Sara Rara, “A Ray Array”

Friday, November 18th, 2011

In Aldous Huxley’s psychedelic memoir, The Doors of Perception, he comments on the beauty and mystery of the network of leaves surrounding a flower, over the celebrated blossom itself. The idea is that an expanded mind will be drawn to more subtle patterns and tones, as opposed to grandiose aesthetic flourishes. A Ray Array, the new experimental film by Lucky Dragons member Sara Rara, provides a lens for these details. The 58-minute film explores the idea of interference through visual ruptures, interactions between sound signals, and optical illusions, and is composed of static shots– mostly of everyday objects.

The score, which comes courtesy of Rara and Lucky Dragons’ Luke Fishbeck is overwhelming and persistent at times; and at other points, it seems to magnify diegetic sounds from what is transpiring in the frame. As simple and non-narrative as the film is, it is one of the most emotionally impactful experimental pieces I have ever seen. As two sets of hands pull a transparency with parallel lines over a nearly identical sheet of white paper, creating a dance of DIY optical effects, you are reminded of the strength and magic of partnership. When a sublime, rounded, moon-like sheet of marble suddenly shatters, you feel a profound sense of despair and destruction. Once again, these images are largely simple and commonplace. The film’s strength lies largely in its ability to remind us of the power of looking and listening.

Words: Samantha Cornwell

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Sightings: The Smarts, “Modern Life”

Friday, November 11th, 2011

The Smarts were a band from Atlanta/Athens, GA founded by husband and wife Keith and Shawn Smart Longino, with Danny White and David Foster, in 1980. They played their first gig to a sold-out crowd with The Brains, were contemporaries of The B52’s and Pylon, and  garnered a reputation as “the band that opened for R.E.M.” The Live At The 40 Watt Club ‘80 EP is a collection of one-take studio recordings from that year — although the “live” part of the recording was created with the help of Greatest Hits’ Tyler Thacker in 2010, enhanced by “audience” babble from the Longinos’ daughter, Camile. On “Modern Life,” Shawn’s provocative snarl evokes that of fellow new waver Tina Weymouth and hints at glam-rock aspirations on par with her husband’s pension for discontented lyrics à la Lou Reed’s Transformer. The Smarts disbanded shortly after these recordings, and, unfortunately, have no physical releases to date. However, the Longino musical tradition has been given new life in Resin, a “dust bowl glam” collaboration between father and daughter.

The Smarts: “Modern Life”

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Words: Mary Katherine Youngblood

The Smarts perform “Rocket To Stardom” in Dan Halperin’s fittingly “out there” short film by the same name:

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Sightings: Littoral Drift, “Be Like A Bird Caught Up In The Air”

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

Mix samplers represent the “spice of life” in the underground (or any) music community. They bring together the seemingly random sounds of seemingly random artists in one eclectic package that always holds some sweet surprises. The third sampler from the Patient Sounds (intl) collective holds many a gem in its 24 tracks. For me, this accoustic missive from Minneapolis’ Littoral Drift proved the most tantalizing. “Be Like A Bird Caught Up In The Air” combines equal parts tape-era Mountain Goats with the more sinister and atmospheric work of Phil Elvrum . The result is a dark, ambient folk track dipped in haze and teeming with reverb. The thick, messy background is as off-putting as the steady, acoustic strumming is comforting. The vocal narrative shares a message familiar with that of our generation’s folk crooners — break out and rise above your troubles, because there really are no other options.

Littoral Drift: “Be Like a Bird Caught Up in the Air”

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Words: Marc Picciolo

Stream and download the entirety of the magnificently varied Patient Sounds Sampler Vol. 3, as well as the first two volumes over at the Patient Sounds website

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Sightings: Green Mansions, “Vacation #5″ Video

Friday, November 4th, 2011


From what I understand, Green Mansions are a truly international duo. The members include Mike Pigott from Pittsfield, MA, and Peter Bonneman who is a power pop musician from Denmark. While I’m not sure how their collaboration works, I figure it must be through some sort of creatively fruitful correspondence. My mental image of them as two harmonious, but remote poles is perfectly underscored by Miko Revereza’s new video for their ambient track “Vacation #5″. Revereza is at it again with his painterly layers of colored analog video feedback. The visual motifs here are a worthy compliment to the melancholy, down tempo synthesis of the track. It is sort of a shy dance between a searing pink and a translucent blue. The two bursts of color dance within and without each other, creating moments of extreme harmony and distance.

Words: Samantha Cornwell

Green Mansions have a forthcoming tape on UUU Tapes

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Sighting: The Prefab Messiahs, “Beyond All That”

Friday, October 28th, 2011


Thirty years ago, punk-Dada terrorists Seth “Xerox” Feinberg and “Egg” Al Nidle posted up Clark University’s campus with flyers proclaiming, “talentless guitarist and drummer seeking bassist and lead guitarist to form post-punk new wave pop pseudo-psychedelic band.” Mike “Doc” Michaud and Kris “Trip” Thompson replied, and The Prefab Messiahs formed as the agent provocateurs of the Worcester, Massachusetts underground. They denounced Regan-era consumerism and conformity, aiming to revolutionize pop music while simultaneously throwing a “plastic culture” back in its face. Beyond-ironically, they heralding Ronald McDonald and The Pillsbury Doughboy as the prefabricated messiahs of society at large.

Peace Love & Alienation, available next month from Taylor Richardson and Gary War’s Fixed Identity (both also of Human Teenager), features eight newly remastered songs recorded in the years 1982-1983– two of which were produced by fellow “Wormtown” hero Bobb Trimble. The fuzzed-out mind-screws and tremolo riffs on “Beyond All That” make good on the flyer/manifesto’s premonition. In a voice of stirring intellect, Feinberg ridicules the meaninglessness of “cool,” and those masked subscriptions to conformity that still prevail as the social norm. With a slogan that sounds as relevant in 2011 as it did in 1982, he declares that “these times demand the evolving drone of the Prefab Messiahs.”

The Prefab Messiahs: “Beyond All That”

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Words: Mary Katherine Youngblood

Pre-order Peace Love & Alienation from Fixed Identity on November 1st. The LP is officially released on November 15th, exactly thirty years from The Prefab Messiah’s first show. Watch the 1983 official video for Bobb Trimble-produced “The 16th Track,” below:

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Sightings: Horsebladder, “Winter, Worse Winter”

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

There’s something immediately foreboding about the music of Northampton, MA’s Elaine Kahn — aka Horsebladder. Of course, a project consisting of one woman, a keyboard, and “sometimes a drum,” all but screams of foreboding minimalism — but on “Winter, Worse Winter” it’s more than just that. Kahn, like similar artist Julia Holter, has a knack for sounding simultaneously gorgeous and terrifying.  Sparse vocals and stuttering keys meld around the wispy echos of Kahn’s voice and the occasional brute-force drum beats in blunt-yet-mysterious ways. Hearing Kahn sing amidst the mostly silent racket feels almost like hearing the distant shout of someone urging you to seek shelter before an impeding blizzard — warm and inviting, yet stern and serious. The song reminds me of the nerd-famous saying of my favorite characters from George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels. Winter is Coming, so hole up and prepare yourselves, because it won’t be pretty. Although, with Horsebladder maybe winter doesn’t have to be so bad after all.

Horsebladder, “Winter, Worse Winter” (Not, I’ll Not, Ecstatic Peace!)

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Words: Marc Picciolo

You can stream Not, I’ll Not from Horsebladder’s bandcamp page and order the record from Ecstatic Peace!.

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Sightings: Container, “Protrusion”

Thursday, October 20th, 2011


Nashville’s Ren Schofield has established himself in the East Coast underground through his alchemistic cassette label I Just Live Here and the harsh oscillator/tape/guitar drones of his God Willing releases. For Container’s debut, LP – on the continually impressive, John Elliott-run Editions Mego imprint Spectrum Spools – Schofield speeds into high gear with an abstract, beat-based electronic pursuit that retains the damaged, minimal aesthetic of his previous output. “Protrusion’s” motorik-propelled industrial warble-tech thrusts minds and bodies into diasporas as trilling as the track’s own rapidly vibrating movements. I cannot say whether or not Container’s LP necessarily wants you to dance, but I strongly challenge you to try keeping two-(four)-on-the floor a few beats in.

Container: “Protrusion”

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Words: Mary Katherine Youngblood

LP is sold out at the source. Check online distributors Forced Exposure, Experimedia, etc. OR, grip one when you catch Container live with Unicorn Hard-On at the Avant Ghetto show at Public Assembly in Brooklyn on Monday, 10/24

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