Posts Tagged ‘Moon Duo’

Sunday Brunch Takeover: The Nonhorse / Sun Araw Episode

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Last week, “Sunday Brunch with Chocolate Bobka” on Newtown Radio was home to a DJ coup d’état. I wish I could say that the Underwater Visitations team staged a veritable DJ hold-up (in the manner of Horsemouth in the film Rockers, Reggae patois and all), but the reality of the situation had nothing to do with musico-political resistance, and everything to do with scheduling conflicts. Though no omelets or mimosas went into making of this episode, Ari and I had a full plate indeed — so much so that we stretched our two-hour repast into three and a half.

Cameron Stallones of Sun Araw delivered an inspirational virtual DJ set from sunny Los Angeles, aptly entitled “Sunburn City: Heads Up High.” Over Gchat, Cameron described the mix to me as the soundtrack to a “lazer lazy day”: “it starts all dewy, and then it gets mad sunburnt.” I’m not so sure what Sunburn city is, but apparently the photo above — which Cameron provided in the way of visual accompaniment — shows all the people who are waiting in line to get there. I probably should have asked him to tell me a little more about the place when he called into the station from the side of the road — not to mention his thoughts on Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Soviet mystic mathematician PD Ouspensky, whom he seemed intent upon discussion before the show– but we did end up having a pretty fascinating discussion on triangles, hairless dogs, and Hubble 3D.

Just when we were about to pack up for the day, G. Lucas Crane of Silent Barn, Woods, and Nonhorse fame rolled up with his mobile tape-manipulation dashboard and spilled about a hundred hand-labeled tapes onto the floor. Shortly thereafter, he dove into a hour-long mash-up of sounds as widely varied as Indian Raga, a “How to Feel Good Without Drugs” self-hypnosis cassette, and a tape he recorded while watching at home and jamming along to it on a synthesizer. The resulting performance — which you can hear at the tail end of the episode below — was frenetic enough to provoke a small seizure. But like any instance of sensory overload – listening to every FM station on the dial at once, for example — if you let the whole thing wash over you in one long continuous wave, you’ll probably end up feeling pretty blissed-out.

“Sunday Brunch with Chocolate Bobka Takeover: The Nonhorse / Sun Araw Episode”

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Download the entire episode here.

Playlist after the jump.
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VR SXSW 2010 VOYAGE, TOLD FROM START TO FINISH IN 66 TWEETS

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

SXSW 2010 was as blissed-out an exercise in excess as an exercise in excess can be. All in all, the Visitation Rites mobile reporting team (videographer Samantha Cornwell and I) probably caught more sun, saw more live bands, walked more miles, ate more tacos, drank more beer, laughed more, bickered more, took more photos, tweeted more tweets, shot more video, and reunited with more old friends than in all of 2009 combined. After five consecutive days of non-stop partying and documenting, however, we couldn’t help feeling a bit crestfallen when we realized that SXSW wouldn’t last forever.
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VR Vimeo: Moon Duo Bleed Pastel Colors at Synchronicity Space in Los Angeles

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Moon Duo – Live – “Stumbling 22nd Street”, Feb 12, 2010, Synchronicity, Los Angeles, CA from Samantha Cornwell on Vimeo.

Earlier this week, we posted a video that I shot at Synchronicity Space in Los Angeles of Pocahaunted giving a rousing, shamanistic performance. At the same show, I also had the pleasure of seeing — and taping — San Francisco’s Moon Duo.

The pace of festivities that evening was quite long-winded, so the band didn’t even take the stage until 1am. By that time, sadly enough, most of the crowd had dissipated. I took advantage of the situation and set up my camera in a space where I was free from obstructions. I was still on a high from taping Pocahaunted earlier, and was hoping to keep riding on the same buzz. Although I had heard and enjoyed the music of Moon Duo before, I really didn’t know what to expect from a live performance.
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Arthur Radio Transmission #5: Amor Apocalíptico, with live set by Wish

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010


Collage: In-studio photo by Anna Gonick and artwork by Wish

Last Sunday, Visitation Rites returned to Arthur Radio to celebrate the astronomical conjunction of the Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day, and President’s day, which just so happened be the release date for Excepter’s almost eponymous new double L.P. Presidence (preview inside). Rather than make love songs the ordre du jour, we thought we would simply regale you with some tunes that have been pulling our heart strings of late. In the second hour, Zeljko McMullen of the music/visual/art collective Shinkoyo, and founder of Brooklyn’s Paris London West Nile DIY performance space, took us a thousand leagues under the sea of pop musical detritus with his electronic solo project, Wish.
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Reviews: Moon Duo, “Killing Time” EP, Sacred Bones

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Killing Time EP Cover[1]With their/his new EP Killing Time, Moon Duo, a solo project from Wooden Shjips singer-guitarist Ripley Johnson, manages to overcome a slightly lousy band name and a potential first impression as a larky side project to emerge as the best thing yet to scamper out from Ripley and his Shjipmates’ collective womb. What we get is a 20-minute sl(ice)ab of reverb-y echo-y goodness, somewhere between Psychocandy-era JAMC playing NEU! covers on a hazy beach and a fetal Spacemen 3 jamming off on a Suicide tip in a gymnasium.
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