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Ah, Grasshopper! A mainstay of My Castle of Quiet playlists from the very beginning. This Brooklyn duo has traversed the most-eerie of improvised / otherworldly territories, and come out the other end, as outstanding soloists and collaborators, in many projects outside of Ghop. Their musicianship remains expert, the sheer quality of them "knowing what they're doing," and choosing to do THIS, is one of the great charms / inspirations of Grasshopper, still very much the "mothership" for Josh and Jesse.
Fans will find the band largely in familiar territory here, painting a slow-burn garden of creeping dread and pulsation, cradled by ethereal long tones. "Witch's Blood in a Sauce" finds them especially "on," adding unanticipated horror-dressing to their usual array of mesmerizing sound evolution. Always good, and always at home on MCoQ.
Grasshopper have new work out or coming soon, on various formats / labels. The new, full-length Grasshopper LP (their third 12" on vinyl), Dark Sabbath: Symbols of Evil is coming soon on Hausu Mountain. Jesse and Josh also have a solo / split tape, Josh Millrod / Shingles, also on Hausu, there's a full Shingles cassette, First God Planted a Garden (2AM Tapes) ,and a Josh Millrod solo cassette, Seeking the Millenary Kingdom, on Solid Melts. (MCoQ archive links: Josh | Shingles)
Thanks as always to audio engineer Juan Aboites, for his professionalism and talent, and to Tracy Widdess of Brutal Knitting, for continuing to immortalize my crappy iPhone band captures. (This one is especially good, recalling the hippie-photo-collage covers of Amon Düül and their ilk.)
WFMU, among a great many other things, is about community, i.e., presenting and promoting local musicians / artists / humorists, in addition the great International performers we present. My Castle of Quiet has always been about the business of seeking out exceptional local musicians, and it doesn't get too much more local for us than Through Thorn and Brier, their craft honed in our shared County of Hudson, NJ. At one time, WFMU's staff was chock-full of NJ-bred radio personalities, many of whom lived and or passed through nearby Bayonne, including late-great broadcasters and good friends of mine, Terry Folger and Frank "Vanilla Bean" Balesteri, both of them taken from us way too soon. Bayonne borders directly on WFMU's home town of Jersey City, and offers great pizza, good bars and a decent standard of living for a largish NJ city. All that considered, if you told me that Bayonne had bred a strong, talented, one-of-a-kind punk / metal band, I still might have doubted the veracity of your claim, not sure why though. That is, right up until the first time I heard Through Thorn and Brier.
Originally stumbling upon their songs on bandcamp, in a position I now often find myself in, checking out a band that I missed live for no good reason except that I generally like to stay home. Sporting twin brothers on vocals and guitar, amidst a mighty, accomplished lineup, TTAB play a threatening, driven brand of metal-infused punk music, with arcing guitar melodies, swinging, thudding riffs, and ominous, almost tribal beats; add roaring vocals and a general mood of rolling with reckless abandon. If punk-metal hybrid bands can be "catchy," TTAB certainly ARE, their riffs immediately inspiring head swirling; one of those physically motivating bands that make me wish that I had long, straight, flowing hair to swing in time.
Every Through Thorn and Brier song is something like a mini-suite, blasting through multiple inspiring riffs and you-must-pay-attention time signatures in a matter of minutes, taking you on a ride you can't fully absorb the first time, and isn't that the way? Shouldn't a band's numbers be such that new pleasures reveal each time you listen?
Call them screamo (don't!), call them hardcore, or metal—all those genre labels quickly dissolve in the hands of the best of bands—and TTAB's songs cover a wild breadth of punk and metal styles with purpose and ease, such that the hops are never gratuitous and always contribute quite naturally to the sum of their parts.
I was very pleased to present this excellent band, well-deserving of more widespread notoriety, as evidenced here. (Note: Where songs were played without a complete stop in between, they are presented here as such, i.e., tracks 1 and 3 consist of three songs apiece.)
Thanks and much appreciation must go to engineer Juan Aboites, for working his ass off, and making everything sound full and ferocious. Thanks too, to Tracy Widdess of Brutal Knitting, who for maybe the 100th time, pieced together a handsome band portrait from my miserable iPhone captures.
You can hear the Good Grief EP and Failure Prone MLP (both worth owning) and purchase hard copy of the same at Through Thorn and Brier's bandcamp page. There, you'll also see their use of non-typical, decidedly un-metal imagery, a move well appreciated by this DJ / writer. Also visit ttabhc.com for more up-to-date band info.
The concentrated joy of this set by Future Death Toll is its own reward. Fresh off of tour, the band sounded a-frickin'-mazing, and I was immediately confronted with a familiar feeling, of "O, Lucky Man!" ...I dig deep into the underground, bobbing for those most-artistic of apples, and this time came up with the outstanding sounds of FUTURE DEATH TOLL. Indeed, I am fortunate, to have this incredible outlet wherein I can extend invitations to artists such as these, and they just show up and play! ...Sit in that Studio B chair sometime, and you'll begin to understand how good the years of MCoQ weekly broadcasts have been to me, and in general to my colleagues at the station, and to WFMU's devoted listeners of course. The kiss of WFMU is golden, and I need to remember to utilize this opportunity at every possible turn, in order to bestow upon all who care the rareified talents of artists of similarly high caliber.
Based on a barely labeled cassette tape I had received a long time ago, different from this set (more "home studio," obviously), I knew Future Death Toll would make good use of the opportunity for a live radio set, and I was not disappointed. Though the tape is generally "lighter," as might be expected, as well as more song-oriented, F-DT do a lot of different things, and as with Slasher Risk before them (see this set from 2010), the variety of their capabilities just meant that playing live on the radio revealed another layer. They were noisy, dense and intense, but not entirely free-form, with themes that arose, dominated and then dissipated, as you will hear.
So sit back, listen and enjoy. Massive props to engineer Juan Aboites for applying his considerable and diverse talents to making Future Death Toll radio-ready; whatever I throw at him, he makes the very best of it, rising to every challenge. Thanks also to Tracy Widdess for again making excellent, memorable photo art from my on-the-quick iPhone band captures.
The grind I like, I really love, perhaps because as a genre, there is rampant saminess; so I sit back and let bands like Psychic Limb, Ubasute, Agathocles, Cattle Decapitation and Pig Destroyer rise to the top by way of their own virtues.
Alex Caprio's distinctive and unpredictable shriek, Mike Marciano's artful, intricate Rickenbacker bass virtousity, and Jeremy Suria's guitar work (equal parts technical, Steve Howe-midrangery, and thick, power-chord glue) all work thorughly together to make the band a cut above the raging pack. Upon even deeper observation, Ubasute's lyrical content, and carefully chosen graphic imagery foil the more-easily-attained / co-opted genre conventions.
Just listen, really listen, to this outstanding set, marking the MCoQ show's return to live music in February, and you'll hear and feel the urgency, raw emotion, and world-attrition in the band's musical mainfesto.
Many thanks must go to engineer Ernie Indradat, whose talents are ready seemingly for whatever musical challenges confront him, and to Tracy Widdess of Brutal Knitting, who once again, wove my slap-dash band capture into an excellent portrait of Ubasute, right down to the apropos color-palette for the band's carefully (and unpretentiously) crafted graphic universe.
ATTENTION: UBASUTE ARE CURRENTLY AUDITIONING FOR A NEW DRUMMER; IT'S A LABOR OF GREAT HONOR, KIND OF LIKE A SAMURAI. IF YOU LIVE IN THE NJ/NY AREA, AND ARE GENUINELY INTERESTED, PLEASE CONTACT: Alexclarkcaprio@gmail.com
WFMU returns once again to Austin, Texas during the annual SXSW Festival for a daytime party at Beerland! on Saturday, March 15th at 2pm Eastern (1pm Central for those in town) with a dynamite nonstop afternoon of beer-and-BBQ fueled rock! On tap: Protomartyr, Buck Biloxi and The F***s, Spray Paint, Obnox, Guerilla Toss, and Pampers! Liz Berg and Brian Turner will be hosting the broadcast live from the club, which is at 711 Red River in central Austin. It's not an official SXSW event, so no badges, but the best part is that it's FREE to the public, so those in town for the festival should get there early, or tune in to WFMU.
This massive session was booked long before I decided that I'd be taking, at the very least, a season off from broadcasting the My Castle of Quiet program on WFMU. A somewhat different grouping of bands from the Black Twilight Circle (aka artists on the great Crepusculo Negro label) had visited the show in October 2011, and thanks to all the bands, M. from Seed Stock/Raspberry Bulbs, and the engineering/organizational skills of Diane Kamikaze Farris, that session had come off as something really special—a sprawling, but tight and ferocious bill that myself and all others involved could be very proud of.
This time, Eddie and company were returning with a slightly different selection of bands—Volahn and Arizmenda would be back; this time with the opaque, progressive death-metal of BHL (Blue Hummingbird on The Left), and the solidly composed, chunky, contemplative black metal of the much-loved Bilirubin. In the "but wait, there's more" category, also joining us would be perhaps my favorite bm band from French Canada—the great Verglas, whose outstanding tapes have enthralled and mystified me over the past few years.
So, even though by the time of the tour's arrival, I would no longer be on the air weekly, as luck would have it, in early July, before the soil had even been packed atop the coffin of MCoQ's first four years, Evan Davies would need someone to fill in two weeks in a row, perfect timing for me to air this session while it was still fresh, in a prime-time, evening slot.
The level of musicianship and compositional talent in all of the Crepusculo Negro bands is so high—these guys simply love to play, and do so with the utmost congeniality and ease, often working a round-robin where certain players workout on drums, guitar or vocals, depending on the project—such that all of these groupings defy easy categorization. Black metal is the shaky umbrella under which they all casually fall, but the sometimes limiting definitions of that genre are such that these groups bleed out over its edges (and in the case of Arizmenda, quite literally!) In each of these projects, a different player takes the lead, seemingly writing the songs and arranging the parts, etc., so what results is four very distinct voices. Each will end up in your "black metal section," but only for ease of definition, as they all reach far beyond in their way.
Verglas are another animal entirely, drawing on their own urgent, propulsive, minimalist energy, making "the succinct statement" work for them, in a way similar to some of my favorite bands of the genre—Vordr, Bone Awl, Malveillance and others—but shorter songs, and an urgent force, is where the comparisons end, as Verglas have their own character and a songbook of raw dynamite.
All in all, this was a plate-shifting session of great music by great bands, leaving your host very thrilled, and elated that such a passionate coda could be placed upon four years' worth of weekly broadcasting that was more often than not black-metal dominated.
Thanks again to Eddie, all the CN players, Diane, and the Verglas players, for making this day yet another massive Castle session to remember. Each band's set is presented here as a single, unbroken mp3. I had let this session languish in the streaming archive after leaving the weekly air, and my Summer / Fall got cluttered and busy, so I must thank you all as well, for your patience in waiting on this post.
What makes a great grind band? Doing as much as you can in an average of 43 seconds' song duration, flexing those ferocious chops from all angles, and, though this may be hard to explain to someone whose ears are attuned to pop music and the traditional song form, a certain "catchiness," an anthemic propulsion that will make the listener/receiver want to propel oneself into the pit without a care for personal safety. Psychic Limb have all these qualities, in spades.
I've liked these guys from the second I heard them, they stand out mightily from the pack of late 2000s grind on bandcamp and elsewhere, and they make records that stand firmly amongst the classics of the genre. And yes, they can and do reproduce it all in person.
For months, drummer Casey and I tried to schedule a live radio appearance for PL, and finally were able to line something up for the final MCoQ weekly broadcast on June 7, 2013.
This set represents their latest (and reportedly final) release, Jamaica. They still seem to be playing a few shows here and there, so if you have the chance, catch them live while you still can.
Huge thanks to live-sound engineer Juan Aboites, who deftly scultped many a live Castle session in the show's final months of its original tenure. Thanks also to Tracy Widdess, for taking these photos of the band, and for co-hosting the last show with me in person, flying in from Vancouver Island, BC, to do so. Full broadcast archive can be streamed here.
Track titles, though they hardly seem to matter, are as follows: 22, 27, 19, 20, 29, 28, 24, 26, 21, 23, 30, 25. Psychic Limb's set is presented here as it should be, as one continuous mp3.
Still working my way through the last few months of live performances on the My Castle of Quiet program, we find ourselves now at this haunting session from late May by Pat Murano and Tom Carter.
This is an exciting time for improvised music in general, and the releases on Murano's Kelippah label, including the Carter/Murano LP, are at the very forefront of this exciting post-everything era in the genre. Here, we're "after" Krautrock, after 90s space-rock (Carter being a veteran of the much-respected, much-loved Charalambides), after the Parker/Bailey EMANEM-label vibrations from the UK, after doom/drone/"organic" improv, and basically that's all a good thing, as anything goes—one can tweak and kerplunk, be melodic, be massive, be subtle and contemplative, and give bursts of electronic noise, all in the course of one session, or even one piece.
Carter and Murano seem to guide one another into vast fields of arcing melody and rhythm, and at least for this session (one must consider all the Murano / Carter works to really get the gist, including the aforementioned LP, and NATCH 4, also offered on our Free Music Archive), we're in blooming meadows of post-Kraut brilliance. Especially in "Music #2," Murano's synth figures weave intricate spiderwebs over and under Carter's Michael Rother-like, slow-burn guitar improvisations, before collapsing into a welcome noise-gasm in the concluding minutes.
Yet again, that "magic room," also known as WFMU's studio B, and the forum of the My Castle... show, seem to have provided the comfortable environment for another history-making session to occur. And though kraut/space might be the listener's initial reaction, absolutely nothing is off the table, and I hear elements of dub, doom, and wild, free noise in these tracks. Lie back, with or without your inebriant of choice, and enjoy.
Huge thanks to Tom and Pat (Mr. Murano having the dubious distinction of being the most-often-featured live performer on The Castle, having played this session, as well as ones with Malkuth, K-Salvatore, solo as Decimus, and also on Brian Turner's program in the duo Key of Shame), and to engineer extraordinaire Juan Aboites, and to Tracy Widdess for yet another varicolored photo manipulation of my scrappy captures.
As I said to the members of Bludded Head, for a good, long while, I'd been subsisting on the two, outstanding tracks from their debut 12"—and with great enthusiasm, am now proud to bring you live versions of these four, new compositions from this unique Texan doom outfit. Studio versions of the songs are also available from the band on limited CDr.
With two new members added to the lineup (and the original, intact core of Nevada Hill and Darcy Neal), these songs find BH in the realm of even greater dynamics and subtlety when compared to the tracks on their debut; the addition of double bass and an accomplished new drummer having opened up the compositional palate of the band considerably. None of the crunch has been sacrificed though, and Nevada's outrageous screams still ride atop the steamrolling melee of Bludded Head's mighty downbeats.
Doom bands come and go, many sounding similar to one another, with the greatest emphasis being placed on how far apart those gut-punch downbeats can be spaced; not so for Bludded Head, who seem in it to write, arrange and execute great songs, several worlds apart from the sameyness that characterizes many of their peers in the genre. My Castle of Quiet and WFMU caught up with the band mid-tour, and it shows, such that the freshness and intensity of these selections are at a dazzling peak.
Huge thanks are due to engineer Juan Aboites, for capturing the acoustic and electric powers of Bludded Head in equal measure, and creating a terrific, rich mix for broadcast. Thanks again to Tracy Widdess of Brutal Knitting, for the Alchemical process she always applies to my pixel-challenged captures of the band, weaving mediocre photo-snapping into art.
This session is a monster, black-metal fire that strafes the earth and then salts it for good measure. Fuckin' unbelievable.
Speaking very generally, black metal can be divided into two, distinct subgroups; the raw and the dirty, with its roots in punk, and the more "musicianly," with expert playing, and grander, more-"orchestrated" concepts. Either way, to pass my filter, the songwriting is key, and has to be there to bring the sound across.
Naturally, there's been significant cross-pollination of these two basic styles over the years, and One Master are perhaps the finest example of a band that has chops to spare, with longer, epic songs, but with not an ounce of grit sacrificed—in fact, the sheer gut-punch of this session, as well as One Master's two full-lengths and split cassette with Glass Coffin, will simply bowl you over like a life-affirming ass-kicking. Even as I listen now, after many a deep sit-down with the material, the ferocity of One Master's Castle session is staggering and the first thing your ears will notice—melodic riffs, deftly arranged and well-written songs, delivered with mighty, mighty force.
These guys were also great to hang with, and we had lots to jaw about off-air, with our shared obsessions for classic horror / exploitation film and the like. These are men you can have a beer with, and talk about Cannibal Ferox on into the night. I recall saying, "Is there any scene in Requiem for a Vampire other than the basement-torture scene? 'Cause if there is, I don't remember it...." hehe....
Thanks a fuck-ton to the band for bringing their exquisite black-metal art to WFMU, and to engineer Juan Aboites for creating a clean, solid and forceful mix for the broadcast. Thanks also to Tracy Widdess of Brutal Knitting for re-crafting my shitty iPhone band captures.
WFMU returns to Barcelona's amazing Primavera Sound Festival on Friday, May 24 and Saturday, May 25th!
This year's broadcasts happen from 3pm to Midnight both days, artist schedule below. Don't miss it!
Friday, May 24
3:00 Hot Snakes
4:00 White Fence
5:00 Woods
6:00 Fuck Buttons
6:45 Merchandise
7:35 Killer Mike
8:10 Daniel Johnston
9:00 Om
10:00 Neurosis
11:00 Josef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch
11:30 Fourtet
Saturday, May 25
3:00 Swans
4:20 Orchestra Poly Rhythmo de Cotonou
4:50 Guardian Alien
5:30 Goat
6:00 Tinariwen
6:20 Mulatu Astatke
6:45 Death Grips
7:10 Thee Oh Sees
7:40 Meat Puppets
8:15 Dan Deacon
9:00 Jesus and Mary Chain
9:30 Dead Can Dance
10:00 Nurse With Wound
11:00 Omar Souleyman
11:30 Wu-Tang Clan
As the festival's official USA radio partner, WFMU has been carrying sets live from sunny Spain five years in a row, and artists we've broadcast in the past included Glenn
Branca, Grinderman, Sonic Youth, Codeine, The Pop Group, Demdike Stare,
The Monochrome Set, Marianne Faithfull, Einsturzende Neubauten,
Pavement, Pere Ubu, Wire, and many more, with archives available online and the FMA!
Arvo Zylo's recordings / talents run the range from truly overwhelming, confrontational / chilling harsh noise, to thought-provoking experimental sounds rooted in the 1980s Raplh/LAFMS/post-TG international "noise boom." Over many releases and collaborations, he has maintained a character of the unexpected, though one always wants to hear what that next sonic mask will be. In the projects Blood Rhythms, Saint Street, and Mister Fuckhead, and simply under his own name, Arvo guarantees provocative listening, and the "catchy" or more-easily-palatable nature of the work will naturally come and go, giving way to the horror.
The cassette-and-CDr album 333, his recent split with Death Factory, and some of the solo / live work he's done recently under his own name and as Blood Rhythms, all stand out to me as experimental music of the highest order from an original talent.
These two live sets represent that Arvo eclecticism, with the first challenging T.O.M.B.'s My Castle of Quiet performance for sheer terror points (T.O.M.B. and Blood Rhythms have a terrific split tape out on Land of Decay, btw), and set two, a sonic/conceptual collaboration with Dolores Dewberry, plays with the mind like some seminal, edgy Krautrock album side, with melody and post-Popol Vuh elements aplenty amongst the rubble. Both sets tickle the pineal, and make for some visceral listening.
Huge thanks as always to engineer Juan, for his versatility and many talents in shaping the sound for broadcast. Thanks to Arvo for making the trip out from Chicago, and for being a truly amiable houseguest!
NJ's IDES did what I'm always a sucker for—treated their live WFMU appearance as something unique and special, considered the medium / opportunity of a live radio appearance, and planned accordingly. In addition to their mini-masterpieces—tight, well-composed songs of 40 secs. to one minute in length, they bridged those songs with a series of improvised, powerful "interludes," cleverly paced and sequenced passages of enthused energy.
I knew immediately upon hearing IDES for the first time that they were a cut above simply another hardcore band, with an intensity and dedication to their sound that transcended genrefication. They pretty much played straight through their 22-min. onslaught, wound tight as a battlefield tourniquet, though there were two ever-so-momentary "breaks," which is where I cut up the otherwise-continuum presented here, for your mp3 enjoyment, stream or download.
Like the predatory sea mammals we have today, the Megalodon cannot stop, or it dies, and the sonic charisma of IDES remains intact. The band have an incredible "swing" to everything they do, such that even an old fart like myself can daydream about careening off the stage head-first into the pit; all you'd see of me would be the flat heels of my Converse hi-tops, back when such footwear actually sort-of supported my meager arches.
The noise bridges are welcome, carefully placed throughout the set, and sound casually great, miles away from anything even remotely half-arsed. So, the verdict is and remains that New Jersey is a reliable, consistent font for all things hardcore and punk, and beyond; look just across the Hudson, 'cause great things are happening.
Can't thank the band enough for playing, adding yet another outstanding, highly memorable live performance to the ever-growing WFMU / My Castle of Quiet pantheon. Thanks also to engineer Juan A. for the reliable, versatile and casual application of his considerable talent, translating the often-chaotic happenings across the double-glass into something radio-ready and highly listenable.
Blissfully unaware of what was to come later in the month, in preparation for WFMU's Web-only, "silent" fundraiser, the plan for My Castle of Quiet was to mount three special programs; The Sonics of Terror, a soundtracks-only special; and two double bills—one improvised / experimental "noise" bill, and one metal bill, the latter showcasing two bands that I'd been "courting" for some months—Chicago's excellent Sun Splitter, passing through on tour, and Brooklyn's relatively unsung black-metal giants, Yellow Eyes. The latter program was to top off a very eventful month on the show, and boy, did it ever.
As great as they are different, Sun Splitter and Yellow Eyes are both exemplary and plainly evident of how wildly varied what falls under the banner of "underground metal" can be; Splitter draw on "rock," with a thick and good-smellin' Sharpie, culling from Big Black, Led Zeppelin and all points between, with a pure, dense psychedelia permeating their unique compositions, while Yellow Eyes are one of Brooklyn's best-kept black-metal secrets, true to the parent genre, while unquestionably having their own sound, wickedly sea-ferring accomplished players, great songwriters with a murky sound and an attitude to match, seeking neither fame nor widespread success; thus far, YE have released their mini-masterpieces only on cassette, though two full-length vinyl releases threaten to drop within the coming year.
Intrepid WFMU sound engineer Juan Aboites helmed both sessions, bringing to both projects the cohesion that their complex deliveries demand, and though Sun Splitter were pre-recorded on 10.24, the night before the broadcast, had I not been admitting of this fact, the listeners would never have known, the band's pulsating energy and sheer volume rattling the walls at 43 Monty; heavy, hypnotic Gibson riffs broken asunder by the psychedelic cage-rattling of men captured in H.H. Holmes' damned filthy Chicagoan underbelly.
Yellow Eyes blistered through four of their finest songs, acute treble and assaultive blast beats casting their vivid mental picture of a band of ghost sailors, maddened by syphilis and too many hours alone at sea, listening to the persistent slap of the waves against the hull.
Keep your eyes and ears on both of these bands, to build continually impressive live performances and discographies, and I cannot recommend highly enough the two full-lengths, Sun Splitter III (Bloodlust!) and Silence Threads The Evening's Cloth (Sol y Nieve.) Huge thanks to Juan and the bands for a night to remember. Both sets are presented as relative continuums, with Sun Splitter's final chunk broken off on its impressive own, and YE's set laid out as one continuous mp3.
It was a night of true magic, back in early October, when some of Brooklyn's finest improvisers gathered at WFMU / My Castle of Quiet, to offer unique, exclusive performances, on a double-bill to support the station's pre-Hurricane-Sandy, Web-only fundraiser for that month.
First, Lea Bertucci, a master of spacious atmospheres, and gloomy, contemplative soundscapes, on her trademark combine of physical, open-reel tape and electroacoustic bass clarinet. Lea's two sets from this night evoke The Grand Canyon, and Utah's wide-open spaces, where she'd spent several months earlier in the year on artist's retreat. Lea has been performing solo for many years (see her bio, at Broken Diorama, linked above), as well as in the hometown-favorite duo of Twistycat.
Second, K-Salvatore, the duo of Jason Meagher and Pat Murano, coming off the high of their landmark LP, Tsar Ova Elk, a veritable shoe-in for the My Castle of Quietend-of-year music list (like I said, glaring omissions; this one very worthy of inclusion and just slipped off my mental radar at the time the list was being compiled.) Pat has appeared twice before on the show, both solo as Decimus, and in 2010 with Malkuth; both Jason and Pat are founding members of the No-Neck Blues Band. Their set hummed and shook our building; as "top shelf" as anything from the aforementioned newest LP.
Huge thanks to Ernie Indradat, for engineering two live artists in one night, with his usual cool head and cosmic sensitivity. Thanks again to Lea, Pat and Jason, for their ample talents.
Obviously, you start with Suicide. Then you hit the dusty highway & head backwards, about 15 years. On the way, you stop at a Howard Johnson's where you pick up smokes and an underage girl. Leaving, you spot a shoebox on the ground - it's filled with a stranger's snapshots, postcards and love-letters. You take it, because this will contain your memories. Heading back to the future, you make a pitstop in downtown NYC ca. 1981, just to wash up.
Now that you've got the basic ingredients for Dirty Beaches, you just need the right chef. He is Alex Zhang Hungtai, a bi-coastal Canadian of Taiwanese birth and no place of his own. Though currently, Montreal seems to be doing quite nicely.
Alex and guitarist Shub Roy recently made their first visit to WFMU, and I'm the lucky sumbitch who got to host & record them, while trying not to get drool on their sweet gear. Korg MS-10 synth! Ace Tone analog delay! A homemade fuzz pedal! Real nice mic too, I forgot to ask what that was.
Anyway, we're all real excited to share their live set with you, including an interview where we learn of other things happening in Montreal, and some upcoming releases, including 2 of Alex's film soundtrack projects. An Italian horror film!!
Punk / hardcore, much like its absentee father rock, will never die, and goes on, as new generations of bands are formed and blossom. Particularly since the mid-2000s, there are some excellent, exciting new bands emerging, and Shaved Women are high on the list of artists not only keeping the genre alive, but also re-shaping and redefining it for our times.
In Shaved Women's songs, I hear great bands of yore, like The Fiendz, The Freeze, early Circle Jerks and Black Flag. Real punks are brutally sincere and earnest in their work—no poseurs allowed, and these are some of the most talented -and downright amicable- dudes you will meet playing HxCx today.
Their 12" vinyl, originally issued by the excellent Rotted Tooth Recordings label, caught the attention of Jussi at Ektro, and is now available on CD, thanks to the hyper-eclectic Finnish label.
Shaved Women came up from St. Louis while on tour, and pounded out a fierce, tight, and meta-accomplished set for WFMU / My Castle of Quiet, and here it is, on mp3 for your downloading and listening pleasure.
Huge thanks are due to Diane Kamikaze, whose highly evolved engineering & mixing skills always make Castle sessions into something more than they would have been without her expertise and accommodation.
Thanks also to Tracy of Brutal Knitting, who continues to craft my dubious band captures into works of art. (Apologies to SW drummer Tom, who's not visible in this shot; it was the best picture I took by far, so it's what we had to work with; you are nonetheless one of the most fluid and skilled drummers to ever grace Castle airwaves with your talent!)
The Gate, at first glance, are an improvisational / jazz trio, but with information freely flowing in from punk and metal (Brian Osborne drummed with Wretched Worst for their very memorable Castle session last March; bassist Tom Blancarte, also a black metal fan) and horror films (tuba player Dan Peck, in addition to being a fan of black metal et al., is also a horror and cult-film buff), their sound offers doomy vistas, and cinematic, creeped-out passages, as well as hearty improv energy.
This live set runs the gamut of rhythmic / tonal delights, and the listener likewise easily escapes any preconceptions about what a tuba, bass and drum trio might be able to pull off. "Plague Face" will bring to mind Alan Silva and BYG Actuel, as often as it does European B-film music. At just over 47 minutes, this set is a real treat for fans of the "out." Mp3 hotspot > 18 mins.
Positive feedback continues to filter in for this live set, presented on the air a few weeks ago. The Spiritual Switchboard, a collaboration between two of Brooklyn's synth heavyweights, is without question a summit to be reckoned with. Jesse DeRosa (of Baked Tapes, Grasshopper, The Hex Breaker Quintet / Quartet, Shingles, etc.) and Joshua Slusher (OPPONENTS, Creeplings, The Grand Selector, et al.) are busy young men, overflowing with talent and a vibrant urgency to express themselves, and put it all out there, as much and as often as possible. Perhaps surprisingly for that M.O., their works are of the highest quality.
It's no secret that I admire them both professionally and personally, so I was only too pleased to provide the My Castle of Quiet program as a forum for them, a vehicle, with which to continue sharing their prowess, on a journey that began for me personally, back when Grasshopper were the second live band ever to be presented on the program, in August of 2009. The Spiritual Switchboard were joined for this absolutely live session by Joshua Greco (also of OPPONENTS), another super-nice guy with a big talent for swinging it analog.
(pictured, Glenn Branca Ensemble stoked to exchange secret guitar tunings for WFMU swag at our tent last year). Happy to say for a fourth year, WFMU returns to Barcelona, Spain to bring you the fullest coverage from anyone from the Primavera Sound festival. Tune in Friday, June 1st and Saturday, June 2nd from 3pm to Midnight ET and hear some hefty blocks of programming from some true WFMU musical faves including Ice Age, Mudhoney, Thee Oh Sees, The Pop Group, Demdike Stare, Marianne Faithfull, Michael Gira, The Melvins, Chameleons, Dirty Beaches, Codeine, Off!, Liturgy, and more performing in front of the Mediterranean. FMUers Liz Berg, Jason Sigal, Brian Turner, and Scott Williams will be live and giving play by play between sets and chatting up some of the performers to boot (plus posting pictures live on the playlist page accessible via wfmu.org homepage during the broadcasts.
Broadcast schedule NYC time (subject to change):
Friday, June 1 3:00pm Lee Ranaldo Band 3:45pm Ice Age 4:15pm Mudhoney 5:00pm Archers of Loaf 5:25pm The Chameleons 6:00pm Milk Music 6:30pm Wolves in the Throne Room 6:50pm Spiritualized 7:50pm Wilco 8:30pm Thee Oh Sees 9:00pm Dirty Beaches 10:00pm Marianne Faithfull 10:25pm The Cure 11:20 The Men 11:40pm Harvey Milk
Saturday, June 2 3:00pm Obits 3:30pm The Dirty Three 4:15pm Liturgy 4:45pm Codeine 5:40pm The Field 6:25pm Olivia Tremor Control 7:00pm Afrocubism 7:20pm Michael Gira 7:45pm Chavez 8:05pm Sharon Van Etten 8:25pm James Ferraro 8:50pm Atlas Sound 9:15pm Demdike Stare 9:45pm The Pop Group 10:45pm Off! 11:20pm TBA
Once again, subject to change.
Past WFMU broadcasts have brought you sets from Swans, Glenn Branca, Diplo, No Joy, Oneohtrix Point Never, Pavement, Grinderman, Sunn o))), Ariel Pink, The Clean, Van Dyke Parks, Wire, Mission of Burma and dozens more. You can check out some of the archives streamed from Primavera from 2009-2011 here (not all our sets were archived for extended periods), and download some of the past WFMU Primavera sets by approving artists on the Free Music Archive! Keep an eye on the FMA for some of these 2012 sets being offered for download in the weeks ahead. And keep an eye on WFMU's home page this weekend for news, schedule changes.
