Here’s a couple out of print cd-rs from Andy Crash:
Andy’s newest album “Waiting for Nothing” is still available from Ear Bleed for $5. Did we mention it’s amazing and contains a bunch of Hank Williams covers? And comes with an awesome color mini-poster drawn by Andy himself?
Yellow Crystal Star
Child Bride
To-Night Golden Curls
Cryptids
@ Robinwood Concert House, Toledo.
Last night I went up to Woodchucks in Toledo to see Burning Star Core. I’ve seen C. Spencer Yeh play in various combos before, but never as BxC, so I was excited for this show. Never been to Woodchucks, either; it’s a tiny hole in the wall, which is usually a good thing for noise shows in bars. Darger opened with some extremely loud duo guitar drone stuff. Wasteland Jazz Unit was up next and slayed, their sax and bass clarinet making some intense feedback and bongslobber skronk noise that woke my tired ass up. After that was BxC, Robert Beatty playing space echo synth and Yeh manipulating samples. They started off with an off-kilter kosmische drone that oozed and gurgled around for a bit like the best moments of early Tangerine Dream stuck in a blender. Then the second jam started off with a drum machine doing a Tony Conrad & Faust beat, with Yeh playing drone violin and the sax player from WJU joining in halfway through for a trip to krautrock country. All in all a good night of music in Toledo set up by Toledo Bellows, check out their site for more great experimental shows coming up in Toledo.
One of the coolest places to hear noise these days is Oberlin’s Fairchild Chapel. Great acoustics that only a stone chapel with a super high ceiling can provide, plus all their shows are low-key and free. Went to see Nmperign a while, which was the perfect act to see there. Super quiet avant trumpet/sax whisperings and grindings that seriously messed with the circuitry inside my brain. The only downside was that folks that were just there to maintain their noise hipster street cred can’t sit still quietly and not talk on their cell phones. During something as intensely quiet as a Nmperign concert, it’s a huge distraction. The other big find of the night was Fluxmonkey, who’s an older cat who’s been been building synths in his basement for years and now blows new jack noise kids out of the water.
Friday night I went to go see Hair Police and Religious Knives at the Chapel, which I was super excited about. Robert Turman opened and laid down some seriously heavy ritual Satanic dark drones. Hair Police played next and slayed as always. They started of with a really sparse jam of Connelly screaming punctuated by feedback before breaking into some of their “songs”. I really like how Hair Police write recognizable songs that still border on chaos and improvisation. They’re always a good time live, though this set was a little lower intensity than the last time I saw them. Next up was Brooklyn’s Religious Knives, which I was excited about since I really like their albums and dig the whole Double Leopards drone family. Well, I was in for a bit of a disappointment because it was hands down one of the worst, most amateurish performances I’ve seen in years. They couldn’t keep time to save their lives, the guitar playing was inept at best, and the sound was wretched. Even cutting them slack for having to play in a huge, booming venue without their drummer after a band as intense and together as Hair Police, watching Religious Knives was as painful as watching a really bad cover band of your favorite band ruining your favorite songs. I almost didn’t even write about the show because I’m not into bad-mouthing other musicians, but I thought I ought to give the Knives an old-fashioned internet tongue-lashing/tough love. Why bother playing a show if you’re going to do it less than half-assed? Maybe you can get away with a sloppy show in Brooklyn, but don’t come to Ohio with that crap and try to pass it off as “Velvet-Underground-inspired-psych-rock”. If you can’t even play your own songs, that means you need to go home and do what the old jazz cats used to call “woodshedding”, which to the rest of us means “practicing until you are a competent musician”. I know everybody has their off nights, but you could at least try…
Finally put up a clip from the Cryptids show at the Pleasuredome in Ypsilanti last year opening for Dickhearse & Yellow Crystal Star. Sound’s pretty decent considering it was recorded on a digital camera. Too bad there’s no video for the set the next night when I got to play through Mark’s Sunn amp.
New Cryptids tapes coming soon…
So, I went to go see the Puffy Areolas last night, and had to sneak in the side door because I didn’t have $5 and I was just going to give them copies of the new Ripped Krampus II cd-r and say hello, since I haven’t seen ‘em in a couple months. Krauty and some lady were rolling around screaming and wrapping each other in duct tape and a big pile of tangled microphone cables and stands on the front of the stage and the band was definitely WAY too loud for the majority of the audience. Anyway, Teets handed me a copy of their new (?) tape “Final High”. I don’t care what you have to do, you need to beg, borrow, steal, kill to get this tape. It’s the same songs that they’ve been kicking around lately (like on Brian Turner’s show), but this tape has louder, more brutal versions and is the best thing I’ve ever heard from them hands down. Plus Dusty even sings on a song at the end. Knowing how hard it is to get any of the Puffies’ recordings (I still don’t own the “Sweat Tape”), you’ll probably need to show up at one of their shows with a big bag of peyote and throw it onstage to get one, but it’s a small price to pay.
Puffy Areolas Spring Gigs:
2/12- @ Oldfields (Columbus) w/ Psychedelic Horseshit
2/19- @ Howards (Bowling Green) w/ Terrible Twos
2/20- @ Now That’s Class (Cleveland) w/ Pinkeye & Angry Dad
2/27- @ Carabar (Columbus) w/ Necropolis, Cheater Slicks
3/13- @ Now That’s Class w/ AIDS Wolf, US Girls
6/2- @ Now That’s Class w/ Fag Cop
Here’s some upcoming shows in Toledo, presented by Toledo Bellows:
Mar 27-GUNSLINGERS (France)+TERMINAL LOVERS (Cleveland)@ woodchucks
Apr 4-NOTHING PEOPLE (LA)+ JEALOUSY (LA) @ woodchucks
Apr 6-BURNING STAR CORE + WASTELAND JAZZ UNIT
@ woodchucks
May 29-Jack Wright_sax(Philadelphia)/Bob Marsh_cello,violin,voice, electronics(Bay area)@ Robinwood Concert House
JUL 16-PETER J. WOODS (Milwaukee) + INSTINCT CONTROL (Chicago) @ woodchucks
Chile’s Templo Sagital label has a CD-r release of the original RIPPED KRAMPUS, entitled Warm Direlict. RKI features Dusty (Puffy Areolas, Hard Gospel with Child, RKII) on bass, Mandy on drums and the one and only Dr Teets (Tyvek, Puffy Areolas) on guitar. TS says: “Some of the wildest bands of this times, like a satanic Velvet Underground breaking your nerves with agressive mantras, and violent voices and noises above a solid rythmic base. One of the most powerful, intense and dark rock bands of this last years. Highly Recommended.” We’d have to agree with that, go to their blog to order yourself a copy.
There’s a review and mp3 samples of the Cryptids/Du Hexen Hase split over at Smooth Assailing blog.
The Puffy Areolas WFMU session is available as mp3s over here, y’all.
