BROOKLYNRENEGADE2009

funtime party zone 2009! come check out the fair and pick up some nu haute skin covers. june sixth and seventh. woot!

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HOMETAPINGISKILLINMUZAK!!!

the godfather and guru of home recording, r. stevie moore began his assault on the record industry in 1967 when he first began laying down tracks on a reel to reel tape deck in his basement. his vision has been untainted ever since, producing >25 albums with help from indie labels and countless others on his own. claiming that the breadth of his best recordings were done in the 70's, before he started releasing the home recordings, there may never be an actual measurement of his body of work. melding together almost any genre you can name, r. stevie moore has also established a vast working knowledge and grasp of (un)pop music. heart wrenching truthfulness made my doggie stop wagging her tail, but the playful crafting of the melodies takes the edge off and the poignancy somehow becomes a humorous visit to the zany upstairs neighbor's apartment. he also did his time djing for wfmu, which just seems right.

that
s all today from my terestrial ghost tube vortex field, stay unified. we will walk in the sky as soon as we finish filling it with dirt... then we can dig out the sun... FINALLY! sheesh

check out the funpack below, bring lunch.


what's the point? (1984) Cuneiform

d.i.y. 'til i bleed: interview

wikipedia

one of many myspace profiles

r. stevie moore: official hq

roman soldiers

i was going to expand this out into a few entries but decided to kill a flock of birds with simulated drowning techniques approved by empires of hog farmers.

gary war is the shit.

blank dogs needs a haircut.

together, they are roman soldiers!

no joke, while doing some surfins to blog dog on my dog blank dogs, i came across the beginnings of the end. this makes me happy. i am not certain if roman soldiers has anything available that is for purchasing, but you can hit up the myspace page here and be happy, and then frustrated just like me. if any of you know where i can get another hit of that good medicine, please, for the love of gawd, send me links.

as far as gary war goes, this low fi psych guru from brooklyn is a man of mystery it seems. i couldn't find any interviews, just album reviews. music that you can enjoy while on a quiet eve when you are sitting back and enjoying a nice, tall, ice cold glass of robotussin. how great is this? he posts recordings on a blog called the FUNZONE.

blank dogs got that lofi psych edge, but falls steadily into the darker matter. shoe gazer-esk with a hint of the industrial of yore, hypnotic and dream like. here is a good interview and hear is where you can find some of your very own.

needless to i love them both, and hey, if you are ever in brooklyn, there is a good chance you can check out a show.

blank dogs myspace

gary war

trezure trove

hi peeps, it's been awhile, sorry to leave you hanging with the shadow of my ghost for so long. this should make up for it. happy fucking birthday.

mind bending bonker gogo ride in the mouth of the moths flooding the faucet in the sink of the abandoned lean to, this should be a nice puxxle for the next year, but if you need a guide, i shall be referencing the archive often. remember to show your support for the artists by going to their shows and buying their vinyl, ok?

i will be following up soon with some more of my likes and licks later, good night!

mister lonely

earlier this week i viewed the movie "mister lonely" by harmony korine and i was very impressed. not only was it genuinely funny, it was also beautiful. the movie is about an american michael jackson impersonator who is living in paris. he is having a hard time finding people who speak english and finds himself lonely, questioning his identity and thinking about heading back to the states. everything changes while he is doing a gig at a retirement home and meets marilyn monroe who convinces him to come with her back to her beautiful homestead, a Utopian commune for impersonators in a castle nestled in the beautiful french country side. although it has it's dark moments, it seems to be a departure from the intentionally offensive movies previously created by korine. i highly recommend it.

i had almost completely forgotten harmony korine and this movie reignited my curiosity towards the dark character and his limited works. i do believe that korine is one of my favorite directors to date and those of you who think that his social commentary is distasteful, i would disagree, but i would also argue that his originality in imagery and cadence is undeniable. it is not surprising that he names cassavettes, jean luc godard, and werner herzog (who appears in julien donkey-boy and mister lonely) as some of his main influences.

harmony korine has made 4 feature length films: kids, gummo, julien donkey-boy and mister lonely. he also began a short-lived project known as fight harm, directed by david blaine (yes, that david blaine). it was comprised of korine engaging random people in actual street fights. he followed rules of always provoking the fight and continuing until threat of death. korine, who often said he would die for the cinema, hoped to make a cross between a buster keaton vehicle and a snuff film, but after only six fights, he was hospitalized and forced to abandon the project. oof, hardcore. he also wrote the screen play for kent park, which is a seriously twisted movie directed by larry clark (not recommended for the faint of heart).

korine has also published a few books, made a few short stories, made some music videos (including "casper the friendly ghost" by daniel johnston {kids is the first time that i heard a song by daniel johnston}) and a few documentaries. he first gained notoriety at the age of 22 with the movie kids (he wrote the screenplay when he was 19). after julien donkey-boy was finished in 2003, karine practically vanished and although he has never admitted it publicly, his former girlfriend chloe sevigny said in an interview that he was addicted to heroin and methedone and it led to their break up.

of all people, here is what roger ebert said in his review of julien donkey-boy, "korine, who at 25 is one of the most untamed new directors, belongs on the list with godard, cassavettes, herzog, warhol, tarkovsky, brakhage and others who smash conventional movies and reassemble the pieces... harmony korine is the real thing, an innovative and gifted filmmaker whose work forces us to see on his terms." i couldn't agree more.

i believe that harmony korine is truly one of the greatest directors and i look forward to amazing work from him in the future. david letterman is out of touch asshole, but here is a great interview with harmony korine. at the end he really sticks it to him. sorry about the poor quality, but believe me, it is highly entertaining and worth viewing.

animal collective and the best album of the year?

i wasn't going to do an entry about the new animal collective album "merriweather post pavillion", but how could i resist? sure, now they are big rock stars appearing on tv, having practically a critical consensus of acclamation for this album which is already being hailed as the best album of 2009 (so soon? oh yes), but goddammit, i have loved this band forever and i'll be damned if i don't get to glow for them too!

this is their best album. it seems as though they have tapped into some sort of field of consciousness as a group and become a whole. i feel as though the organic blends of vocals and accoustic instruments are finally melting into the digital blendings and manipulations at the hand of the geologist. the swirling tidal wave of sound and emotions wash over you and leave you hypnotized and mesmerized. if you have ever wanted to experience psychedelic substances, but don't have the gall, i would suggest popping this album in while taking a nap. you will be elated by the carnival of imagery that ensues, and you may just end up tuning in and dropping out, if just for that moment.

i first heard this band back in 2004. a friend of mine had been giving me mp3s of theirs here and there, which i digested with not much thought to it. sure, they were a great band, even then, but that is all that it amounted to in my mind. he convinced me to come with him to a show at the great american music hall. they were playing with black dice, so i didn't protest. what i saw that night changed me. they played songs mostly from the album i later came to know as "sung tongs". i swear to god, it was like a spiritual awaking! i felt like fucking hippie, eyes closed, hands in the air, jumping up and down to the grind of their pulsating beats. all this without the aid of any substances. how embarrassing. the most interesting part of the show was that geologist was playing with them at that show, but he did not appear on the album. i bought a black dice/animal collective split there called "wastered" but don't waste your time with that.

i have seen two other shows since. i saw them at the fillmore where they debuted songs from the album feels and also in seattle at neumos doing songs from strawberry jams. the latter wasn't as good of a show as i was used to with them. at first i thought that maybe it was just the venue. i have been to neumo's several times and it seems like the bands don't have as much energy there, i'm not sure why. it also gets rediculously crowded, but that is beside the point, because when the album was finally released, i knew the problem instantly. the album, compared to their previous work, was a flop. i couldn't believe it! it was the first time that i noticed any sort of commercial concern in their music and it seemed forced towards popiness (i think that i just made up a word!). that was a sad day for me. luckily i had so much other work to draw pleasure from.

here is the point if this entry. if you like the new album as much as i do, it is definitely worth your while to check out some of the other pieces put out by members of the collective.

avey tare and panda bear: there you go. the beginning of it all, sort of. this band is considered to be the early incarnation of the band that is now the animal collective. "spirit they're gone, spirit they've vanished" is one of my favorite albums.

jane is also amazing. this group is comprised of panda bear and scott mou. i have the lp "berserker" on vinyl and i love it very much.

another fun ensemble is avey tare & krÌa brekkan, krÌa being avey tare's girlfriend.

animal collective's record label supports a cast of very enjoyable and obscure acts such as ariel pink. check out the paw tracks website for more details.

too hot, even for the bush administration?

the conflict in gaza is so controversial that i considered keeping my trap shut on the subject, but as others start to tread the treacherous waters of personal opinion on the matter, i feel that it may be time to put my own two cents in.

i am not under any delusion that the white house would condemn the actions of the state of israel, who are a long standing ally as we all know, and i don't think anybody could seriously consider hamas to be upstanding or legitimate in their attacks, but here is some brow-raising bits of information that i find rather appalling. since firing the first kassam rocket into israel in 2002, hamas has continued launching thousands of rockets into israel, causing about two dozen israeli deaths and widespread fear. these were indiscriminate attacks on civilians, these can be defined as war crimes. during roughly the same period, israeli forces killed nearly 2,700 palestinians in gaza according to the israeli human rights group b'tselem.

since december 27th of last year, the first day of the current war, the palestinian death toll rose to 870 today, an estimated half being civilians (275 children and 93 women), gazan medical officials said. thirteen Israelis have been killed. over 3650 people have been injured in the attacks, some being linked to white phosphorous, a gas that israel claims they are using as a smoke screens to hide military operations — "a permissible use in principle under international humanitarian law", but human rights organizations have long urged a world ban on the munitions, saying they cause undue suffering through severe burns, essentially having the same effect as napalm. a protocol to the 1980 Convention on conventional weapons forbids using incendiary weapons against civilians or against military targets amid concentrations of civilians. video of the alleged incidents and first account interviews of victims can be seen at the france24 website. also, here is some footage of gaza's main hospital and the scene there at the cnn website.

the people in heavily populated gaza strip (nearly 1.5 million people) have been affectively locked inside the borders, sorrounded by israel, the mediterranean sea and egypt, who will not allow palestinian refugees to cross their border. the people are without electricity and running water and food, the only relief coming in the allotted 3 hour cease fire every day, which the red cross claims is an insufficient amount. is this starting to sound like genocide to anyone else?

Even the white house seems shaky in their support of israel right now after not vetoing the united nations security council cease-fire resolution that passed Thursday night (which powerful pro-israel lobbying group, the american israel public affairs committee criticized them for).

if you would like to get started on your own investigation, i would suggest the new york times website (of course), the bbc gaza crisis: key maps and timeline and the human rights watch website.

this post is not an invitation for any anti-semitic banter. take that shit somewhere else! living in the united states has also taught me to separate the actions of a government state and the people that they govern.

on a lighter note, i am listening to

globalFEST 2009: Live Webcast from Webster Hall

taking place in nyc right now and it is great!

good night