PIGEON, ripped tees and lunitunic

BROOKLYNRENEGADE2009

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

more info

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.

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

tone bone kone

wow.

that sums up how i felt when i first stumbled upon arthur russell last year. i couldn't believe that 1. this guy is not a contemporary artist (infact he has been dead for almost 20 years) and
b. how the fuck have i never heard this before!

although russell (born charles arthur russell jr.) died at a fairly young age, he left behind quite an extensive body of work. he studied the cello from a very young age and kept with it all of his life. it's almost inconceivable to imagine how this man slipped under the radar when you look at all of the people that he collaborated with and the genres of music that spanned his career.

early on after moving from sf to nyc, arthur became the musical director of a place called the kitchen (which is a story unto itself that i need to find out more about). this was some sort of venue/gallery for primarily video art, plastic art and performance pieces. arthur introduced the idea of the "minimalism" that could be found in pop music by introducing acts such as the modern lovers and the talking heads. yeah. whatever, i don't really understand the minimalist point that he was trying to make, but that put him in some pretty good company early on for sure. come on, jonathan richman? david byrne? this was all between 74 and 75 for fucks sake! a.r. also formed a band called the flying hearts with all kinds of amazing musicians that lasted until 79 and beyond that i cannot find any trace of. if anybody has any recordings of them, hit me up!

so i could pretty much go on forever, but i am just going to glean over the highlights. here's a big one. arthur russell was super involved in disco and was a serious party dood. he has tons of disco singles and albums with various people. i haven't heard a lot of it, so i am not going to comment on it further than telling you that it is out there and it is plentiful. the stuff i have heard was pretty good, if you are into that sort of thing.

the other big one that i am skimming on is that, ready for this, this guy may be responsible for chicago house. i know it's hard to believe, but dood was in the right place at the right time with his digits on the big gay pulse of new york. his records were HUGE at the paradise garage, including the single "is it all over my face", which is thuh muthuh fuckin jam!!! at least it is if you like house music at all. check it out!

the last thing that i am going to mention very briefly is that he died of aids. i wouldn't even mention it, but it seems to directly correlate with the feeling of some of his most beautiful music. this is a beautiful quote that i found from the village voice upon his death. "His recent performances had been so infrequent due to illness, his songs were so personal, that it seems as though he simply vanished into his music."

his best album as far as i am concerned, the one that i cannot stop listening to, his opus if you will, is called world of echo. it is a mellow, reflective album and the pieces seem to run together without a beginning or an end. part avant-garde, part minimal with interestingly buttery electrified melancholy vocals drifting over beautiful melodies comprised of nothing but cello. if you buy one piece of music this year, you should make it this album, seriously.

that's all i have for now. i'm sick of typing. you can get a taste of the stuff i have been jabbering on about on myspace if you search arthur russell. i checked it out. there is a plethora of sites claiming to be his and they all offer something different. happy searching!

good night.