Forest Gospel

New Ryan A. comic!

2012-01-30T08:42:00.001-07:00

View the entire comic here.

Edward Kinsella

2012-01-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

http://www.edwardkinsellaillustration.com/

Andre Vida - Brud: Volumes I-III

2012-01-28T12:13:00.002-07:00

(PAN, 2011)

If you've ever had an interest in contemporary jazz but didn't know where to start, this is the place. Brud: 3 CDs filled with every permutation of back-cracked jazz you'd ever hoped existed. It's a lengthy testament to Andre Vida's infinitely brilliant imagination. Listen below and be converted (it's that simple):

Jeffrey Alan Love

2012-01-27T09:06:00.001-07:00

http://www.jeffreyalanlove.com/

Luke Painter

2012-01-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.lukepainter.ca/

Andrew Douglas Rothbard - Frequenseqer

2012-01-25T09:02:00.000-07:00

(Peaking Mandala, 2011)

Andrew Douglas Rothbard's hyper-collagist, über-stylized psychedelia is like a chocolate fountain, constantly brimming over with candy-sweet richness. On his latest, Frequenseqer, It's almost too much, carrying the threat of short-wiring the listener's brain. But that's part of the deranged beauty of it: an all-cylinders assault constantly teetering on the point of collapse (yet always managing to stay right-side up). Containing 23 tracks, Rothbard's most recent outing is a gorgeous, expansive mind-tangle, flush with swirling electronics, beat-mashing intricacies and a giant-sized, glitched-out imagination. A very worthy successor to 2009's Exodusarabesque (and his debut, Abandoned Meander, for that matter). File under: should've been on my year-end list (like everything I've been posting lately: new 2011 year-end list in February (I should kill myself...)).

&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://digital.adrchiv.com/album/frequenseqer"&amp;gt;Frequenseqer by Andrew Douglas Rothbard&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Kurt Weisman - More Is More

2012-01-24T18:01:00.000-07:00

(Mad Monk, 2006)

Kurt Weisman is right: more is more. Which is why, when I finally got around discovering and hearing his debut 7" (pre-Spiritual Sci-fi), More Is More, I had to drop my jaw open here. I love Spiritual Sci-fi, and this is in that exact vein of weirdness/wonderfulness.

Double-bonus, Weisman-acolyte and FG-featured musician, Salvador (Salvita?) Cresta, made this mind-warping video for More Is More's "(Syd´s snooze room)´s blues and leather gallery":

Kurt Weisman - (Syd´s Snooze Room)´s Blues and Leather Gallery from Salvita Cresta on Vimeo.

John David Deardourff

2012-01-24T17:47:00.000-07:00

As a screen printer and comics man, I can't help but slobber over these (via booooooom):

http://cargocollective.com/jddeardourff

Okkyung Lee - Noisy Love Songs

2012-01-24T17:38:00.001-07:00

(Tzadik, 2011)

I'm just discovering the brilliant, brilliant composer and cellist, Okkyung Lee, which is always a terrific and terrifying experience: reaffirming that there are endless numbers of incredible musicians, musicians who you (read: I--but probably you too) would love if you only knew they existed, and each with lush, exciting back-catalogs: infinite music. There's simply not enough time... But, at the end of the day, at least I can say that I did finally find Noisy Love Songs. An easy comparison here--she being a cellist--is with fellow cellist, neo-classical composer, experimentalist (and FG fave) Aaron Martin. However, while Martin has perfected sad-gorgeous melodies and sparse-but-effective sound samples, electronic flourishes, Lee's work takes on a more animalistic, almost feral quality. There's a move into more contemporary, improvised territory with Lee (perhaps they're not so comparable after all). The album's beautiful by nature of the cello, but that doesn't stop Lee from pushing the boundaries of her instrument and the musical territory we've come to expect from it (the cello). Noisy Love Songs is certainly verging well into avant garde territory, but Lee manages experimentalism that doesn't all-together abandon what is obviously a high level of classical/compositional training. The album skips back and forth between "love songs" content, simply, to stretch and heighten one's back fur to those bent on obliterating everything into a primal, beastly huff. It's a very dynamic record and, I must say, Lee has me totally smitten. I imagine in the coming months I'll be digging up a lot of Okkyung Lee to feature on the blog. Brilliant, brilliant work.

Okkyung Lee - Roundabout

Matt Runkle

2012-01-24T17:29:00.000-07:00

http://matt-runkle.com/art.html

Sterling Hundley

2012-01-24T17:22:00.000-07:00

http://sterlinghundley.com/

Victor Kerlow

2012-01-19T22:31:00.000-07:00

http://victorkerlow.com/

Marisa Anderson - The Golden Hour

2012-01-19T22:22:00.000-07:00

(Self Released / Mississippi Records, 2011)

Bloody gorgeous, muddy, bluesy solo guitar improvisations from this Pacific Northwest guitar-neck strangler. And occupying a well-fitting place with Mississippi Records (even as one the very few contemporary artists they've put out). Anderson's certainly in touch with old-age blues. On The Golden Hour, the blues/delta/ragtime lineage is immediately apparent, but with a new-style corrosiveness and grit, grandeur, and most importantly, soul. Did I mention how gorgeous this record is? Nowadays, if you are releasing a solo guitar record, there's some obligatory sense in the critic of name dropping Fahey and everyone else. Marisa Anderson (and I apologize for having mentioned the name already) stands outside that obligation as a guitarist whose work holds up singularly and boldly on its own merits. Strong, timeless music here with the strength to rebuild a wobbling nation by harnessing what grace that helped build that nation in the first place. The Golden Hour is one of those kinds of albums.

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://marisaanderson.bandcamp.com/album/the-golden-hour"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;The Golden Hour by Marisa Anderson&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

"ALL FIRE // ALL LIGHT" by Lawrence Martinez

2012-01-19T13:47:00.000-07:00

(Featuring musics from Stag Hare, gkfoes vjgoaf and WYLD WYZRDZ and perhaps preferably viewed here.)

Bryan Lear

2012-01-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

(via the January http://brightstupidconfetti.blogspot.com/)
http://www.bryanlear.com/

Dennis Brown, Bagger43

2012-01-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

RedShift Mural Time-Lapse from Nicole Salmeri on Vimeo.
http://www.bagger43.com/

MoHa! - Meiningslaust Oppgulp (a singles compilation)

2012-01-19T13:29:00.001-07:00

(Rune Grammofon, 2011)

I'm a bad fan, apparently, of all my favorite bands. First The Goslings and now MoHa!! I'm really slipping folks. Rune Grammofon, a year ago this month, released this limited edition MoHa! singles collection (makes me smile to imply the pop-music understanding of 'singles' to MoHa!) culled from their vinyl-only output between 2008 and when it was released. I have a couple of those records--a 7" and split 10"--but not all of them, and I don't get to my vinyl nearly as often as I'd like, so this is a godsend. And, just like with The Goslings, I'm ripe for the pummeling monstrosity of machine gun-strength/tempo noise that MoHa! is the grand standing masters of. The duo's simply the best when it comes to breakneck free jazz crippled with electronic squalor then catapulted with wry punk abandon. And it doesn't matter that Meiningslaust Oppgulp is a "singles compilation," the tracks here (ranging from 3 to 13 minutes) coalesce perfectly into this album length format they've been collected into. Listening to them--Anders Hana and Morten J. Olsen--work through each of these tracks is like listening to an giant infinite-tentacled beast dismantling entire cities to a stop watch. Utterly exhilarating, spastic and, occasionally, when locking into some sickly groove, unexpectedly coherent. The compilation is a perfect example why MoHa! is one of my very favorite bands. And, in terms of retroactive re-organization, listmaking, all that stuff--flippant and overt valuation--in case you're curious, this would likely plant itself right behind Amateur Doubles (that's spot no. 2) on my 2011 year end list. Which means, if you hadn't gathered as much already, that it's essential listening. (Also, listmaking is bad for your health.)

Flisespikking/ Lyd med Tenner/ Mjøl di eiga kake by MoHa!

"Where Do We Land?"

2012-01-18T19:38:00.000-07:00

Converse China skateboarding in Mongolia:

Noelle Stevenson

2012-01-17T22:54:00.001-07:00

Stevenson's style is semi-ubiquitous. Regardless, she does what she does well. A couple of things cherry-picked from her blog. First, a sampling of her terrific Feral Sweater Boys series:

And then these characters, which I would love to see more of:

And a comic for good measure:

More talent (plenty more) here: http://gingerhaze.tumblr.com/

The Goslings & Warmth - Heaven of Animals

2012-01-17T22:39:00.000-07:00

(aRCHIVE, 2009)

There are a few artists whose work sits so powerfully in my subconscious that I will, seemingly at random, think of them, my mind urging me, insistently, to check on them, see what they’ve been up to and make sure that I haven’t missed anything in the interim of days between now and the last time I thought of them, listened to them. It’s a small group—say maybe a dozen artists—who get that kind of attention from me. The Goslings are one of those. It’s been nearly four years now since their last full-length record, Occasion, and I thought to myself, Self, we should be due for another blast of Goslings sometime soon. So, I check on them through some of my standard avenues (mostly Google) and realized, appalled at myself, that The Goslings put out a collaborative record in 2009 that I, until now, never knew existed: Heaven of Animals. I’m embarrassed, I guess, that I didn’t know about the album when it came out, but even more than that I am excited that I have, immediately, a new album fingerprinted by gloriously abysmal Goslings with which to seek out. I’m hesitant of course, we are dealing with a collaboration, here—maybe there’s no trace of “The Goslings” anywhere on the record, and who’s Warmth? Still, excited. Overwhelmingly excited. Researching, I realize that I’m a bad Goslings fan: not only did Heaven of Animals get released in 2009 by aRCHIVE, half the record (the first 4 of the 8 tracks) were apparently released in 2005, in collaboration with Roxanne Jean Polise (also titled, Heaven of Animals). I feel like an idiot—but regardless, I’m happily, idiotically smiling now, because it’s new-to-me The Goslings. Seems like the thing’s sold out, I can’t find it anywhere (not that that has stopped me from looking for a downloadable version before), so I download it. The first track, “Soft Eyes Open,” is twenty-two minutes long! Has to be the longest thing they’ve done. And it's glorious. Like gold in my ears. The record finds The Goslings (& Warmth--whoever you are Warmth, and I'll find out when it isn't past midnight, I'm looking you up) in perfect form. Loud as ever and dronier than ever as well. But still, patently, The Goslings. It's almost as good as Grandeur of Hair. I sure hope something new is right around the corner (though, this'll hold me over for a long, long while).

First Dog to Visit the Center of the Earth - Landing

2012-01-12T09:31:00.001-07:00

(Self Released, 2011)

Don't know why, exactly, I fell asleep this year on First Dog to Visit the Center of the Earth, aka First Dog, aka FDVCE, aka Murrieta, California's Jack Rodriguez. However, consider me wide awake now. Wide awake. All I have been listening to for the past week is 2011 FDVCE releases (two full lengths and an EP). The most recent of which, Landing, is still super fresh, considering it was just released last month. I first fell for FDVCE last year when I heard Colossus Archosaur. On Landing, the Black Dice oddness has sobered slightly, though not completely, and the result is bubbly, tinkering, bright and colorful work reminiscent of Yesterday Was Dramatic-era Múm. And, as you might imagine, the ground connecting those two FG-favorites is rich with possibilities. Thankfully, Rodriguez cultivates the space with expert skill, creating work that nods knowingly at its predecessors while at the same time carving out a unique space for himself. Really, a really good record--more than just solid: great.

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://firstdog.bandcamp.com/album/landing"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Landing by First Dog to Visit the Center of the Earth&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Corinne Mucha

2012-01-11T23:10:00.001-07:00

Comics:

"One day I will be the kind of person who does not kill plants"
"Growing Up Haunted" (excerpt)
"Dorm-ant Spirits, Or: the Phantoms of my Freshman Year"
"My Alaskan Summer" (excerpt)

And, of course, more here.

Veronique Meignaud

2012-01-07T09:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.v-meignaud.com/

Bogdan Luca

2012-01-07T07:24:00.001-07:00

http://bogdanluca.com/

Henrique Oliveira

2011-12-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

Much more here.

Gaffer Records!!!

2011-12-22T17:35:00.001-07:00

If you have any inclination towards frantic, juggernaut-style noise or seizure-induced buffalo stampedes parading as free jazz or, simply, the best of the best avant garde, meet Gaffer Records.

Click here to read an interview I conducted with Gaffer Records label-head, Frank Garcia, AKA, Sheik Anorak, over at Foxy Digitalis.

But first, check out this label sampler featuring 6 label-spanning tracks (all notable, but if you're in a hurry, don't miss the MoHa! track, "Eg blei sogen av ein atterganger," it's insane...):

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://gafferrecords.bandcamp.com/album/gaffer-records-sampler-n-1"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Gaffer Records sampler n°1 by Gaffer Records&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Dr. Breakfast!

2011-12-20T07:16:00.000-07:00

Dr Breakfast from pizzaforeveryone on Vimeo.

Chris Rehm - Old Flame / New Squeeze

2011-12-20T07:15:00.000-07:00

(Chinquapin Records, 2011)

How...did...I...miss...this? Honestly, can someone tell me how this sneaked by? Chris Rehm operating in long form, collaging together all aspects of his genius...how did I miss this when it first came out? Listen:

&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://chrisrehm.bandcamp.com/album/old-flame-new-squeeze"&amp;gt;Old Flame | New Squeeze by Chris Rehm&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Brian Grainger & Millipede - Play Ancient Hylian Folk Songs, Volume II

2011-12-20T06:57:00.001-07:00

(Milieu Music, 2011)

So, I think it's probably important that I admit, prior to featuring this brilliant, brilliant tape, that I only ever played the very first Zelda. Which isn't to say that I don't love video games, or the Zelda franchise at large; I just never had a Nintendo 64 (and yes, obviously didn't play any other Zelda titles on NES and SNES). I guess I'm more of a Final Fantasy nerd. Still, I do love the original Zelda and the bottom line, I suppose, is that I have major sympathies towards anyone willing to make a tribute album to something as awesome as Zelda (volume II!!).

But this tape requires no sympathy. Especially when the tribute/trouble-makers are as wildly talented and inspired as Millipede and Brian Grainger. Millipede takes the first 6 tracks and transforms whatever was previously Hylian folk into slabs of earth-scorchingly beautiful guitar-balladry. Joseph Davenport, AKA Millipede, just keeps getting better and better. It feels like it's not a new Millipede review on Forest Gospel if I'm not writing that its the best thing he's ever done.

Brian Grainger completes the tape with 4 fuzzed-out tracks of his own. The most wonderful addition being the final song, "Earth God's Lyric / Sage of Earth," a nearly fifteen minute masterpiece of layered, mutating, groggy-eyed bliss. In a perfect world, the song would soundtrack the game's closing credits, after Link comes away triumphant (or whatever). Possibly why it stands as the last song on the tape.

You don't need to love or even be familiar with the Zelda gaming franchise to be in love with this tape though. It's simply really good, gritty music.

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://briangrainger.bandcamp.com/album/play-ancient-hylian-folk-songs-volume-ii"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Play Ancient Hylian Folk Songs, Volume II by Brian Grainger &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Millipede&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Best (Favourite) Music of 2011

2011-12-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

Posting a year-end list in December is, for me, an admission of defeat. It goes against my real feelings about year-end lists and their potential viability and reveals me as an all-too-willing cog in the grips of the blog-o-sphere hype machine. Which is no huge reveal. I am easily one of the most hyperbolic (and nonsensical) writers on the internet and Forest Gospel is not even a blip on the radar of music taste-making--as well it shouldn't be. So I suppose it's not a big deal if I allow myself to get sucked into the pomp and confetti of the season.

Still, I really love these albums and respect the talent and energy of their creators. I see them as adopted children and, that said, have reservations about ordering them: announcing who I love the most. That and I'm hesitant to provide any definitive list of who stands to be recognized and how to create such a list honestly. In all reality, list-making is a flippant endeavor: within a day my list can flip over on top of itself, removing handfuls of solid picks for unsteady ones and vice versa. If I posted this list tomorrow it would be different. So, it stands to be noted that in the time I've been working on the list, hordes of worthy albums have, at one time or another, been moving around on the list. Albums from Lawrence English, Julianna Barwick, Nat Baldwin, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Car Seat Headrest, Thundercat, Thee Oh Sees, Millipede, Pete Swanson, Lee Noble, Tim Hecker, Emuul, Sharks' Teeth, Matthew Cooper, Bill Orcutt, etcetera, etcetera, all worthy of and at some point securely placed deep in the list. Time and proximity to the albums always plays a factor and so it should be recognized that these albums and others (surely many that I haven't even heard of) are worthy of attention.

Is this introduction pathetic enough yet? I take it all back. This is the definitive list of the best (not favourite) albums of 2011. Other lists are subjective, this one is not. Read and weep:

25. Grouper -- A I A

The gauze-mouthed queen of all-things-ghostly one-ups herself.

Grouper: "Alien Observer"
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24. Chad VanGaalen -- Diaper Island

I'll always love Chad VanGaalen. I don't know why exactly, but I'm simply enchanted by the man. And Diaper Island, despite the regrettable album title, takes what VanGaalen produced in Women and lets it bleed into VanGaalen's own wonderfully twisted world of Canadian-born indie rock.

Chad VanGaalen - Sara by subpop
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23. Ezekiel Honig -- Folding In On Itself

Headphone candy for texture fiends.

Subverting the Memory Of Your Surroundings by ezekielhonig
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22. PJ Harvey -- Let England Shake

Love PJ Harvey. Let England Shake is her best album (even with that awkward sample on "The Glorious Land").

PJ Harvey - The Words That Maketh Murder by Vagrant Records
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21. Destroyer -- Kaputt

I don't know why exactly--everyone seems to love this album--but I'm pretty embarrassed by it. But it's so good.

Destroyer | Kaput
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20. Grooms -- Prom

I simply can't shake the nineties. Apparently neither can Grooms.

Grooms 'Prom' by kaninerecords
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19. Sandro Perri -- Impossible Spaces

Lush, perfect, soulful pop music.

Futureactive Kid Part 1 by Constellation Records
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18. Battles -- Gloss Drops

Don't be deceived, Gloss Drop is the best Battles has ever sounded.

Battles - Africastl
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17. Sparkling Wide Pressure -- Fragments of a Sound I Can Not Erase

Resplendently composed, experimentally-minded post-rock with near unrivaled prettiness.

Sparkling Wide Pressure - The Time That is Right by kimdawn
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16. Iceage -- New Brigade

Scandinavian punk rock with gloriously jagged edges. An obsession.

Iceage - You're Blessed by What's Your Rupture?
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15. Red Horse -- Red Horse

Ridiculously percussive, cluttered and full of primal noise and aggression. In competition with #4 for most violently played album on the list.

Part Three by _type
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14. Robag Wruhme -- Thora Vukk

There has been some really incredible "electronic" albums this year from the likes of Vladislav Delay, The Field, Demdike Stare, Andy Stott and RxRy. Really really great. But none as good (in my mind) as Robag Wruhme's Thora Vukk. This album really belongs in my top ten, but I don't want to reformat this list...

Robag Wruhme - Pnom Gobal

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13. Chris Rehm -- Worries, etc.

Chris Rehm proves for the second year in a row that he's poised to succeed white-noise elder-statesmen like Tim Hecker, Fennesz and the like. Worries, etc. digs in deep for that special industrial grit that Rehm is particularly talented at mining. (Also worth noting, his noise-pop band Caddywhompus's The Weight EP.)

&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://chrisrehm.bandcamp.com/track/silences"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Silences by Chris Rehm&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;
------------------------------
12. Deerhoof -- Deerhoof Vs. Evil

This album is so good. Don't people know that this album is so good? Deerhoof are unstoppable. Deerhoof for president.

Deerhoof - No One Asked To Dance by Polyvinyl Records
------------------------------
11. Sean McCann -- The Capital

Sean McCann can't stop making the best experimental beauty-drone records on the planet. Of which The Capital is evidence.

Sean McCann - The Vanilla Maiden by ForestGospel
------------------------------
10. The Caretaker -- An Empty Bliss Beyond This World

Hauntingly charming, An Empty Bliss Beyond This World, is, as an album title, the most fitting description of this very special album.

The Caretaker: "An Empty Bliss Beyond This World"

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9. Dixie's Death Pool -- The Man with Flowering Hands

Volcanic, hallucinogenic, and beautiful.

Dixie's Death Pool - Sunlight Is Collecting On My Face by Drip Audio
------------------------------
8. John Wiese -- Seven of Wands

Seven of Wands is John Wiese opening up his cluttered noise shrapnel like an accordion, allowing more space than ever before to slip between the crushing textures of which Wiese is the master. Subtle and meditative is not something I ever thought I would sat about Wiese's music, yet here I am.
John Wiese 'Scorpion Immobilization Sleeve' (PAN 22) by •PAN•
------------------------------
7. Blackout Beach - Fuck Death

Carey Mercer, Frog Eyes front man and evil genius behind Blackout Beach, is my hero. Possibly because he refuses to make a bad album. Cursing death has never felt so empowering.

Blackout Beach "Beautiful Burning Desire" by DOJAGSC
------------------------------
6. St. Vincent -- Strange Mercy

So good. St. Vincent, the sweetheart of American indie rock, just keeps getting better and better with each album.

St Vincent - Surgeon
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5. Julia Holter - Tragedy

Julia Holter's debut album, Tragedy, is one of the most entrancing, creepy and gorgeous albums I have heard in a long time. Mixing squalid drones with all varieties beautiful pop music, the album is like a never-ending well of treasures.

Julia Holter - Try to Make Yourself a Work of Art
------------------------------
4. Black Pus - Primordial Pus

Brian Chippendale's Black Pus moniker has long been one of my favourite noise rock projects around, and with Primordial Pus I am beginning to wonder if I like his solo project even more than his work with legendary Lightning Bolt.

Black Pus - "Favorite Blanket, Favorite Curse" by ForestGospel
------------------------------
3. Shabazz Palaces -- Black Up

When hype meets expectation. The best hip hop album I have heard in almost a decade.

Shabazz Palaces - Swerve... by subpop
------------------------------
2. Colin Stetson - New History Warfare, Vol. 2: Judges

Colin Stetson's minimalist, apocalyptic jazz on New History Warfare, Vol. 2: Judges is gargantuan and beastly, trenchant and disarmingly beautiful. Such an amazing album (and one that should be consider equally with the also-amazing 10", Those Who Didn't Run).
COLIN STETSON - The stars in his head (Dark Lights Remix) by Constellation Records
------------------------------
1. Graham Lambkin -- Amateur Doubles

The only album (aside from Strange Mercy) that I didn't feature on the blog prior to making the list. And it's the best. So, essentially, the year-end list is now simply a frame for featuring Graham Lambkin's Amateur Doubles. There are reasons why I haven't posted about the album yet. Most notably the fact that it was barely released, like, this morning (maybe a little earlier). That and it's almost impossible to describe exactly why Lambkin's particular brand of sound collage is so potent. The volatility of the scraping textures and the odd, frighteningly beautiful bleeding between mumbling voices and fractured, muted melodies cutting in and out of the recording. Did I mention that the album--a masterpiece among Lambkin's discography: a discography of masterpieces--was recorded in a Honda Civic? Amateur Doubles affects me in a way no other album this year has, or could expect to.

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"Our Decembers" by Dina Kelberman

2011-12-09T08:56:00.002-07:00

http://importantcomics.com/

Jim Mahfood / Food One

2011-12-09T08:46:00.001-07:00

http://foodoneart.blogspot.com/

White Denim - D

2011-12-09T08:46:00.000-07:00

(Downtown, 2011)

I am a championer of White Denim, so I don't know why it took me till now to say so about D. There's something about how laconic and assured White Denim can sound that is all over this latest album of theirs. They're a versatile band, a lovable band, a band that can lively-like resurrect those classic old sounds so they sound like what new bands are (and ought to be) playing. The band is mining a particular retro aesthetic that most everyone else is skipping over, and that others are failing to transform, and it feels effortless and sounds brilliant and I enjoy it very much. Glad White Denim does what they do, though, for the record, not a fan of that cover art. You're ruining the look of my artsy-fartsy blog there, WD, jeez!

Drug by WhiteDenim

More New Julian Callos

2011-12-08T06:59:00.000-07:00

So wonderful. I want to Indian-in-the-Cupboard every one of these:

http://juliancallos.blogspot.com/

New Julian Callos

2011-12-08T06:58:00.000-07:00

http://juliancallos.com/

Jacuzzi Boys - Glazin'

2011-12-08T06:57:00.000-07:00

(Hardly Art, 2011)

Jacuzzi Boys know what we're talking about here: raspberry feelings, amiright? But I really just want to talk about the title track, "Glazin'," and that opening line: "sugar in my hair / melting everywhere in the sunshine," which brings me to my next point: if you're going to be outside, particularly in the summertime months--Jacuzzi Boy months to be sure--consider avoiding sugar in yr hair. And yeah, I get it, Crystal Light can change yr hair color. Just be careful, one of my friend's friends put strawberry Kool Aid in his hair and to this day has ended up with strawberry-colored hair. Though, advantages: Glazin' is probably all he hears when anyone talks. Pros and cons.

The Men - Leave Home

2011-12-07T05:39:00.000-07:00

(Sacred Bones, 2011)

I'm a pretty big fan of "the rock n' roll," if you know what I mean, which is a way in which I assert myself as a man. I bet Ryan Gosling listens to The Men, which isn't to say that Gosling is the poster-man for masculinity--saw Crazy Stupid Love the other night (yeah, I can admit it) in which Gosling is a particularly effeminate manly man--but that he uses a fine-tuned album like Leave Home to assure the particular girl he may be with at any given moment--"Hey, girl,..."--that yes, he has a handle on things. Which isn't to say that "the rock n' roll" is limited to men and masculinity, or even that Leave Home is a significantly manly album, just that, in some round-a-bout, nonsensical, mostly meaningless way that, yes, the band's name is The Men and, yes, I listen to them and I have hair on my chest. Just saying.

the men - Leave Home - Bataille (sacred bones records

Chuck Groenink

2011-12-07T05:37:00.000-07:00

http://cargocollective.com/greenink

GlossyRey's "Be A Vegetarian"

2011-12-07T05:36:00.001-07:00

More whimsical / nonsensical than the title implies:

Scott C.

2011-12-06T02:42:00.000-07:00

Christmas time: people know Scott C. has an art book out, right? And that he illustrated a zombie love story...? In honor of:

Sparkling Wide Pressure - Fragments of a Sound I Can Not Erase

2011-12-06T02:26:00.000-07:00

(Kimberly Dawn Recordings, 2011)

The idea that this was limited, initially, to 50 physical copies and is now available for free downloading does a disservice to what is, to my mind, to my ears, an uncorrupted masterwork of angel-drift guitar work, heavy heavenly blues, guided grit, and ascended loveliness of an impeccable sort, managing all the right textures for satisfaction of the earthly mind in its skyward tendencies, because it criminally undervalues what could be--particularly when etched to vinyl--a sacred monument of the possibilities of sound via the electric guitar. However, the open possibility that any and everyone could be healed by its Godly inspiring sounds is a comforting thought in a harsh world. Not to be dismissed, by human beings in general.

&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://sparklingwidepressure.bandcamp.com/album/fragments-of-a-sound-i-can-not-erase"&amp;gt;Fragments of a Sound I Can Not Erase by Sparkling Wide Pressure&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Robag Wruhme - Thora Vukk

2011-12-06T01:55:00.000-07:00

(Pampa Records, 2011)

It's 3:30 in the AM, my dog streaks by the open door of my room and I can tell he's up to something--ripping up garbage in our living room--and after I've expressed my disappointment in him, cleaned up his mess, I'm sucked into this micro-house wormhole of Gabor Schablitski's, aka Robag Wruhme: Thora Vukk, which, phonetically, to these American ears, implies destroying Thor (among other things), but which actually sounds, in its unending contortions, it's rabbit-hole permutations, something more like bliss: if bliss is Thor's mind quietly exploding amidst the realization that his hammer is, ultimately, meant for smaller constructions than originally thought (though no less grandiose).

Tom Gauld

2011-12-04T05:38:00.000-07:00

Preview of the new Tom Gauld graphic novel, Goliath, out early next year from Drawn & Quarterly. Always love his art / comics:

http://www.tomgauld.com/

SWOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!

2011-12-03T20:45:00.001-07:00

Surely you've already seen this video, but on the off chance that you haven't (if you have, you know it's worth re-watching), prepare to crush hard on Beyoncé (that is, harder than the capacity you've already been crushing at). Erin and I have been arguing over who is more into this. Perfect video / song.

Zander Olsen's "Tree, Line" series

2011-12-03T08:47:00.000-07:00

More: http://www.zanderolsen.com/Tree_Line.html

As Above, So Below - public art light installation

2011-12-03T08:01:00.001-07:00

Car Seat Headrest - 5 / Twin Fantasy

2011-12-03T05:40:00.002-07:00

These are two albums from Car Seat Headrest, AKA: I don't know, I didn't check into it that closely. And I don't remember exactly how I stumbled on these albums either. 5 came out in March, Twin Fantasy in November. Both are brilliant, both are downloadable via Bandcamp: name-your-price.

(Self released, 2011)

So, dude's been messing around until now, or is unimpressed with himself until now--so says the Car Seat Headrest Bandcamp page--or he's has been gearing up on wizardry, gearing up on nonchalance, practicing hook-laden concoctions on the dogs, setting himself up for setting time bombs inside of people's minds; namely, mine. Sure, "Twin Fantasy and 5 are my good albums." And, "the other stuff on here is Not So Great." But, really, I haven't even had time enough to figure out what "Not So Great" means because what I found out "good" means ("my two good albums") is something on par with: Twin Fantasy and 5 are two of the best albums of the year. And they're two full albums at that. Two individual albums. Indie rock albums. Connected aesthetically but not in a messy way that obligates you to treat the two together. There's the bedroom lo-fi thing happening here, but that's happening everywhere. I hear it everyday. Email after email. It only ever works with songwriting and Car Seat Headrest is songwriting. 5 is, if I making hasty value statements, the slightly lesser of the two (though, there are moments when I doubt that). And to say lesser is only to separate the two by pencil shavings. Think early Clap Your Hands Say Yeah filtered through Times New Viking, two times removed (or whatever it takes to win back a band's soul once compared to bands ubiquitously known as CYHSY and TNV).

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://carseatheadrest.bandcamp.com/album/5"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;5 by Car Seat Headrest&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

(Self released, 2011)

All that stuff I said up there with even better songs. And a feeling of inadequacy resulting from the impulse to compare the music to such generic indie rock staples. It's only to say that this feels equally important in my mind. Car Seat Headrest: an FG indie rock staple. Wonderful range and depth. Twin Fantasy listening to steadily a few years from now.

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://carseatheadrest.bandcamp.com/album/twin-fantasy"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Twin Fantasy by Car Seat Headrest&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Ezekiel Honig - Folding In On Itself

2011-12-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

(Type Records, 2011)

Ezekiel Honig makes musical the subtly corrosive elements of life: the sidewalk sounds, the happenstance rattle in the kitchen, loose-chimed wind clatter, memory. Composed of texture-mongering field recordings, slow-moving melodies and an understated beat-based backbone, Honig's Folding In On Itself is a meditative record, morose, but not overly so. It's been three years since Honig released a full length album (his last through his own Anticipate label) so it's exhilarating diving into something new. Honig's work unfolds itself slowly, a patient production of one of the stalwarts of minimalist electronics and Folding In On Itself is no exception. Great great great!

Ezekiel Honig - Folding In On Itself by _type

Amanda Hughen

2011-12-02T08:11:00.000-07:00

www.amandahughen.com

Black Sky Black Snow - a FG winter mix

2011-11-30T10:38:00.021-07:00

This here's a mix I made about this time last year, a ballet about a man lost on foot in a mountain forest during a severe blizzard. Don't worry, the narrative's totally legible.
Stay cold:

Black Sky Black Snow by ForestGospel
Black Sky Black Snow from Mediafire

tracklist, as best I can:
Mouthus - "The Duration Myth"
Zs - "Concert Black"
Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse - "Dark Night of the Soul"
Tom Waits - "Falling Down"
The See Through Boy - "Interview"
John Wiese - "Circle Snare"
Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky - "Act I: Scene and Waltz of the Snowflakes"
Mount Eerie - "Wind Speaks"
The Fun Years - "The Surge is Working"
Mount Eerie - "Lost Wisdom pt. 2"
Frog Eyes - "Bushels"
David Lynch and Alan R. Splet - "In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)"

Dixie's Death Pool - The Man with Flowering Hands

2011-11-29T06:50:00.000-07:00

(Drip Audio, 2011)

Beautifully, Dixie's Death Pool's The Man with Flowering Hands, the sole 2011 release from the absolutely amazing Drip Audio label, is, like sunlight, a revelation. Dixie's Death Pool is a collagist's dream, interweaving gorgeous psych-country balladry and ghostly, drug-addled folk-pop with an improvisatory sensibility. Based around four or five perfectly composed songs, the band, a hodge-podge assortment of musically blessed criminals and specters and cowboys and, perhaps most accurately, Canadians (all lead by one Lee Hultzulak), quilt the album together with a wonderfully bewilderingly avant garde jazz featuring blustery electronics, chugging percussion, spectre-traced textures and other creepy atmospherics. It is a fluid concoction, equal parts dark and light, inviting and menacing (read: menacingly inviting), and the best of what might be termed, loosely, as avant-country (or some such similar genre title). My attempts to wrap words around this album are destined to fall short. It's viscerally engaging, magnetic and unassumingly memorable. Amidst contemporaries like Califone and Skygreen Leopards and Vibracathedral Orchestra and Jackie-O Samuel L. Jackson, Dixie's Death Pool's The Man with Flowering Hands is a volcanic, essential work.

Dixie's Death Pool - Sunlight Is Collecting On My Face by Drip Audio
Dixie's Death Pool - The Man With Flowering Hands by Drip Audio

Fleet Foxes - "The Shrine/An Argument"

2011-11-26T15:19:00.001-07:00

Reed Danziger

2011-11-23T06:09:00.000-07:00

http://www.reeddanziger.com/index.html

Blackout Beach - Fuck Death

2011-11-23T06:08:00.000-07:00

(Dead Oceans, 2011)

Long-term hypothetical boyfriend, Carey Mercer, dismisses death, cusses, takes our relationship to the next level.

Blackout Beach "Beautiful Burning Desire" by DOJAGSC

Emuul - The Drawing of the Line

2011-11-22T06:35:00.000-07:00

(Digitalis, 2011)

The Drawing of the Line is simple, like drawing a line; though, as it is for me, an effortlessly beautiful line isn't so easy to accomplish. Drawing one. And what seems simple, Emuul baby-stepping a low grade incline, a mountain ridge, curtained with fizzling grains of earth-wobbling feedback, is actually quite a feat: not overly constructed/layered but never dulling and absent. Making something akin to what I imagine it sounds like when mountains speak to one another, sped up 10,000X. It's a beautiful language and Emuul produces wonderful conversations: a motherly mountain training her son, counseling erosion, rock-slide, volcano. There are a lot of drone-based records out there trying to strike a perfect balance between minimalist composition and voluble maximalism. Few of them strike so closely as Emuul has here.

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://digitalisrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/the-drawing-of-the-line"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;The Drawing of the Line by Emuul&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Eli Keszler's "Cold Pin" installation

2011-11-22T06:33:00.000-07:00

Val Britton

2011-11-20T23:13:00.000-07:00

http://valbritton.com/

Zs - 33

2011-11-20T23:12:00.002-07:00

(Northern Spy, 2011)

Two seven-inches: four side of palette cleansing, junkyard raking, free-shoveled abrstractionism from the almighty Zs. This is the doom-laden interlude to the forthcoming Northern Spy onslaught, I assume, Zs being new to the roster. And I can't wait. The band, fresh off their monstrous beastly best, New Slaves, seen here stretching, popping the joints in their neck, cracking knuckles, rolling out the bones in their collective shoulders, rumbling clatterously: take heed, the beast is awake...

33~ - Zs by Northern Spy Records

RxRy - Alpha

2011-11-20T22:54:00.000-07:00

(Sweat Lodge Guru, 2011)

Hyper-ambient wonder-kid, Not Noah Lennox, or some couple of dudes now (people seem to be thinking ("Neither Noah Lennox?")), RxRy, finally, after three bedroom-churned bliss-outs (and some EPs)--freely distributed--can now be heard where it was appropriate he/they should be heard from all along: etched into a vinyl plate. Alpha finds RxRy perpetuating the crumbling pulse-heavy astro-electronics of previous albums, only this time with a healthy dose of ADHD. Clocking in somewhere between an EP and a full-length, Alpha is headphone candy of the brain-burstingly serene variety, in as much as the two can coexist. The step up to a physical format is much deserved. Hopefully the first in a long line RxRy tunes pressed to wax.

rxry - alpha (album preview) by experimedia

Stephanie Augustine

2011-11-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

http://www.stefanieaugustine.com/

John Wiese - Seven of Wands

2011-11-19T09:48:00.003-07:00

(PAN, 2011)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John Wiese 'Scorpion Immobilization Sleeve' (PAN 22) by •PAN•

Chrysler

2011-11-18T10:46:00.000-07:00

The automobile manufacturer.

Ana Serrano

2011-11-17T13:48:00.002-07:00

Check out this video interview of Ana Serrano and her new exhibition, Salon of Beauty.

Theresa Bloise

2011-11-17T05:35:00.001-07:00

http://theresabloise.com/

Wendy MacNaughton

2011-11-17T05:35:00.000-07:00

http://wendymacnaughton.com/

Red Horse - Red Horse

2011-11-16T06:27:00.000-07:00

(Type Records, 2011)

There are moments when, simply through the act of hearing a specific thing for the first time, one can initiate and monitor an acute sense particle realignment wherein one's brain matter is reconfigured in order to process experiences similar to the following experiences:

sound alignments arranged as starving, carnivorous animals
sounds with the propensity to drink up all the earth's oceans, lakes and seas
sounds backbroken to goad electricity, out of sympathy, improperly through a listener's heart and lungs
etc.

And the opportunity isn't often. Comes around maybe once or twice a year, maybe. Last year it was Subtle Lip Can and New Slaves by Zs. Peter Kolovos's New Bodies in 2009. The kind of music you have to put quotes around ("music"). Intelligent, dynamic sound routed through punk viscera. Growly, animalistic, oddly patient though not without its tongue hanging out, dripping saliva. Devouring-type music. Red Horse creates something like that.

Understand:

Red Horse - Red Horse by _type

Noah Saterstrom

2011-11-15T17:30:00.000-07:00

http://www.noahsaterstrom.com/

Iceage - New Brigade

2011-11-15T11:10:00.001-07:00

(What's Your Rupture?, 2011)

You all know how good this is already, right? You listen to music, find all the hot stuff. I am listening to this more than anything else right now, because I'm scandinavianpunkhardcore like that. So are you? You should be. The end.

Iceage - You're Blessed by What's Your Rupture?
Iceage - Broken Bone by What's Your Rupture?

Lisa Hanawalt

2011-11-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

Above image being a detail from a larger image advertising this! Really hoping to make it there...

http://lisahanawalt.com/

My Favourite Animal by Lara Lee

2011-11-13T07:08:00.000-07:00

So good. (Via Booooooom.)

Chaotic Order by Mirai Mizue

2011-11-13T06:50:00.000-07:00

(Via Tyler A.)

Brad Kunkle

2011-11-08T05:41:00.002-07:00

Website

Lawrence English - The Peregrine

2011-11-07T07:09:00.001-07:00

(Experimedia, 2011)

The Peregrine is a concept album, an audio homage to the J.A. Baker book of the same name, but I haven't read that book and you don't need to read that book to appreciate and utterly sink into English's work here. Why? This may be Mr. English's quintessential composition. And for those well ingrained in the history of Lawrence English, in the wide ranging discography and collaborations, to make a quintessential claim at this point in the game is saying a lot. Without saying much (I never do), I am trying to say a lot. This is an album that pulls and meditates, storms and swells, literally takes heart, talons and wings--and despite having never heard of or read Baker's book before English's album, the album falcons about, dominating the landscape like a peregrine peering down over its domain. English's drones have never been so rich, his composition never so evocative. I did a brief interview with English about using the book as a catalyst. He obviously loves the namesake of his album and I couldn't think of a more wonderful way to recommend a literary world than something as thoughtfully and impressively artful as this album is. Looks like I'll be heading to the bookstore shortly as well.

Lawrence English - The Peregrine (album preview) by experimedia

Katsuhiro Otomo

2011-11-04T20:53:00.000-06:00

Remembering how much I love the art of Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira, Steamboy).

Pete Swanson - I Don't Rock At All

2011-11-03T09:03:00.000-06:00

(Three Lobed Recordings, 2011)

Pete Swanson is no stranger around these parts. His work as half of Yellow Swans--particularly with their last few albums--is among the most convincing evidence that gritty, mottled darkness can simultaneously breathe blurred light and strangely shadowy beauty. I Don't Rock At All is similarly amazing--blurry light flashing throughout--and similarly dense--evoking many shades of beauty settling in among multitudinous nooks and crannies--but I don't think I would describe it as dark. Architecting I Don't Rock At All, Swanson has taken it up himself to knock out a few exterior walls and broom-hole some additional sky lights into the ceiling. And the results are electric: guitar scraps stacking and swirling together like sediment: Swanson's mode finds a chaotic kinship with sometimes collaborator, Karl Bauer, and his work as Axolotl, not that they hadn't shared an audience before, but in the way that I Don't Rock At All digs into a quasi-spiritualism that feels ancient and bizarre but also filled with a wonderfully skewed sense of deliverance. Suffice it to say that it is essential. Believe it.

pete swanson - i don’t rock at all (album preview) by experimedia

Dead Luke - Meanwhile...In The Midwest

2011-11-02T08:08:00.000-06:00

(Moon Glyph, 2011)

Dead Luke: dead blues, corpsing psychedelia, fractal guitar licks, corruption. Meanwhile...In The Midwest, Dead Luke is resurrecting, amassing muscle, sinew, tendons: illuminating. Whereas before Dead Luke was the walking dead: limbs falling off, corrosive flesh-eating layers; now: a heart beating in the chest, even if irregularly, words speaking/singing--because of a mouth without holes in the cheeks. All said, Dead Luke is a more handsome dinner companion now. For whatever type guest you're interested in, Dead Luke seems to be spanning the full register of available deadness, this time leg-wobbling on the livelier end of things. Real American music, for those interested in the current state of America.

Dead Luke - "God Of Nothing by Moon Glyph

Sam Vanallemeersch

2011-11-02T07:12:00.001-06:00

His site.

Katie Bell

2011-11-02T07:12:00.000-06:00

So smitten.

(via Booooooom)
http://www.katiebellstudio.com/

Hubble - Hubble Drums

2011-11-02T07:11:00.000-06:00

(Northern Spy, 2011)

Ben Greenberg, guitar-man for the mighty Zs (also Pygmy Shrews), is Hubble. And Hubble, ridiculously (ridiculously awesomely), is Greenberg's solo guitar project that is officially sanctioned by NASA as the soundtrack to a video of Hubble Telescope-captured space imagery. I find that hilarious, and, since listening to the album, appropriate, and the elementary student in me that used to love (still does?) Bill Nye the Science Guy is ecstatic about that world colliding with my love of experimental music. And Hubble Drums delivers: cosmic guitar swirls patiently creating, expanding and charting distant galaxies of its own. Hubble's work is patient work, and I imagine it works even better in conjunction with the video, but is still a compelling listen for those with a persistent ear. mangling its minimalist template over the course of three long-form tracks with only a guitar, Hubble Drums is stark, painting an electric wasteland, yet as its revolutions evolve and push, that wasteland proves considerably lush. A unsurprisingly successful outing for Mr. Greenberg. Looking forward to future iterations of the Hubble sound (in addition, obviously, to ZS).

Nude Ghost by hubbletrouble

Roman Muradov's "Psychic Detective"

2011-11-01T07:38:00.000-06:00

Selections (buy here, view here):

Spomeniks, Photographed by Jan Kempenaers

2011-11-01T07:36:00.000-06:00

For some reason, these feel appropriate to post alongside Grooms' Prom--heaven knows why. Incredible, socialist-era Yugoslavian monuments photographed by Jan Kempenaers. Simply amazing.

Grooms - Prom

2011-11-01T07:28:00.000-06:00

(Kanine, 2011)

Grooms' debut, Rejoicer, was my favorite album of 2009. I have a fondness for and often slip back into the gritty guitars and general dissonance of 90's indie rock and Rejoicer struck so hard on that aesthetic, those hooks and the general feeling of rawness that I was immediately smitten. It's a difficult thing, becoming so brazenly attached to an album, and then not feel some sense of disappointment when the follow-up isn't quite as awesome. That's how I felt about this year's Gang Gang Dance album, Eye Contact, the follow-up to another year-end favorite: Saint Dymphna. However, this is not how I feel about Prom. Released in the summertime months, I have been digesting this album for a little bit and I have come to the conclusion that Prom demands a gestation period. Rocking a little less urgently, a bit more casually, with the same sense of 90's-era shabbiness but not quite as loudly as on Rejoicer, Prom is calmed and, for lack of a better word, mature; but mature, as Dismemberment Plan taught me (among so many other things), is not so bad a word, and Prom is an absolute stunner. I am smitten again and surprised, really, to not be at all disappointed. Such an amazing album. Don't sleep on Grooms. Prom is amazing.

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://grooms.bandcamp.com/album/prom"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Prom by Grooms&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Julia Holter - Tragedy

2011-10-31T14:45:00.003-06:00

(Leaving Records, 2011)

The vinyl pressing of Tragedy disappeared in like ten seconds because those in the know knew Julia Holter is the for-real real deal and that her album--her debut full length--was/is pure awesomeness and so snatched that up like mad gold, because it's worth its weight, and me, I'm sitting here and I just stumble upon Tragedy and am like, "This is mad gold!" and swing over to Leaving Records and their like, "Nopes: all gone. But digital..." and I'm like, "Fer realz?" and they're like: "Yeah." and I'm adding my name to the long, hopefully growing longer list of peoples begging--on our knees begging--for a repress, because Tragedy has more depth, more sheer-blow-you-out-yr-chair wow-factor, more dynamic victories, more clairvoyant knowingness about what it really is that I have really been waiting to hear all year long, and then is all those things, forever; sign me up: Tragedy is kaleidoscope hymnals that needs to be had, held and heard by any and everyone with a discerning ear (I think that's more than 300--I could be wrong).

(Update: As of Halloween, the day this was originally posted, Leaving Records announced a repressing of Tragedy. Pre-order here.)

Julia Holter - Try to Make Yourself a Work of Art
Julia Holter - Goddess Eyes

Kelsey Heinrichs

2011-10-29T05:50:00.000-06:00

http://www.kelseyheinrichs.com/

Richard Pearse

2011-10-28T19:50:00.000-06:00

http://richardpearse.wordpress.com/

Millipede - Realms

2011-10-27T09:36:00.000-06:00

(Dead Pilot, 2011)

What I think about when I am listening to Realms:

Four heavy beasts, horned and tusked both—dark, gorgeous, mammoth-sized beasts—each roped around the neck and pulling, the four of them, an enormous coffin. The scene is painted over groggily in pre-dawn mist, the heavy breath of the beasts, pockets of ethereal fog and a long-tailed parade of torch flames held in the memorial convoy. The coffin drags laboriously, scoring the earth like a massive plow, grinding against the rocks and soil; a cacophony dirge in its wake. The kingly funeral procession of a darkened lord.

Realms is what it sounds like in the mourners' hearts. What's ringing in their ears. The appropriate requiem song.

Realms is also the third full-length album of Chattanooga guitar slayer, Joseph Davenport, AKA Millipede. His magnum opus. And, appropriately, (finally), his first album pressed to wax.

There has always been a certain sense of masochism present in the Millipede sound palette. A trenchant abrasiveness and acerbic pop that’s warded off weak-boned, weak-bodied, weak-eared listeners. (An otherworldly loudness.) Realms is similarly abrasive, but the sorrowful gorgeousness that has long been lurking beneath Davenport's mordantly slathered guitar is finally dawning in a way that makes Realms a perfect entry point into the Millipede sound-world. But this isn't simply an entry point, Realms is it: the genuine article: a massive melting pot of beauty and ugly, perhaps the true nature of what it means to experience the deathlinks of life and come away with two lung-fulls of air and circulating heart.

Millipede - "Magma"

Stream the full album Here.

Lee Noble - Horrorism

2011-10-25T17:45:00.001-06:00

(Bathetic Records, 2011)

If you're into ghosts, ghosting, dim lights, dim lamps, dim sunsets, general dimness; if you're into groggy hums, low humming, low flying birds flying upside-down and in reverse; if you're into extraterrestrial fog, extraterrestrial miasmas, extraterrestrial ghosts and ghosting, extraterrestrial ghost viscera hanging in the air, extraterrestrials; if you're into mottled surfaces: concrete, bird-wings, degraded metals, worn/faded cotton; if you like it when it's mid-afternoon and a slow moving darkness propagated by a hulking mass of clouds terminates your afternoon and sucks you into the loose-quilted fabrics of your favourite grandmotherly-stitched quilt, watching David Lynch movies with the volume low so that when the rain hits against the windows it infiltrates the scenes in the movie; if that's what you are inclined towards, you might be interested in Horrorism.

"Desire Isn't Suffering" Lee Noble from Bathetic Records.

Nigel Peake - In The Wild

2011-10-25T12:38:00.002-06:00

(Princeton Architectural Press, 2011)

I've been drooling over this book for awhile, finally ponied up and purchased it, and it's better than I thought it would be. Peake's meticulous inking and painting of what he terms "the middle of nowhere" in Ireland is pure gorgeousness. I'm even a bit reluctant to gather up these images I've pulled from around the web. They do not compare to seeing them on the page. Peake composes each page perfectly and with stunning detail. One of my very favourite working artists.

Colin Stetson - Those Who Didn't Run EP

2011-10-24T16:47:00.002-06:00

(Constellation, 2011)

Colin Stetson pretty much owns 2011--musically speaking--evidenced by his breath-stealing (quite literally) full length LP, New History Warfare, Vol. 2. And Those Who Didn't Run only strengthens that pwnership. An EP-lengthed 10" (as opposed to LP-lengthed 10"?) equating to two ten-minute sides of heavy-surreal saxophone apocalypse, Those Who Didn't Run expands on everything that is good about New History Warfare. Both sides offer a variation on Stetson's rhythmically mind-warping saxophone tones, pushing and pulsing into big gorgeous mechanized biologies: side A skewing a bit more industrial with flecks of magic realism, side B skewing a bit more ghostly with an ear for reckless abandon. The bottom line is the material here is on par with any track from his New History Warfare, perhaps better, considering the space he allows for each composition to grow and mutate. Colin Stetson is salvation.

Those who didn't run (excerpt) - COLIN STETSON by Constellation Records