Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest (1965-66) Pt. 1

In the mid 1960's Pete Seeger hosted a low budget television program, Rainbow Quest, in which he invited various blues, folk, and old-time musicians to perform. The Johnny Cash appearance gets a lot of play, but it is the performances by Elizabeth Cotton, Reverend Gary Davis, and Mississippi John Hurt that are absolute treasurers. While this is truly a singular moment in American history, my hope is that we will soon see Kanye West's Rainbow Quest with a similarly low budget. Don't sleep!

Mississippi John Hurt You Got to Walk that Lonesome Valley

Reverend Gary Davis Oh Glory, How Happy I Am (With two young Hippies watching, Donovan & Shawn Phillips. The song doesn't get going until a few minutes in, but don't miss it. )

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee Easy Rider

Elizabeth Cotton Freight Train

Latest Reasons for Pushing Forward

Paavoharju - Laulu Laakson Kukista (2008)
Heavy Eye of the Sun - II (2006)
Wooden Wand & the Vanishing Voice - Gipsy Freedom (2006)
Valet - Naked Acid (2008)
Mississippi John Hurt - Today! (1966)
boomp3.com
It amazes me that at the age of 28 I am just discovering the music of Mississippi John Hurt. Every song on this record is an exceptional auditory space.

Compulsory Lil Weezy Post (with Lean)

I really should have posted this Tuesday when Tha Carter III dropped but oh well. Irrational as it may be, I feel a responsibility to post about Lil Wayne this week. The hype has been realdiculous and surely haters will hate but there's no denying his talent. While not the "Best Rapper Alive" I think Lil Wayne is certainly in the top 5. In my 20 plus years of listening to Hip Hop, no rapper has ever approximated Weezy's melodic delivery and complex inflections. While this throwed version of I Feel Like Dying comes dangerously close to being cheeseball, I can't help but find it hypnotic. All praise Weezy!
PS An obscene amount of Lil Wayne recordings can be found HERE

Hairdryer Peace, 2008

Lately it strikes me that language fails miserably when attempting to describe or muse on Noise/Psych music. From reading blogs and reviews, I can reach no other conclusion. All too often they are filled with cliches like "totally damaged" "psych bombs" "sonic noise fuck-fest" "pure headfuck" etc.

This might well be for the best. After all, psychedelia and the concurrent search for transcendental bliss inherent to noise music, is in many regards a rejection of modernity's adherence to logocentrism, historic linearity, rationalism, and individualism. The more meaningless the terms to describe the experience, the more important actually listening and experiencing is.

And let me be the first to admit, these meaningless cliches don't deter my interest. After being thoroughly inundated, I spend several weeks trying to track down a copy of The Hospitals new garage/noise 'album of the year' Hairdryer Peace, no easy task given that only 500 LPs were self pressed and sold out immediately. Last week I finally located a digital copy. In searching, my favorite description of the record came from a comment left on a blog - "They don't make acid strong enough for these jams. fuckin sick."

LSD or not, this record feels quite special, spectacular in fact. Rather than tell you how "ass blasting" it is, I will forsake language and post a few pictures related to the tracks. The more adventurous among you can obtain a copy HERE.
The Hospitals
A1 Hairdryer Peace
A2 Getting out of Bed
A6 Sour Hawaii
B2 Animals Act Natural
B7 Don't Die

4.25.08 Fuck the Police (J.Dilla)

I'm Beginning to Think There's Hope for the Human Race

Albatross Mating Dance
"After a period of trial and error... the young birds learn the syntax and perfect the dances. This language...involves synchronized performances of various actions such as preening, pointing, calling, bill clacking, staring, and combinations of such behaviors (like the sky-call). When a bird first returns to the colony it will dance with many partners, but after a number of years the number of birds an individual will interact with drops, until one partner is chosen and a pair is formed. They then continue to perfect an individual language that will eventually be unique to that one pair; Having established a pair bond that will last for life."

Mixtape

While having several 'Sportsmans' (aka a can of Black Label Beer and a shot of Evan Williams) at the Levee last week, Mary urged me to post a mix on Muxtape, basically a mix sharing site. (Don't ask me about the 'u') As far as I can tell like most things related to youth, music, and the internet, it mostly houses a lot of unimaginative 'indie' rock, but I thought I would post up anyway.
Given that I can easily spend three days straight obsessing about a mix for someone, I posted an abridged version of a Birthday mix I made for Juliet. Muxtape only accepts MP3s so some hot jams that I only had in MP4 didn't make the cut and it limits you to 12 songs, but I still think it holds up OK. Check It.
*Image courtesy of the talented Victoria Hely-Hutchinson.

Ooohhh Sssnnnaaappp!!!

Trevor Paglen, author of I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World, on the Colbert Report...

The Psychic Force of Minor Economies

Lizzy was kind enough to share this piece of Texan weirdness with me. In 2001, artists Dog Big, Eva Kasson, Nathan Austin, Rick Perry, Ronnie Bass, & Wes Martin (collectively the Fast House) staged The Pricemaster, a mock Yard Sale in Denton, Texas. Selling average yard sale items, the 'pricemaster' determines the price upon request, which is always thousands of dollars or more.

If you only watch one obscure Texas art video/performance today, watch this one!

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Are You Leaving for the Country?

Kindling and I watched Sean Penn's Into the Wild on Sunday night. I didn't have especially high expectations, no doubt related to a prejudice towards the Eddie Vedder baritone-y soundtrack, but I was quite pleasantly surprised (though not by the soundtrack). The film did a good job of not overly romanticizing the views and life of its subject, Christopher McCandless. It was uplifting but as one can imagine also immensely sad, especially given that he didn't really have to die. Had he been more prepared, i.e. had a compass or a map of the region he easily could of survived.

In one particularly charming scene, McCandless (played by actor and Jeff H. look-a-like Emile Hirsch) is eating an apple and talking to it, telling it how delicious it is. At the end he looks directly into the camera and moves his head right up against the lens, smiling. I really love this non-diegetic moment in such a film, stepping outside the narrative for a moment to remind the viewer that this is just a movie about a real event, that it can't actually convey McCandless reality, but merely poetically meander within the peripheries.

Unlike McCandless, Dick Proenneke thoroughly prepared for and took seriously his decision to live alone in the Alaskan wilderness, which he did for 35 years. At the age of 51 he moved there and built a cabin by hand, all the while capturing his life in journals and with a 16mm camera, which later became the documentary Alone in the Wilderness. Simple and unsentimental, the film is captivating. The full version is an hour but this edited 10 minute version gives a great overview- (Thanks Molly for hipping me to it!)