North of Seattle band named after a Henry Darger painting & acutely interested in Pataphysics, Dada & Surrealism (this 3 inch is based on a Jarry story for examp.). Gray, pensive washes of fairly lo-fi noise.
Tracklisting: The Bicycle Considered Part One, Quite the Contrary, Blacksmith, Underground Runs Over The Skyscraper, The Bicycle Considered Part Two, Dreams That Money Can Buy.
Clandestine recordings from a dark electronic experimental project from the Pacific Northwest via San Francisco, purportedly inspired by Alfred Jarry’s 19th c. short story “The Crucifixion Considered as an Uphill Bicycle Race.” It produces pounding metal clangs that remind me of a more rhythmic Portland Bike Ensemble at times but it also radiates pulsing wave motions that swing slowly like a pendulum in a dank dark dungeon’s pit of despair. Oozing frequencies spill forth and are siphoned off in time for electromagnetic energy fields to hum about before bouncing radar scan sequences commence. These are uber spooky emanations that seem not of this world. The kind of groaning irregular creature movements that signal we aren’t alone. They also blend in some haunted stealthy audio shrouds that materialize and vanish unexpectedly. Just when no pattern is apparent, a strange and almost decipherable template emerges temporarily before losing cohesion and closing with a fading creepy yodel tune about a lovin’ little rooster that Cock-a-Doodle Doo’s. This is a cold experiment gone wrong in all the right ways? Total Creepsville.
A singer/songwriter whose songs offer an updated version of the country-folk archetypes that Bob Dylan and John Prine made famous, Joe Pug was born and raised in Maryland, and began playing guitar when he was in grade school. Pug formed his first band on a dare from his sixth-grade science teacher, who didn't believe Pug and his friends would be able to pull something together in time to appear at a school dance. The boys were able to deliver a presentable version of a tune from the first Foo Fighters album, and Pug was on his way; before long he began writing songs, convinced at an early age that a real band should play its own original material. After graduating from high school, he traveled south to North Carolina to attend college. Pug was studying writing plays, but in time his growing passion for songwriting overwhelmed his interest in drama. Pug dropped out of school and relocated to Chicago, where he supported himself as a carpenter while he wrote songs and began working his way into the city's club circuit. He released his debut EP, Nation of Heat, on his own label in 2008. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
Eleven electronic / electro-acoustic artists from eight countries unify to pay homage to what listeners of BBC Radio 4's You and Yours radio program have voted as the most significant invention since 1800, beating computers, the internet, and even the combustion engine with more then half the total votes.
The concept is simple: Give a handful of today's most progressive sound designers only one sample to work with. They are able to manipulate this sample in any way they choose, but their entire song most be composed entirely from the single sound byte.
The supplied sample is a studio recording of a bicycle, recorded by Jesse Gander at The Hive Studios in Vancouver. This gives equal importance to the materials as well as the method used in PROJECT: BICYCLE. This, along with the beautifully written essay on bicycle riding and it’s social, environmental, and physical benefits by Green Party Candidate, Sean Orr, offers a deeper concept to the project. With the inevitable threat of peak oil in our not too distant future, it is time we opened the lines of communication to other forms of energy and transportation.
The incredibly international list of artists (USA, CANADA, FRANCE, BELGIUM, GERMANY, DENMARK, ENGLAND, and ITALY) also furthers the concept, illustrating that peak oil, and global warming is everyone’s concern, not just one country or region.
Each artist has chosen to tackle the project uniquely, embracing his own particular style. Whether it’s the playful, electrifying outburst’s of SUN O.K. PAPI KO’s ‘Pizza Boy's Bike’ (Belgium) and AELTERS’ ‘Roulé Brouillé’ (France), or the smoother approaches of WOBBLY’s ‘Flee You' (USA), and ROMANHEAD’s ‘Bicycle Work’ (UK), the various techniques in composition and style offer an incredibly dynamic listen, given PROJECT: BICYCLE’s strict guidelines.
Perhaps the most interesting piece, GREG DAVIS’ ‘Sagres' (USA) is a collection of manipulations of the original sample played back threw a handheld tape player while he rides around town on his own bicycle, pushing the boundaries of music, as well as this project.
PROJECT: BICYCLE is open sourced, meaning the original sample appears untouched at the end of the compilation. This gives the listener a point of reference for each artists song, offering an inside perspective on what each musician chose to do with the supplied sound. It also encourages the listener to get involved on more then an audience level, offering the means to create a song themselves, removing the hierarchal relationship between artist and fan.
Overall, PROJECT: BICYCLE is an important compilation that unifies several ideas about politics and art, activism and creativity. Yet, these ideas are presented modestly and open for interpretation, not relying on a ‘beat you over the head’ approach that can be intimidating. On the most basic level, it is simply a collection of wonderful music by some of the world’s most creative people, with a simple message: have fun riding your bike.
Formed after the 1997 breakup of singer/songwriter Joe Pernice's alt-country group the Scud Mountain Boys, the Pernice Brothers did an about-face from the lush '70s country sound of their final album, Massachusetts, and came up with the lush orchestrated pop of 1998's Overcome By Happiness. Recorded for Sub Pop, the album featured Joe's brother Bob (the lone holdover from the Scuds), guitarist Peyton Pinkerton from the New Radiant Storm Kings, bassist/producer Thom Monahan, drummer Aaron Sperske, and pianist/producer Mike Deming, and was a 12-song revelation to fans of smart and arranged… Read more
Live a Little is the sixth recording by The Pernice Brothers, and it marks as much a return to form as it does a departure from what came before it.
For one thing, there's the reunion of Joe Pernice and producer Michael Deming, who worked on the recordings of Joe's previous band, the Scud Mountain Boys, as well as the very first Pernice Brothers record, Overcome By Happiness. This one has strings AND horns, which has not been part of the formula (and it IS indeed a formula) since OBH. But, and this is a mighty exception, it's much more of a rock record than that was, representing the running of big fat analog tape while sweaty guys played loud rock music on well-crafted instruments through amplifiers and pounded on sweet, old, drum kits. Oh, and it marks a return to New England, having been recorded in Connecticut, which one of the band members used to disparage as nothing more than the state in his when he wanted to travel from Massachusetts to New York. He's now grown to pay it the respect it deserves as a rock mecca, hiding in plain sight.
Lyrically, it's another masterpiece, and if distinctions must be drawn, perhaps this one's a bit more literary, where the last one Discover a Lovelier You was somewhat more cinematic. "PCH One" probably could have been a Scud Mountain Boys song, and "Grudge F*** (2006) was a Scud Mountain Boys song (without the 2006), but instead of the gentle, almost lazy, plaintive plodding of the original recording, the Pernice Brothers version out-Badfingers Badfinger and that's good. You can feel its pain. It also has the trademark Pernice geography obsession. There are eleven very excellently crafted and executed new songs in all, plus the aforementioned "Grudge," which is indeed a stunner
"Somerville" the best song Teenage Fanclub never wrote.
I’m sick of the cynical I’m sick of the fashion show The vapid and overblown someone someone tells me I ought to know I wouldn’t stay around if the money let me linger on until the end of December And waste another year like a minute, trying to forget, 'cause I remember my brother
I left them with bitter words I’ll go back with cap in hand, and launder the bed I made, hurtful things said, and pick up where I began.
The penny lost its shine. Dirty ankles on the promenade in rubber flip-flop sandals.
Give me back the rags, the neurotic and the sweet lament, ’cause I can’t handle it. I’m gonna take a lover.
Gonna take her back to Somerville. Show her around the neighborhood, re-case the place and settle down. Gonna take a lover. Gonna take her back to Somerville. Don’t care if she’s pretty when we leave Suck City.
Song:Passeggiata in bicicletta e corte di dimostranti
Album: Garofano Rosso (19766)
The long-lived and influential Italian progressive band Banco del Mutuo Soccorso was influenced by such British progressive giants as Yes and Gentle Giant while also drawing heavily on classical and folk music. Although the group simplified their sound in later years, from 1972 to 1976 the group produced a series of eclectic, densely arranged progressive classics. more
Of all the albums Banco released prior to 1979, it seems that 1976's Garofano Rosso is the one that gets the bad rap, and I really can't understand that one bit. It's a film soundtrack to the Luigi Faccini film that's known also as The Red Carnation. So why is this album so underappreciated? No Francesco Di Giacomo. People seem to have a hard time wrapping their thoughts around his absence, but then they don't have a problem with ...Di Terra (1978) and he isn't present on that one either. review
Joe Pernice is one of the most interesting figures to emerge from the American indie pop scene since the 1990s; while he first gained recognition as part of the downbeat alt-country act the Scud Mountain Boys, since then he's performed and recorded with a variety of projects that have shown him to be a master of smart, beautifully crafted pop songs with intelligent, introspective lyrics and a darkly witty undertow that dovetails with his superb melodic sense. Born and raised in Massachusetts to a family of Italian immigrants, Pernice cut his musical teeth on the alternative rock of the late '70s and mid-'80s, citing the Clash and the Smiths as particular favorites. After playing with a handful of teenage bands in the late '80s, Pernice teamed up with singer and guitarist Bruce Tull in 1991 to form a group called the Scuds. In 1993, they would evolve into the Scud Mountain Boys, whose spare, acoustic-based sound magnified the angst of the then-thriving alternative country scene. more
It Feels So Good When I Stop is a companion piece to Joe Pernice’s debut novel It Feels So Good When I Stop. The book will be published August 6 by Riverhead Books, a division of Penguin. According to Pernice, ''Though the book is not explicitly about music, there are quite a few cover and fictional songs mentioned, so I thought it would be a cool idea for me to record some of those songs and release them, as a soundtrack album to the novel.''
interview (…) I never had a huge record collection. I do collect bicycles. I’m a freak for those. I probably have 10 bicycles right now. For me that’s a lot. I continually get rid of some, give them away as gifts - build them, restore them, get rid of them. I think it’s all about a time of your life. I have very specific tastes. It’s certainly attached to some pivot in your life.
A blend of experimental rock structures, punky energy, spoken-word melodies, and Judeo-Christian content characterizes the output of mewithoutYou, a Philadelphia-based band that formed in 2001. Having grown up listening to Jawbox and Burning Airlines, brothers Aaron and Michael Weiss initially cut their hard rock teeth as frontmen of the Operation. After releasing an album with the help of Takehold Records, the Operation's members decided to launch a side project in order to experiment with new sounds. The Weiss brothers subsequently formed mewithoutYou with help from bassist Ray Tadeo, guitarist Christopher Kleinberg, and drummer Richard Mazzotta. Tooth & Nail was taken by the fiery five-piece's raw appeal and inked them a deal, with bassist Daniel Pishock replacing the departing Tadeo. The Operation disbanded shortly thereafter, allowing the musicians to focus their efforts on the new band. more
I wrote a four word letter, With post-script in crooked lines, "Tho I'd lived I'd never been alive." You know who I am - you held my hem As I traveled blind Listening to a whispering in my ear, Soft but getting stronger, Telling me the only purpose of my being here Is to stay a bit longer.
Stealing a bicycle chain, As the handlebars crashed to the ground, The back wheel detached from the frame, It kept rolling, yeah, but aimlessly drifting around.
Oh, doubters, let's go down, Lets go down - won't you come on down? Oh doubters, lets go down- Down, to the river to pray?
"But I'm so small I can barely be seen - how can this great love be inside of me?" Look at your eyes - they're small in size, but they see enormous things.
Wearing black canvas slippers In our frog-on-a-lily-pad pose We sewed buttons and zippers To chinese pink silk And olive night clothes If you can someday stop by Somehow we'll show you the pictures and fix you some tea (see, my dad's getting a bit older now and just unimaginably lonely).
Oh, pretenders, let's go down Lets go down- won't you come on down? Oh, pretenders Lets go down- Down to the river and pray?
"Oh but I'm so afraid, and I'm set in my ways" But he'll make the rabbits and rocks sing his praise. "But I'm too tired, I won't last long." No, he'll use the weak to overcome the strong!
Oh, Amanda, let's go down Lets go down- won't you come on down? Mama, Nana, lets go down, down in the dirt by the river to pray?
You struke the match - why not be utterly changed by fire? To sacrifice the shadow and the mist Of a brief life you never much liked - So if you'd care to come along we're gonna curb all our never-ending, clever complaining (as who's ever heard of a singer criticized by his song?) We hunger, but though all that we eat brings us little relief we don't know quite what else to do, We have all our beliefs but we don't want our beliefs, God of peace, we want you.
MewithoutYou performs their song "Four Word Letter (Pt. Two)" live for your listening pleasure from the "Come and Live Tour". A tour for charity, proceeds going to Samaritan's Purse. If you want to hear the studio version of the song you should pick up their CD "Catch For Us The Foxes" on Tooth & Nail Records.
