Raspberry Fields

The Breeders (L-R, Carrie Bradley and Kim Deal) performing Last...

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 15:06:00 -0400

The Breeders (L-R, Carrie Bradley and Kim Deal) performing Last Splash (Bell House 3.29.2013). “Saints” is just a song about going to a county or state fair and losing yourself in the crowd, a young innocent past-time in some not-quite-sub-rural Midwestern realm from which the Deals sprung. But it’s also a back-handed indictment of stasis, and, more importantly, a wonderful offer of inner hope - “summer,” after all, “is ready when you are!” More than just about any other musical document of that weird time (the one before this time), it speaks to a feeling that has never left me and one I hope to never lose…even as I can feel its dimensions shrinking.

Here are some more formal thoughts about The Breeders and their 20th Anniversary of ‘Last Splash’ show at the Bell House, for Billboard.

(Photo courtesy of Kate Glicksberg a.k.a. @Interstatial)

Mixtape: Parallel Thought, "FAME"

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 11:18:00 -0400

&amp;lt;a href=”http://parallelthought.bandcamp.com/album/fame” data-mce-href=”http://parallelthought.bandcamp.com/album/fame”&amp;gt;FAME by Parallel Thought&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

Parallel Thought, “FAME” (2013 Bandcamp mixtape)

Superior Fourth World concepting from long-time backpacker production team. The plan is: source music only from recordings made at the classic Muscle Shoals studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and cut them up in the spirit of the South Bronx, mega-mix-style. What on some level purports to be a very old skool feel, turns out to be aesthetically focused but completely out of time and space. The closest comparisons I can make are that of a much busier (d’uh, DJ set) version of Laswell’s Miles Davis remixes, or some sort of kid-brother companion to Dilla’s Donuts. You could do much worse with 42-minutes of your ears’ time.

Disclosure (feat. Aluna George), “White Noise (Hudson...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:55:53 -0400

Disclosure (feat. Aluna George), “White Noise (Hudson Mohawke remix)” (Soundcloud 2013)

A few of late 2012/early 2013’s recurring characters forming like Voltron, with HudMo putting the deep fake-string-edged brakes (not breaks) on my personal stand-out from the Lawrence brothers’ still-budding catalog. At a party, the original would still be preferable; at the smoke-filled after-, probably not so much. Last nite, Disclosure played to a Williamsburg music hall full of Brits, bros and women who love them, an EDM-riches-and-bitches-launching evening, a let’s-welcome-our-Interscope-overlords-to-the-party evening, a “blockbuster return to ‘stadium garage’” evening. The ride keeps getting weirder

tumblinerb: Traxman - Criminal Poetry 2013 Tha Lost Hip Hop...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 10:00:18 -0400

tumblinerb:

Traxman - Criminal Poetry 2013 Tha Lost Hip Hop Mix (Soundcloud, 2013)

Eclectic selection of rap classics from Chicago juke pioneer Traxman. I am fairly certain that this is the first time anyone has ever blended Mystikal “I’m On Fire” into Pete Rock & CL “Escape.”

Decidedly Older School!

Dense & Pika, “LIVE in the Boiler Room” (Boiler...

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:52:27 -0400

Dense & Pika, “LIVE in the Boiler Room” (Boiler Room x Hotflush 2.21.13)

A relatively new London-based duo, purveyors of classic, acid-heavy techno of the Birmingham and UR variety, which is among the sounds that fuels my days at the moment. Here, tweaking 50 workman-like minutes of swinging, melody-free pounding for the Boiler Room crowd. For further listening of the sort, check “Coil,” off their debut Hotflush EP.

Robert Hood, “Drive (The Age of Automation)” (Music...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 23:53:00 -0400

Robert Hood, “Drive (The Age of Automation)” (Music Man 2012 - video directed by the29nov films 2013)

That there can now be an “official” music video for a Robert Hood track - and a damn good/appropriate one at that - says a lot of our age. Once-complicated ideas cast longer-than-ever shadows, and the process of media creation can be fast, cheap, and creatively refined, all at once. There’s nothing here that is more than a feeling, but it’s a complicated many-layered one: a Koyaanisqatsi travelogue playing with the light of the world and with global (mostly urban) environments. Musically, it isn’t all that far removed from the techno rebellion that Hood called for in UR; yet spiritually, there’s a streak of hope in those high synth lines that begins to dissipate the dread of the sequencer. Now, no one’s talking about cheerfulness here; but as you keep looking out the window of this trans-global express (or into its adjacent wagons), the prevailing thought certainly isn’t that of gloom. And for a man who helped create what we know as modern dystopian music, that’s as good as an ice-cream smile.

D’Angelo & Questlove, “Soulquarians: Brothers in...

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:20:00 -0500

D’Angelo & Questlove, “Soulquarians: Brothers in Arms” session (Brooklyn Bowl 3.4.2013) was about 75 minutes of bliss. D’s voice, especially the uncanny ability to jump into a perfectly-timed on-pitch falsetto at will, is an absolute joy; his keyboards’ interplay with Ahmir’s drums just forceful enough to give the smooth textures some grit, helping spotlight what a monster drummer Questo is (taste, drive, force, etc.); and an audience whose attention and joy and love helped make the moment. Wonderful all around. (Expertly-chosen, cover-heavy setlist here.)

(Photo courtesy of Kate Glicksberg a.k.a. @Interstatial)

Mim Suleiman, “Nyuli (Dub)” (2010 Running...

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 14:17:00 -0500

Mim Suleiman, “Nyuli (Dub)” (2010 Running Back)

Sunday Music, the Body & Soul edition!!! It’s not like the changing winds of R&B have been a full-force gale only over the past few years; tempo-wise, the genre has little to do with the music I grew up on in the ’70s and ’80s, with something about the schism in American black futurist music (hip-hop v. house), slowing down mainstream R&B and leading to the large-scale abandonment of the swinging 4/4. Or, saving it for the house remix. By this point, I’m not sure how many people would consider this Maurice Fulton dub (of his own production of a Zanzibar-born singer now living in Sheffield) an R&B tune, as opposed to Afro-disco-house or future-funk (or whatever hyphenated section you might wanna file it under), a POV backed by “Nyuli” being released on one of Germany’s best house labels. Though I would absolutely call it one modern reflection of the world we are living in, and perfect for a late-afternoon dance-party.

Louise Despont, “Bowed Vibration” (2012): graphite...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 09:45:00 -0500

Louise Despont, “Bowed Vibration” (2012): graphite and colored pencil on antique paper, shows at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery (327 Broome St. NYC), initial hat-tip to Devendra Banhart.

arpeggia: Augusto Esquivel created this piano sculpture with...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 23:46:00 -0500

arpeggia:

Augusto Esquivel created this piano sculpture with carefully hung string and hundreds if not thousands of sewing buttons. To be exact, there is over 45lbs of sewing buttons in this piano sculpture. [juxtapoz]

Mountains, “Living Lens” (Thrill Jockey 2013) Sunday...

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 13:13:00 -0500

Mountains, “Living Lens” (Thrill Jockey 2013)

Sunday music, the medium-body ambient drone edition. For when light and darkness approach each other, and fall into a sort of waltz: the hesitating, the circling, the two-stepping back-and-forth, and the eventual, improvisational pattern of inevitability to these motions. It has no ingrained objective value, but comes with an infinite subjective pretense. Project, and ye shall receive.

Before the show, Kurt Vile’s set-up #lategram (at Electric Lady...

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 23:34:00 -0500

Before the show, Kurt Vile’s set-up #lategram (at Electric Lady Studios)

Will To Power: For Bonnie "Prince" Billy et al.

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 10:17:00 -0500

Oldham, Will Will Oldham on Bonnie “Prince” Billy (edited by Alan Licht) (Faber & Faber 2012) // Will Oldham “In conversation with Alan Licht and Sasha Frere-Jones” (Book Court, Brooklyn 2.6.2013) // Bonnie “Prince” Billy, “American Songbook” (Rose Room, Lincoln Center 2.7.2013) // The Grammy Awards (2.10.13)

Sunday night, I watched the Grammys - and the staging of so-called historic Grammy moments - from deep inside a Bonnie “Prince” Billy-shaped hole I’d dug for myself over the past week. I certainly wasn’t looking to conflate the two, just where I happened to find myself. It was an interesting perspective, illustrating very different routes some later generations might regard as headed for the same desire. Observed in such close proximity, the events being part of the same “game” definitely stood out; yet the diversity of characters, intentions and unfolding scenarios was even more amazing. Not to mention how polarizing the results could be.

The Grammys were simple to parse because the script remains so stable year-to-year: the occasional apt moments of nostalgia, egocentric mania, regal self-awareness and creative coronation, all just a sideshow to the emperors and their snazzy new outfits, backless or big-band. From inside the narrative, the energy is an appropriate kind of crazy, just reward for hard work and sacrifice. Even a few consumer degrees outward, the circus has come to appear only marginally outlandish, how a society’s dream-machine pictures a minted troubadour’s rebellion, leather and louche-lite traditions intact. It was simple to recognize the roles on display. In the way that, for instance, the Mumfords, having imbibed some sepia-tone-era liquor during the ceremony, found the courage to cat-call Grammy Queen Adele once they’d been chosen to this year’s throne; all down the line, picture them comfortable at playing the parts of the Revel Kings, Marcus pawing the hired guitarist’s lithe lil’ cousin for sport. Hell, their Daniel Glass-funded entitlement may have even fueled their back-of-the-limo dreams later on, making de rigueur memories on “music’s big night.” From authentic Brit Okies to Hollywood coke whores in less than two hours, all gone but the spoils.

This was a weird image to have at the end of a week in which I was preoccupied by Will Oldham’s cultural crowning in New York. Not because it’s hard to picture Oldham in such glam-slam situations, but because all of the things he’d be required to do in order to get in that room. And having spent two decades engaging his career (first Palace show: Threadwaxing Space, summer 1994), there’s only one act that would come as a surprise from Will: relinquishing control. The rare occasion on which he has, was due to a sense of trust, whether personal, artistic/collaborative, equally deviant, or some other in-cahoots. And it’s safe to say that self-control and trust tend to be in short supply at the Grammys.

It’s hard to disassociate these ingrained values from the hardcore-punk ideals that served as one of Oldham’s formative pillars, just as it’s now impossible to disconnect his creative approach from the lessons he learned as a child and young-adult actor. (The extent to which both of these participatory cultures have played a part in his life are deep currents of the “new book” in question, Will Oldham on Bonnie “Prince” Billy, a set of biographical straight-man interviews conducted by Alan Licht.) The fact that trust and control are also recurring motifs in the folk and classic country music that are Oldham’s predominant forms of choice, only reinforces the notion of a clear belief system at work here, one that the modern market isn’t primary in helping shape. (Which is not the same thing as saying that the market is inconsequential or to be avoided. When a fan at Book Court asked rather directly about commercial desires, Will made a clear distinction between wanting to write a “hit song” and an opaque repulsion of what makes one.)

In some ways, these are exactly the types of virtues that gatekeepers at New York’s ivory towers are looking to reward; yet Oldham’s critical reputation and perceived attitude has won him few free passes. Mostly, this is because his media plan fits nobody’s version of a standard blueprint, much less the almighty cycle’s. Bonnie “Prince” Billy releases a never-ending stream of singles, EPs and albums (with very few promos); tours in spurts (New York is lucky to see him once every 18 months); and publically speaks when he chooses to (Oldham’s pat answer as to why he participated in a book that’s a long-form interview is, so that he never has to do one again). All this makes it hard to shower him with praise in accepted fashion. Oh, then there’s the music, mostly acoustic and minor-key, sung in a beaten-up tenor (that’s developed heavy gravity through the years), and about as capital-c contemporary as the Guttenberg Bible or the Liberty Bell; though increasingly proving to be nearly as timeless. This is why Lincoln Center’s booking felt as obvious as it did radical. “Him? Really? Yeah - I guess…”

There’s also Oldham’s singular sense of propriety, veering between patrician and libertine almost at will, interchangeably quoting John Ashberry and making jokes about mistaking banks of roses for vaginas in old Irish folk songs. Answering questions and not suffering fools, he is direct to the point of being off-putting, in command of a massively wide cultural frame (a sample list of boldface names from the two nights includes DH Lawrence, Candi Staton, the Gershwins, Cynthia Hopkins, Kevin Coyne, Werner Herzog, Cowboy Jack Clement and, my favorite, Connie Britton), a deep-thinking vagabond in love with a careless world. This strange, emotional data, and the self-reliant experiences that compiled it, inform songs whose story-telling goal, it often seems, is to tap into life’s basic actions and symbols, then figure out how to use them maximally. Much like life, some of these songs are overwrought with melodrama, yet others bear a presence that makes it seem like they’ve been here forever - and will remain.

He closed the “American Songbook” performance with an acapella version of Hank Snow’s “Ninety Miles an Hour (Down a Dead-End Street),” which features all the hallmarks of a Bonnie Will Palace “Prince” Oldham song. There’s the intermingling of playfulness and doom, a metaphysical power greater than the sum of the words, a lesson for listeners to learn even as the characters choose to ignore it, written decades ago it didn’t seem dated in the least. As such, the song fit comfortably in the set. One step out, in a modern pop context, it was more oddity than norm (though dime-store symbolists could doubtlessly make a case for similarities between this performer and the Album of the Year winners). But approached more broadly, it wasn’t much different from what troubadours in the game have been trying to convey for generations: trying to wrangle familiar desires, from different paths.

BONUS: Palace Brothers, “The Cross” (Peel session 1994)

BONUS: Bonnie “Prince” Billy, “I See a Darkness (2012 version)”

(photo: Will Oldham at the Rose Room, Lincoln Center, February 7, 2013, holding up a photo of himself and Connie Britton, by Sachyn Mital for Brooklyn Vegan)

Palace Brothers, “The Cross” (Peel Session...

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 13:54:24 -0500

Palace Brothers, “The Cross” (Peel Session 1994)

Sunday Music!!! Topping off the American Pantheon-induction week Will Oldham’s career was just magnified with (Book Court discussion with a New Yorker staffer, a Lincoln Center/”American Songbook” performance), here’s back-in-the-day Will covering one of Prince’s Sign’o The Times masterpieces.

David S. Ware Quartet, “The Stargazers” (DIW...

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 14:17:00 -0500

David S. Ware Quartet, “The Stargazers” (DIW 1996)

Sunday Music!!! One version of the late, great Mr. Ware’s classic quartet (with Matthew Shipp/piano, William Parker/bass, Susie Ibarra/drums) performing a Sun Ra composition. Going to the memorial service for Ware a few weeks ago at St. Peter’s Church, also the location of Julius Hemphill’s memorial back in ‘95, was a timely reminder of how deeply jazz’s explorative wing is rooted in the blues, and how often great avant-garde leaps are powered by traditional tools.

SFV Acid, “As Is (Part 2)” (UNO NYC video version...

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:07:28 -0500

SFV Acid, “As Is (Part 2)” (UNO NYC video version 2013)

Commitment issues are only a problem if you can’t find anything to commit to; but once you’ve laid down some honest roots, chances are good that more will take. If you want them to. We all know SFV Acid is committed to “place” like a punk rep’ing his local scene; it’s in his very stage-name. Yet how San Fernando Valley manifests itself in the art he makes (by his own admission, music is a secondary pursuit), and how he uses its mythical middle-class characteristics, has a lot to do with what makes his music an oddity this moment.

The generational detachment is upfront, but it is carefully constructed, and the rest of the filled-out frame exhibits precise (if not quite strict) pains. The music is organically intelligent, of the early-Aphex/ambient-electro-techno variety, 303s and 808s programmed with emotion, the melody and melancholy churning towards a never-reached horizon. Making it very much a third-(fourth-?) generation off-spring of Detroit. This last point would not be worth dwelling on, if these videos didn’t harken back to something specific in how they soundtrack the Valley landscape: exactly in-fashion with the way Detroit’s techno underpins an endless stream of Motor City ruin-porn and attitude videos, clogging the documentary and art space.

In our time of the ‘nets, this is hardly an unheard-of juxtaposition, but a strange one nevertheless. Yet in our post-truth days of how underground house over-peddles American-inner-city attitudes all around the world, SFV’s interpretation of authenticity is a motherfucker.

He applies a specific language to an intentionally misapplied subject, just the kind of thing that might be dreamed up by a kid who by his own admission mopes around art-schools for fun, and without commitment. Same as it ever was. Even the post-script scene (a brown worker scraping off graffiti, while in the background church-bells ring) speaks to the non-permanence of whatever you may have just heard and/or seen. In fact, this isn’t even a real track, it’s a version of the one released as a video last week, and not the one that carries its name on the UNO EP. So, “as-salamu alaykum!” SFV Acid, may you live to not commit another day.

BONUS: SFV Acid, “As Is (Part 1)”

blackfaurest: David Grubbs, “The Plain Where the Palace Stood,”...

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 09:53:06 -0500

blackfaurest:

David Grubbs, “The Plain Where the Palace Stood,” from the album The Plain Where the Palace Stood (Drag City/P-Vine; coming in April). DG: electric guitar, C. Spencer Yeh: violin, Andrea Belfi: drums and electronics.

RA: Real Scenes - Johannesburg (2013) - Besides the weekly...

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:03:23 -0500

RA: Real Scenes - Johannesburg (2013) - Besides the weekly podcast mixes, this series of long-form videos is probably the best editorial and creative work that Resident Advisor is putting out into the sphere. Beautifully shot, multi-interview pieces that try to give historical perspectives to dance-music scenes of various world capitals, that always include at least one bit of local, current insiderism. So this 20-minute look at South Africa’s massive house scene includes old kwaito superstars (TKZee), the granddaddy of SA house (Oskido), its current star practitioners (Black Coffee, and my fave Culoe de Song), as well as the top youngins (Black Motion), among others. One beef is that they only explore the smooth side of SA house, and there’s not even a little bit on the more hardcore township sound (like DJ Spoko), but I’ll chalk it up to tight-narrative and thematic consistency.

BONUS: DJ Spoko’s “Grave Mix” (2012)

SFV Acid, “AS IS (part 1)” (UNO NYC 2012 - video 2013) Welcome...

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 15:18:00 -0500

SFV Acid, “AS IS (part 1)” (UNO NYC 2012 - video 2013)

Welcome to the new year and a brand new start. Or not. Follow your annual resolutions. Or don’t. Document the ennui of the post-holiday deep winter in a place without seasons, and the feelings of self-dislocation that it breeds. What would that look like? No tropics here – nothing extreme obviously! Anything natural is just a series of public-private after-thoughts, negative spaces, a set of connections between bouts of the man-made; but once the gifts have all been given, everybody’s got to have a breather. The wind cries Santa Ana. The professionally faded colors produced by cheap digital filters invoke the porn being shot just a few miles away, even if they’re the landscape’s natural tones. (It’s always like that!) And you are chilling. Because what the fuck else would you do? Yeah, sure, the music’s also laid-back, but unlike your posture, which just can’t be bothered, it’s invoking something darkly unspoken. You’re not going to be dancing to it any time soon – even if it might prove to be the cure for your inertia. (Do you even dance?) But, hey, I’m sure you would say, “don’t go dissing entropy, or especially cold music that warmly speaks to it.” And I hear that loud and clear, my brother, I hear that loud clear.

When Brazil met Mali! Edgard Scandurra, Toumani Diabate and...

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 18:57:36 -0500

When Brazil met Mali! Edgard Scandurra, Toumani Diabate and Arnaldo Antunes, creators of one of the best albums of 2012, in a portrait by the most excellent Dave Stelfox.