to keep you from crying, here's first utterance

see what i did there?
anyhoo, if you are a fan of psychedelic music, folk music, and things that are genuinely scary, then this post is for you.

COMUS!

yes, comus, a band from the uk in the late 1960's through about 1973 (though they played a show this year apparently) were the essential missing piece in the psych-folk puzzle. whether it was their angelic singing, virtuosic musicianship, or simply the disturbing lyrical content, this band has become legendary in the circles of obscure music everywhere. these guys and gals did the pagan folk thing better than anyone, but it wasn't just for show. they were serious! this album is almost totally about satan, rape, murder, prisons, and other highly disturbing topics. when they talk about killing christians it doesn't feel cheesy or tongue in cheek, it makes you wonder if they were the backing band to some secret pagan rituals out in the british countryside. and when singer Roger Wooten sings about getting shock treatment in a prison, you can actually believe him (rumors were he was actually institutionalized for a period in the 1960's).

this band is incredible. their influence is huge, bands ranging from opeth to current 93 have cited them as an influence, even david bowie was a fan. lacking much of modern recording technology and techniques, this album is otherworldly and terrifying at times to hear, with vocal echoes and seemless transitions that would require hours of overdubs now. this is probably the most necessary psychedelic folk album around, anyone who is a fan of the style should already know about this, but in case you don't it's time to learn.

a truly beautiful, strange, terrifying, spectral, and ethereal listen. light some candles, burn some incense, and make a sacrifice to your favorite diety, comus is here!

the first download is the 1971 album "First Utterance." the second is a reissue of the single for Diana, which includes two other songs from that recording session.

Comus: First Utterance
'http://www.mediafire.com/?wjzfy2yykzt'

bonus 12"
'http://www.mediafire.com/?zmmuzmmnlm2'

and to finish the day, CAN videos!

ok, i'm pretty certain that i'm gonna talk about this band a lot on here. CAN rules all. without CAN there would be nothing. ok, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but CAN are quite possibly one of the most important bands EVER. influential in so many ways and areas, this band pioneered the kraut sound, paved the way for bands like this heat, circle, pretty much any drone band, and even made it onto the NWW list! WOW!

not convinced? check out these videos. the first is for the song "Mushroom" off the incredible album Tago Mago (which there are hundreds of reissues of, go pick them up now!). another of those weird post-communist german television videos, it makes you wonder what damo suzuki was singing about...




next is a live performance of the song "Mother Sky" (my favorite of the early CAN material), performed on a german talk show. watch the audience's reaction to what is happening. priceless.

germany strikes back

to add another axis power to this blog, here's a video of amon duul II. don't know em? go get their earth shattering, genre defining album "Yeti" if you can, there's an awesome cd reissue floating around, though i think it's out of print. the vinyl is a bit hard to come by. this band helped in creating a sound that most would call progressive rock, but those "in the know" would refer to as "krautrock" or "komische music." an offshoot of the much drone-ier and seminal german band amon duul, amon duul II just wanted to rock out instead of drone out. and rock they did. 12-string guitar, violin, knob twidling, and an insanely great drummer. they also got themselves a mention on the uber pretentious (but awesome) resource of unknown music: the nurse with wound list (check it out, tons of bands you have never heard of and much of it is incredible, more on that another time). check the groovy psychedelic video shit. this came from german television, they would run music videos after hours. oh, the post-communist bloc must have been a strange place.