this one's for the lonely.

happy valentines day everyone.

good ole kills got you a present.

you don't need a review of this one. M Gira bedroom recordings. put this one on and drink bourbon from the bottle smoking cigarettes and staring out a window.

Michael Gira - I Am Singing To You From My Room.
http://www.mediafire.com/?1zmntkwjntm

ride those WAVVES man.

ok, i know this is everywhere right now, but seriously, if you haven't checked this out, then please please do so now.

this is Wavves, dude. a one man project consisting of 22 year old Nathan Daniel Williams and his 4 track and a bunch of guitars and drums. he plays a brand of surf-rock that is pretty unique in that genre. his songs are fast, snotty, blown the fuck out, noisey, but most of all fun. the thing that strikes me the most is how young this kid is... what were you doing when you were 22?

this is a band i would want to see at a house party in the summer time. definitely my new party album.

this is the tape version of the lp on fuck it / woodsist.

shimmy out and ride those Wavves on home

Wavves - s/t
http://www.mediafire.com/?xrdermh2mom

i return with a century of moonlight!

howdy.

i'm back. here's some Ilyas Ahmed for you all to consume. i like this album a lot, it's spacey and spacious and fucking brilliant. when he meanders on some sort of formless wave of free-drone noise it helps to drift along with him and find yourself somewhere else, where ever the notes take you. when he's playing that spectral guitar and howling it's truly ethereal. this is the brightest of Ilyas' releases i've heard, but not bright like cheery, like least smokey sounding and open. it's more sundrenched, but washed out. lovely album, really. i truly hope he sticks around for a while and makes more incredible recordings like this.

Ilyas Ahmed - Cetury Of Moonlight
http://www.mediafire.com/?myzmzay1jky

flying canyon. that's it.

so yeah, usually i get sort of "poetic" with the titles, but this one deserves better. this one is a cd that deserves to stand on it's own. this is Flying Canyon's s/t cd. Cayce Lindner poured himself into these songs. you can hear it. this is some of the most emotionally strained and saddest folk music i've ever heard. it's intense to say the least, it's beauty spans well beyond the scope of just the songs... it is a personal and incredibly close album, an album of hope and despair at the same time. featuring Glenn Donaldson and Shayde Sartin as the backing band, but mostly focussed on Cayce. as it should be. his sad guitar mixed with his coedine stained whiskey soaked voice makes me break.

Cayce took his life almost a year after this cd was released. this sounds like his heart was already breaking. so sad.

this is one of my favorite cds of all time. put it on and give it a good close listen. it deserves that.

Flying Canyon - Flying Canyon
http://www.mediafire.com/?lmoijfuyelj

after a few days off it's time for a MAGIC HOUR of posting!

Magic Hour were a quartet consisting of Kate Biggar (guitar), Wayne Rogers (guitar & vocals, of the awesome Twisted Village label and about 30 or so bands), Damon Krukowski (drums), and Naomi Yang (bass, the latter two of Galaxie 500 and Damon & Naomi). these folks made some exceptional psychedelic fused dreamy pop with extended fuzz solos and really gentle voices. This cd is titled "No Excess Is Absurd" and if you can find the first edition you should purchase it for the really nice packaging alone (let alone the music, which is exceptional, this being my favorite of their stuff). housed in a silver box with some printing on it and packaged with a really nice booklet, it looks as awesome as it sounds. the later editions have the cover art pictured here. this cd is pretty much necessary downloading for those fans of D&N, g500, any Wayne Rogers band (the guitar and FUZZ are way awesome!), and extreme solos.

Magic Hour - No Excess Is Absurd
http://www.mediafire.com/?i35fcjk2izq

sorry no uploads today.

i'm not feeling great. here's a jack rose video to cheer you all up.

a golden cosmos of psychedelia weaved by joshua burkett

FIXED THE LINK NOW IT WORKS SORRY

yo. here's today's shit:

this is Joshua Burkett's cd entitled "Gold Cosmos" and this one is a real hum-dinger. some of you may remember Joshua from his work with Tower Recordings, others from his collaborations with Sunburned Hand Of The Man or Kemialliset Ystavat (on the essential "By The Roots You Shall Know The Fruits" comp). This cd is amazing, a veritable who's who of players (MV, Ben Chasny, P.G. Six, Dredd Foole, Chris Corsano, Matt Moran, and others!). it's full of appalachia, psychedelia, and raga. the tracks are spectral and smokey, full of ethereal almost gone vocals, loads of effects treatment, and every song is amazing. this is one of my favorite cds of this style, it really is hard to top this one. if only there were loads more of Joshua's work out there for our consumption, this cd (which was released in 2001) is one of his only solo releases.

get this gem right now. astral projections for an astral mind.

Joshua - Gold Cosmos
http://www.mediafire.com/?jyxethijztn

from creek to creation, matt valentine is stoned.

you know, i love me some Tower Recordings. i love me some MV + EE. and i love me some MV solo shit. so it's natural that i would post this album since, you know, it's on Qbico.

this is Matt Valentine's "Creek to Creation" album put out on the good ole' Qbico way back in 2004. this album is full of stoned ass meanderings and stumblings, loads of appalachia styled fingerpicking, singing bowls, disembodied vocals, and fuzz. the album features 5 tracks, three under 2:30 and two going almost 15 minutes or longer. the influence of Dredd Foole is felt acutely here, with any vocals being warbly and weird, which is fine. someday i'll post that Dredd Foole album that's basically a Pelt album with guest stars.... we'll see.

all in all this is an interesting listen and way spaced out. for the more drugged of my readers for sure.

Matt Valentine - Creek To Creation
http://www.mediafire.com/?ztiy2eqeznn

p.s. oops! i had the link to the Kuupuu file here... i've fixed it now. srry flks. my bd.

you might need a murderer, someone to do your dirty work...

first of all, i love Low. seriously, slow music that is bare and stripped down to just raw emotion. and fucking sad too. i guess being a mormon from minnesota is depressing? who knew?

anyhoo, here's one of my favorite of their releases, the "Murderer" ep put out on director Cameron Crowe's Vinyl Films label as part of a short lived 10" series that never saw completion (though i guess stuff is still in the works, like 5 years later... too busy making shmaltzy movies?) this is an awesome ep. three songs. short. to the point. it has the best version of the song "Murderer" (which appears on "The Great Destroyer" as well) and the other two songs ain't bad either.

i must've listened to this ep like 10,000 times by now. if you like sad, slow music, then get it and cry yourself a river. or don't. either way.

Low - Murderer
http://www.mediafire.com/?nkj2jizqjzh

shapes are fun, even linda perhacs agrees.

here's a real treat: Linda Perhacs' "Parallelograms" album. released in 1970 to almost no sales, this album became a "holy grail" of sorts to many over time. hell, it was on my most wanted list before the reissue came out a few years back. this album is very strange by 1970's standards, mostly consisting of Linda's pearlescent voice and spectral guitar, but then things get weird with electronic manipulations and interludes. this album set a course for many out there to follow, a sort of trailblazing path of folk music that hadn't been heard before and has rarely been topped since. do yourself a huge favor and get this.

this is the expanded edition, in case you were wondering. good demo tracks.

Linda Perhacs - Parallelograms
http://www.mediafire.com/?cnnzziczzcx

painting a picture of reverb

Corsican Paintbrush are the duo of Brad Rose and Eden Hemming Rose, husband and wife. these two create a wonderful brand of hazy folk music that sounds like a soundtrack to a travel documentary. on this cd-r, their debut entitled "Lichens And Moss," the reverb on every track gives each song a haze and smokey feel that makes you think this is some unearthed recording from the past. there is a definite european feel on these songs, mostly consisting of guitar pieces, but there is a huge diversity of instruments played on this. listen closely to this one, it's very quiet (and meant to be so) and very natural sounding.

wonderful folk that is very warm and pleasing. much love.

Corsican Paintbrush - Lichens & Moss
http://www.mediafire.com/?d5modumvzvt

running towards a night between two skies

Ilyas fucking Ahmed. incredible. folk music that is wispy, vaporous, layered, and incredibly emotional. this is the sound of loneliness, of an empty room, of hearts fading.

here we've got his first two cdrs (Towards The Night and Between Two Skies) that he self released in a criminally limited quantity of 50 copies each. thankfully, the kind folks at Digitalis recently reissued these cds as part of their arts and crafts editions. the songs are breathtaking, with Ilyas' mostly wordless vocals evoking better images than most singers can with volumes of poetry, and his eastern influenced fingerpicked guitar seems to weep. David Keenan described this music as "gone." i couldn't agree with that sentiment more.

these albums are phenominal and definitely worth checking out and purchasing. (here's the link: http://www.digitalisindustries.com/ace003.html )

i'm only going to leave these up for a short time since this is definitely still in print, so download, love, and order away please.

Ilyas Ahmed - Towards the night
http://www.mediafire.com/?ngjhoogmomm

Ilyas Ahmed - Between Two Skies
http://www.mediafire.com/?n2lnfegdmzn

no more crazy women, please.

you heard me.

Arthur Doyle would agree too, since he released a one-sided album on the mighty Qbico entitled "No More Crazy Women." it's full of his usual bombastic sax, a little muttering and wildness, and even a little elctronic manipulations. this is a short listen and an interesting one.

for fans of free-jazz, the qbico label, and crazy women.

sorry, no cover scans and qbico's website seems to be out of order.

Arthur Doyle - No More Crazy Women
http://www.mediafire.com/?auozkmddodj

GAMELAN GAMELAN GAMELAN!!!

the first time i heard of a gamelan orchestra was through the Sun City Girls on their album "330,003 Crossdressers From Beyond The Rig Veda." naturally, i thought they had made up a thing called a gamelan orchestra and figured it was one of their jokes. then i listened to the album and wondered what the chimes were. a little research led me to all sorts of interesting info (wikipedia gamelan orchestra. it's pretty cool.) so then i tracked down some gamelan music. did you know Pauline Oliveros is a big fan of gamelan and recorded a bunch of music with them? pretty good too. there's also this little group from new york that writes new pieces of gamelan music called Gamelan Son Of Lion, whom i am featuring here.

This two disc collection is expansive and awesome. gamelan music is very pleasing to the ear and easy to listen to. it relaxes me in a way few musics can. if you are at all interested in musics from another country or sounds you have never heard then, please, check this collection out. you won't regret it.

Gamelan Son Of Lion - The Complete Gamelan In The New World
disc 1
http://www.mediafire.com/?tmmvw0cgm2y
disc 2
http://www.mediafire.com/?czighnk2nzk

a bit of glitch for the masses

Alva Noto should be well known to most of you who like the glitchier musics, and Opiate should be well known to a much wider audience because of his work with Bjork. but, their collaborations are fucking incredible, taking electronic sounds and making them have a very organic edge, a sort of crunchy sound that breathes and moans. this is the first of their collaborations, simply titled "Opto Files." its fairly short, only 5 tracks, but what it lacks in length it makes up for in ingenuity. this is dark, ambient, and lush in sound, with pops and crackles provided by Noto and huge washes of melodic waves provided by Opiate. this cd came out a few years back on the always awesome Raster Noton label, which if you can afford their releases you should get them cause they are not only packaged beautifully always but i have not been disappointed by one yet (and i'm not even a huge fan of electronic music!)

Alva Noto & Opiate - Opto Files
http://www.mediafire.com/?jznnxmw2wzl

i'll admit it: i love cat power

i really really do. but i am a bit mad she re-recorded my favorite song of her's.

here's a 1998 video proving why it was better the old way. it makes me want to do heroin.

i'm just a big softy today...

The Softies, a duo of wonderful ladies, crafted short songs about love and heartbreak. their recordings are very simple: two guitars, two lovely voices, good recording. pretty straight forward, but excellently executed. both of the ladies did some time in twee pop bands (including the underappreciated Go Sailor!) and you can really hear that in these songs, with octave chords and strummed rhythm lines.

this is their last album "Holiday In Rhode Island." the songs are short, simple, and heartbreaking. get ready to cry, motherfuckers, these lyrics are sad. their voices are evocative and personal, giving these lyrics more effect even than what they already carry, with lilting harmonies and quiet emotion.

i highly recommend this album to anyone who likes solid twee pop.

The Softies - Holiday In Rhode Island
http://www.mediafire.com/?uyyd3dqltzy

keeping the Qbico coming to the masses, pt. 4

ok, this next one will be a much easier to stomache release for most of you. Coffee's "Pissing Contest" sounds just like that: a free jazz ensemble who are trying to outdo each other in making a sonic bombardment that will destroy your sentiments of what you think traditional jazz should be. this is truly free music, with horns being echoed and overdubbed, and a drummer that sounds like he's playing two kits (though that could be the echo...).

the b-side, however, is a MUCH different affair, being mostly electronic. there are synthesizers here bleeping around and making a repetetive siren-esque moan that will fry your brains just enough to make you think the horns are synth as well, and then when you can't think anymore they fuck with your head EVEN MORE with scrapes and scratches and reversed recordings.

this is a truly strange record. it's pretty awesome though, and really pretty to look at (besides the black and white cover). for fans of noisy free jazz freakouts.

Coffee - Pissing Contest
http://www.mediafire.com/?itkdhzym3tw

Qbico appreesh pt. 2

the next round is done by a group many of you should be very familiar with by now: Double Leopards. featuring one of my personal favorites (marcia basset!) and the duo who went on to form Religious Knives, this brooklyn quartet craft a drone music that on this release was focussed and intense, starting with a plinking sort of electronic scrape sound and disembodied wordless singing building into less of a hum and more of a screech as the A-side continues, sounding like highly distorted whale noises at times. the B-side starts quietly with only and amplifier hum and some weird clicking, but you know it will build into something a lot more moaning than this. quickly the hum is joined by distant sounding metalic whirs and horn-ish sounds, with voices and echoes joining in. the whole mood of this record is eerie and sparse, being less about shredding eardrums and more about freaking you out.

the picture disk art is fantastically trippy, being done by one mr. greg lambkin (you know, the shadow ring?). this is an old qbico release and the only place your gonna find it is the bay.

oh, and turn this one up LOUD!

Double Leopards - Urban Concussion
http://www.mediafire.com/?gmjoy4mmitz

the moon may be shrinking. but death's still not your friend

Wooden Shjips, one of the buzz-bands in the california psychedelic revival going on today, are fucking sweet. the singer may sound like jim morrison, and they may have an organ player, but trust me - they sound nothing like the doors. instead, they are a raw as fuck rough edged heavy psych group that relies as much on improvisation as compisition. fast becoming houshold names to those with good taste, these guys are tearing apart eardrums all across the states and crafting tunes that make you want to trip as well as boogie.

this is their highly limited 10" (which is reissued on their "Vol. 1" lp). it starts with the scorching track "Shrinking Moon For You," one of the rawest and most blown out recent psych tracks i've heard come out in a while. it sounds like they fried their amps and then recorded on a boombox (it's that good!). totally worth it just for that song alone.

Wooden Shjips - Shrinking Moon For You 10"
http://www.mediafire.com/?4ixzcyjjmon