5/21/2010 - legendary stardust cowboy in Mankato MN

live at the red sky lounge


the ledge and jay rosen

Paralyzed!
I Walk a Hot Wind
Who's Knocking on My Door
My Underwear Froze To the Clothesline
Someone Took The Yellow From My Egg
I Took A Trip on a Gemini Spaceship
Down in the Wrecking Yard
Tokyo
Radar
Bathroom Blues
Psychotic Reaction (instrumental)


the ledge and jay

3/22/10- les rallizes de chilton

This weekend I finally got my hands on the first of two Les Rallizes Denudes 2lps that came out on Fucked Up and Naked records 7-8 years ago.



I'd been listening to many of the songs under the guise of an mp3 version of "Live '77" but finally... to be able to hear this music rattling windowpanes instead of flimsy earbuds.

Or it maybe it sounded better given that i was in the midst of a mid-70s Alex Chilton listening- bender. A pairing that wouldn't work in the favor of most bands; but Rallizes' "Night of The Assassins", at least for ten minutes during one afternoon, bridged the distance between Japan and Memphis.

The bass line of "...Assassins" may have been lifted from Little Peggy March's "I Will Follow" and the uncomplicated upper-range vocal melody is reminiscent of Bobby Darin's hit 'DREAM LOVER'. Conventional fare for Les Rallizes.. but the wall of guitar squall is close kin to the warped blasts that desperately stumbled out of Alex's guitar during the mid 70s.

These connections may have been projections based on songs that i'd heard covered by Chilton earlier in the day (Shangri-las, Rolling Stones, Troggs, Eddie Cochran etc.) but that's how I heard it.

After an hr or so of Les Rallizes it was time to go back to Alex C. Big Star's 3rd... then much of the same material but sequenced differently and given the title "Sister Lovers". I hadn't listened to this version much over the yrs and was taken by surprise when I heard one of the bonus tracks--- DREAM LOVER.

Heh.

I'm sure that I'll continue to hear you in a lot of places, LX. Thanks, and so long.

1/22/10 spiral joy band with paul metzger in st. paul

01/22/10
spiral joy band w/ special guest paul metzger
@big v.s in st. paul, minnesota

spiral joy band = mike gangloff + mikel dimmick.
(the gentleman on the left is herr metzger).

playing a special show in honor of mike and mikel's late mate in the band Pelt (Jack Rose)

some very potent drones on site this night.

standing ten ft from the stage my torso was buzzing as if it were plugged into an electric outlet while my hands and fingers felt like they were attached to a different body.

My Estrogeneration

My Estrogeneration (Not Not Fun) LP


Picked up this comp. mainly for the exclusive Pocahaunted track but was pleasantly surprised at how consistently good the entire record is.

Previous releases from three participants on side A, Zola Jesus, Inca Ore and U.S. Girls, left me feeling ambivalent. But here; the tribal mechanics that dominate Zola Jesus' track pummel the drang out of the dramatic voicings that typified her first couple of singles. Inca Ore, in the context of a single song amongst the work of others, sounds much more on course than expected.

The Pocahaunted song is an outtake from the Gold Miners Daughter sessions (recorded back when both Amanda and Bethany were fronting the band). The newly released song uses harp as accompaniment even more effectively than on 'Sun'; the one track on the Gold Miners cassette that featured harp and violin . Might the title 'Hand of Alice" be a nod to Alice Coltrane? hope so!

The B-side is equally solid; with standout tracks coming from the chilly bittersweetness of Isaja (aka visual artist Merja Kokkeneon from Finland) and Valet, whose drawn out subterranean chants are likely to induce shudders.

The tremors that echo throughout the ten songs on this collection hold it together in a way that makes the hormonal theme of the title seem, well, irrelevant.

http://www.notnotfun.com

jerzy skolimowski - deep end on TCM

very cool skolimowsky double feature on TCM the other night (1/15) kicked off with "Deep End": a tastefully seamy UK film about mismanaged desire that manages to be both tender and sadistic. dig the underlying 70s pseudo-horror vibe, along with the inclusion of soundtrack work by Can.





the film centers around the relationship between a 15 yr old boy (john moulder-brown) and his more-worldly coworker (jan asher) but, really, it's just as much about the effects (and prevalence) of inequality in love, work, money and desire between all genders; and how individuals each need to find their own unique way of coping with temptation and tension lest they go off... the deep end.



the first hour contains a lot of overt, humorous symbolism as the boy is exposed to some rather perverted types at the public bathhouse where the two work along with his first visits to an x-rated movie, swingers club, live sex show and prostitute in a whirlwind chain of events set off by his unchannelled anxieties.

many scenes are laugh-enducing AND kinda humiliating but never at the complete expense of the willing participants.


"you'll find it very educational"

eventually circumstances become more serious (as they generally do over time). much more serious.



TCM usually reruns the films in their underground series at least a couple of times so watch out for Deep End; particularly the lengthy scene in dark soho that is set to Can's "Mother Sky" and eventually leads to multiple visits to... the hot dog stand.

1/14/10-zeena parkins at the walker art center

turning the galleries inside out...

zeena parkins perfoms three 20 minute pieces at the walker art center in minneapolis on Jan 14th.

some beautiful sounds bouncing around the room this night

riley and his story/monica haller-this is not a book

Today I finally got ahold of a copy of Monica Haller's "Riley and his story" (published by onestar press).

Riley Sharbonno was a ER nurse at Abu Ghraib prison. Monica, his friend; a Minneapolis based interdiscipliarian artist

The many pictures inside (some graphic, some mundane) document Riley's tour of duty.

The text on the cover says a lot.

The words inside, while relatively few, say even more as they attempt to explain the discrepancy between Riley's recall and the contents of the photos that he took.

Amnesia? Repressed memories?? The aftereffects of trauma???

A war story, definitely, but on a fundamental level it also touches upon the impermanence of memory over the the passing of time. Something that in the past hasn't bothered me much; but now I'm not so sure.

Best to let this one soak in for awhile.

to order..
onestar press

Download a PDF of excerpts from Riley and his story.
http://www.rileyandhisstory.com/PDF/riley_excerpts.pdf