Mail Call!

First I would like to apologize for the lack of posting last week. I was in Mexico for reading week.

I got back last night to a package slip from the post office. So today I was off to pick up my vinyl.

I do love Robot Empire. They have great stuff and while the shipping may be a little slow they throw in an extra album for free.

The first album that excited the hell out of me was the four way international split between Beau Navire (America) , Carrion Spring (American), Te Llorian Un Puto Rio (for some reason I can't find exactly where these guys are from but it's somewhere in  South America I'm betting) , & The Discord Of A Forgotten Sketch (Canada). It is 8" clear vinyl and is limited to 500. Robotic Empire still has three in stock and it's only 6.99 for 4 awesome bands.

This is my first piece of vinyl by a Canadian band. I'm not a nationalist but that excites me just a little bit.

The music is all really intense screamo stuff, rapidly transitioning from moments of beauty to moments of utter heaviness and chaos.  Though in this particular brand of screamo there aren't really moments of melodic beauty just some relative calm before the storm. A lot of this stuff could easily pass for hardcore if wasn't for the slightly lighter parts.

The best song on the album is clearly Red Beard Rides Again by Carrion Spring.  At over 4 minutes it's the longest track and refuses to crumble under it's own massive weight. The song will consume you and that will be fine.

Te Lloraría Un Puto Río's songs are good and the lyrics are in spanish which makes the screaming all that much more unintelligble. Suprisingly catchy for music designed to smash your face in.

The Discord Of A Forgotten Sketch are rather cool, there aren't as many explosions, mainly some slight but significant changes in tempo. La Deux Part Deux keeps up a thundering, thumping beat before a vocal breakdown and a an almost jazzy guitar solo.

Beau Navire was the band I was most interested in going in to this album I think in large part because they apparently share members with Loma Prieta who pose major questions for me. Unfortunately it seems like their songs are the most underwhelming. These Waves starts out with the almost cliche of a hoarse screaming voice and a melodic picked pattern on the guitar that give way to raging energy laced with quick melodies.

The other piece of wax is a split from 2007 between two American bands, Monarcs from Miami Florida and Thank God from Colombia South Carolina. It's

Monarcs continue to do their own sludgy screamo thing. They're the only band I know that mixes those two genres and they always have innovative and interesting songs structures. Dropout Kallisti is one of those songs that just grabs your ears the minutes the stop and start riff starts hammering away and doesn't let up for a second. (sorry bout the rapidshare link)

Thank God are a lot more frantic, reaching almost to what is perhaps jokingly called emo violence. There is some meloody hidden in there but it takes a while to find it. Not quite as a gripping as Monarcs but good in it's own way.

I do love getting things in the mail.

Robotic Empire is so cool they even sent me a free copy of Ultar Dolphin's Mar. I heard Alien Baby last year and it thoroughly perplexed me while it rocked out. Looking forward to it

Blues Mix

Here's another blues mix I made for you guys

We start off today where we ended last time with a final track by blues shouter Big Joe Turner. Next a couple of songs by a man who's music freed him. Robert Pete Williams was in Angola prison when he was discovered and recorded by Dr Harry Oster and Richard Allen. He was serving a life prison for a murder he claimed was self defense. One these songs, Grown So Ugly has been covered by Captain Beafheart & The Black Keys. His songs are rhythmically unique, different meters and such make them really cool pieces of art.

We get down in the delta for a little bit with some songs by Mississippi Fred Mcdowell all three of which are fairly iconic. Shake 'Em On Down is also done by Elmore James and is a complete classic much like Good Morning Little Schoolgirl. Then we move out to the east coast for some finger picking Piedmont Blues.  Pink Anderson not only has an awesome voice but can write some really good songs that have some delta in the vocals and lots of pickin on the guitar.

 If you don't know who Etta James is this is your opportunity  to fix your errors. She's won a bunch of awards in her 40+ year career. Here are three tracks, including a duet cover of Spoonful with Harvey Fuqua. Now we have some more Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe McCoy. Memphis Minnie is one of few female pre war blues guitarists. She could really play that thing with a passion and a fire.

Now we switch to some slide guitar blues with Elmore James. We have his version of Shake Your Moneymaker and another song called Fine Little Mama. Excellent, iconic blues. Followed by one of my favourite artists, another guy with a great name, Brownie McGhee. He was very close to Blind Boy Fuller back in the day, even recording as Blind Boy Fuller 2 for awhile. Brownie may be best known for his work with harmonica king Sonny Terry. There is a little bit of harmonica blues in these songs but most of them lean towards an interesting combination of country and Piedmont style blues.

At some point I downloaded a complete discography of Charley Patton. It came with a bunch of other stuff as well. Like a duet with Bertha Lee called Troubled 'Bout My Mother, sessions by Son House, Walter "Buddy Boy" Hawkins, Willie Brown and a track by a guy named the Masked Marvel. Can you  guess who he is?

Blind Willie Mctell, one of my favourite artists shows up again with four tracks from Atlanta Twelve Strings and John Lee Hooker returns eight tracks from four albums. Hooker's unique style is unmatchable.

http://www.mediafire.com/?wt22a0um4hab2xx

Blues Mix

Here's a blues mix I made. We start our journey off with Blind Willie Mctell (May 5, 1898 – August 19, 1959). He played in the Piedmont style with a twelve string guitar he picked up because of its volume. Piedmont blues is a finger picking style that also keeps the bass, generally using the thumb.

We stay in the delta for a pair of songs by Kansas Joe McCoy who played with Memphis Minnie. This pair of delta blues songs is offset greatly by shifting into some Art Tatum. Tatum was a nearly blind virtuoso piano player. On his album Trio Days he plays with Tiny Grimes on guitar and Slam Stewart on bass. This is one of the few times Tatum worked with a group and these songs are dizzying in their intensity and freedom of playing.

We go back to the blues with some Brownie McGhee, perhaps best known for his collaborations with Sonny Terry. Here we have some songs that combine the feel and singing style of delta blues but with a finger picking Piedmont style that gives the songs a bounce. The few tracks that have some harmonica cook just as well.

Now we move back to some more Blind Willie McTell. Like our next player Blind Willie used different pseudonyms to get around recording contracts. On this album he was appearing as Pig 'n' Whistle Red, a name which comes from a bbq place he would play outside of. This album has much better fidelity than the previous Mctell songs.

Now we move to a man who is unique in the blues scene. No one sounds like John Lee Hooker. He plays the delta blues but with a primitive detroit boogie that never lets your head stop nodding. The songs keep shifting but never out of awesome.

After a little bit of Howlin Wolf we turn to a few songs by Big Joe Turner. If you don't know Shake Rattle & Roll now is the time to correct your ignorance. Big Joe Turner is one of blues shouting's best singers.

We stick with the Big theme and move on to some Big Bill Broonzy. One awe inspiring  spiritual and a pair of instrumental work outs are all we have before moving on to a single Elmore James track.

Then it's off for a nice bunch of Junior Wells. On the album Calling All Blues there is precious little harmonica but Wells is in fine voice and the band behind him cooks up a storm for him to wail. Messin With The Kid is still in my head weeks later and  Galloping Horses A Lazy Mule is a really interesting song.

 We end our mix this time with a couple of songs from The Blind Reverend Gary Davis. Another spiritual, a pair of instrumentals and a secular blues song round out our mix this time.

Hope you like the blues!

http://www.mediafire.com/?aja4pi7411dz2g8

Mix

Here's a mix I made of the stuff that I've been listening to lately.  http://www.mediafire.com/?145zdob4b9l1olw

There's a song from the brand new demo of a screamo band called ¡Silencio, Ahora, Silencio!

One track from Fred Squire's (he was part of Shotgun & Jaybird and has done lots of work with Julie Doiron)  new LP March 12

There's some melodic metal with some hardcore influences from Canadians Harbour and some sludgy southern metal from Howl.

From the International Screamo Compilation there's a track from I Not Dance and three La Dispute songs from their LP.

There's one track from an American metallic hardcore called Mother Of Mercy and two songs from Panthalassa's debut demo EP.

 
One track each from Shotgun Jimmie & World Burns To Death provide some really interesting contrast and three songs from Złodzieje Rowerów end things on a nice emoy punk feeling.

Julie Doiron & Little Scream Live at the Red Dog

Two ladies played the Red Dog last Wednesday, each with an accompanist. Little Scream from Montreal played some really interesting songs and Julie Doiron from Sackville New Brunswick played her unique version of rock and roll. 

Little Scream, which tonight was Laurel Sprengelmeyer on guitar and vocals and Jimmy Thompson on drums, took the stage at 10:30 and immediately launched into their post rock influenced attack.

Laurel's guitar had a really thick tone right from the start. To make up for the lack of a bassist her guitar had a much fuller, thicker sound with more of a bottom end than I've heard in awhile. It functioned as both a bass and a guitar, especially when she tuned it down for a couple of songs.

Even when the guitar is tuned down the songs have irrepressible melodies that reach out of the controlled chaos and jab at you. She multi-tracked both her guitar and voice live onstage creating the impression of a much bigger band the two piece. 

Julie took to the stage at 11:30 and played for an hour and a half. She brought William Kidman onstage with her to play drums and guitar solo's at various points. 

They started off with Kidman on the drum kit and they played two really up tempo rock songs one of which, Borrowed Mini Vans, was reworked for her latest album I Can Wonder What You Did With Your day. Then the drummer came out from behind the kit and they played a couple of covers in very intimate manner. The energy level dropped but the beauty of the songs became more easily apparent. 

They played Sam Cooke's Bring It On Home To Me then Merle Haggard's Reasons To Quit by way of Phosphorescent. They continued in this quieter vein through Doiron's Tailor. They way they played it was beautiful, very mellow with a nice picking pattern. But Kidman played a solo that came out of nowhere and was entirely to loud for the piece. It was out of place but only for a moment before the mellow mood returned. 

 

Julie's awesome voice came crystal clear out of the speakers and her guitar sounded crisp and clear except when it was noisy and angry. Some of these songs took some unexpected turns into noisy rock and roll territory. With Kidman alternating between the drums and guitars these songs change from the quiet, singer songwriter songs most of them were to begin with. He gives the songs a lot more energy and a bit of an edge. He provides a thumping energy or a usually interesting solo that comes out of nowhere and more power to the turn on a dime music Julie tends to write.

It's really hard to choose a favourite song because they're all so great but Consolation Prize was especially cool. When it was recorded Consolation Prize is a very fuzzy rock n roll tune. They played it unfuzzed and very loudly revealing some quirks and turns that hide beneath the fuzz. When played in such a different manner than how they usually are the songs take on a new power.

Julie remarked onstage how weird the gig felt. She said something about how it was good to get out your comfort zone every so often. They did a two song encore one of which Julie played drums for. If you get a chance to see this great Canadian treasure before she retreats to New Brunswick again do so, you won't regret it.

Two ladies played the Red Dog last Wednesday, each with an accompanist. Little Scream from Montreal played some really interesting songs and Julie Doiron from Sackville New Brunswick played her unique version of rock and roll. 

Little Scream, which tonight was Laurel Sprengelmeyer on guitar and vocals and Jimmy Thompson on drums, took the stage at 10:30 and immediately launched into their post rock influenced attack.

Laurel's guitar had a really thick tone right from the start. To make up for the lack of a bassist her guitar had a much fuller, thicker sound with more of a bottom end than I've heard in awhile. It functioned as both a bass and a guitar, especially when she tuned it down for a couple of songs.

Even when the guitar is tuned down the songs have irrepressible melodies that reach out of the controlled chaos and jab at you. She multi-tracked both her guitar and voice live onstage creating the impression of a much bigger band the two piece. 

Julie took to the stage at 11:30 and played for an hour and a half. She brought William Kidman onstage with her to play drums and guitar solo's at various points. 

They started off with Kidman on the drum kit and they played two really up tempo rock songs one of which, Borrowed Mini Vans, was reworked for her latest album I Can Wonder What You Did With Your day. Then the drummer came out from behind the kit and they played a couple of covers in very intimate manner. The energy level dropped but the beauty of the songs became more easily apparent. 

They played Sam Cooke's Bring It On Home To Me then Merle Haggard's Reasons To Quit by way of Phosphorescent. They continued in this quieter vein through Doiron's Tailor. They way they played it was beautiful, very mellow with a nice picking pattern. But Kidman played a solo that came out of nowhere and was entirely to loud for the piece. It was out of place but only for a moment before the mellow mood returned. 

Julie's awesome voice came crystal clear out of the speakers and her guitar sounded crisp and clear except when it was noisy and angry. Some of these songs took some unexpected turns into noisy rock and roll territory. With Kidman alternating between the drums and guitars these songs change from the quiet, singer songwriter songs most of them were to begin with. He gives the songs a lot more energy and a bit of an edge. He provides a thumping energy or a usually interesting solo that comes out of nowhere and more power to the turn on a dime music Julie tends to write.

It's really hard to choose a favourite song because they're all so great but Consolation Prize was especially cool. When it was recorded Consolation Prize is a very fuzzy rock n roll tune. They played it unfuzzed and very loudly revealing some quirks and turns that hide beneath the fuzz. When played in such a different manner than how they usually are the songs take on a new power.

Julie remarked onstage how weird the gig felt. She said something about how it was good to get out your comfort zone every so often. They did a two song encore one of which Julie played drums for. If you get a chance to see this great Canadian treasure before she retreats to New Brunswick again do so, you won't regret it.

Julie Doiron Mix

She and Little Scream played at the Red Dog last night. It was an awesome show, only $12 and Julie played for like an hour and half. She had a drummer guy with her who also played guitar and sang a little. Awesome, in so many words. I've been listening to her albums in the lead up to the show and made a mix as I tend to.  There are 19 songs from 8 different albums from her 1996 solo debut Broken Girl to 2009's I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day. Really good songs.

Gallagher Tweets Pt. 2

The twitter account that these are pulled from has been deleted from twitter. So, where should we start? Let's start in a relatively neutral position with a tweet that is decidedly a joke that will also position us politically.

 

Another joke perhaps? This one is even topical if a tad misguided

 A third joke rounds out the intro and sounds like something a grandpa who missed his nap would say.

From these jokes we turn to him grappling with some social issues

and trying to "reclaim" his country while in the twitterverse

Now we get a little anti semitic and angry at the character limit of twitter. The latter of which is semi understandable

And in conclusion my favourite Gallagher tweet. Regardless of the veracity of this tweet is nicely constructed. There are random references, fairies and Frank Zappa, the meaningless political slur of communist and a nicely created persecution complex fueling the whole thing. Enjoy.