Changes

The packing has commenced and the moving will begin tomorrow. In a rare hour of quiet here this evening, I managed to get the new site up and running. Every Issue Presents Itself will now be located at thepsychicpilot.com. Please update any links and bookmarks you might have set up. I'll leave this Blogger site up for a while, maybe forever, who knows.

My last music-related post here comes courtesy of the Leargehearted Boy, a reprise from yesterday's post about Nikki Sudden. Musicisnotdead.com has posted what may very well have been Nikki's last interview. I find it quite fitting that they started the interview off with this Q&A:

"You've created a career well outside of mainstream circles but always
had this panache of being a larger than life sort of rock star figure.
How does one manage such a feat?

Basically not enough luck! I dress and act like a star because I am one...
even if only in the eyes of a few."

Perfect.


Now, for the rock:

Bowie - Changes
Sugar - Changes
Robert Pollard - Psychic Pilot Clocks Out

R.I.P. Nikki Sudden

I just came across this on Billboard. I never had the chance to see Nikki Sudden live, but I got hooked on the Swell Maps during my time at WVXU’s Nightwaves. I never really followed them much outside of their music, but every time I came across a record or a CD in a record store or a used bin someplace, I always bought it despite having never heard it before. Their albums never disappointed. I was saddened several years ago to learn that Nikki’s brother and partner in the Swell Maps, Epic Soundtracks, had passed away. Nikki wanted to ensure Epic’s legacy lived on and see that the Swell Maps records were re-released. Secretly Canadian has been more than willing to release some of them as well as Nikki’s solo albums and other projects over the last several years. Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks were both very influential to early alternative music as well as a lot of the newer crop of bands emerging today, whether they realize it or not.

Nikki Sudden:
Fall Any Further
Great Pharoah
Mafeking Blues
Back to the Coast

with The Jacobites:
Shame for the Angels
Big Store
It'll All End Up in Tears
When the Rain Comes

with Rowland S. Howard:
Wedding Hotel

I'm moving

For the next week to 10 days or so I will be moving into a new house and starting a new job. Naturally, my computer will be disassembled during that time. While finalizing the deal on the house and packing up my music, I've also been working on setting up a new website and moving everything from Blogger to the new domain. Unless something comes up that requires posting, this will be the next to last post here. The next, and last post here will be from the new digs. In the meantime, I've dug up a few home/house/moving - related songs.

Cheers.

Bob Mould - Moving Trucks
The Cure - In Your House
P.J. Harvey - A Place Called Home
Guided by Voices - Peephole (live)
The Breeders - Lime House
Dinosaur Jr - Goin' Home
Built to Spill - Sidewalk
Grant Hart - In a Cold House
The Jesus Lizard - Mistletoe
Fugazi - Furniture
Luna - Going Home
Love - A House is Not a Home
Mogwai - Stop Coming to My House
On - Feel at Home
Sebadoh - Tree
Minutemen - Storm in My House
Eric's Trip - Behind the Garage

Ambulance LTD

I have no idea how I managed to overlook Ambulance LTD. I picked up their self-titled TVT album this week and it's stuck in current car radio rotation. They have a new EP, New English, that's just been released. You can stream the songs and order it at their website. Here are a few from the 2004 album.

Ambulance LTD:
Yoga Means Union
Heavy Lifting
Stay Tuned

Amy Millan

The Arts & Cafts label has offered up this preview (read: tease) from Stars vocalist Amy Millan's upcoming solo record, Honey From the Tombs. As always, her voice is amazing. I've probably listened to this song 10-15 times today. Here it is with the album version of Stars' Ageless Beauty and a radically different, but equally brilliant version of the same song mixed by Most Serene Republic. There is also another song from the album up at her MySpace page.

Amy Millan - Skinny Boy
Stars - Ageless Beauty
Stars - Ageless Beauty (Most Serene Mix)

(click the image to watch)

From the Inbox: Track a Tiger

The songs on Track a Tiger's Woke Up Early the Day I Died began as simple acoustic songs in 2003. Over the course of two years, songwriter Jim Vallet added more guitars, banjo, cello, female harmonies, and various subtle electronic "bleeps and blips" - all without creating a thick wall of sound. Instead, he left space for the songs to expand and breathe. He describes the sound as "Moody, lots of male-female harmonies. A little rock, but mostly slow, sad, sleepy late nights." His vocals remind me of the Connells, while the music has a lot in common with Mojave 3 and Yo La Tengo's mellower, acoustic-based songs.

From Woke Up Early the Day I Died:
Glad to be Scattered
Happy
Flood

Number One Cup

I saw Number One Cup only one time, at Canal Street Tavern in Dayton Ohio. It was sometime shortly after their first album, Possum Trot Plan, was released in 1995. I first heard the album while DJ-ing at WVXU in Cincinnati. The band was lumped in with the lo-fi movement of the time, though, much like Guided by Voices, their live shows were anything but. When asked about the validity of the lo-fi sound, the band responded:

"[lo-fi is] As valid as hi-fi. If the recorded version of the song kills me, I don't care what "fi" it is. But I'll say this about lo-fi: contrary to what Lou Barlow says, he or Robert Pollard or whoever don't release lo-fi recordings just because they're quicker and cheaper and easier to do. They know better than anyone that those recordings have a realism and an authenticity that is as important to the feel of the song as the chord changes or the melody. In the end, recording choices become a compositional element"

If I had to describe their music, I probably couldn't do much better than tagging it as lo-fi indie rock myself, which truly would not do them justice. Instead, I'll avoid any cliches and use another band quote:

"It's foreground music. It's pop rather than experimental, but with experimental touches"

Hear for yourself:

Connecticut (the first single from 1994)

From Possum Trot Plan:
Just Let Go
No Particular Style
Divebomb
She Plays the Numbers

From Wrecked by Lions:
Paris
Astronaut
Malcolm's X-Ray Picnic

From People People, Why Are We Fighting?:
Unison Bends

Scrawl

Scrawl were originally signed to indie it-label Rough Trade US who released their first three records, Plus, Also, Too, He's Drunk and Smallmouth, before the label went bankrupt and folded. They signed with Simple Machines and released two more records, Bloodsucker and Velvet Hammer and several singles. Their final two albums, Travel on Rider and Nature Film were released by Elektra. During thier approximate 11 year run, they recorded with Steve Albini, went on high-profile tours with Sugar, the Meat Puppets, My Bloody Valentine, and the Afghan Whigs. Their last album came out in 1998, but Mays and other core member Sue Harsche still play out, though only on very rare occaisions. Afghan Whigs fans might even recognize Scrawl's Marcy Mays from her vocals on their My Curse, which she sang with Greg Dulli on his last swing through Cincinnati with the Twilight Singers.

From Plus, Also, Too:
Breaker, Breaker
Gutterball
I Can't Relax
Slut

From Smallmouth:
Begin
Enough
Absolute Torture

From Velvet Hammer:
Take a Swing
Prize
Remember That Day

From Travel On, Rider:
Louis L'Amour

From The Afghan Whig's Gentleman:
My Curse

Guided by Voices

It's no secret that Guided by Voices is one of my favorite bands. This weekend I finally started reading Guided by Voices: A Brief History : Twenty-One Years of Hunting Accidents in the Forests of Rock and Roll. During non-reading time today I was listening to the first few albums, via their first box set, simply titled BOX. It contains the first 4 albums and a bonus LP of unreleased songs, many of which turned up either in part or in full on later albums. Here are a few select tracks:

Captain's Dead
Lips of Steel/A Visit to the Creep Doctor
Liar's Tale
White Whale
Drinker's Peace
Pendulum
Squirmish Frontal Room
Postal Blowfish

From the Inbox: Candy Bars

The inbox presents us with Candy Bars , a band from Tampa Florida. With their minimalist set-up (one guitar, on snare, one cymbal, one hi-hat and a cello), comparisons to Low would not be far off the mark. Mix in hushed vocals, reverb, bells and occaisional harpsicord in and you get a full, rich sound falling somewhere between Low and Sunny Day Real Estate. They have a full-lenth available through New Grenada Records.

Violets
Enough to Choke a Cold Air
Landscape
The Flood in Your Town
Works Cited

*My EZArchive account was giving me fits this morning, so there are not links for the last three songs. I'll update them later tonight.

**Links updated

The Ukrainians

In 1989 the Wedding Present, at the suggestion of original guitar player Peter Solowka, released two Peel Sessions of Ukrainian folk music. They recorded a third one which went unreleased until 2000, when they were all compiled and released as Ukrainian John Peel Sessions. Shortly after, Solowka left and formed the Ukrainians with several of the mucians brought in to play on the Peel Sessions.

The Ukrainians have released several studio and live albums of original and traditional versions of Ukrainian-influenced folk music. They show their English rock influences by covering several popular songs of their own (in their Ukrainian style of course) including songs by the Sex Pistols, the Velvet Undergrouond, Sinead O'Connor, and Prince. However, my favorites remain their versions of several Smiths songs, especially their awesome take on The Queen is Dead - by far the best of the bunch.

From the Psni iz the Smiths e.p. (compiled on the Kultura CD)
Koroleva ne Polerma (The Queen is Dead)
Batyar (Bigmouth Strikes Again)
Spivey Solovey (What Difference Does It Make)
M'yaso-Ubivstvo (Meat is Murder)

Chewbacca

Monsterland - Chewbacca
Supernova - Chewbacca
DVDA (Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Bruce Howell) - I Am Chewbacca

Blumfeld

Blumfeld are from Germany. They have been recording since around 1990 and only had a little attention paid to them here in the States. In 1995 they managed to get a U.S. distibution deal through Big Cat Records and release L'etat et Moi. The band's lyrics are more political in nature, taking a huge dose of inspration from Kafka. Musically they fall somewhere in the neighborhood of the Wedding Present. They've got several records that, so far, are available import-only. Hopefully a recent deal with Sony/BMG will change that.

From L'etat et Moi:
Walkie, Talkie
Verstarker
Superstarfighter

Beastie Boys

After recording Ill Communication, the Beastie Boys returned to their hardcore punk roots and recorded the Aglio e Olio e.p. Backed by their touring drummer, AWOL (of Suicidal Tendencies), they cranked out 8 songs in 11 minutes. Here are three of them.

From Aglio e Olio:
Brand New
Believe Me
I Want Some

Macha

Josh and Mischo McKay spent time backing Lynda Stipe (yes, Michael's sister) in her eclectic band Hetch Hetchy in the early 90's before Josh and his roommate Kai Riedl headed to Indonesia for a period of time. When the two returned to Athens, Georgia they brought back a wealth of indigenous instruments and field recordings. They hooked back up with Mischo and formed Macha, integrating Eastern influences with American indie rock. Their first two records, Macha and See It Another Way, are fairly similar in sound with each one having a more minimalist, less produced feel than their third and last album Forget Tomorrow. Forget Tomorrow takes the lo-fi Indie-nesian rock and incorporates more electroncs and danceable beats.

From Macha:
When They First Saw the Floating World
Double Life
Capital City
Light the Chinese Flower

From See It Another Way:
Until Your Temples Are Pounding
The Nipplegong
Submarine Lover

From Forget Tomorrow:
Forget Tomorow
Smash & Grab
It's Okay Paper Tiger

From the Inbox: 13Ghosts

Another suprise from the Inbox today comes from the band 13Ghosts. The press release describes the reissue of their 2004 album, Cicaida, as "Sonically, it’s all over the place, moving from cracked-up folk rock to twangy rockers to drunken sing-alongs to atmospheric exercises in minimalism". Judging by these songs and a bunch of others they have up at their website, I couldn't agree more.

Here are a couple songs from Cicaida. It'll be available in May from Skybucket.

13Ghosts - The Search Party
13Ghosts - Robert J.

The Lonesome Tumblers

The first time Bill Catfish and I crossed paths was at Miami University Middletown on a sunny, fall day in 1992. I was walking out the door to leave Johnson Hall as he was walking in. He was wearing a Ramones t-shirt, black leather jacket, Chucks and carrying an armload of LP's to play in the cafeteria radio station. I distinctly remember Barbara Manning's S.F. Sorrow was on top and facing forward. I have no idea why I remember that day, and I doubt if Billy remebers it either. Fifteen years later, our paths crossed again. This time it was last weekend at The Southgate House, where his band The Lonesome Tumblers played upstairs in Junie's Lounge before (well, during) the Bob Pollard show.

The Tumblers recorded an album, Race Music For the Long-Distance Runner, but it has yet to get a proper release. It's unfortunate, because it's a great record. Throw equal parts Hank Williams Sr., Verve, Wilco, Spacemen 3 and Jim Beam into a martini shaker and serve it with earplugs through a Vox Amp and you'll have the Lonesome Tumblers.

They're about to hit the studio again to record songs for the next album. In the meantime, listen to these choice cuts from Race Music. And if you, or anyone you know, are with a label or want to help get these records out, contact me at the e-mail address at bottom right or contact Billy through their MySpace page.

Bluesbreaker
This Town's On Fire
Bootleg Novocaine
Fizzle Like the End of Time (turnin' off the sun)